Of Physics Calculations and Choppy Graphics

By Gregg Housh

Delivering cutting edge graphics is a shared responsibility. Your power supply pumps in energy which is put to utilize by a number of components to render and animate impressive 3D graphics. Unfortunately, there is little consistency to how this workload is distributed. This can be a issue for many gamers. After building an impressive gaming rig, you find yourself facing performance trouble.

The way in which software attempts to use your hardware has a serious effect on how well it performs. New advances in software and hardware design have improved the way physics calculations are handled. This is a helpful feature for power house gaming systems that are facing processor load issues.

Physics calculations used to be performed by the processor. Some games put too much burden on this particular part. This additional load can occasionally stress system resources in an uncomfortable manner. This will cause hitching or stuttering performance. In effect, the game will pause momentarily but again and again. This is incredibly aggravating and maddening.

While most pcs still utilize the processor for this job, new technologies will permit users to delegate this responsibility to a graphics card. Committed physics processing units have been developed for this purpose. These components are specifically designed for handling physics calculations. This type of technology will drastically improve the performance of later games.

New software solutions have been designed that permit one card in a multi-GPU arrangement to be used as a physics processing unit. Newer generation graphics cards are also outfitted with the ability to be used in this way. In a couple cases, new drivers can be downloaded that will enable this feature for people with certain hardware. While only a couple companies offer this hardware acceleration, there are also third party drivers that can enable it for cards by companies that do not provide support. However, you should always use caution when installing third party drivers. They can void your warranty. It possible to use an idle integrated graphics card as a physics processing unit. Many gamers have such a card sitting on their motherboard right now.

Not all software is able to use this hardware acceleration. If you want to see a performance boost, the games you play have got to be coded to make use of this feature. some will not. However, as time passes, more games will make use of this technology. Your processor is frequently overworked by modern games. It's helpful to delegate some of this extra work to a less pricey graphics card.

If you are dealing with stuttering problems during game play, you should explore the utilization of a graphics card as a physics processing unit. There are many modern games that heavily tax your processor. The stuttering performance that results is disruptive. It is difficult to immerse yourself in a game when the graphics behave unpredictably. Your current hardware may already support this feature. - 30454

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