Lets Get Extreme! PhysX watercooling with Pics !

[jayhall0315]

Well, I suck at posting photos evidently and I've got a lot to do this weekend but in preparation for some more Showdown at High Noon articles coming out next week, I thought you guys might like a few shots of my attempts to watercool and even overclock a PhysX card (just dont let Ageia know that I reverse engineered their drivers).

The top photo shows the BFG PhysX card with a custom drilled 8800 mounting bracket for use with the MCW60 block, and the bottom pic is obviously, this suckka getting put to the test. We'll see what she is capable of Captain, when I get around to punching out the Showdown Part III or IV article next week.

Have a good weekend,
Jay

If you are really extreme, you never let informed facts or the scientific method hold you back from your journey to the wrong answer

[sick_g4m3r]

lol thats cool!

[IanY]

That's great! Unfortunately, the silly card that I bought is good only for GRAW and even then it causes stutter. Pity the card was never really useful.

[jayhall0315]

That's great! Unfortunately, the silly card that I bought is good only for GRAW and even then it causes stutter. Pity the card was never really useful.

Yeah, it can cause stutter. Some of that has been corrected with the newer drivers and some of that is the way in which the API offloads information. Just like there are individuals out there who reverse engineer the ATI or Nvidia packages for more speed/overclocking, I would do the same but unfortunately, I would be scared to release my driver package for legal reasons.
This card really has alot of potential, but it is hard to persuade developers to learn a new API (especially with all the attention that it takes to write DirectX 10) and when everyone can slough off this to,"well, we wont need that since we will just write code that better optimizes dual and quad core; those will be our savior".

Time will tell, but for now, we are at Xtreme Systems, so might as well go extreme and put this fart simulator/cloth renderer/fluid juicer to the test. Oh, and watercool it, while we are at it !!!!!!!!! Yeah.

Jay

[IanY]

Is it hard to get the holes aligned for the G80 bracket? I would like to try to water cool that as well

[mjassbong]

Now that's cool and Xtreme. Now am inspired to watercool my SCSI controller It does run really really hot.

[jayhall0315]

Is it hard to get the holes aligned for the G80 bracket? I would like to try to water cool that as well

Hey Ian,
Just use the old painter's/carpenter's trick: masking tape.

1 Remove the crappy and loud 40 mm fan and airsink (CPOS).
2 Clean the PPU with acetone (gently) and then alcohol
3 Buy the MCW 60 with the 8800 mounting plate. Take the plate out and align it so that the PPU is exactly in the center of the big square hole interior of the 8800 mounting plate.
4 Now gently, without bumping the mounting plate, apply masking tape to the top and bottom of it and then roll down onto the card (so the mounting plate cannot move and is now taped to the card).
5 Turn over the card, take out a Sharpie marker, look to where the two mounting holes are and place your sharpie there (your Sharpie will now be touching the back side of the mounting plate thru the card) and mark them.
6 Turn the card back over, remove the masking tape and pick up the 8800 mounting plate and turn it over. You will now see the two black marks you made with your sharpie.
7 Get a powerful drill with a sharp carbide bit and get to work.
8 Apply AS5 to the PPU and mount like a normal waterblock (dont need much tightening here, the PPU only puts out maybe 40 watts and has no IHS, so be careful).

Turns out great,
Jay

[jayhall0315]

Now that's cool and Xtreme. Now am inspired to watercool my SCSI controller It does run really really hot.

Mjassbong,
You already have the damned coolest rig on the planet. No need to show up us mere mortals any more !!!!!!!!!!

Jay

[IanY]

Thanks Jay.. I've got nothing to lose here.. the PPU is unused anyway lol

[IanY]

mjassbong,

Ahh.. but you need to step up to serial attached scsi first lol

[mjassbong]

Mjassbong,
You already have the damned coolest rig on the planet. No need to show up us mere mortals any more !!!!!!!!!!

Jay

Well you said it yourself, "...we are at Xtreme Systems, so might as well go extreme"

mjassbong,

Ahh.. but you need to step up to serial attached scsi first lol

IanY, that would be a giant leap I can't make. My wallet wouldn't allow it.

While on the subject of PhysX, any one of you trying out GRAW2?

[jayhall0315]

Well you said it yourself, "...we are at Xtreme Systems, so might as well go extreme"



IanY, that would be a giant leap I can't make. My wallet wouldn't allow it.

While on the subject of PhysX, any one of you trying out GRAW2?

Yeah, Mjass,
I guess you could upgrade to SA SCSI or you could be the only person on the Earth to run PhysX SLI (joking). It is the only thing that could better your rig from the point it is at now (lol).

Jay

[IanY]

Well you said it yourself, "...we are at Xtreme Systems, so might as well go extreme"



IanY, that would be a giant leap I can't make. My wallet wouldn't allow it.

While on the subject of PhysX, any one of you trying out GRAW2?

Sorry I'm so out of it... there's a GRAW 2 out ? Probably with an even steeper playing curve lol Its so darn difficult !

[jayhall0315]

Sorry I'm so out of it... there's a GRAW 2 out ? Probably with an even steeper playing curve lol Its so darn difficult !

Ian,
Yeah, GRAW 2 is out and it does make better use of the PhysX API than the original and is about the same difficulty. I do not have that much time in on the game yet due to lab responsibilities, but I am working my way to this island in the game that supposedly in entirely for players with a PhysX card. So, we shall see.
It does use the PhysX better than the original, but not by leaps and bounds (although, the explosions are the best of ANY game I have played and that is due to the PhysX card).

Jay

[Agent11]

..Is it possible to overclock a ppu?

[jayhall0315]

..Is it possible to overclock a ppu?

Yes, it is possible but I had to reverse engineer their drivers to do it. I will show you pictures of the results but will not release my code (because that is probably not legal anyway - hey, what I do with my PPU is my business, but if I enable others to do something, then I could be in hot water).
One verification of this is the fps should show a difference in Cellfactor Revolution or the PhysX benchmark.
The PPU is not that powerful though (at least in a fps context) and so the results are about what you would expect for a mid-range GPU during overclocking in a DirectX 9 environment.

Jay

[jayhall0315]

Some of you were asking about the more recent games and PhysX. Well, I will go over this later in some detail later, but for now, someone has already taken many of the words out of my mouth

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2007/07..._ageia_physx/1

Until, I get around to showing you the card overclocked, maybe this will help. It also gives details on the new GRAW2 effects with PhysX (and no, I do not work for Ageia)

Jay

[ranker]

God of all that is Gaming, also known as John Carmack, just laid the smack down on the Aegia cards saying they're not worthwhile to support as Nvidia/ATI will eventually include them in the future as a co-processor.

Aegia's only hope right now is to set themselves as a "standard" and pray for a royalty scheme. They were definitely interesting when first released, but I'm glad I waited. It just doesn't seem to have the support we all hoped for.

[jayhall0315]

While I am no John Carmack, I do do multithreaded coding at my lab for the BMI interface and there are some good points to be made:

Dan from Ageia, said this:
“When it comes to the CPU side, dual-core, quad-core, whatever then the main problem is threading. How are you ever going to thread the two things together? It’s all about timing, when the physic effect hits then how is the second core going to time it and cooperate? At the moment, there’s not a single game that supports multi-threading even at a basic level. I reckon we’re years out with that and it’s already been about for two years. The games that are being developed now only use it a bit, for A.I. and so on where they don’t need extreme threading.”

While, I do not entirely agree with Dan, this idea that you can just pull out a Harry Potter magic spell and poof !, have full multithreaded physics running off your GPU or quad core CPU is bunk. Yes, it is possible, but once again, at a very large investment in coding and resources that game and hardware companies are just not going to devote to the matter at this time. That leaves Ageia. Yes, the effects are not as crucial to gameplay as many had hoped for, but it is just like the early 3D accelerators back in the 1990s. You dont master a new paradigm in only six months (Hell, Nturd still has bugs with getting SLI to work).
What would be really cool is if Nturd would sign a licensing agreement with Ageia (like Auzentech did with Creative) and then when the Nturd 9900 cards come out in November, the PPU could lay right beside the GPU on the same board.
Oh well, one can dream.

Jay

(and no, I do not work for Ageia, I just think the PhysX has merit)

[`danny]

That would be ideal but the GTXs would be probably atleast $800

[ranker]

While I am no John Carmack, I do do multithreaded coding at my lab for the BMI interface and there are some good points to be made:

Dan from Ageia, said this:
“When it comes to the CPU side, dual-core, quad-core, whatever then the main problem is threading. How are you ever going to thread the two things together? It’s all about timing, when the physic effect hits then how is the second core going to time it and cooperate? At the moment, there’s not a single game that supports multi-threading even at a basic level. I reckon we’re years out with that and it’s already been about for two years. The games that are being developed now only use it a bit, for A.I. and so on where they don’t need extreme threading.”

While, I do not entirely agree with Dan, this idea that you can just pull out a Harry Potter magic spell and poof !, have full multithreaded physics running off your GPU or quad core CPU is bunk. Yes, it is possible, but once again, at a very large investment in coding and resources that game and hardware companies are just not going to devote to the matter at this time. That leaves Ageia. Yes, the effects are not as crucial to gameplay as many had hoped for, but it is just like the early 3D accelerators back in the 1990s. You dont master a new paradigm in only six months (Hell, Nturd still has bugs with getting SLI to work).
What would be really cool is if Nturd would sign a licensing agreement with Ageia (like Auzentech did with Creative) and then when the Nturd 9900 cards come out in November, the PPU could lay right beside the GPU on the same board.
Oh well, one can dream.

Jay

(and no, I do not work for Ageia, I just think the PhysX has merit)

I completely agree with regards to multithreaded coding. I was a computer science major myself and know the difficulties involved. Basically what you're dreaming is what John Carmack is conveying. As a stand alone card, it's not worthwhile to support. However, as a co-processor with an established DX incorporation, it can see life. He believes Nvidia and ATI will eventually come up with a solution that incorporates it on the graphics card itself. Now whether the chip itself is produced by Ageia remains to be seen and will depend on how well Ageia establishes itself within the market.

[jayhall0315]

I think another item that most naysayers of Ageia forget about is the API. Havok physics was really the only game in town until Ageia came along with the PhysX. Making the PPU itself, is really something that any of the large chip companies CAN do (Intel, Nvidia, ATI,....) without too much effort. The PPU is not THAT specialized and does not really represent any ground breaking technologies on its own. It is the combination of that chip (PPU) along with the environmental PhysX API that can provide the power, provided programmers take the time to learn it.
I dont know what the hell the folks at Ageia and Havok call it, but I classify game physics into two areas, visual physics and environmental physics. An example of Visual physics is the rag-doll animation that simulate bodies going down after they take too much lead to the head, where as environmental physics is much rarer, such as this supposed level in GRAW2 where you can blow up a sniping stand to further other objects. From what I have seen, only a few larger developers like Crytek, Valve, Epic etc have successfully implemented software or hardware accelerated physics into their games. Even the guys at Ageia, in my opinion, have not fully optimized their own product! I could be wrong, but I think we are sorta at that stage that is similar to the 1990s with the early Voodoo graphics accelerators. It just so happens that Ageia is trying to create an entirely new niche, and that is always hard going.

Jay

[elfy]

haha i love this, and the idea of w/cing a scsi card. "hmmm i was bored so i put a waterblock on my 18w DDC"

[jayhall0315]

Hey Elfy,
Yeah, when I started out watercooling, all I did was the CPU and GPU. But then, I got tired of hearing the small crappy 40 mm fans which spin at 5000+ rpms on the Northbridge or Southbridge and decided those had to go as well. When I got this PhysX card as a gift at Christmas it came with a cheap POS 40 mm fan as well, and well, you know, I am a watercooler, so had to remedy that situation as well.

Guess that makes me a nut,
Jay

BTW Elfy, who is the lady in your Avatar. Is that Sophie Marceau (smoking hot!) ?

[elfy]

lol i know what you mean, i have most of the bits in my case(s) w/c, hence the sig

dunno who the avater is, i knicked it from another forum (shhh)

now i've thought about it would be interesting to w/c the pumps