We recently covered an article detailing the Lucid Hydra platform which allows enthusiast users to run multiple mixed cards from Nvidia and ATI to get more performance. Just like people currently do in SLI or Crossfire, but it is not platform specific. AMD's Jay Marsden issued the following statement to us when we asked him last night about the platform. "AMD's goal with CrossFireX is to is to deliver the best graphics performance possible and give gamers the ultimate upgrade path. We have added countless software and hardware innovations to CrossFireX technology over the years to ensure that we deliver performance in spades. To say CrossFireX is old is plain wrong, it would be like calling Radeon old. Multi-GPU technology is a key focus for AMD. We are on the cutting edge with our solutions today and we continue to invest R&D in this area to ensure that we deliver the best solutions in the long run. We are in favor of solutions that improve the user experience and we have not seen that from Lucid. It's up to them to show the world that their technology works as they say it does." AMD seem unconvinced, but we are interested to see how the platform shapes up in the coming weeks. Allan Campbell: Heaven Media
I have read several short articles about the Lucid Hydra chip. It sounds interesting, but I have not seen any real benchmarks for comparison purposes with Crossfire/SLI. Until then, I'll take AMD's word over unproven technology.
Calling CrossFireX "old" was rather cocky, though that's not surprising from a company trying to attract some attention. I'm very curious to see them in action, but I don't expect too much of the technology.
I wonder if you can run "any" PCI-Ex cards together on LUCID? Too bad it's not i7 compatible otherwise I would have chosen LUCID over 4 WAY SLI..
There was an article I read that had an ATI and an Nvidia card running on the MSI Big Bang board working together (Windows 7 needed, btw), so you never know. Remember too that the i7 is a chip series, not a platform. It would be more safe to say that currently the Lucid chip is being used on the P55 chipset, which includes the i5 and lower end i7, however I do remember Intel saying they'd be adding the chip to their revised X58 board, so again, you never know. It could make it's way to the higher end i7, or the upcoming i9.
