Lucid HYDRA Engine Multi-GPU Technology

Rob Williams · 08-25-2008, 02:34 AM

Can either of the SLI and Crossfire technologies be defeated by a company we've never heard of before? Hard to say, but Rory's look into Lucid and their Hydra Engine can definitely give us some insight.

One of the more exciting third-party demonstrations we saw at Intel's 2008 Developer Forum was by a little-known company called Lucid, who promises highly-efficient multi-GPU performance scaling via their unique "Hydra Engine" technology. We take a look at Hydra Engine, and what it means for ATI's Crossfire and NVIDIA's SLI.

Read the article, then discuss!

Kougar · 08-25-2008, 05:13 PM

It's one of those too good to be true things . Theoretically I don't know of a single reason it shouldn't work, but attempting to get everything to work smoothly with such good scaling would take a massive amount of work or some very smart/innovative software/hardware tricks.

Lucid needs to deliver on this or allow sites to bench test the technology before I will get excited over it. Because if this approach was so easy to implement, you can be sure either NVIDIA or ATI would have done so already...

Merlin · 08-25-2008, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kougar

It's one of those too good to be true things . Theoretically I don't know of a single reason it shouldn't work, but attempting to get everything to work smoothly with such good scaling would take a massive amount of work or some very smart/innovative software/hardware tricks.

Lucid needs to deliver on this or allow sites to bench test the technology before I will get excited over it. Because if this approach was so easy to implement, you can be sure either NVIDIA or ATI would have done so already...

Time to check out the stock market....
The stocks may take a good trend

Merlin

08-25-2008, 07:00 PM

I hope Nvidia or ATI er I mean AMD buy this company

Maybe even Intel so they could integrate it into a next gen on board graphics platform in co-op with NVidia or AMD lots of possibilities

Kougar · 08-26-2008, 05:13 PM

ATI/AMD can't afford to buy diddly right now. Their credit rating & asset-to-liabilities ratio are both poor so they couldn't even if they wanted to.

NVIDIA just got suckerpunched with a loss out of what was supposed to be a very profitable quarter for them, but they could still easily afford Lucid I'm quite sure. Going by the company's past behavior though, I don't see this happening.

08-28-2008, 12:39 AM

I would rather them stay themselves so that there is none of this you only use OUR GPU's on OUR motherboards.

Know what I mean?

Rob Williams · 08-29-2008, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HouseOfBugs

I would rather them stay themselves so that there is none of this you only use OUR GPU's on OUR motherboards.

Know what I mean?

I tend to agree, since if it's a chipset, it could simply be either integrated onto the motherboard or a special graphics card. If NVIDIA picked it up, they might very-well limit the technology to their own cards, which is not going to make the consumer the true winner.

I think we'll learn a lot more about this technology in the months to come... I really hope it's able to deliver upon all of its promises.

08-25-2008, 02:34 AM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,246	Lucid HYDRA Engine Multi-GPU Technology Can either of the SLI and Crossfire technologies be defeated by a company we've never heard of before? Hard to say, but Rory's look into Lucid and their Hydra Engine can definitely give us some insight. One of the more exciting third-party demonstrations we saw at Intel's 2008 Developer Forum was by a little-known company called Lucid, who promises highly-efficient multi-GPU performance scaling via their unique "Hydra Engine" technology. We take a look at Hydra Engine, and what it means for ATI's Crossfire and NVIDIA's SLI. Read the article, then discuss! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

08-25-2008, 05:13 PM	#2
Kougar Techgage Staff Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Texas Posts: 2,643	It's one of those too good to be true things . Theoretically I don't know of a single reason it shouldn't work, but attempting to get everything to work smoothly with such good scaling would take a massive amount of work or some very smart/innovative software/hardware tricks. Lucid needs to deliver on this or allow sites to bench test the technology before I will get excited over it. Because if this approach was so easy to implement, you can be sure either NVIDIA or ATI would have done so already... __________________ Core i7 4770k Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H Crucial Ballistix Sport LP 1600MHz 32GB EVGA GTX 480 HydroCopper FTW ASUS Xonar DX Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB \| Windows 7 64-bit Apogee XT + MCP655 & Thermochill Triple 140mm Radiator Corsair AX1200 PSU \| Cooler Master HAF-X

08-26-2008, 05:13 PM	#5
Kougar Techgage Staff Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Texas Posts: 2,643	ATI/AMD can't afford to buy diddly right now. Their credit rating & asset-to-liabilities ratio are both poor so they couldn't even if they wanted to. NVIDIA just got suckerpunched with a loss out of what was supposed to be a very profitable quarter for them, but they could still easily afford Lucid I'm quite sure. Going by the company's past behavior though, I don't see this happening. __________________ Core i7 4770k Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H Crucial Ballistix Sport LP 1600MHz 32GB EVGA GTX 480 HydroCopper FTW ASUS Xonar DX Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB \| Windows 7 64-bit Apogee XT + MCP655 & Thermochill Triple 140mm Radiator Corsair AX1200 PSU \| Cooler Master HAF-X

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08-25-2008, 07:00 PM	#4
Unregistered Guest Poster Posts: n/a	I hope Nvidia or ATI er I mean AMD buy this company Maybe even Intel so they could integrate it into a next gen on board graphics platform in co-op with NVidia or AMD lots of possibilities

08-28-2008, 12:39 AM	#6
HouseOfBugs Guest Poster Posts: n/a	I would rather them stay themselves so that there is none of this you only use OUR GPU's on OUR motherboards. Know what I mean?