While most people's attentions were being grabbed by software developers at GDC, we took the time to hunt down a group a little more interested in the hardware side of things - that is, NVIDIA.

They were there showing off their updated PhysX Technology, and we sat down to ask a few questions of Senior Vice President of Content and Technology, Tony Tamasi, about what they've been working on, and what's in store. We'd hardly turned off the video camera before we were dragged into another room, where Ujesh Desai, Vice President of GeForce Product Marketing, was waiting, to tell us all about their new GTX 275 card.

If you're interested in hardware, both of these interviews are recommended viewing - you never know what you might find!

Download the Games On Net - NVIDIA physX interview video at GDC SF 09

First up - Tony Tamasi, who discussed the recent buy out of Ageia ("It just made sense!"), explained why NVIDIA entered the physics market, and detailed a little bit about what was on show at the conference, plus a bit about where the company - and the technology - is headed now.

Currently, PhysX has been implemented in more than 150 games, has more than 10,000 registered developers - and is supported on not just PC, but also PS3, Xbox 360, Wii - and the recent announcement of the iPhone. As Tony mentioned, this promises to take gaming on all of these platforms to the next level, with deeply immersive physical gaming environments boasting features like:

• Explosions that cause dust and collateral debris
• Characters with complex, jointed geometries for more life-like motion and interaction
• Spectacular new weapons with incredible effects
• Cloth that drapes and tears naturally
• Dense smoke & fog that billow around objects in motion

But despite sounding complex, NVIDIA are making things more accessible, with the introduction of APEX, as Tony mentioned.

APEX is a multi-platform, scalable dynamics framework. Rather than providing a low-level API that requires a programmer to use it, APEX creates an environment where artists can create complex high-level dynamic systems without depending on developers. Because APEX is completely artist focused, APEX provides the artist easy to use authoring tools, designed to let the content creator focus on the game, rather than struggle with low-level APIs. Since it is scalable across a wide range of hardware platforms, you can now easily take advantage of the available compute power on a given game platform, instead of developing for just the lowest end system.

While it's always difficult to show off graphic video effects in still images, here are some pictures to show just what they're talking about:

Clothing	Destruction
Turbulence	Vegetation

To learn more about APEX, head over to their website, which also contains a link on how you can become a beta tester!

It is becoming obvious that onboard physics and the ability to perform general computation on the GPU adds more value to video cards, which would in the past typically be used for only one purpose - rendering graphics. NVIDIA has been including CUDA support in all their latest video cards (from the GeForce 8xxx series on, as well as industry-focussed platforms such as Tesla and Quadro). CUDA, along with other APIs such as Open CL and DirectX Compute mean that the latest NVIDIA GPUs are much more accessible to developers.

Adding support for CUDA also effectively means that the latest NVIDIA GPUs are now open architectures more like a CPU - but unlike a CPU, there is a parallel "many-core" setup, with each core able to simultaneously run thousands of threads. If an application is suited to an architecture like this (which many are, and many more are being developed to be), then the end-user will see marked benefits in performance.

So - if you've been lagging behind and haven't yet gotten your mitts on one of the beasts that support these features, perhaps you'd be interested in our second interview, with Ujesh Desai, Vice President of GeForce Product Marketing. He wanted to tell us all about NVIDIA's new GTX 275 card (which supports both PhysX and CUDA), and how it fits neatly in the gap created by the 260 and 285 graphics cards.

Download the Games On Net - NVIDIA GTX 275 interview video at GDC SF 09

Numbers surely speak louder than words, so if you're intrigued by what Ujesh had to say but you missed the figures, we've got all the card specs here for you - is this your new card?

GPU Engine Specs:
Processor Cores	240
Graphics Clock (MHz)	633 MHz
Processor Clock (MHz)	1404 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec)	50.6
Memory Specs:
Memory Clock (MHz)	1134 MHz
Standard Memory Config	896 MB GDDR3
Memory Interface Width	448-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)	127.0
Feature Support:
NVIDIA SLI-ready*	2-way/3-Way
GeForce 3D Vision Ready	Yes
NVIDIA PureVideo Technology*	HD
NVIDIA PhysX-ready	Yes  *
NVIDIA CUDA Technology	Yes
Microsoft DirectX	10
OpenGL	3.0
Bus Support	PCI-E 2.0
Certified for Windows Vista	Yes
Display Support:
Maximum Digital Resolution	2560x1600
Maximum VGA Resolution	2048x1536
Standard Display Connectors	Two Dual Link DVI
Multi Monitor	Yes
HDCP*	Yes
HDMI*	Via adapter
Audio Input for HDMI	SPDIF
Standard Graphics Card Dimensions:
Height	4.376 inches (111 mm)
Length	10.5 inches (267 mm)
Width	Dual-slot
Thermal and Power Specs:
Maximum GPU Temperature (in C)	105  C
Maximum Graphics Card Power (W)	219  W
Minimum System Power Requirement (W)	550  W
Supplementary Power Connectors	6-pin x2
Notes: Feature requires supported video software. Features may vary by product. Playback of HDCP-protected content requires other HDCP-compatible components. Certain GeForce GPUs ship with hardware support for NVIDIA PhysX technology. NVIDIA PhysX drivers are required to experience in-game GPU PhysX acceleration. Refer to www.nvidia.com/PhysX for more information. NVIDIA SLI certified versions of GeForce PCI Express GPUs only. A GeForce GPU must be paired with an identical GPU, regardless of graphics card manufacturer. SLI requires sufficient system cooling and a compatible power supply. Visit www.slizone.com for more information and a listing of SLI-Certified components. Requires DVI-to-HDMI dongle and SPDIF audio cable from motherboard to graphics card.

Now, if you're reading this, you're probably a bit of a graphics connoisseur, but we know that sometimes, bandwidth takes precedence over pixels, so in addition to the large size videos we've embedded here, we've also (as usual) made up some smaller versions for your downloading pleasure. Check out the 40MB PhysX interview or the tiny 12MB GTX 275 interview, and rest assured that your precious quota won't be too dented. (Of course, if you're an Internode customer, it's all free anyway, so go your hardest!

Since we've been back in the country, we've kept in contact with NVIDIA, so please, tell us if there's anything else you'd like to know about PhysX or the new GTX 275 card, and we'll keep you in the loop.