Conclusions
It's hard to dislike what Nvidia has done with PhysX. The company has taken an expensive niche product and given it to the masses for free, while at the same time giving game developers a replacement for the apparently defunct Havok FX API. Our brush with the ForceWare 177.79 driver release has shown that a sub-$150 graphics card can handle PhysX effects quite well, and Nvidia card owners can flock to the (small) library of existing PhysX-capable software without having to wait for new games to come out.

Speaking of new games, Nvidia told us about two upcoming titles that will feature PhysX hardware acceleration. One of them is DICE's Mirror's Edge, which will feature awesome-looking first-person free running in a futuristic dystopia. Another is Natural Motion's Backbreaker, a third-person football sim. Nvidia claims studios have signed on to implement PhysX in another 10 games—and that's just in the month following the Ageia acquisition.

The downside of all this ought to be obvious to most folks with a red graphics card. PhysX currently doesn't work on AMD GPUs, which is a shame considering the excellent performance of the firm's new Radeon HD 4000-series products. We wouldn't be surprised to see Radeons gain physics support one way or another, though. Nvidia claims to be supporting an independent developer who wants to port PhysX to AMD cards, and truly widespread use of advanced physics effects may hinge on whether hardware from both companies supports the technology.

With all that said, we probably wouldn't recommend basing a graphics card purchase on PhysX support. At least not until the dust settles and more PhysX-enabled games come out.