My Test of Cell Factor running with and without physX

oh dear again, at first when I fired up Cell Factor I honeslty thought wow, this looks really nice, maybie Agiea have got it right after all, then I started hearing rumers on the net that that people were playing this game without the PPU , ummmmmmm, it clearly states on Ageia's website,

"Min. Requirements:
AGEIA PhysX Accelerator (Yes, it is required!)"

I have finally got around to testing Cell Factor with and without PPU,

Without PPU 1280x1024 8xAF HDR Using High Graphics Shortcut : 13 FPS


with PPU 1280x1024 8xAF HDR Using High Graphics Shortcut : 15 FPS


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Without PPU 1024x768 8xAF HDR Using High Graphics Shortcut : 13 FPS


With PPU 1024x768 8xAF HDR Using High Graphics Shortcut : 12 FPS


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Without PPU 800x600 8xAF HDR Using High Graphics Shortcut : 13 FPS


With PPU 800x600 8xAF HDR Using High Graphics Shortcut : 12 FPS


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Without PPU 640x480 8xAF HDR Using High Graphics Shortcut : 13 FPS


With PPU 640x480 8xAF HDR Using High Graphics Shortcut : 19 FPS


Pretty much the same.

sing with me!


ta da dum dum dum, another card bites the dust.... ta da dum dum dum... another one bites the dust



seriously, this is highly dissapointing

thats pretty funny that it is exactly the same. pretty disappointing if you ask me.

What were the settings?

LOL

I was thinking that the game played fairly decently without a PPU this weekend. It looks like Cell Factor is a horrendous dog with or without a PPU.

The one thing I wanted to test was CPU utilization to see if the software Ageia physics engine was working as hard as it should, i.e. CPU limited.

Too bad the PPU doesn't come with a fun unit inside. Cell Factor bored me to death in less than an hour. Even my nephews didn't want to play it.

why is there a PhsyX watermark on the bottom right of all the pics?

Which driver are you using? Ageia released 2.4.3b (beta) over a week ago.

Originally Posted by I(illa Bee

why is there a PhsyX watermark on the bottom right of all the pics?

I'd like to know the same.

look at his post count.

This is his first and only post so maybe it's not true.

I think the water mark is there because it is an Ageia sponsored game. They probably thought, "wow, wouldn't it be great if our logo was on every screenshot?"

Try taking the card out of the system and running the tests again. I wonder if there is a bug that enables PhysX if the card is present, regardless of the settings.

Also please explain how to play cell factor without the PPU.

What would be funny is if the PPU isn't being used at all and the CPU is doing everything. Looking at these screens it's not outside the realm of possibility.

3 cheers for the $300 paperweight!

Originally Posted by peacetilence

Also please explain how to play cell factor without the PPU.

It's in the gaming forum.

Originally Posted by Chris_Morley

I'd like to know the same.

It's always there.



I just tested CF without a PPU with all graphics options at minimum (why it looks ugly above), 1024x768. Like I suspected, the Ageia software physics engine isn't trying very hard:



The red section is initial loading + a very short botmatch game. There is a constant amount of explosions and debris going on. The blue section is a single player reload and 3 distinct physics actions 10 seconds apart: 1 grenade with lots of debris, 1 psychic push of many boxes and 1 gravity grenade on many objects.

The framerate is still terrible even though the game isn't CPU or video card limited. IMO, there's another tick limiting speed. And more wildly i'd guess that the tick favors the PPU when the game is run without a PPU on fast CPUs. All IMO, of course.

First. How did you get cellfactor to work, without the ppu?

Second. Ive learned not to believe everything that people say. Some people really get a kick out of making other people miserable. So I have learned to take what people say with a grain of salt.

Thru the years of building systems, and always looking forward to advancements in hardware. Everytime a new devise is about to come out. There is always a group of people who are on the negative side, no matter what the devise is. I can remember so many things thru the years that people have said. Every devise that has come out, there has always been a group to knock it down. Maybe the PPU is not the way of the future, and just maybe it is.

I for one am glad the advancements that have been made. And look forward to the future. I have bought the ppu, and really have not noticed any degrading value in my framerates. And look forward to future games using it. If it doesnt work out, then there will be another devise to look forward to installing.

Originally Posted by bildad

It's in the gaming forum.

Link please.

Originally Posted by Dusty

First. How did you get cellfactor to work, without the ppu?

It's trivial: just add EnablePhysX=false in the shortcut.

I would also be skeptical, but all you have to do is test it yourself. I'm pretty much convinced that Ageia is sandbagging software physics performance after looking at the CPU utilization. And I have little to disbelieve about lowrider007's performance claims after playing CF in software physics mode myself.

(edit) I gave the instructions above, but here's a link: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.ph...29&postcount=2

I tried running the demo (without a PPU) on the main system in my sig. It performed like an absolute DOG. Framerate was terrible with all graphics at their medium settings.

It was odd though, because the FPS would go up and down dramatically. If I shot a grenade in a pile of stuff, the FPS would dip, then resume normal speeds while the stuff flew through the air.

I was disappointed to see CPU utilization never hit 100% on both of my "CPUs". The PhysX engine was supposed to be highly threaded. I saw no evidence of SMP support.

What! a gpu bottleneck can mask the effects of a cpu bottleneck?!

Now compare a celeron to a conroe in cellfactor ;o)

Wow that's just terrible....

I had a feeling something like this would happen... what was Ageia thinking? Why did they release so early without anything that takes advantage of the card?

Or do you think the card will always be useless?