joe.latino
Newcomer
Please tell me somethings about it;have you some news/technical info?
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G80 Quantum Physics Engine:what do you think about it??
- Thread starter joe.latino
- Start date
joe.latino
Newcomer
Megadrive1988
Veteran
gimmick
The same could be said about all physics at this point really. Nothing is full, everything is half way done, etc. I think though if there is any real hope of making acceleration of physics beyond mainstream then it will be from the GPU or CPU guys, and not some new company out of nowhere.
I think gimmick is the wrong word here as it will probably have implications for the G80 in the GPGPU world... Really, I suppose it is just good marketing... if the G80's gpgpu abilities are far greater than previous generation hardware, it makes sense to market it. Quantum is a cool sounding word that probably resonates (as well as any physics term can) with the general public.
Well I'm thinking across of the lines of what INster is saying. The branching performance is improved very much in the g80 and it should be able to handle physics and next gen graphics to some degree at least for games to come in the next year, but we still have SLi to add into the mix, it should be very possible to use the second card even a midrange or lower end model of the g80 architecture for physics calculations, and even a lower end card of the g80 will give much better physics performance then a r580, just because the granularity is much smaller. Having a dedicated physics layer, I think its more like likely they are saying parts of the GPU can be used for physics when needed.
The question here is whether the G80 will be as easily programmable as ATI's products are said to be . If this Quantum labelled physics requires all sorts of proprietary programming layers ( CG version 2 
) and doesn't work with the upcoming physics stuff in DX10 , then it will be bad for us consumers .
Imagine if 2007 presents us with :
Havoc cpu and software based
Nvidia G70 series ( Nv claims that they can do physics )
Havoc gpu based
ATI X1k GPU physics
ATI R600 GPU Physics
Nvidia G80 GPU basd "Quantum" physics
Microsoft DX10 Physics
Ageia physics
Of course this is the worst case scenario , but imagine what it would be like regarding software support , which games will support what etc etc ( add to that dual and quad core support ) . Ohh we poor consumers .
) and doesn't work with the upcoming physics stuff in DX10 , then it will be bad for us consumers .Imagine if 2007 presents us with :
Havoc cpu and software based
Nvidia G70 series ( Nv claims that they can do physics )
Havoc gpu based
ATI X1k GPU physics
ATI R600 GPU Physics
Nvidia G80 GPU basd "Quantum" physics
Microsoft DX10 Physics
Ageia physics
Of course this is the worst case scenario , but imagine what it would be like regarding software support , which games will support what etc etc ( add to that dual and quad core support
) . Ohh we poor consumers .I would certainly imagine Havok would have its CPU and GPU stuff all the same. So you still get the physics with your CPU, just a lot faster and more with a GPU that can be off loaded too. I think the physics situation will get better as time goes by. I do not think stand alone physics cards will popular, at least not for a good while. I see Nvidia and ATi building up a decent thing with GPUs that'll hopefully come down to a common API, I have some hope in Havok that this will be made possible.
trumphsiao
Regular
That would imply you know the granularity on g80.....
Dunno why Nvidia so hasty on Mid-End G8X ASIC ...
The question here is whether the G80 will be as easily programmable as ATI's products are said to be . If this Quantum labelled physics requires all sorts of proprietary programming layers ( CG version 2
Given that every mention of Nvidia physics also includes a mention of Havoc it's a safe bet that "Quantum Physics" will be programmed via the Havoc API and not something proprietary to Nvidia.
Dunno why Nvidia so hasty on Mid-End G8X ASIC ...
Maybe they expect ATI to bring a full R6xx based lineup in the spring? Although they can't be that scared given ATi's execution on the R5xx mid-range.
I'd like them to propose their own solution though, believe it or not, because Havok and Havok FX aren't exactly cheap, so it makes it less than ideal for indie devs...
Uttar
And in other breaking news, BEYOND3D HAS A FRONTPAGE!!!
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32160
Uttar
