PhysX free for GeForce 8 and above

via Eurogamer


NVIDIA has begun rolling out drivers to activate the sleeping PhysX beast in all GeForce 8 series or higher graphics cards.

The first of many free GeForce Experience Packs includes mod support to unlock PhysX in Unreal Tournament 3, as well as offers shooter Warmonger, some tech demos, and sneak peaks at upcoming games are also included.

The new drivers unlock PhysX acceleration for GeForce 8, 9, and GTX 200 Series graphics cards, apparently, and also add support for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.

Using its clever-sounding CUDA development language, NVIDIA has been able to assign multiple processors on graphics cards to do different tasks - in this case render PhysX physics, but without the need for a specialised Physics Processing Unit card.

This achieves tip-top physics performance and means millions of GeForce graphics cards are now PhysX-enabled for free! Well, for four billion quid or whatever they cost in the first place.

Going forward, Unreal Engine 3 supports the technology as standard, and upcoming games Borderlands, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Cryostasis and Backbreaker are all joining in.

NVIDIA, which now owns PhysX creator AGEIA, expects around 20 PC titles to include support before the end of the year.

"Seeing is believing," according to NVIDIA. Off you go, then. And check out our recent NVIDIA, CUDA and PhysX piece for a bit more information on how it all works.