metadigital

From the overclockers' forum, to which you linked: It's not so much about overloading the CPU, it's that the PPU can create faster calculations of physics than a CPU. The CPU uses a standard logic for calculations whereas the PPU uses a specialised logic which will calculate more faster the physics effect. The additional benifit of a PPU is that the core output will purely be dedicated to the physics whereas CPU's are load-balancing between other things. (such as active programs/OS/and everything else) Although im no fanboy of PPU, it has it's benifits. But to be honest the downside of PPU is that it runs on a PCI slot, which means that there is a three way communication happening(cpu/gpu/ppu) at a fair rate(nothing great - although I wonder how well PhysX works on a PCI-X slot? ). Whereas, a HavocFX solution, which would be running on a graphics card will just have a two way comms between the CPU and graphics card. The obvious effect of having PhysX in the system has been the poor fps experienced by everyone (which has been demonstrated by everyone who posted here with PhysX in their system). Having said that, I can't vouch that the fps will not be reduced when HavocFX gets implemented with the graphics card...maybe it will be the same like the PPU because of the increased amount of calculations it is doing. Only time will tell im afraid Let's hope we can see some more results from testing with PPU to see the full scale benefits of having one. ____________________________________________________________ Gigabyte 8N SLi Quad Royal nForce4 / 3.4 GHz Dual Core (950)/ LG775 Fatal1ty fan(Zalman FS-C77)/4GB DDR2/ XFX 7800GTX/ Thermaltake 560w PSU/ Thermaltake Romeo Xaser III Casing/3 x 120GB SATA/1x 80GB IDE/SAMSUNG DVDRW ^ Jealous of his setup! Part of the issue is (so I have read) that the PPU automatically uses the highest quality graphics settings, which can cause the slow-down, too. Still, to answer Fulcrum's question: Rome:Total War is a CPU-limited game (rather than GPU-limited), although it doesn't support the PhysX card, and won't (to my knowledge): but then again Medieval Total War 2 might ...

I was trying not to overdo the highlights ... especially when the control system may just be "mouse-and-keyboardified" (and still compatible with the gamepad!), and the improved AI might turn out to be less than impressive ... O! The monsters aren't running off the cliff to their death! Wow!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The part about the controls disappoints me. It more'n likely means "Well you can 'get by' with a keyboard and mouse, but really, you should use a gamepad, because the camera's going to kill you repeatedly and every time you die the dark souls who devolped this abomination of a control system are going to be laughing at your torment." Seriously, anybody else played The Two Thrones on PC? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Says the man who has a wholesale hardware purchasing account ... "

Here's an example where the long term best practice may be (follow me here, Volo) counter-intuitive to the standard buyer-producer contract ... the more successful developers that exist, the more chance that there will be more and better games. (Because it will provide increased competition to produce games, rather than find a good publisher, which is decidedly not part of their core business practice, and shouldn't be).

I might add I was trying to finish my Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory game last night, because I want that 4GB of harddrive space back. (And my computer isn't powerful enough to comfortably play the game at the resolution I want to play it, which means I must either play at that annoying frame rate, or an inferior resolution.:angry:)

Not impressed

That's so the youngsters can die for their country, but not accidentally in a road accident from being under the influence ...

" Fine after the first few times...but then I start getting a strong urge to beat Tom Hanks to death with a box of chocolates. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You have obviously watched it too often, then. The US Surgeon General recommends no more than 1000Dpm, which equates to 1 Hanks/year (the older unit of irritability was the Beckinsale (Bk), defined as 3.7

Nope, it'll be a software switch that changes the CD drive to an old backward-compatible state (sometimes copy protection software, like StarForce, does this). Can't recall the details at the moment ... there is a registry switch, too, but it is buried deep (I'll look it up later if someone else doesn't post it first). Not sure about music CDs, though, that shouldn't be affected, IIRC ...

Can I say touch

Not a Forrest Gump fan, then?

The biggest problem with futures (and derivatives in general) is that there is no guarantee that the short-term price fluctuations will show any positive correlation with the long-term trends ...

Kirottu, meet hard business reality. Hard business reality, meet kirottu.

Yep. Complicated stuff, though, lots of fiddly details and blame when things go wrong: and as a network engineer when things go bad, they go spectacularly wrong ...

^ What a surprise! "

NO! Don't give up! Run, Forrest, run!

Nice concept, pity it is unmanageable.

Eh ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think he meant Ike Turner ...

With Steam, it's not just on one harddrive, it's on t3h interN3tz!

If only I could still lose my Grim Fandango virginity. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I am just about to re-commence my Grim play (and I haven't forgotten you, Kafty ... )

Says the guy who "supposedly" doesn't work for Sega <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Zing!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Chess.

Super Fly Swatting!