PhysX on Radeon ‘Saga’: What we Missed
Written on July 5, 2008 – 1:49 pm | by admin
Amidst this whole ‘nGOHQ’ saga, and us getting astonished at the way things turned out, here’s what we missed:
NVIDIA is in talks with AMD over a possible technology-transfer agreement over PhysX, say industry sources in Hong Kong. In a not-so-recent article by HKEPC, it is said:
“The graphics card industry pointed out that while AMD Open Table support of Havok, but Havok has been the acquisition of Intel, Havok and PhysX is the same competition on the product, AMD has its own wishful thinking, by NVIDIA and Intel in physics engine Competition and get access to two major physics engine authorization, two competition is very likely to become the largest beneficiary of AMD.” (Chinese, translated by Google into English).
AMD and NVIDIA are in discussions over a common ground that allows AMD to use the PhysX API with its products. This follows the news of AMD optimizing their hardware for Havoc. There are two implications to this:
- AMD gets to an agreement with NVIDIA and ropes in PhysX, leaving their graphics processors optimized for both physics APIs, thereby making buying a Radeon product a better option over GeForce. A short-sighted look at things to come.
- AMD plays risky, adopts PhysX, NVIDIA’s developer relation programs popularize the PhysX API beyond Havoc (since now anyone can use it), eliminate Havoc, then hold a dominating position over AMD since PhysX would then become an indispensible technology for AMD, could affect the course of major corporate policies for AMD. A long-sighted look at things to come.
Whether AMD embraces PhysX at an official level remains to be seen, a lot is at stake. The industry never saw so much of a gamble because of a piece of software that makes crates break, grenade sharpnel fly and cloth tear more accurately.
Tags: amd, intel, nvidia, physx, radeon