HOPEFULLY ATI HAS SOMETHING UP THERE SLEEVE SPECIALLY WITH 3XCROSSFIRE AND CROSSFIRE X,THINKING MABEY 2 4870 X2S WHEN THEY COME OUT AND A 3850 FOR A PHYSIC PEOSSESING UNIT....OPPS THATS 5 GPUS HEHEHEHE SKYS THE LIMIT
I questioned NVIDIA about their plans for something like that, but didn't get a response before publishing time. I'm pretty sure both companies have talked about it though. Having SLI and a smaller dedicated GPU (probably one you already had that you don't want to rid) being put to physics use would be great.
Very interesting article, has anyone given it a shot on SLI to see if two (or three) cards can handle it better than one?
As ridiculous as it may seem, I didn't have doubles of any card here that could support PhysX, which is why it was not tested.
Some guys already got PhysX running on ati cards, (at NGOHQ I believe). And teh rumors are they're gonna license it from nvidia, too. So it seems this *should* work out for all
The argument about the score inflation is that it's different from a dedicated card since in the real world the GPU processing is reduced for the physics calculations (I don't know if it is or not). Plus the point of a CPU test is to test the CPU and remove GPU influence. They're saying it's not pure.
As I mentioned in the article, nothing would stop ATI from being able to use PhysX on the GPU. It's just a matter of getting permission from NVIDIA, and that patch from NGOHQ will not be pushed by ATI in any way. If ATI -does- license it from NVIDIA, it would be a huge win for PhysX.
Regarding the inflation... it's a
very good point. Still, I'd blame Futuremark before I'd consider shifting the blame to NVIDIA. NVIDIA stuck within the rules. Futuremark weighed the physics aspect way too heavily, which is why we are seeing CPU scores of 30,000+. Really, for the test to have been accurate, it should have been actual gameplay, not a severely throttled back game environment, where it doesn't push the GPU at all.
I have little doubt that the next version of Futuremark will be a little different, especially with these new methods.