Current state of PhysX? Is it well and truly dead?

[GameLifter]

I didn't realize they used PhysX. The effects are really nice in that game.

I didn't realize it at first either but noticed how great the effects were. Once I saw the Nvidia Physx logo on startup it all made sense.

 

[dinklyjames]

I didn't realize they used PhysX. The effects are really nice in that game.

What kind of effects does PhysX provide for that game

 

[cybereality]

What kind of effects does PhysX provide for that game

Have you played the game? You can throw all kinds of objects, or rip concrete off the walls, even toss enemies. That is all PhysX.

 

[zamardii12]

PhysX heyday was Arkham City...that had some really amazing particle effects- the Penguin fight at the Iceberg Lounge looked gorgeous

I remember the tech demo of batman walking through a low-lying cloud of fog or something and the fog wooshed around his feet like what you'd think real smoke/fog would do should you walk through it.

 

[Kalessian]

I often wonder if it makes sense to make an add-on ray tracing card like the old PhysX cards.

 

[NattyKathy]

I often wonder if it makes sense to make an add-on ray tracing card like the old PhysX cards.

I've wondered about that too, but I think that PCIe has too high latency and too low bandwidth for intersection accelerators to be that far from the main GPU and not have performance issues.

 

[Thatguybil]

It’s a shame that ray tracing can’t use a 2nd GPU just for ray tracing and let the first card do the rasterization. That was the idea back in the day with a dedicated PPU.

 

[Burticus]

It’s a shame that ray tracing can’t use a 2nd GPU just for ray tracing and let the first card do the rasterization. That was the idea back in the day with a dedicated PPU.

I like that idea but sadly I think those days are behind us.

 

[bigdogchris]

It’s a shame that ray tracing can’t use a 2nd GPU just for ray tracing and let the first card do the rasterization. That was the idea back in the day with a dedicated PPU.

I thought the hardware to do the RT is separate from rasterization cores? If so, why would you need that on a second card?

 

[auntjemima]

I thought the hardware to do the RT is separate from rasterization cores? If so, why would you need that on a second card?

More PCIe lanes or double the power? Maybe. Just shooting in the dark.

 

[Strange bird]

Gone are these days, nvidia killed sli, amd the same.
I used another gpu just for physics in a mafia game.
Physics is the same invention of hot water by nvidia.
We will see how long this dlss will last as well as ray tracing.
Intel, amd and nvidia are not competitors although here in Europe everyone thinks they are and then they insult each other and measure which has a bigger one.

 

[cybereality]

DLSS will probably not last unless Nvidia opens it up (which won't happen) but ray tracing has industry support so will probably be here to stay.

 

[Smoblikat]

Metro 2033 was the first (and last?) game that ive played that used physx, I remember putting my old GTX 275 in the machine, clicking the checkbox for physX, and then spending hours staring at banners/flags/hair trying to determine if enabling physx actually made a difference or not.......I still dont know if it did

 

[Smoblikat]

Spiders running through rubble disturbs the rubble. It's all little details that add

Taco, have you ever played skyrim*?

 

[Smoblikat]

No mate. Thank you!

Well, the reason I ask is because for whatever reason, I always read your posts in the voice of J'Zargo, which makes the entire forum experience that much better for me. No clue why, maybe im weird!

 

[DaeviousMax]

It’s a shame that ray tracing can’t use a 2nd GPU just for ray tracing and let the first card do the rasterization. That was the idea back in the day with a dedicated PPU.

I think the sli bridge bandwidth would have to be way higher to facilitate ray tracing on another gpu

 

[Armenius]

I think the sli bridge bandwidth would have to be way higher to facilitate ray tracing on another gpu

It would have to be around 300x higher to ensure no additional latency is introduced, and that is only for 60 FPS on an 11GB video card.

 

[scojer]

I just recently played through Darkest of Days and the Physx were neat, they under utilized them a bit though.
Cryostasis on the other hand, with the water and ice, it was really cool. More games need to use physx.

 

[DaeviousMax]

I just recently played through Darkest of Days and the Physx were neat, they under utilized them a bit though.
Cryostasis on the other hand, with the water and ice, it was really cool. More games need to use physx.

I also loved the original metro 2033’s use of physx for their smoke effects, it really added to the immersion of walking through old dilapidated subway tunnels and the smokiness of the homemade gun powder they use in their ammo.

 

[pendragon1]

nvidia necroing physx

 

[Armenius]

nvidia necroing physx

Nothing to necro considering PhysX is still in wide use. It's built into UE4 and Unity, for two.

 

[Decko87]

Nothing to necro considering PhysX is still in wide use. It's built into UE4 and Unity, for two.

Not used in UE 5 though which is where the industry is headed.

 

[TrunksZero]

Nothing to necro considering PhysX is still in wide use. It's built into UE4 and Unity, for two.

That generally was using the software version of the engine, no one really enabled or used the hardware side. The hardware accelerated version is very much dead at this point. With nothing released in almost 8yrs with the tech I think?

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

That generally was using the software version of the engine, no one really enabled or used the hardware side. The hardware accelerated version is very much dead at this point. With nothing released in almost 8yrs with the tech I think?

It's kinda been superceded by nVIDIA Gameworks - which - I haven't really seen much use of outside of a few titles... a while ago...Based upon their pricing themselves out of all but those with the most disposable income, I wager nVIDIA is looking to move out of PC gaming and on to the big bucks, namely, the Pro market, AI/machine learning, and Enterprise.

Their GeForce RTX GPUs this gen are much closer to professional pricing compared to GeForce and Quadro cards of the past. The cryptocraze showed Jen Hsun Huang what his company's GPUs would sell for, now he wants that fourthyacht money...

AMD isn't helping with their 7900 XT pricing. That should have been a $729 GPU at most...