Retrogadgets: The Ageia PhysX Card

"The chip had 125 million transistors on a 0.13 micron process. With 128 megabytes of 733 MHz GDDR3 memory, the board needed an extra power connector that could draw 20 watts. The price was around $300. Quite a bit for a card that did absolutely nothing without specialized software.

There was a physics engine, NovodeX, that could handle game physics for developers using either the chip or a software stack, so we presume that’s what most gamemakers would use.

Of course, today, a 20 watt GPU with an extra power connector isn’t enough to make you look up from your screen. But times were different then. According to contemporary reports, the chip has a two terabit per second memory bandwidth. Watch the demo vide below. It won’t knock your socks off, but for a computer system nearly twenty years ago, it was pretty good."




https://hackaday.com/2024/05/06/ret...mputers meant for big,a constant in one swoop.

This isn't retro....... Is it? I remember it like it was yesterday.

its not and we have a whole thread for it, several actually..

how isn't it retro? maximumpc magazine was still around

where's the other thread for this article?

The school I worked for at the happen to ordered 3 PC at teh tiome for video editing. I asked my boss if he could throw one of these cards in it so I could try to out.Unreal Tournament 3 was the reason I wanted it. Lasted maybe 6 months then Nvidia purchased them.