It was recently reported at Geeks3D that they are working on a new version of their PhysX FluidMark Benchmark that would be supporting Multi-Core CPU Support for running the PhysX calculations. Geeks3D has now posted an updated showing the new version of PhysX FluidMark running on 16 cores and a screenshot showing the new GUI that allows you to select the numbers of CPU cores your processor has before you run PhysX FluidMark.
This is definitely exciting stuff, PhysX FluidMark is a great program to test out your new PhysX setup quickly and run benchmark/stability tests on your dedicated PhysX Card. Keep checking in here at GamePhys and Geeks3D for more information.
I’m still coding the new FluidMark with multi-core CPU support and in order to test with more than 4 cores (my dev station really sucks with its 2 CPU cores and my test bench is a little bit better with 4 CPU cores) I asked to David from french website PC Inpact to play with the unstable version of FluidMark on a 16-core CPU.
As you can see on the screenshot, the 16 cores are fully loaded
Currently I have some little problems with multi-core support and PhysX GPU (there are some crashes when hardware PhysX is used with multithreaded simulation) but I’m about to find a solution…
YouTube user R3n7on has made and uploaded a couple of awesome videos of him palying Dark Void with PhysX set to High running on his HD4850+9800GT Hybrid PhysX setup, check them out below and if you want to see more awesome PhysX videos of Dark Void in action be sure to check out our previous posts:
I’m currently updating Geeks3D’s PhysX FluidMark tool and from my last tests, multi-core CPU support in PhysX seems to be ok (that confirms what NVIDIA said in this news)… At least on my dev station with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 and an AMD X2 3800+.
In case you are not familiar with PhysX FluidMark it is a free to download PhysX benchmarking and stability tool perfect for quickly testing out a new PhysX setup to make sure PhysX was installed and up and running correctly, you can download it here and a YouTube video showing it in action was embedded below.
PhysX FluidMark is a physics benchmark based on NVIDIA PhysX engine. This benchmark performs a fluid simulation by imitating the renderering of lava. Real physics parameters such as viscosity are used. SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) algorithm is enabled to increase the realism of the simulation.
This benchmark exploits OpenGL for graphics acceleration and requires an OpenGL 2.0 compliant graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 5/6/7/8/9/GTX200 (and higher), AMD/ATI Radeon 9600+, 1k/2k/3k/4k (and higher) or a S3 Graphics Chrome 400 series.
Fudzilla has done some nice hybrid PhysX testing, using a ATI Radeon HD5870 mixed with a 9800GT for dedicated PhysX and then the GTX285 and the same 9800GT for dedicated PhysX. Fudzilla then uses the Batman: Arkham Asylum PhysX benchmark in the demo to test performance with the different combination of the cards. Though the article is pretty simple it is great to see the different setups and how they perform with and without the dedicated PhysX card, check it the rest of the article here.
So, if you for instance own a Geforce GTX 260, you can use a cheaper Geforce such as 9600GT to handle your PhysX calculations. In practice, it’s as simple as choosing the dedicated PhysX card in Nvidia’s driver.
Unfortunately for some, Nvidia kept the technology to itself, so Radeon cards aren’t supported, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. PhysX support is automatically blocked upon detection of Radeon cards, but luckily, there are workarounds and various forums have been pretty loud about it for a while.
We recently included Batman: Arkham Asylum game in our gaming benchmarks, and while the game supports PhysX effects, we usually use only the results we got without PhysX. The reason hides behind Radeon cards which don’t score a good enough framerate when PhysX is on, so there’s no point in comparing them. Since it’s not very fair to exclude Nvidia’s strengths from our tests and our trusted readers have requested Radeon results with PhysX effects on, we decided to do it. So, we embarked on what would many fans of green and red camps probably called sacrilege – we assigned a Geforce card to handle PhysX and as our primary card we used a Radeon.
I am pleased to announce that GamePhys will soon have a dedicated test and benchmarking system for the site. This was a project I have been meaning to do since I started the site back in 2009 but never got around to it. The first phase of this project really got started this past BlackRead More
On Friday at GDC 2012, Aron Zoellner and Kevin Newkirk of NVIDIA presented a really nice hour long session titled Enhancing Games with APEX PhysX (Clothing, Destruction, Turbulence). In this presentation they went over the features of APEX PhysX Cloth, Destruction, and Turbulence which we have seen implemented in recent games like Mafia II andRead More
We have been hearing rumors for the past year now that AMD GPU’s will be used in the next generation consoles however, aside from reports that the Xbox would use a Fusion variant of Bulldozer, we have not been hearing to much about the actual CPU that may be used. Now SemiAccurate claims that theRead More
Zombiethatatehimself creator of the Awesome Apex PhysX Impact Damage Demonstration and Apex PhysX Impact Damage Demonstration With Stucco/plaster, and the Apex PhysX Voronoi Fracture and Destruction Demonstration has made another cool Apex PhysX demonstration with the Unreal Development Kit. This time a similar to the Voronoi Fracture and destruction demonstration but with some cool plasterRead More
Some nice news from Havok as they have announced that they have entered into a “worldwide license agreement with Nintendo Co., Ltd., to make Havok Physics and Havok Animation available to studios around the world developing on Nintendo’s Wii U™ platform” Hopefully we will see some cool games implement Havok Physics and destruction. The WiiRead More
F1nalspace has made a pretty cool PhysX SPH fluids sandbox you can download and play with showing off some awesome PhysX based SPH(smoothed particle hydrodynamics). Check it out below. I made a fluid simulation in C++ with several customizable scenarios using PhysX SDK 3.0.2 rendered with OpenGL. Fluid rendering is done using a technique calledRead More
I just wanted to post these cool UDK PhysX videos I came across on YouTube. UDK wood fracture from 19minimin91 UDK/Apex Destructible Level Test from lankeytom UDK Physics Fun by GrinchPa
Now this is exciting news, Epic Games has announced in their GDC 2012 press release that they will be showcasing Unreal Engine 4 behind closed doors at GDC 2012. Last year at GDC 2011 we saw the Samaritan demo which was jaw dropping graphics wise but did not showcase much physics, at least destruction wise.Read More
NVIDIA has released new GeForce 295.73 WHQL Drivers which include PhysX 9.12.0209 System Software for improved compatibility and performance in Alice: Madness Returns and Batman: Arkham City. NVIDIA has posted an in-depth article about the improvements you can see in various games on the official Geforce website. There was also a PhysX System Software 9.12.0213Read More
This is old now but I never got around to posting about it back during CES 2012. During the CES 2012 Intel press conference, they showed a lot of information about the upcoming Ivy Bridge Ultrabook processor including a DX11 graphics demo showing off different games that the DX11 capable Ivy Bridge processor will beRead More
The NvidiaApexDeveloper YouTube page has uploaded a new video from the Art Gallery demo showing off some awesome Apex physics and destruction. Check it out below. For more footage of this demo in action check out the original Art Gallery Destruction Demo in UE3 using APEX Destruction with GRB’s video. Hopefully this demo becomes availableRead More
Charlie over at SemiAccurate has posted an interesting rumor that the upcoming NVIDIA Kepler, GK104 GPU will have optimizations for physics calculations in the form of dedicated PhysX hardware described as a “PhysX block.” It is unclear whether these optimizations will be actual dedicated PhysX hardware or just more shaders and other PhysX optimizations butRead More
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