I play CoH, rarely CoV, and my system is last generation (high end
AGP -- Ati X850).
Whom out there has this physics card and does it help with lag issues
when you have a large group of people?
I can imagine that its helpful for players that use the Gravity
Controller sets, and I also read somewhere that its used more on the
CoV side than the CoH. Could a read user shed some light on its
effectiveness ingame?
I am looking to buy one used on ebay rather than brand new, to save
money.

Amigoid wrote:
> I play CoH, rarely CoV, and my system is last generation (high end
> AGP -- Ati X850).
> Whom out there has this physics card and does it help with lag issues
> when you have a large group of people?
> I can imagine that its helpful for players that use the Gravity
> Controller sets, and I also read somewhere that its used more on the
> CoV side than the CoH. Could a read user shed some light on its
> effectiveness ingame?
> I am looking to buy one used on ebay rather than brand new, to save
> money.

I belive you'll get a better performance increase from spending the money
on just about any other computer upgrade before PhysX.

--
John Parkinson

On Aug 13, 2:20 pm, John Parkinson <jp--usenet--spam--
t...@destiny.org.uk> wrote:
> Amigoid wrote:
> > I play CoH, rarely CoV, and my system is last generation (high end
> > AGP -- Ati X850).
> > Whom out there has this physics card and does it help with lag issues
> > when you have a large group of people?
> > I can imagine that its helpful for players that use the Gravity
> > Controller sets, and I also read somewhere that its used more on the
> > CoV side than the CoH. Could a read user shed some light on its
> > effectiveness ingame?
> > I am looking to buy one used on ebay rather than brand new, to save
> > money.
>
> I belive you'll get a better performance increase from spending the money
> on just about any other computer upgrade before PhysX.
>
> --
> John Parkinson

Well thats the thing.. unless I upgrade to a pci express board, I've
not got too many more upgrade options for graphics, the Audigy value
card should be enough for the game.... have you seen a noticable
improvement when upping ram from a Gb to 2GB?

Somewhere, Amigoid wrote:
>> I belive you'll get a better performance increase from spending the
>> money on just about any other computer upgrade before PhysX.

Seconded. Note that you can run the Ageia drivers and get a software boost
in physics performance even without the card.

> Well thats the thing.. unless I upgrade to a pci express board, I've
> not got too many more upgrade options for graphics, the Audigy value
> card should be enough for the game.... have you seen a noticable
> improvement when upping ram from a Gb to 2GB?

If you're still running AGP, you've got a pretty fair jump in performance
waiting for you with the right PCIe card.

Doubling your RAM is cheap and has many benefits. I noticed a significant
improvement when I bumped my (old) P4/XP system from 1.5 to 2.0 gigs.

--
= The UPDATED v1.80 Keybind, Macro & Emote Guide for I8
= is available on HEROICA! - http://www.dgath.com/coh/
= @Shenanigunner (Victory server) & the ALTGAMESCOH channel

Amigoid <lbrown-amigoid@comcast.net> looked up from reading the entrails
of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

<snip>
>Well thats the thing.. unless I upgrade to a pci express board, I've
>not got too many more upgrade options for graphics, the Audigy value
>card should be enough for the game.... have you seen a noticable
>improvement when upping ram from a Gb to 2GB?

Oh hell yes!
Going to 2gb will likely go a long way to easing your lag issues, since
I'm guessing the lag you're getting is swapfile related (since you have
broadband.)

Anything that puts a stake through the heart of the swapfile is a good
investment, and ram is dirt cheap these days.
(And incidentally helps all kinds of programs including business apps,
so it should be a lot easier to get past your wife since it's not
strictly game related.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

On Aug 13, 5:52 pm, Shenanigunner <n...@NOnitrosyncreticSPAM.com>
wrote:
> Somewhere, Amigoid wrote:
> >> I belive you'll get a better performance increase from spending the
> >> money on just about any other computer upgrade before PhysX.
>
> Seconded. Note that you can run the Ageia drivers and get a software boost
> in physics performance even without the card.
>
> > Well thats the thing.. unless I upgrade to a pci express board, I've
> > not got too many more upgrade options for graphics, the Audigy value
> > card should be enough for the game.... have you seen a noticable
> > improvement when upping ram from a Gb to 2GB?
>
> If you're still running AGP, you've got a pretty fair jump in performance
> waiting for you with the right PCIe card.
>
> Doubling your RAM is cheap and has many benefits. I noticed a significant
> improvement when I bumped my (old) P4/XP system from 1.5 to 2.0 gigs.
>
> --
> = The UPDATED v1.80 Keybind, Macro & Emote Guide for I8
> = is available on HEROICA! -http://www.dgath.com/coh/
> = @Shenanigunner (Victory server) & the ALTGAMESCOH chan

Yes I realize that if I build a new computer with a dual proc, PCI
Express Directx10 card, etcetera, I will get a boost.
But that is if I can afford to drop a grand into new hardware, (new
proc/ram/mobo/cards) and deal with the howls from my kids who are
running slower systems than me, and a wife who gripes about the
existing gaming expenditures...

I wondered if there was a noticable improvement in CoH performance
when playing with 1GB ram versus 2GB.
I have a AMD Athlon64 proc. Mobo supports AGP, not the PCI Express.
That I can do. I have a PCI slot open, hence the PhysX card query.
I didn't know you can enable the drivers and the features and run them
from software without the PhysX card. How do you do that?

Somewhere, Amigoid wrote:
> I wondered if there was a noticable improvement in CoH performance
> when playing with 1GB ram versus 2GB.

Yes. It's one of the most cost-effective, and relatively cheap upgrades
you can make. Especially if your mobo setup is such that you can just
drop more sticks in and not have to replace any. (Most 1GB system use 2
512MB sticks and you'll either have to dump them or match them, assuming
you have four RAM slots and not the usual 3.) Even then, 2 1GB sticks
are pretty cheap these days.

> I have a AMD Athlon64 proc. Mobo supports AGP, not the PCI Express.
> That I can do. I have a PCI slot open, hence the PhysX card query.

John P. got it right. Phys-X is cool, but it will be integrated into the
next gen of video cards, most likely. I don't think it's worth $2-300
for a standalone upgrade... and understand that there's not much else I
could add to my current system.

> I didn't know you can enable the drivers and the features and run them
> from software without the PhysX card. How do you do that?

Apparently if you run the drivers, you get some physics improvement from
them even without the hardware - they use CPU power to process the
physics calculations.

--
= The UPDATED v1.80 Keybind, Macro & Emote Guide for I8
= is available on HEROICA! - http://www.dgath.com/coh/
= @Shenanigunner (Victory server) & the ALTGAMESCOH channel

"Amigoid" <lbrown-amigoid@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1187035841.680234.40030@w3g2000hsg.googlegrou ps.com...
|I play CoH, rarely CoV, and my system is last generation (high end
| AGP -- Ati X850).
| Whom out there has this physics card and does it help with lag issues
| when you have a large group of people?
| I can imagine that its helpful for players that use the Gravity
| Controller sets, and I also read somewhere that its used more on the
| CoV side than the CoH. Could a read user shed some light on its
| effectiveness ingame?
| I am looking to buy one used on ebay rather than brand new, to save
| money.
|

Honestly, you would do better putting the 300 you might spend on the PhysX
card into hardware... I'm upgrading my son's computer to a PCI-e
motherboard with an AMD 64 X2 processor and 2 gigs of RAM for about $250 (he
already has a good case and new 450 W power supply). Then we might just get
a mid-range PCI-e video card, not going too high at the moment, want to see
what happens with the nVidia 8 series stuff and beyond in the near future...
All in all, I figure it'll be about $350 to get him a pretty damn fast
computer that is fully upgradable later...

CoinSpin

On Aug 13, 7:36 pm, "CoinSpin" <coin^spam^s...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> "Amigoid" <lbrown-amig...@comcast.net> wrote in message
>
> news:1187035841.680234.40030@w3g2000hsg.googlegrou ps.com...
> |I play CoH, rarely CoV, and my system is last generation (high end
> | AGP -- Ati X850).
> | Whom out there has this physics card and does it help with lag issues
> | when you have a large group of people?
> | I can imagine that its helpful for players that use the Gravity
> | Controller sets, and I also read somewhere that its used more on the
> | CoV side than the CoH. Could a read user shed some light on its
> | effectiveness ingame?
> | I am looking to buy one used on ebay rather than brand new, to save
> | money.
> |
>
> Honestly, you would do better putting the 300 you might spend on the PhysX
> card into hardware... I'm upgrading my son's computer to a PCI-e
> motherboard with an AMD 64 X2 processor and 2 gigs of RAM for about $250 (he
> already has a good case and new 450 W power supply). Then we might just get
> a mid-range PCI-e video card, not going too high at the moment, want to see
> what happens with the nVidia 8 series stuff and beyond in the near future...
> All in all, I figure it'll be about $350 to get him a pretty damn fast
> computer that is fully upgradable later...
>
> CoinSpin

Currently the card is about $150 on ebay... So its a gig of ram, or
the card...

On Aug 13, 6:52 pm, Shenanigunner <n...@NOnitrosyncreticSPAM.com>
wrote:
> Somewhere, Amigoid wrote:
> >> I belive you'll get a better performance increase from spending the
> >> money on just about any other computer upgrade before PhysX.
>
> Seconded. Note that you can run the Ageia drivers and get a software boost
> in physics performance even without the card.

I've done this on my system and it works great, I don't have the PhysX
card but last year there was a posting on the forums about the physics
driver and I tried it. It allowed my system to process random items
that made the experience prettier to look at. Trash blowing in the
street, birds in the sky, mayhem missions became more fun with the
explosions becoming richer with detail.

If I remember correctly (you will probably want to check the forums
for details) you download the driver from PhysX but when you install
it, chose the custom install and only install the physics runtime
part. The other parts are the drivers for the actual card that you
(and I) don't have. Restart the system and you are good to go. There
is really nothing to tweak, it just works.

"Amigoid" <lbrown-amigoid@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1187099351.374010.326780@r34g2000hsd.googlegr oups.com...
| On Aug 13, 7:36 pm, "CoinSpin" <coin^spam^s...@hotmail.com> wrote:
| > "Amigoid" <lbrown-amig...@comcast.net> wrote in message
| >
| > news:1187035841.680234.40030@w3g2000hsg.googlegrou ps.com...
| > |I play CoH, rarely CoV, and my system is last generation (high end
| > | AGP -- Ati X850).
| > | Whom out there has this physics card and does it help with lag issues
| > | when you have a large group of people?
| > | I can imagine that its helpful for players that use the Gravity
| > | Controller sets, and I also read somewhere that its used more on the
| > | CoV side than the CoH. Could a read user shed some light on its
| > | effectiveness ingame?
| > | I am looking to buy one used on ebay rather than brand new, to save
| > | money.
| > |
| >
| > Honestly, you would do better putting the 300 you might spend on the
PhysX
| > card into hardware... I'm upgrading my son's computer to a PCI-e
| > motherboard with an AMD 64 X2 processor and 2 gigs of RAM for about $250
(he
| > already has a good case and new 450 W power supply). Then we might just
get
| > a mid-range PCI-e video card, not going too high at the moment, want to
see
| > what happens with the nVidia 8 series stuff and beyond in the near
future...
| > All in all, I figure it'll be about $350 to get him a pretty damn fast
| > computer that is fully upgradable later...
| >
| > CoinSpin
|
| Currently the card is about $150 on ebay... So its a gig of ram, or
| the card...
|

Then I'd opt for the RAM... I've played City of Heroes and Auto Assault
with and without the PhysX, and I really couldn't see much difference in
either case. The only place I think it really helped was in the little
stuff, like the bullet casings and general junk in the areas around me.
However, my system wasn't really taxed when playing CoH to begin with, so I
can't speak for how it might lighten the load off the processor in cases
like that...

I CAN, however, say that CoH performance improved dramatically when I went
from 1 gig to 3 gigs of RAM. Stuttering that I was encountering before
became minor hiccups, or disappeared completely. Then I popped a Core 2 Duo
into my motherboard, and holy crap did things get better! Even the tiny
stutters left, and the only real time I get issues is when I'm coming into
an area occupied by alot of other players (such as the markets). You might
also check out your mobo to see if it could support an X2 processor, you can
get the AMD flavors fairly cheap and they give you a good bump in
horsepower.

CoinSpin

kerheb <kerheb@gmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the
porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say:

>On Aug 13, 6:52 pm, Shenanigunner <n...@NOnitrosyncreticSPAM.com>
>wrote:
>> Somewhere, Amigoid wrote:
>> >> I belive you'll get a better performance increase from spending the
>> >> money on just about any other computer upgrade before PhysX.
>>
>> Seconded. Note that you can run the Ageia drivers and get a software boost
>> in physics performance even without the card.
>
>I've done this on my system and it works great, I don't have the PhysX
>card but last year there was a posting on the forums about the physics
>driver and I tried it. It allowed my system to process random items
>that made the experience prettier to look at. Trash blowing in the
>street, birds in the sky, mayhem missions became more fun with the
>explosions becoming richer with detail.

I only recently did this, but noticed no real difference with the
drivers or without them - I only run physics on low though (and off on
mayhem missions since it, combined with the pedestrians send my ping
into the stratosphere.)

>If I remember correctly (you will probably want to check the forums
>for details) you download the driver from PhysX but when you install
>it, chose the custom install and only install the physics runtime
>part. The other parts are the drivers for the actual card that you
>(and I) don't have. Restart the system and you are good to go. There
>is really nothing to tweak, it just works.

It can't hurt to install it. I've certainly not had any problems
because of it.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr