Pixelated

August 15, 2008 at 9:13pm

I just downloaded the 179.83 drivers for my BFG 8800 GTX and indeed it is supported. It comes packed with the PhysX 8.08.01 driver too. Looking at Nvidia's site doesn't make it clear for any cards except the 9000 and 200 series. After installing the drivers and going to control panel and clicking on the Nvidia PhysX icon it opens a box with three selections. No acceleration, GeForce PhysX and AGEIA PhysX. Already checked off at default is GeForce PhysX. Testing the two different settings (Acceleration or no Acceleration) with the paticle fluid demo shows that it indeed does run smoother while enabled. I have yet to test it out in PhysX enabled games such as UT3 and Mass Effect but will soon.

If it works it's a nice little addition, if it doesn't well that's fine too as I was never expecting anything like this. Some people are talking about buying an additional card such as a 9600GT tio use as a PhysX card. That's a little too much for something that has yet to be proven for anything useful but 3DMark Vantage. I mean if you're going to drop $150 on a PhysX processor why not just buy an AGEIA card for $100? Not me no thanks.