Nvidia implements 'time bomb' for ATI users running PhysX

[hurleybird]

A new version of the PhysX patch that allows a Radeon card (for 3D rendering) to be used with a GeForce card (for PhysX) is available.

If you read the release note there is a pretty shocking thing:

- added support for fixing a timebomb, introduced in 196.75 and 197.xx drivers (gravity reverse + overall slowdown after a few seconds of PhysX processing)

What ? NVIDIA has introduced a timebomb in their ForceWare / PhysX drivers to prevent the use of GeForce with a Radeon ?

http://www.geeks3d.com/20100422/hybr...-timebomb-fix/

[Manicdan]

i thought a while back the shut off support for nvidia physics if ati cards were running the graphics, or even the old real physx cards to just not work at all. sounds like they are putting it back on, which is a major plus if true

[randomizer]

Gravity was reversed?

[purecain]

i was sold on physx and almost bought an nvidia card to add support...

but since playing games with heavy use of havok i just wont be mislead... i'll live without it untill it dies off....

[hurleybird]

i thought a while back the shut off support for nvidia physics if ati cards were running the graphics, or even the old real physx cards to just not work at all. sounds like they are putting it back on, which is a major plus if true

Nope, they turned it off, then people patched it back in. Then Nvidia threw in a monkey wrench that a massive slowdown and gravity to reverse when an ATI card is detected (funny, but definitely ish on their part). Now, the makers of the PhysX patch have been able to overcome this too.

[blindbox]

Timebomb?

Nobody even stopped to think that this is a bomb that slows down time? It's probably part of the SDK tools that the developers are given to play with.




Though, it would be funny to see reverse gravity whenever you're doing the PhysX hack

[Manicdan]

Nope, they turned it off, then people patched it back in. Then Nvidia threw in a monkey wrench that a massive slowdown and gravity to reverse when an ATI card is detected (funny, but definitely ish on their part). Now, the makers of the PhysX patch have been able to overcome this too.

so your saying nvidia keeps trying to break it for ati cards, and physx is fixing it?

[Chickenfeed]

I wonder how long this new version will work for... I'm assuming their is no reason to update the PhysX version unless using a newer game, in which case one would have to wait for a new ATI patch.

It is cool that this can be done but I am wondering how long it will last given the amount of crap Daniel_K ( creative sound card driver modder ) got from Creative (cease and desist notices from Creatives legal department ) for allowing features on cards that weren't meant to have them ( strictly due to licensing reasons, not technical )

Obvioulsy Nvida would just rather you buy 2 cards to perform phsyics instead of merely buying one in this case but I personally feel that they'd potentially move a lot of their older stock in doing so ( a healthy amount of ATI users would like purchase a G92 based card for physx if it had official unconditional support ) In the end though they like the fact its a marketing feature of theres and use it in an attempt ( an apparently sucessful one ) to lure customers to their products.

[SoulsCollective]

so your saying nvidia keeps trying to break it for ati cards, and physx is fixing it?

No. PhysX = nVidia. nVidia refuses to enable PhysX if a GPU from anyone other than nVidia is present in the system (even if that GPU is only an IGP). Modders have taken up the challenge, and are developing cracks that allow PhysX to be enabled with an ATi GPU present. nVidia keeps trying new methods to lock PhysX back down again, such as this "timebomb", the hackers keep cracking.

[Frontl1ne]

timebomb => big bang?

[zanzabar]

I wonder how long this new version will work for... I'm assuming their is no reason to update the PhysX version unless using a newer game, in which case one would have to wait for a new ATI patch.

It is cool that this can be done but I am wondering how long it will last given the amount of crap Daniel_K ( creative sound card driver modder ) got from Creative (cease and desist notices from Creatives legal department ) for allowing features on cards that weren't meant to have them ( strictly due to licensing reasons, not technical )

Obvioulsy Nvida would just rather you buy 2 cards to perform phsyics instead of merely buying one in this case but I personally feel that they'd potentially move a lot of their older stock in doing so ( a healthy amount of ATI users would like purchase a G92 based card for physx if it had official unconditional support ) In the end though they like the fact its a marketing feature of theres and use it in an attempt ( an apparently sucessful one ) to lure customers to their products.

exactly phsyX is not a physics API to NV its a marketing tool, and that mind set is one of the reasons that i think they are not focusing on textures anymore, they nolonger care to improve quality or make things have better textures they want to be diffrent frow ati who is good at that so they went the opposite way and focused on geometry unlike the older stuff so now they can disable ati performance by paying devs to focus on geometry and physics using their marketing tools

its ingenious but bad for the gaming industry like glide

DK also got in trouble since he cracked they pay dolby software not for moding the drivers

[Mechromancer]

My Windows 7 x64 Ultimate crashed a couple of days after installing a 9600GT in my HD4870 powered system. I'm fairly certain the Nvidia drivers had a bit to do with it. I bet theres a bit more than a slowdown and gravity reverse in that time bomb of theirs. Nvidia would gain a lot more customers if they allowed PhysX to work with a system that has an ATI GPU. Instead, they alienate potential customers with these actions. I was seriously considering a GTX480 but after my ordeal and reading this news, to hell with Nvidia FOREVER.

[Jowy Atreides]

Though, it would be funny to see reverse gravity whenever you're doing the PhysX hack

[demonkevy666]

ATI wins again ?

[randomizer]

Shouldn't she be on the ceiling?

[HotGore]

What the time bomb may look like when you are running Fermi with an ATI GPU.

[saaya]

rofl, nice find!
why arent her boobs below her chin tho?

and nvidias timeomb... pathetic

[Sn0wm@n]

nvidia fails so much these days ......

[STEvil]

might be interesting to try more games and see what this physics inversion causes..

[Andrew LB]

If ATi would simply pay for the rights to use PhysX (along with the costs of driver development to allow both architectures to work properly together), none of this would even be an issue. It's odd that so many nVidia haters here complain about how crappy their cards and company are.... yet they still want to cherry pick technologies from them for their own use, going as far as hacking their drivers. Then they complain again once they find out nVidia is trying to stop such theft of their technology.

The lack of the ability to use PhysX cards in conjunction with ATi main graphics cards is 100% the fault of ATi who refusing to pay to use the tech. Why don't any of the complainers put blame where it is belongs? If this situation was reversed, and ATi had a similar technology that I wanted to use with my nV card.... i'd be calling out nV to either create their own solution or pay usage rights to ATi. It's quite obvious though that ATi has nothing nV users currently want... so that theoretical is a moot point.

[Sn0wm@n]

If ATi would simply pay for the rights to use PhysX (along with the costs of driver development to allow both architectures to work properly together), none of this would even be an issue. It's odd that so many nVidia haters here complain about how crappy their cards and company are.... yet they still want to cherry pick technologies from them for their own use, going as far as hacking their drivers. Then they complain again once they find out nVidia is trying to stop such theft of their technology.

The lack of the ability to use PhysX cards in conjunction with ATi main graphics cards is 100% the fault of ATi who refusing to pay to use the tech. Why don't any of the complainers put blame where it is belongs? If this situation was reversed, and ATi had a similar technology that I wanted to use with my nV card.... i'd be calling out nV to either create their own solution or pay usage rights to ATi. It's quite obvious though that ATi has nothing nV users currently want... so that theoretical is a moot point.

fanboy much

[Solus Corvus]

If ATi would simply pay for the rights to use PhysX (along with the costs of driver development to allow both architectures to work properly together), none of this would even be an issue. It's odd that so many nVidia haters here complain about how crappy their cards and company are.... yet they still want to cherry pick technologies from them for their own use, going as far as hacking their drivers. Then they complain again once they find out nVidia is trying to stop such theft of their technology.

The lack of the ability to use PhysX cards in conjunction with ATi main graphics cards is 100% the fault of ATi who refusing to pay to use the tech. Why don't any of the complainers put blame where it is belongs? If this situation was reversed, and ATi had a similar technology that I wanted to use with my nV card.... i'd be calling out nV to either create their own solution or pay usage rights to ATi. It's quite obvious though that ATi has nothing nV users currently want... so that theoretical is a moot point.

This has nothing to do with ATI as a company. This is about Nvidia screwing it's own customers (nvidia card owners) because they happen to also own a card from the competition.

ATI doesn't have to pay for didly squat. In this case Physx doesn't touch the ATI card. This is an Nvidia technology that is running on an Nvidia card. Nvidia can claim that it's about quality control (a lazy excuse, and not true as the old physx and hacked physx versions prove) but we all know it's just an attempt to prevent customers from buying a cheap Nvidia card and combining it with an ATI card.

[zanzabar]

ati has said that NV wont license physX (as its a marketing tool why would they) and even if that is not true they removed support from older products that did have the support and especially with the killing of the agea PPU i have no sympathy for NV on this.

NV has constantly been removing support and screwing the customer on physX they got games like batman AA to remove features from cpu phsyX by adding the paper effect thats vary intensive (more than the cpu with 1 thread can handle) and adds nothing to the game play so u cant use the features that make a difference like fog, sparks, tile, banners were they did work in the demo and leaked build. they then have stopped things from being multi threaded as if some1 or a team on the internet can add multi thread support to a games pshyX then there is something wrong if the games devs could not get that done.

so as it comes down physX is just a marketing tool for NV to sell their gpus as a brand, sure they could sell a bunch of cheap gpus that make high profit margins but NV wants to be a lifestyle brand like apple so they have to not acknowledge that the competition is usable or in the same class

look at what else they have, they made NV chips have a "bios bug" that made xfire not work unless you are HP were they paid a huge defacto sum in changing to NV chipsets for laptops and desktops even affter they were known to be all defective

[hurleybird]

The lack of the ability to use PhysX cards in conjunction with ATi main graphics cards is 100% the fault of ATi who refusing to pay to use the tech. Why don't any of the complainers put blame where it is belongs? If this situation was reversed, and ATi had a similar technology that I wanted to use with my nV card.... i'd be calling out nV to either create their own solution or pay usage rights to ATi. It's quite obvious though that ATi has nothing nV users currently want... so that theoretical is a moot point.

What a weird post. It's not ATI using Nvidia's technology via hacks, it's Nvidia artificially disabling their technology when a competitors product is detected. And then when their users are able to get around this artificial cut off, they throw a monkey wrench into their own technology.

Imagine if Apple decided to disable the use of itunes when another media player was detected. Then imagine that a group of users was able to trick itunes into running even when other media players were installed, but Apple decided decided to hit back by making each song start playing backwards while taking 100% CPU usage when that trick was detected. That's basically a 1-1 analogy to what Nvidia is doing. It's not Nvidia that is the victim here, it is the consumers.

[CraptacularOne]

If ATi would simply pay for the rights to use PhysX (along with the costs of driver development to allow both architectures to work properly together), none of this would even be an issue. It's odd that so many nVidia haters here complain about how crappy their cards and company are.... yet they still want to cherry pick technologies from them for their own use, going as far as hacking their drivers. Then they complain again once they find out nVidia is trying to stop such theft of their technology.

The lack of the ability to use PhysX cards in conjunction with ATi main graphics cards is 100% the fault of ATi who refusing to pay to use the tech. Why don't any of the complainers put blame where it is belongs? If this situation was reversed, and ATi had a similar technology that I wanted to use with my nV card.... i'd be calling out nV to either create their own solution or pay usage rights to ATi. It's quite obvious though that ATi has nothing nV users currently want... so that theoretical is a moot point.

You FAIL for not understanding that Nvidia is screwing it's own customers. ATI does not have to pay for anything because ATI cards aren't running PhysX. On my GTS250 box it explicitly says it runs PhysX. No where does it mention once, that if you have an ATI GPU in your system that this feature will be broken. Not even in the fine print does it state this. I payed for the card with my own money. Does that not entitle me to be able to use the cards features I bought it for? I'm a paying Nvidia customer that they are deliberately trying to shaft with that nonsense.