So how are we supposed to build a new gamming rig?

[Flybye]

So lets say a mac daddy rig calls for the following:

Your favorite CPU
Your favorite MB
Two of your favorite video cards
One Killer gamming NIC
One high end sound card
A Physx accelerator.

Hmm....I see a need for 3 pci slots, and if you have 2 video cards, that aint gonna happen! 1 if you're lucky 2 will be the most you'll have available.

So....something's gotta give. Any of you see any of this stuff going onboard? Perhaps Physx accelerators working with video card manufacturers to put the chip on the video card? Or maybe video cards will become powerful enough to not even NEED a Physx card?

Maybe gaming specific MBs with an onboard Killer NIC and/or high end sound card.

[unacceptable_risk]

I was over at the ATI site the other day, researching crossfire details.

I come across some amazing pdf brochures and press releases about the way their X1000 series cards can function as a physics engine. You can have any X1000 series as a renderer, and any X1000 series as the physics..
so for example X1900 XTX rendering. and X1600Gt on physics. the 1600 is supposed to be twice as fast as the Ageia PhysX. and using an X1900 for physics blows it into the weeds. (according to the brochure).

But the main reason I am crapping on is, you can theoretically have two Xseries cards rendering in crossfire, and an additional X series on phys... if only you could find a slot for it...

The very last page of all these releases urged the consumer to demand 3 PCI-E graphics slots on mobo's.

[Player0]

I have two PCI-e x16, a couple PCI, and a couple PCI-X on the asus. Dont seem to have a pci-e x1/x2 on here, but cant figure a use for that anyway. Id rather have the PCI-X since more things take advantage of that, and theyre backwards compatible.

Audio, and the killer NIC, if you're really sure about that one, are fine in PCI. The question is physics card, which I cant picture in a PCI slot anyway.

So either youll have video cards with accelerated Physics, or youll sacrifice SLI mode for physics.

However. How many developers are going to incorporate extra physics detail in to a game? Truthfully, not very many. Instead of new content, the physics cards will only prove to increase the horsepower of the game, not improve the content (as it could be used for).

So Physics, right now, MIGHT buy you some extra FPS assuming you dont already have a killer CPU to do this work for you. Its also possible to do SOME level of phyiscs acceleration on GPUs WHILE theyre also doing video rendering, at the cost of video rendering performance. The solution might be more hybrid.

[WackyComputer]

I'm on dial-up and half deaf, so on board NIC and sound is fine for me.

[unacceptable_risk]

He did call it a mac daddy gaming rig...

I would never buy a physics card for the sake of extra smoke and fanciness. Most compeditive gamers I know, still turn settings to low so they have the maximum chance of spotting targets first.

But I like the idea of grabbing a cheap PCI-E X1600 now.. upgrading to 1900 later, and being able to use the 1600 as either a pure AA device or Physics device.

For a time, I would have been inclined to agree with Tom.. but Watching some of the new game trailers.. Cellfactor, Crysis, etc. I am starting to think some dedicated physics processing wouldn't go astray at all in the near future.
Of course, were yet to see what DX10 and Vista will change about video cards.. So its not a great time to buy graphics hardware in general.