Upcoming PPU War. Who wins?

In the RED corner you have Ageia PhysX PPU
In the BLUE corner we have Havok's (kind of) PPU used in the highest end ATI and Nvidia graphics cards.

So who do you think will win?

For thoes who don't know PPUs (Physics Processing Unit) are an upcoming reality for the hardcore PC gamer. They are dedicated processing power for the sole job of crunching thoes physics calculations we all love to hate.

For more infor go here -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_processing_unit

Now each have their advantages. PhysX is a newcomer to the hardware industry, but they've come in with the full support of Ubisoft and EPIC's UE3. With games like GRAW 1 & 2, CellFactor, and the upcoming Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 on their way the PhysX card could prove to be an item of desire for many PC gamers

Havok on the other hand have become a huge trend in the world of software physics calculations in games. Yet with the new generation of graphics cards by ATI and Nvidia Havok have finally come out with their own PPU implemented into these new cards. While they may have the advantage of being bundled in with a gamer's already manditory piece of hardware. The software party is a bit lacking with the first game to use this hardware fully being Microsoft Studios' Crisis.

So I open the floor to our community's techies. FIGHT!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Interesting opinions here. However there's a couple things about a PPU that some of you haven't thought of yet.

First is that unlike a CPU or a GPU a single PPU card has a lot longer lifespan then that of the later two. They don't need to be upgraded as nearly as often. So as a couple of you pointed out that they could easily include the PPU in with the GPU, when you upgrade to your next GPU you've also just paid for a new PPU that you already had. So that makes the cost of a seperate PPU a little easier to swallow.

Secondly is that if you look at a lot of games now a days, even console ports or using PhysX in their upcoming games on the PC and Havok on the console. So that's got to make you worry a bit about what you're gonna need for when these games come out.

In hand with that, it sounds like the PS3's Cell Processor's design is similar to that of the PhysX card, meaning that if more games were to be ported from the PS3 to PC that more developers might use PhysX more simply for sake of ease. It's just a theory, but from the sounds of it and how lazy devs are these days, it's perfectly possible I think.

On the bright side of things, other then CellFactor neither a GPU/PPU or a stand-alone PPU are required to play games, it's just that the physics are toned down for software processing... for now.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I don't know about that. I think that all 4 forms of gaming have their strengths. Some which I like better then others, but still good.

-Best-
PS2/3 (Emmersive RPGs and innovative titles)
PC (High performance and customizability)
Xbox 360 (Strong community elements, competitive enviroment)
Wii (Easy going, good to kill small lumps of time)
-Alright-

I'm not trying to label these systems, these are just what they are to me. I know there's people here who have different orders or different lists entirely which is fine, point is that each thing has their use in certain situations.

Anyhow a little more on topic. Though I'm sure no one will really care all that much. I traded my old computer in yesterday and got some credit for the parts. I just upgraded the rest of my system with a slew of new parts so I didn't really need anything, so what did I do? I got a PhysX card. Something that I would never pay out of pocket for, but seeing how it's money I wasn't planning on having I figured why not.

If nothing else it'll be worth it for GRAW 2, UT3, Gears of War, and Rainbow Six: Vegas alone.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hahaha... you think it's $100, try more like $250, lol. *jk* (but it's true)

But yeah I'll let you know how well it works, I'll have 4 games that'll take advantage of it so it should be good enough to get a fair idea how well it works.

How ya doing, buddy?