Nvidia Prepares to Spoil 4870X2 Launch [Updated]

Unlike what some websites reported the Nvidia's PhysX pack was not released yesterday. Nvidia instead chose to release the pack on the same day AMD's Radeon HD 4870X2 hits the streets; August 12. The PhysX pack comes with couple of UT3 maps, demos etc. and will enable Physics acceleration on all Geforce 8, 9, 200 products.

While the move may not be the perfect spoiler to the 4870X2 launch, it could still steal some limelight away. Keep in mind that this pack does not enable a Geforce based product to be used as a dedicated PPU, that is still on the roadmap and will be delivered with the Big Bang II driver. Apparently this pack enables the feature but you need to disable SLI and run in Multi-GPU mode, thus this mode does not require an SLI motherboard.  

Things get interesting from here on as Nvidia has a couple of options to encounter the 4870X2; the mysterious GT200-400 already made its appearance in previous driver releases and then there is always the 55nm refresh GT200b coming up in September. AMD wont be sitting quiet either, launching its mainstream & budget GPUs in September. If you thought that the June battle was fierce, the competition is just heating up.

Update:

Some websites already have previews of the PhysX pack:

1. FiringSquad
2. TechReport
3. HotHardware
4. EliteBastards
5. CustomPC
6. TweakPC (German)
7. ComputerBase (German)
8. TechGage

FiringSquad (&*ComputerBase) managed to run some of the benchmarks in Multi-GPU mode and the results are quite impressive even at this early stage. Even the mid-range 9600GT puts up good numbers as a dedicated PPU.

Image Source: FiringSquad

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