Yesterday we released the initial NVIDIA PhysX software for the end users.  This software kit adds support for hardware accelerated PhysX on the following GPUs: GeForce 9800 GTX, GeForce GTX 280, and GeForce GTX 260.

SLI end users have the flexibility to select different configurations for running PhysX and find which one provides the best balance of 3D graphics and PhysX performance.  Users can configure their GPUs to

• Work together in SLI mode,
• Have 3D graphics on one GPU and PhysX on the other (note wo GPUs max in this mode)

Please provide your feedback as you try PhysX!

Several users notified us that the Medusa demo was not running for them and we discovered the problem.  Under Windows Vista 64-bit our installer package just not including the C++ 2005 SP1 runtime needed to run the demo.

Simply download it, install it, and then install Medusa.  Please let us know your results!

How many times in your life will you get to say that you made history and was a part of an official world record?  I think the only world record I can qualify for is continuously playing Battlefield Vietnam at a LAN (I still remember that Quakecon 2005).

This year, you have a chance to be a part the Guinness World Record-setting LAN party attempt at NVISION® 2008, August 25 in San Jose, California.

The aim of the event is to make history as the world's "Longest Non-Stop LAN Party. This means the Guinness World Record is a dedicated team of gamers to play video games continuously for 36 hours (10 minute breaks are allowed for every 60 minutes of continuous gaming). If the record is achieved, the participating team members will receive numerous prizes, including a commemorative medal, custom gear, gift cards, and of course, world recognition.

The attempt will take place in a special, reserved section of the NVISION 2008 GeForce® LAN Party.

Gamers who are serious about the attempt and have what it takes to handle a GeForce LAN Guinness World Record seat at NVISION 08 should go to http://www.amireg.com/nvision08/intro.html.

I will personally provide Red Bull to any team that wants to make a go of it, so please sign up.

Every week our NVISION team is always sending out internal updates on new events we have added to the NVISION calendar.  Sometimes items float by that are not in the general pop culture, but they are extremely cool! I just got one of those today.

One of my favorite things about PC gaming is that pretty much everyone can remember the games that manage to immerse you into it, and everything about it draws you in: characters, graphics, storyline, and music.  One of the games that is stuck in my head for almost 20 years is Ultima VI The False Prophet.  To this day, whenever I hear a harpsichord I immediately think if Iolo and typing Spam, Spam Spam, Humbug to him to unlock all of the cheats of that game.

That's why when I found out that at NVISION 2008 we will be hosting Video Games Live and what they were, I got really excited. If you have never heard of it, Video Gamer's Live is the most successful video game concert in the world.  Here's a YouTube video of them covering Civilization 4 and sounded just like playing the game.

So break out your old floppy discs and CD-Roms of those games that really get you excited.  I'm going to ask the NVISION team if we can submit requests for the band to play a cover of our favorite game.  I have a few on my list, namely the 7th Guest, Wing Commander, and Starcraft.  Maybe even Gorf!

For the record, I’ve become a complete hardware geek.

It started out last December when I built my first gaming rig and it culminated last week with overclocking and liquid nitrogen.

Think you need a quad-core CPU for an extreme gaming PC with impressive 3DMark Vantage numbers and gaming performance?  See for yourself by watching the video of how I overclocked and hyper-cooled an SLI® gaming rig using two of our latest and greatest GPUs—GeForce® GTX 280—an nForce® 790i Ultra SLI motherboard, and a sub-$200 CPU. Since I don’t have solid copper coldplates and liquid nitrogen underneath my kitchen sink—and I’m sure you don’t either!—I made an ultra-fun trip to the NVIDIA® labs for the hard-to-come-by but necessary ingredients and safety gear.

Since I’m sure you’ll ask what was in the system, here are the need-to-know specs:

• 2× NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards running in SLI
• nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU
• 4 GB SLI-ready Corsair DDR3 memory
• PC Power and Cooling TurboCool 1200W power supply
• Windows Vista 32-bit operating system

The standard clocks on a GeForce GTX 280 are 601 MHz core and 1,296 MHz shader, but I pushed them to 727 MHz and 1,458 MHz, respectively.  I also managed to get the GPUs cooled to a chilly -102.5 °C!

My results may not be as high as the Kingpin’s world-records, but they’re not too shabby!  Given that I had a lot of extra help and equipment, I will leave the record-breaking to the FutureMark Hall of Fame professionals.

One thing I missed yesterday was to let everyone know that the new technology demo for the GeForce GTX 200, Medusa, is now available to download. Medusa a NVIDIA's interpretation of the legendary snake-headed woman who's venomous gaze turned her victims to stone.  Having seen this demo live, its pretty cool and very compelling.  I am excited to see games utilize the new GPU architecture we launched.

• Medusa demo download
• Medusa video

Yesterday we launched the GeForce GTX 280/260 GPUs, and today you can download the drivers for these new products from NVIDIA.com.  As the former software product manager at NVIDIA, I am really proud of our software team's ability to launch production quality, WHQL certified drivers, for eight different operating systems, the day the product is available.  Take a look at the versions available for you today:

• Windows Vista 32-bit v177.35 WHQL
• Windows Vista 64-bit v177.35 WHQL
• Windows XP 32-bit v177.35 WHQL
• Windows XP 64-bit v177.35 WHQL
• Linux 32-bit v177.13
• Linux 64-bit v177.13
• Solaris x86/x64 v177.13
• FreeBSD x86 v177.13

I want to call your attention to two new features of the Windows drivers, CUDA support on Windows Vista, and Folding@home support on Windows XP and Vista.  The number of CUDA applications keeps growing everyday.  If you follow that link to CUDA Zone you will find many new applications that take advantage of the GPU already in your PC and offer an incredible performance upgrade when the application is accelerated on the GPU.  Folding @home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals.

Download the drivers today!

As promised, our forum champ ChrisRay's review is online now.  Please give it a read and post your thoughts in the SLI Zone forums.

Today NVIDIA announced our new GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce GTX 280 GPUs.  The cards have been getting great reviews and I will post our forum champ ChrisRay's review later today.

However in the meantime I thought I'd call your attention to Vince "Kingpin" Lucido who got his hands on a 3-way SLI GeForce GTX 280 setup.  You know the drill, he mods it, overclocks it, and then benchmarks it.  His result? Over 17,000 at the Xtreme preset in 3dmark Vantage.  All I could say was wow when I saw that score!  Currently its over 2x over the latest 3dmark Vantage score. 

As I hope everyone else is doing, I have been trying out the Call of Duty 4 Variety Map pack the past few days.  The new maps have helped bring new life to COD4 for me and I have really enjoyed learning new levels.

My favorite one is Chinatown, but not for the reasons you may think.  As a level, its ok.  It has lots of eye candy, but I find that it has too many corners to hide in, so any assault you try to launch just ends in a back of the head shot you didn't see coming.  However, Chinatown sticks out in my mind as the most memorable level since it reminds me of San Francisco, my home away from home. 

As a recent transplant to Austin, TX with a young baby, I have not had any opportunity to travel back with my family to the Bay Area.  This level captures the essence and imagery of San Francisco's famed Chinatown quite well, with the neon lights, small dimly lit buildings, and twist and turns of the streets.   I didn't think COD4 would make me homesick, but kudos to you Infinity Ward.

And to help you design your own levels to make you homesick, Infinity Ward launched their official Mod Tools for the PC and they are holding a Community Mapping Contest which allows you, the community, to take map making into your own hands and create custom multiplayer maps.  Download the tools, start creating your dream multiplayer map, and they will choosing their favorites at the end of March.