Lucid Hydra 200

[xc0mmiex]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3646

ok, is this thing for real? because this just sounds too good to be true...
this what i've gotten so far as what is going to be available:

*mix and match ATI and NVIDIA Gpus
*perfect scaling across cards...
* no driver BS
*keep putting more cards in and it will work... 4*5870x2?

if this thing works: its gonna have a giant pricetag and it is really going to take the load off ati and nvidia about writing crossfire and SLI drivers

anybody else have anything on this?

"For example you could put a GeForce GTX 285 and a GeForce 9800 GTX in parallel and the two would be perfectly load balanced by Lucid's hardware; you'd get a real speedup. "

 

[gamerk316]

Its possible, I'm more concerned about standardization between vendors. For example, if you have a 4870 and a 9800, one can do DX10.1, the other only DX10. What happens if a DX10.1 call is intercepted and passed to the 9800? Likewise, AA is handeled differently between vendors, so how is that handled? Also, will you be able to force options (Vsync/AA, etc) through drivers and have it effect both cards correctly?

Some issues, but the concept itself (intercepting DX calls) is sound.

 

[obsidian86]

firesli anyone

 

[xc0mmiex]

Its possible, I'm more concerned about standardization between vendors. For example, if you have a 4870 and a 9800, one can do DX10.1, the other only DX10. What happens if a DX10.1 call is intercepted and passed to the 9800? Likewise, AA is handeled differently between vendors, so how is that handled? Also, will you be able to force options (Vsync/AA, etc) through drivers and have it effect both cards correctly?

Some issues, but the concept itself (intercepting DX calls) is sound.

well it comes out in 30 days... and those are the question that need to be answered when it comes out.... but if somehow by magic they are solved, like the whole force AA and DX... and during some tests on games ATI and Nvidia cards actually make slightly different images.. how will that work?
it so complicated to resolve thoese problems.... this will be revolutionary or a big flop...

 

[shadow187]

This is absolutely insane..
Hrm..
But if ATI has the faster cards out, wouldn't this only benefit us for Physx and other nVidia techs?

 

[jennyh]

I think the most important thing about it is the 'perfect scaling'. If true, thats a flat 30%ish increase in power for anyone with a crossfire/sli mobo and two cards.

Obviously 3 or 4 cards would see insane performance increases over normal 3/4 way crossfire.

 

[wh3resmycar]

3 aftermaths if this thing works:

1. hooray for multi-gpu setups.
2. those who bought an x58/lga1336 chipset would feel violated.
3. nail in the coffin for nvidia's nforce-200 chip.

 

[xaira]

itll see its daybeu in the msi big bang 1156

 

[gamerk316]

We will see. If the issues between settings/rendering differences are somehow taken care of, then we have a major seller. Whatever the case, DX9, 10, 10.1, and OpenGL must be tested for any review to hold any water. Attempts must also be made to test ways to break (like forcing 4xAA on one card, and 16xAA on another).

Still, the fact MSI is putting it in says a lot...