Asus 128mb PhysX Card Review/Preview

Does PhysX affect my Frames per second?

Well the simple answer would have to be: Yes. with all the extra particle effects and pixels flying around the screen FPS is bound to be affected. But then with the amazingly fast increase in power of graphics cards and the approach of DX10 I cannot see this being a particular problem.

More than likely if you’ve shelled out the extra £200 for the PhysX card then your system will be able to handle gaming. I played Cell Factor at 1600 x 1200 and G.R.A.W. at 1920 x 1200 and the FPS was certainly fine – on a single 7900GTX.

Those of your with top-spec Crossfire and/or top-spec SLI will have NO worries running the games that I have mentioned at ultra high res.

Conclusion

Is it worth buying a PhysX just for G.R.A.W.? No I can honestly say it is not quite worth it. Is it worth buying a PhysX for G.R.A.W. and Cell factor?…yes.

If the games that are due to come out using PhysX are as good as Cell Factor is with it’s interactivity and physics effects then I have to say that it WILL be worth buying a PhysX card. I have great faith in Epic Games to produce the “killer app” in Unreal Tournament 2007 and if this turns out to really utilise PhysX then this card will be a must buy for gamers.

This card is currently on sale at Specialtech for £179.85 inc VAT

If the future has more physics of the kind that Cell Factor shows us then PhysX is a very nice piece of hardware indeed.

I am going to give PhysX 8/10 with current games

And an innovation award with hope for the future.

Pro’s

+ Awesome interactivity with environments
+ Amazing physics effects
+ Very real object manipulation
+ Fun
+ UT2K7 supports PhysX

Con’s

– No “killer app” as of yet
– G.R.A.W. slightly disappointing
– A bit of a waiting game for AAA titles.

Thanks to Specialtech for providing the card for review

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