Is PhysX worth it?

[TheDylinTech]

Quick poll to see what everyone thinks about PhysX.

NOTE: This is not a 'AMD vs Nvidia', this is a 'what is your opinion on PhysX and do you believe games should keep using it?'

[ShadowCaptain]

even in games that use it, it barely does anything, there are games with fantastic physics systems that do not use physx

 

I would prefer a technology that can be used universally 

[hiyayhi]

PhysX is actually a pretty cool technology for when it came out, but now that we have MUCH more powerful GPU's it is more or less obsolete. That, and Nvidia killed it by making it a closed platform.

 

Although it would not have been possible for Nvidia to really let it be open source as it is part of the Cores.

[Lord Pantaloons]

There are A LOT of threads on this subject already, don't bother using the site search though it's broken. Hit up your preferred search engine and look for threads relating to PhysX on LTT. This will just turn into another shitfight when the AMD fanboys come in to bash PhysX.

[TheDylinTech]

There are A LOT of threads on this subject already, don't bother using the site search though it's broken. Hit up your preferred search engine and look for threads relating to PhysX on LTT. This will just turn into another shitfight when the AMD fanboys come in to bash PhysX.Th

As I stated above please don't bring in any war on AMD vs Nvidia. I don't care if you're making a point. This is a PhysX post.

[DigitalHermit]

There are A LOT of threads on this subject already, don't bother using the site search though it's broken. Hit up your preferred search engine and look for threads relating to PhysX on LTT. This will just turn into another shitfight when the AMD fanboys come in to bash PhysX.

 

TressFX FTW

 

I'm just messing with you...

 

I think that PhysX is losing its leverage as a selling point... It's nice to have, but not absolutely necessary... Same with AMD's TressFX...

[boboman342]

I would only use it when my spare gtx 650 and my r9 270x...oh wait can't anymore...

[ManWithBeard1990]

However good it might be it's handicapped by having acceleration only on nVidia GPUs. This holds back developers because you simply cannot count on a game having a particular platform. It's not a console, after all. This means they keep it simple enough for AMD users who will have to run it on CPU and as a result, it has no tangible advantage over other physics libraries. Bullet physics for example has OpenCL acceleration, so it's much more viable if massive power is needed.

[mikeeginger]

If the game gives you good enough effects that dont tank the frame rate

eg Borderlands the pre sequel the effects are cool

Assassin's creed black flag for pointless 

[Lord Pantaloons]

As I stated above please don't bring in any war on AMD vs Nvidia. I don't care if you're making a point. This is a PhysX post.

I wasn't bringing any war bs into the thread, I was telling you what happens to EVERY thread about PhysX and how you can just look for the multitude of threads that already have a lot of good posts on the subject in them.

[Notree]

Where's  @DeViLzzz ? He love's Physx. 

[TheDylinTech]

I wasn't bringing any war bs into the thread, I was telling you what happens to EVERY thread about PhysX and how you can just look for the multitude of threads that already have a lot of good posts on the subject in them.

Yeah sry, I meant to put it out as a disclaimer to everyone else (not you). 

[Mush Brain]

Yeah it has it's merit's, plus you are not really maxing a game without it...

 

But as stated before, there are better physics engines out there, and it needs to be universal.

[killcomic]

Back in the day, I used to have a 9800GTX that enabled Physx. There was some pretty cool effects with particles and stuff, but when my card died and moved to AMD, in all honesty, I barely noticed the lack of Physx.

Maybe these days Physx does more impressive things, but my experience with it didn't leave a lasting impression.

[Ertman]

Its great at making things messy. It actually a relevant engine, but it is becoming obsolete. While the physx engine is still evolving, due to its locked nature (nvidia hardware) its implementation and optimization is not as economically practical for developers.

 

It would probably be different if nvidia never bought Ageia. The PPU probably still wouldn't exist, but it would be licensed to the video card manufacturers and integrated with their product lines with generational physics engine support. This would lead to likely more advanced physx engines implemented in games and supported to various degrees by hardware. This would also probably be used in differentiating the product lines with differing hardware support and capability depending on price point.

 

If Nvidia didn't block the use of nvidia cards with AMD cards for PP purposes it would likely be more popular and therefore more relevant. Nvidia could have actually seen a sales increase because of this.

[TheDylinTech]

Well In my opinion I would have to say that PhysX is pretty cool, like have you seen dat difference for borderlands? However as @ShadowCaptain stated above, there are many improved physics engines out there that are much more efficient.

It also needs to be universal across all GPU's if it really wants to take off but that will unfortunately never happen.   

[Godlygamer23]

PhysX is actually a pretty cool technology for when it came out, but now that we have MUCH more powerful GPU's it is more or less obsolete. That, and Nvidia killed it by making it a closed platform.

Although it would not have been possible for Nvidia to really let it be open source as it is part of the Cores.

How do more powerful GPUs make it obsolete?

[Godlygamer23]

TressFX FTW

I'm just messing with you...

I think that PhysX is losing its leverage as a selling point... It's nice to have, but not absolutely necessary... Same with AMD's TressFX...

I thought TressFX would've eventually competed with PhysX, but so far, I'm wrong.

[DeViLzzz]

Where's  @DeViLzzz ? He love's Physx. 

Right here and feeling PHYSEXY!

It is definitely worth it as Nvidia allows you to play all games the way they were meant to be played.  That is all there is to say on the matter.  Until AMD gets something exactly like this or beats what Nvidia does I will be buying Green Team for my pcs.  Now as for other family members and pcs I build for them well I put in AMD card in my son's latest gaming rig and then felt guilty I had access to all the eye candy and sold the 7850 and replaced it with a GTX 760 so if I ever build for him again I will not buy AMD for him again unless things have changed to make it worth it. 

[hiyayhi]

How do more powerful GPUs make it obsolete?

When PhysX originally came out, it was a stand alone product, you would put a PhysX card into your system, then Nvidia bought the company who made it and integrated it into their GPU cores. This was around the 8800 series I believe. These were not exactly powerful GPU's in comparison to what we have today, and what you could achieve with hardware then, we can pretty much achieve with software now, and the beefier GPU's. It also helps that we have new engines that have great physics engine built into them like unreal engine 4 and frostbite 4.

 

So more powerful GPU's ina nd of themselves do not make PhysX obsolete but the new GPU's and better software pretty much does. There are a few things that still work better when hardware accelerated but much to everyone's surprise (not) it doesn't just work on Nvidias GPU's, you can do the same stuff with a CPU but it will be very taxing.

[iceballfunela]

The game that really marketed PhysX was Borderlands 2 and it was really minor... I almost wanted to get a GTX 660 at that time because of PhysX but I found out that most games don't give a shit about it so I gave it a pass..