NVIDIA’s GPU Plus Trump Card?
We have all heard NVIDIA calling from the rooftops about PhysX, CUDA and a myriad of other initiatives they have launched over the last few years. With so many of these features bundled into one game, there was a very real risk of something, somewhere along the line going horribly wrong. Luckily, that didn’t happen and the seamless implementation of PhysX, Surround and 3D Vision has proven to be a resounding success in Mafia II.
APEX PhysX
Let’s start with PhysX, the perennial whipping boy of NVIDIA’s CUDA stable. In the past NVIDIA and their developers took an incredible amount of flak over the use of GPU-processed physics due to the utter lack of optimizations the PhysX API had for the CPU. With Mafia II’s use of the open-minded APEX routines, a corner seems to have been turned because we finally see that it is possible to run these calculations quite smoothly with only a few hiccups on a multi core CPU. The GPU is still more efficient at physics processing but in some cases you will likely want all of the rendering horsepower it brings to the table. This feature is still nothing more than eye candy but if you can run it, we suggest you do so because it does increase the overall believability of certain scenes.
Another thing that surprised us was the impact that a single $80 GT 240 had upon performance. Adding one for PhysX calculations alongside a GTX 460 provided a significant performance increase. If more games like Mafia II are released, the possibility of buying a lower-end dedicated GPU for physics processing will become a highly appealing option.
3D Vision / NVIDIA Surround
When taken as separate features both multi monitor gaming and 3D Vision offer up totally riveting experiences in most games. When you seamlessly combine both in a game like Mafia II, the result is so thoroughly engrossing that you have to see it yourself to believe it. Words just don’t do it justice.
The key word here is “seamless”. NVIDIA rightfully deserves all of the accolades they have been getting for the ease of use, compatibility and easy setup of 3D Vision and Surround. In what could have been an unmitigated disaster of confusing options and menus, the simple and straightforward prompt system that’s used is a breath of fresh air. If it takes you more than 15 minutes to set up the software for gaming with 3D Vision or NVIDIA Surround, you’re doing something wrong.
All in all, I believe that no other game currently on the market makes better use of these features than Mafia II. You may need a rip-roaring system to do 3D Vision Surround justice but for the few that can afford it, it’s well worth the investment.
NVIDIA’s GPU Plus Trump Card?
We have all heard NVIDIA calling from the rooftops about PhysX, CUDA and a myriad of other initiatives they have launched over the last few years. With so many of these features bundled into one game, there was a very real risk of something, somewhere along the line going horribly wrong. Luckily, that didn’t happen and the seamless implementation of PhysX, Surround and 3D Vision has proven to be a resounding success in Mafia II.
APEX PhysX
Let’s start with PhysX, the perennial whipping boy of NVIDIA’s CUDA stable. In the past NVIDIA and their developers took an incredible amount of flak over the use of GPU-processed physics due to the utter lack of optimizations the PhysX API had for the CPU. With Mafia II’s use of the open-minded APEX routines, a corner seems to have been turned because we finally see that it is possible to run these calculations quite smoothly with only a few hiccups on a multi core CPU. The GPU is still more efficient at physics processing but in some cases you will likely want all of the rendering horsepower it brings to the table. This feature is still nothing more than eye candy but if you can run it, we suggest you do so because it does increase the overall believability of certain scenes.
Another thing that surprised us was the impact that a single $80 GT 240 had upon performance. Adding one for PhysX calculations alongside a GTX 460 provided a significant performance increase. If more games like Mafia II are released, the possibility of buying a lower-end dedicated GPU for physics processing will become a highly appealing option.
3D Vision / NVIDIA Surround
When taken as separate features both multi monitor gaming and 3D Vision offer up totally riveting experiences in most games. When you seamlessly combine both in a game like Mafia II, the result is so thoroughly engrossing that you have to see it yourself to believe it. Words just don’t do it justice.
The key word here is “seamless”. NVIDIA rightfully deserves all of the accolades they have been getting for the ease of use, compatibility and easy setup of 3D Vision and Surround. In what could have been an unmitigated disaster of confusing options and menus, the simple and straightforward prompt system that’s used is a breath of fresh air. If it takes you more than 15 minutes to set up the software for gaming with 3D Vision or NVIDIA Surround, you’re doing something wrong.
All in all, I believe that no other game currently on the market makes better use of these features than Mafia II. You may need a rip-roaring system to do 3D Vision Surround justice but for the few that can afford it, it’s well worth the investment.
Last edited:
