BFG Ageia PhysX Processor Card

[CAKEwasTRUE]

Found one for sale!

 

http://www.amazon.com/BFG-Ageia-PhysX-128MB-Video/dp/B000FLWCB4

[Razarza]

Pffft you want a real retro unboxing?

 

Now I know why Logan doesn't like to talk about his time at TigerDirect

[Octagoncow]

My first graphics card was a BFG card. I have no idea what model or anything like that though. I never thought I would see that brand name again.

[bradscoolio]

Love the "retro" unboxing, just like the good ol days. I sure have missed it and would love to see more of it in the future

[Un4tural]

   I've got one of these too, not this exact same one, but I do have one. I actually tried to put it in my system, but the Nvidia drivers don't pick it up nor does the Nvidia control panel see it under the PhysX tab.

 nvidia physx and ageia aren't really compatible, at least driver wise. you need physx legacy driver, to have it work... same with cellfactor... it doesn't run at all with nvidia physx driver, need a legacy one... which is a shame since that game is an awesome tech demo!

[Raboo]

Can you please do more Retro unboxing?

[ObeseWalrus]

More retro unboxings please!

[thekeemo]

is 2007 considered retro?

[Robin_Sweden]

NCIX: http://bit.ly/1sw4ugZ

Amazon: http://geni.us/33eG

 

Unboxing this PhysX Processor Card from BFG was a really cool look back at "what could have been" if NVIDIA didn't acquire Ageia back in 2008. We hope you enjoy this retro unboxing!

 

 

Nice love your movies 

[Peopie]

Its cool that Linus is featuring such an old item, but I really don't like the method this was filmed. It is way too shakey, and makes my head hurt when I try to read anything on the box without pausing. It really makes me appreciate how well the current videos are made. Also, the colors seemed much more different than usual. Like the black levels are too intense? Or maybe it was a little over saturated. Either way, I don't remember your shirt being that dark.

[Jumper118]

these videos are epic, but we want benchmarks and testing against newer hardware at the max res these old cards can run at to see see how far we've come.

[I Hunt Demons]

I think Linus should find something from Voodoo Computers to do in the next retro unboxing video. I would like to see anything they made whether that is a GPU, a desktop, or laptop. Voodoo was one of the most innovative and creative computer companies and it would be a real treat to see something of theirs again.

[T6kke]

Pffft you want a real retro unboxing?

 

 

 

At least he was right about UE3 being used by a lot of game developers.

[faster-eddy]

Cool I learned a lot on that one . Does that mean that if I had an AMD card on Borderlands 2 I would see no effects on  the acid ooz? I noticed that my Nvidia card does not do Phys-X when I play the Linux version of Borderlands 2 . I kinda missed the effects.

 

Also it seems criminal for Nvidia to lock up cool tech like phys-X from general use in the gaming industry and possibly will be its demise as a result.

[Hans Power]

That Nvidia proprietarity (that a word, actually - not sure about that?) is just the biggest bs ever and always was. First, of course, it's anti consumer, then it's also pretty bad business sense. Just think about that: What if they just integrated the Physx acceleration into their GPUs but also kept the ageia addon cards for AMD users? They would have made a buttload of money while not locking it down into their ecosystem and thus make sure that there might be some actual PhysX games.

[Hans Power]

Oh, another thing just came to mind - I have an Nvidia GPU (GTX760, 2GB) but when I activate PhysX in any game, it ALWAYS tanks the framerate to a degree. So I'm always wondering where the acceleration is supposed to be - or does it just do everything via CPU, anyway without any GPU/PPU acceleration and the game only checks if an Nvidia GPU is in your system and then makes it available? So IS there actually any PhysX acceleration, anymore? Cause I kinda assumed owning Nvidia means PhysX always on highest settings without any performance hit. As it is it's nearly worthless on my GTX760 cause the performance hit is almost always too high.

[Un4tural]

as far as i know nvidia now uses cuda cores for physx processing, thus taking a little hit performance wise? instead of having a dedicated processor? i could be wrong, but it would make sense, that to be the reason why using physx tanks performance on some weaker cards. love the tech, don't like what nvidia done with it though, physx had so so much more potential than a nicely flopping cape and some nicely dangling tatas.

[typographie]

Oh, another thing just came to mind - I have an Nvidia GPU (GTX760, 2GB) but when I activate PhysX in any game, it ALWAYS tanks the framerate to a degree. So I'm always wondering where the acceleration is supposed to be - or does it just do everything via CPU, anyway without any GPU/PPU acceleration and the game only checks if an Nvidia GPU is in your system and then makes it available? So IS there actually any PhysX acceleration, anymore? Cause I kinda assumed owning Nvidia means PhysX always on highest settings without any performance hit. As it is it's nearly worthless on my GTX760 cause the performance hit is almost always too high.

 

Nah, it really does use your GPU cores. CPU accelerated PhysX is what is used if you're running an AMD card (or if you have it set to CPU in your Nvidia driver). The marketing materials would certainly like you to believe that it has no performance hit on Nvidia hardware, but in reality its just a "reduced" hit versus running it on the CPU.

 

The GTX 760 just doesn't really have the headroom in modern titles to run the game at 1080p and 60-ish FPS and still be able to render PhysX as well. This is definitely a factor in its very reluctant adoption by most developers.

[Hans Power]

as far as i know nvidia now uses cuda cores for physx processing, thus taking a little hit performance wise? instead of having a dedicated processor? i could be wrong, but it would make sense, that to be the reason why using physx tanks performance on some weaker cards. love the tech, don't like what nvidia done with it though, physx had so so much more potential than a nicely flopping cape and some nicely dangling tatas.

 

Nah, it really does use your GPU cores. CPU accelerated PhysX is what is used if you're running an AMD card (or if you have it set to CPU in your Nvidia driver). The marketing materials would certainly like you to believe that it has no performance hit on Nvidia hardware, but in reality its just a "reduced" hit versus running it on the CPU.

 

The GTX 760 just doesn't really have the headroom in modern titles to run the game at 1080p and 60-ish FPS and still be able to render PhysX as well. This is definitely a factor in its very reluctant adoption by most developers.

 

@typographie: Sounds like a really crappy implementation of the technology. And I feel a just a little bit ripped off - not enough to rage quit being an Nvidia user next time I need a new graphics card but they sure don't win any prices for their marketing or their business methods.

@Un4tural: yeah, I agree - what they did with it is just sad and just another case of some childish "you can't have it AMD, cause it's mine, now, hahahahahahaROFL".

[typographie]

@typographie: Sounds like a really crappy implementation of the technology. And I feel a just a little bit ripped off - not enough to rage quit being an Nvidia user next time I need a new graphics card but they sure don't win any prices for their marketing or their business methods.

 

This is why I'd always recommend choosing a card 99% based on its performance relative to its cost at the time of purchase. PhysX and similar technologies are a value-add sometimes, but probably aren't worth driving your decision. Similarly, its not worth going with AMD solely because of Mantle and TrueAudio support. But the GTX 760 has been a pretty solid card for its price for most of its lifetime, so its not like your decision is suddenly terrible in light of that.

 

Some games supporting PhysX have extra, hidden detail settings in their config files that allow you to tweak the maximum number of PhysX particles on screen at a time. I know Borderlands 2 falls into that category. If you're dedicated enough you can probably tweak your settings to make PhysX work better for you.

[pk-man]

lol the best part is the hand held camera work and the constant zooming in and out, just in like his old videos.....

[Un4tural]

@typographie: Sounds like a really crappy implementation of the technology. And I feel a just a little bit ripped off - not enough to rage quit being an Nvidia user next time I need a new graphics card but they sure don't win any prices for their marketing or their business methods.

@Un4tural: yeah, I agree - what they did with it is just sad and just another case of some childish "you can't have it AMD, cause it's mine, now, hahahahahahaROFL".

i completely agree... using GPU juice to process it beats the purpose of it... great physx is around, but since cell factor tech demo, there hasn't been a single game that does anything CLOSE to it, real time... even though my mediocre 860m can handle cellfactor non ageia maps easily, i cannot try the enhanced ones... not to mention what a pain in the ass was to get it working at all

 

i wish there was a dedicated processing unit, and a separate card for nvidia people, games could finally have the amazing worlds with thousands of physics objects to interact with, not just uber realistic leaves and crap... i don't think I'm alone on not really caring about it as much...

 

and since GPU cuda cores are doing the calculations, might be able to do impressive stuff, can't imagine it not requiring beast resources even from modern cards, to run decent sized maps with a lot of real time physics and destroyable environments... 

 

nobody seem to remember cell factor nowadays, or the potential it showed back in the day, how amazing it was. feel like getting the card just for the nostalgia of it thrash around the thousands upon thousands of objects. so much fun...

 

sorry for my rant just feel so cheated of all the amazing physics and chaos in games...

[typographie]

i wish there was a dedicated processing unit, and a separate card for nvidia people, games could finally have the amazing worlds with thousands of physics objects to interact with, not just uber realistic leaves and crap... i don't think I'm alone on not really caring about it as much...

 

Well technically you can still do that. You can install any secondary Nvidia card (distinct from SLI) and set it to be the PhysX processor in your driver. A 750 or 750 Ti seems ideal, as they're probably fast enough to be worthwhile and the low power demands would ensure compatibility with most mainstream PSUs.

 

It's expensive, but if memory serves the Ageia PPU wasn't particularly cheap, either.

 

The problem is the same with implementation as its always been, though. As long as its a proprietary technology limited to only a certain vendor (and especially if it requires a second purchase), the installed user base is only going to be a portion of the total market. It needs to be as ubiquitous as something like DirectX to gain that level of support.

[Guest Kloaked]

Oh, another thing just came to mind - I have an Nvidia GPU (GTX760, 2GB) but when I activate PhysX in any game, it ALWAYS tanks the framerate to a degree. So I'm always wondering where the acceleration is supposed to be - or does it just do everything via CPU, anyway without any GPU/PPU acceleration and the game only checks if an Nvidia GPU is in your system and then makes it available? So IS there actually any PhysX acceleration, anymore? Cause I kinda assumed owning Nvidia means PhysX always on highest settings without any performance hit. As it is it's nearly worthless on my GTX760 cause the performance hit is almost always too high.

Which version of PhysX do you have downloaded? Chan you go check and get back to me?

[NumLock21]

If it didn't cost that much back then and more games supported, then they would have still existed today.

Not only BFG made a PhysX card, so did Asus, Asus one has the PhysX logo on the I/O cover.

 

For those who haven't seen CellFactor, here is the trailer