Lucid – Hyrda – Revolutionize Multi-GPU gaming.

Ive been following the Lucid-Hyrda developments for a while now, but this is the first time I have seen previews of it running, with numbers no less.

Currently if you want to use more than one graphics card in your PC effectively you need to decide on hardware up front.

If your an Nvidia fanboy you need to buy an SLI capable motherboard. SLI adapts to the speed/specs of the “weaker” of the two cards and it works.
If your an ATI fanboy, then you need to buy a CrossFire capable motherboard. With CrossFire you must have 2 cards of the same series other wise it wont work.

Some of the more expensive mother boards support both SLI and CrossFire, but obviously not at the same time.
Crucialy both technologies are limited in that if you dont use 100% identical cards, the “better” card will be gimped to the specs / bandwidth / memory of the “weaker” one.

Until now ….

Hydra is a both a hardware and software solution. A chip sits on the main board between the CPU/Northbridge and ALL the gpus. Yes All of them, it works with more than 2. It also uses each card to the best of its ability.

So Eggy whats this realy mean to me?
You no longer need to be a fanboy anymore. When you buy a new PC with a hydra capable motherboard get one with a single decent card in it. In 9-12 months time when “UberFPSMMONumber69″ is released you dont need to go on the hunt for an exact match for your card. Buy whatever you like and slot it in. A few months later you see a bargain you just cant resist. Do the same again. Rejig your system “maybe” and you have the processing power of 3 cards.

I also see it re-vitalising the market on 2nd hand cards. As you re-place cards and upgrade your systems, you can re-use your older cards as secondary, tertiary cards, or sell them on for a few quid to someone else who just wants a little more oomph.

Anyway the original article is here if anyone fancies a read.

Lets all hope that none of the big companies shoot them down before they get started, but since MSI allready have a Hydra board produced its looking good for now.