12:33 PM on 02.06.2008
|
Niero
Ageia's technology is brilliant. They manufacture an add-on video adapter that relieves video cards from crunching complex physics math and frees them up to do what they do best: render pretty things on the screen. While their PhysX-based cards became more affordable in recent years their business model had two major holes: (1) They required that game developers wrote code specifically for their niche card and (2) They didn't have the resources to beat them over the head if they didn't. With only a few games supporting their platform, what's a girl to do? Go bankrupt or get bought out. Sorry ATI, Nvidia has more money.
While no plans for single-card integration or industry-wide face-beating has been announced yet I can only predict that good things will come from this technological matrimony. Here are my predictions for a post-Nvidia Ageia:
* We'll see something called the GeForce Ultimage Orgasm which contains a built-in Physics processing unit (PPU) within two of their product cycles (~1 year or less)
* Nvidia will try to stop everyone from saying PPU because it sounds too much like GPU, and somebody in the marketing and PR department will raise hell. The term is already vanished from their press releases in favor of praise for their "parallel processing".
* PPU technology (ahem) will become mainstream in PCs in 2 years due to the crushing weight of Nvidia's nads
* Nvidia shareholders will sleep better tonight thinking that the absurd cost of PC hardware and declining innovation of PC gaming experiences will someday overthrow the bang-for-buck of consoles within five years. I know, Vista's holding everybody back, but it's for your own good and there's console licensing revenue in them thar hills!
* SLI-linking future video cards containing PPU will cause a swirling portal to open near your wallet that will rid you of roughly $1,300 when your wife least expects it
A webcast on February 13 will take place on Nvidia's web site. For more details and carb-filled business faces quoting things on how "excellent" and "best of breed" each other's corporate prostate has become, hit up the official press release. Pardon me while I do dust off my VESA bus.
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
32 comments | showing # 1 to 32
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
We don't need another $600 graphics card.
My honest prediction is we'll never see a "PPU" again as anything useful from the PPU idea is stripped and combined with DX10.
[ my coverage]
Bottom line is that since the userbase for Phys-X cards was so small nobody cared. I see a paradigm shift coming when Nvidia makes PPUs standard in their mainstream cards.
Heh, prior to this Nvidia was saying that between them and Havoc they could do soley with their GPUs on a video card and recreate the advantages of physx without needing a physx card, and now they just go and buy Ageia? Poor Havoc. :( I know what it's like to be dumped. There there. *Pats Havoc on its back*
I like the plastic static-free packaging they come in, and smelling it.
I am WAY excited about this merger :) Thanks for the info Niero!
I think Nvidia's next jump will be external VC that comes with their own power supply and connects via USB 3.0 in order to do a nice jump in graphics.
Oh yeah, and computers, yay.
Only used it a few times because no-one implements physics like that. And with everyone running multi-core processors, why not just pass off the physics number crunching to another core? I feel robbed every time I open my PC and see that damn card just wasting a slot.
My guess is with 2 and 4 core CPUs becoming more common, game designers will offload those physics calcs to the CPU and a dedicated physics board wont be necessary.
But if they make a daughterboard for boob physics, im on that.
I had completely forgotten about the Nvidia and Havok thing.
Hmm... maybe Havok didn't get dumped and everyone is in for some sweet threesome action.
Fuck PC gaming.
Apparently, it's from David LaChapelle's photo book Heaven To Hell. As far as I can tell, that's the full picture. There's no full boobie photo floating around.