Things Agiea needs to do.

nhusby

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 1, 2006
Messages
303
1) Produce a PCI-E 1x PPU card! Ageia your potential customers are begging you!
it'll never happen, but a PPU and SB X-Fi on the same board would be a godsend!

2) Lower PCI PPU prices to $200 maybe it'll move some inventory (if there is any)

3) Encourage independant developers and tinkerers.
Also not likely to happen, but the open source movement can fuel ALOT of fire...

did I miss anything? agree, disagree?
 
nhusby said:
3) Encourage independant developers and tinkerers.
Also not likely to happen, but the open source movement can fuel ALOT of fire...

did I miss anything? agree, disagree?

Sorta agree except for item #3. They are giving away "free" their SDK if you develop for the PPU hardware in your game. While it's true they could open their code up for open source, this is as close to the next best thing.
 
They are giving out an older version of their sdk to anyone and only the latest version to registered developers. The one we can download and play with has no support for fluids.
 
i dont think they need to go to PCIe, which is why they havent, PCI is giving them enough bandwidth iwould assume.
 
^a lot of us have PCIe 1x slots that are fairly useless esp on those stupid legacy free boards. Good reason to fill a slot no?

But honestly, I never spend more than $200 on a video card I doubt I would spend anything more than $150 on this even if it was bundled with games.
 
The card isnt worth 200, 150 or less is more around where most reasonable people would pay for such a small upgrade. Its cool, but not $300 cool.
 
with a $200-$300 card, it's basicly dependant on the enthusiast market. A large portion of that market would apreciate a PCI-E interface. If you are going to keep the card for 2 years, then it needs to fit motherboards for the next 2 years. A lot of enthusiasts dont have available PCI slots. Its not a matter of bandwidth.

A price drop is not very likely. I am sure even my suggested $100 drop is unrealistic. They have R&D to pay for and they are trying to make their profit on hardware.
 
I don't mind the price so much, however I do mind paying so much for a PCI card.... if it was a PCIe card I'd be willing to fork over that amount of money for the simple reason that my board comprises of PRIME REALESTATE...... I dont' have any PCI slots and neither does anyone else I know who has SLI that takes up dual slots....but they all have pcie just sitting there.


I'd pay the price for something that has a future upgrade path, PCI is dead... thats like somone asking me to pay full retail for a 939 socket amd when am2 is out... it would be dumb to dig all into older technology and hoping to use it in the future.
 
Personally, the PhysX (assuming it doesn't die) will last longer than a video card. 300 is still way too much, I'd pay the "admission fee" of 200-250 because Ageia's chips aren't being upgraded every three weeks or so.
 
nhusby said:
1) Produce a PCI-E 1x PPU card! Ageia your potential customers are begging you!

It's coming... eventually. Actually, from Ageia's POV, I think selling PCI first was pure genius. The same people who rushed out to buy a PCI PhysX card will be just as willing to run out in a year or so to get a PCI-E card. After all, they're the people who have used $300 of their own money to tell the world that they want to have it "just because".

2) Lower PCI PPU prices to $200 maybe it'll move some inventory (if there is any)

Lowering the price to $200 doesn't change the current equation of value to the consumer. Here's why:

0 compelling PhysX experiences / $300 = 0 compelling PhysX experiences /$150

The people buying PhysX cards are not doing it for gameplay value (at least as perceived by the bulk of the market).


The games are coming, but right now the only reason to have a PhysX card is to be "the Joneses" (unless you're a developer). Not that there's anything wrong with having a card...

3) Encourage independant developers and tinkerers.
Also not likely to happen, but the open source movement can fuel ALOT of fire...

They really are doing all the encouraging they are capable of. Believe me, they know how important this is. I disagree that OSS can make a big difference. As much as I love OSS, the community is not capable of bringing a compelling game to market in a reasonable timeframe. That was never what the OSS structure was about.

The one thing that I think Ageia could do to help itself more would be to bankroll one or two new titles with a great game designer on board. Put PhysX physics into the gameplay from the bottom up. This is the kind of game that's needed to make PhysX a winner. Unfortunately, it requires more of a $$$ push from Ageia than they can (probably) afford right now.
 
1) PhysX PCI-E is said to be coming this year

2) Uncertain

3) They've done that for a long time
 
MrGuvernment said:
i dont think they need to go to PCIe, which is why they havent, PCI is giving them enough bandwidth iwould assume.

This has already been discussed 50 billion times at least. Its not an issue of bandwidth *AT ALL*, but we have these dammed pci express slots on the motherboard, and nobody is making addon cards for them. If I were to buy a PCI Physics card, Id either have to give up:
a. Tv Tuner card
b. 802.11g WiFi card
c. Sound card
or d. Cut the heatsink on my videocard in-half (heatsink covers one PCI slot).
 
PCI-E for it would be great, especially for my next build, I didnt want to have to go liquid right away, but if i want to put everything i want onto any current boards, i need to so i dont take up two spaces with each Graphics card. (SLI or crossfire + X-fi +Tuner) Besides that, not having a PCI-E version puts the PhsyX card almost completely out of the question for anyone who wants QUAD SLI, unless that physX card is the only one they want in their system...
 
nhusby said:
A price drop is not very likely. I am sure even my suggested $100 drop is unrealistic. They have R&D to pay for and they are trying to make their profit on hardware.
A price drop is inevitable. Either it takes off and they can afford to drop the price, or it flops and they're forced to unload them however they can.

But seriously, it's way too early for any of you to be whining about the price. And a month is too soon to be expecting a markdown on a brand new unique product. New hardware is always expensive, usually more expensive than it needs to be, especially when there's no direct competition. My ex's dad paid $8500 for his first floppy drive... consider yourself lucky :D .

If you can't afford it, or don't think it's worth the price, then don't buy it yet. You know, like most (sensible) people do when it comes to $600 video cards. You just have to be patient.
 
Terra said:
Driver ver. 2.5.x will be 64 bit too...at least that is what Ageia has planned.

Terra...

and how many months does it take to crank out drivers?
 
Kritter said:
and how many months does it take to crank out drivers?

Just as long as it has taken for other compaines to get x64 drivers out the door.
But ask AGEIA, not me, they would know better...

Terra...
 
Well the local Fry's here just got them in, and I looked at it long and hard, but I could not get pass the 299 price tag. For me to buy this card 1 of 2 things needs to happen.

1) KILLER APP - something that makes this card worth 299 and a must have.
2) Price Drop - if this card is just more of a gimmic card. about 100 is all i would spend for the neat-o factor.
 
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