Lucid HYDRA 200 Multi-GPU Technology Performance

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The guys at PC Perspective have posted a preview of Lucid's HYDRA 200 multi-GPU technology that allows consumers to mix and match video cards of different types in the same system for added performance.

The promise of Lucid today though is that of complete freedom of choice in GPUs; including same-vendor acceleration and cross-vendor acceleration. The ability to add in a new GPU, of almost any type, to your system and see tangible gaming performance benefit is something unprecedented in the world of visual computing. While NVIDIA and AMD have their own stances on the world of multi-GPU computing (AMD is more open while NVIDIA tends to lock things down and license them) if the HYDRA technology comes to fruition then a truly open standard could exist.
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I wonder about the latency the Hydra chip may introduce/eliminate. How does gameplay "feel" compared to SLI/Crossfire or even non multi-gpu rendering? Will be interesting to see this get a thorough [H]ard review!
 
You guys have any word on MSI Big Bang? Looking forward to the [H]'s review!
 
This looks really promising. I hope it doesn't fizzle in a year or so...
 
Neither review shows how it compares to SLI which would be interesting.
Nice tech though, I hope NVidia dont gimp it!
 
The tech aside, I can't get around the reason you wouldn't sell your 2 260s or why you'd have both a 260 and a 4890 in the first place? And in the case of selling 2 - 260s and getting a 5850 would be faster no? This besides the cost of the Lucid itself, 2nd case and psu, etc...
 
Really interesting, and it seem to have potential to actually improve multi gpuing. Hopefully they get this right.
 
I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about the Hydra 200's ability to add moderate, let alone significant, performance benefits. I briefly considered waiting a few more months to get a Socket 1366 mobo with Hydra and PCI Express 3.0, but I don't think I'll play the waiting game with this one.

If the technology proves itself, I'll be supporting Lucid in upgrades to come.
 
the-one1 said:
Unfortunately, like a lot of hyped up tech, it will fizzle within a year or sooner.
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Well, I will give them credit, they've partnered up with a known mobo manufacturer, and have real product to show. At least there's no bitboys shit goin' on here... :D

I would buy one to mess with, but the stigma of having it not being supported in a year kills the deal.
 
I can't freaking wait! I really hope that neither ATi or nVidia locks this out for whatever reason they may come up with.
 
thesmokingman said:
The tech aside, I can't get around the reason you wouldn't sell your 2 260s or why you'd have both a 260 and a 4890 in the first place? And in the case of selling 2 - 260s and getting a 5850 would be faster no? This besides the cost of the Lucid itself, 2nd case and psu, etc...
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The cards were probably picked because there the most common in terms of who would fool around with this. IMO two cards is going in the wrong direction, merely an industry milking stepping stone. It's time to put all this stuff on one card, wether it be performance, physics or what have ya.
 
King of Heroes said:
Techreport has also posted a review:

Hands on with Lucid's Hydra GPU load balancer

Interestingly, an HD4890 + GTX260 combo actually outperforms a GTX260 x 2 setup.
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This looks pretty awesome. Is the Hydra only going to be on LGA1366/1156, or will there be some on LGA775? Anyone know? I've got a spare GTX260 sitting at home, and I'd love to just be able to get a new motherboard and pair it with my 5870.
 
Awesome. Only concern is, The weapon then might have ATI AA and AF while the Door would be rendered by NVIDIA algorithms. That's crazy....
 
hamm3rhead said:
Looks neat, especially the idea of 0-day multi-gpu compatibility with games.
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Odd

From what I've seen the drivers still need a profile to know what to do.

This is what I was hoping to avoid by using Lucid.

Edit1: just re-read the driver's page and I'm not certain anymore if this is the case, seems they are saying you can "disable" for certain games using the list... but where does the list come from...

Edit2: ok the Techreport preview is more specific. It supports all game 0-day and the list is created by the drivers from installed games.
 
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Druneau said:
Odd

From what I've seen the drivers still need a profile to know what to do.

This is what I was hoping to avoid by using Lucid.

( just re-read the driver's page and I'm not certain anymore if this is the case, seems they are saying you can "disable" for certain games using the list... but where does the list come from... )
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Well on the profile list there is also an "ADD" button so you can probably force it to try.


The biggest gain of this tech IMO is for those that have dedicated physx cards. Even in non physx titles you are still getting some work out of them.
 
thesmokingman said:
The tech aside, I can't get around the reason you wouldn't sell your 2 260s or why you'd have both a 260 and a 4890 in the first place? And in the case of selling 2 - 260s and getting a 5850 would be faster no? This besides the cost of the Lucid itself, 2nd case and psu, etc...
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I hope Nvidia gets a clue and starts looking at this as an enhancement instead of a threat. If nothing else it can improve the sales of their low and midrange cards since you could team up otherwise non-SLI cards to work together. Another option is to supplement a better card with a lower end card to get something in between SLI and a single adapter.
Either way NVIDIA sells more cards! ATI too!

As for why you'd have two different graphics architectures in one pc well, We all know some games play better on ATI others on NVIDIA. IF you had say one 5870 and one GTX 295 you could have the best of both worlds. I know Windows 7 can already support different (heterogenous) graphics cards but that's kind of a one or the other thing. Putting that capablility in the OS says something about where MS thinks graphics is going. I'm betting it's also the reason Lucid waited till Windows 7 to make an announcement too.

Anyway, imagine using your ATI card but still having resources available from the Nvidia card for background processing or vice versa.

In any case from what I've read about Lucid it seems like it's less a technology to attack SLI/Crossfire and more of an option to use what you have more efficiently. We all know that having SLI or Crossfire setups only scale so far before the law of diminishing returns starts kicking in. For example, you can have 2GB per card of GDDR5 in SLI but that doesn't mean you have a pool of 4GB, It's still just 2GB on two separate cards. We also know that SLI setups didn't handle multiple monitors very well until recently. If we could just use the resources more efficiently we may see performance in areas that we can't touch right now.

I know I sound like a fanboy but that's impossible since we don't have a product yet. I'd just like to see some more options than we currently have. These days it's all about doing more with less, it's time the Nvidia's and ATI's of the world followed suit.
 
rodsfree said:
So, who thinks that nVidia will kill it or buy it and squash it?
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Me for one, Nvidia will set their drivers so that upon detecting the lucid Hydra 200 chip, the nvidia video drivers will be abort any nvidia driver installation. Nvidia does not like sharing a PC with anybody, ATi, Lucid or any other competitor... :(
 
This is kinda a touchy subject it seems like, but I wonder if it'll have the microstutter of Crossfire and SLI.
 
It shouldn't, since it doesn't use AFR mode. However, I suppose it's possible we'll see some new form of tearing, since parts of the picture gets rendered by different GPUs.
 
ManyCowsMoo said:
This is kinda a touchy subject it seems like, but I wonder if it'll have the microstutter of Crossfire and SLI.
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I suspect so. As others have pointed out in other threads, microstutter exists on even single card solutions - albeit imperceptibly.
 
thesmokingman said:
The tech aside, I can't get around the reason you wouldn't sell your 2 260s or why you'd have both a 260 and a 4890 in the first place? And in the case of selling 2 - 260s and getting a 5850 would be faster no? This besides the cost of the Lucid itself, 2nd case and psu, etc...
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I would love a lucid motherboard or add on card so that I can use my 8800gtx with my gtx280. my 8800gtx is in its box with over a year since I got my gtx 280. I just hope they release some kind of add on card from lucid because I dont have the money to do a full upgrade.
 
JokerCPoC said:
Me for one, Nvidia will set their drivers so that upon detecting the lucid Hydra 200 chip, the nvidia video drivers will be abort any nvidia driver installation. Nvidia does not like sharing a PC with anybody, ATi, Lucid or any other competitor... :(
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if that won't work they will prolly open sli for everyone/everything and then watch lucid die :D
 
If Nvidia does try to lock it out like they tried to lock out PhysX, I hope they get investigated and fined big time... like 200mil+.. may even over 1B...

I hate it when companies like Nvidia nd Intel pull stunts to try and make people do what they want them to do to hurt the competition....

It is called extorsion and needs to be stamped out.
 
cyclone3d said:
If Nvidia does try to lock it out like they tried to lock out PhysX, I hope they get investigated and fined big time... like 200mil+.. may even over 1B...

I hate it when companies like Nvidia nd Intel pull stunts to try and make people do what they want them to do to hurt the competition....

It is called extorsion and needs to be stamped out.
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They've already stated they welcome it, if it works.
 
dammit, im still screaming for this as a stand alone solution. I dont wanna buy a new mobo at this time. Please give it to us as a pci/pci-e card! Huge market potential this way.
 
Wotan said:
That was ATI.
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Yes, ATI said it as well. I'm referring to Nvidia though.

When asked for comment on this story, Nvidia spokesman Ken Brown told us that Nvidia welcomes new technology and innovation, especially those that improve gaming, and said he wasn't aware of Nvidia playing any role in the Big Bang Fuzion delay. Brown reiterated Nvidia's long-standing position that what Lucid is attempting to do is "very ambitious," "an enormous technological challenge," a position the firm has rather curiously communicated at every opportunity. Furthermore, though, he confirmed to us that Nvidia will not block its partners from producing motherboards that incorporate Lucid's technology.
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http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17934
 
He was careful not to state NVidias position by being very general.
I reckon NVidia hoped they couldnt pull it off but now they might have to do something about it.
Hopefully they will be swayed by our perspective.
 
thesmokingman said:
The tech aside, I can't get around the reason you wouldn't sell your 2 260s or why you'd have both a 260 and a 4890 in the first place? And in the case of selling 2 - 260s and getting a 5850 would be faster no? This besides the cost of the Lucid itself, 2nd case and psu, etc...
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Alot of us have several cards. Dont think everyone is like you. I have several cards i use for folding AMD and Nvidia and when i upgrade to a highend card for folding the older generation goes into my main gaming PC. As of now i have older but still nice video cards sitting in a closet that i dont or cant use. This would let me get some use out of them or mix. When i mean still good i mean 9800gt being the slowest.
 
inotocracy said:
Yes, ATI said it as well. I'm referring to Nvidia though.
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Nvidia also said this:

CHW: What do you think about the Lucid Hydra 200 Chip?
JHH: I don't know, it sounds like terrible idea. There is so much software going on, drivers, applications and optimization that to think that there is no software is a bad idea, too much to expect. Plus SLI and Crossfire are available to anybody.
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http://www.chw.net/2009/10/chw-entrevista-a-jen-hsun-huang/2/#
 
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