Friday, November 6th 2009
NVIDIA Shuns Lucid Hydra
A promising new technology from LucidLogix, the Hydra, has perhaps hit its biggest roadblock. The Hydra multi-GPU engine allows vendor-neutral and model-neutral GPU performance upscaling, without adhering to proprietary technologies such as NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossfireX. NVIDIA, which is staring at a bleak future for its chipset division, is licensing the SLI technology to motherboard vendors who want to use it on socket LGA-1366 and LGA-1156 motherboards, since Intel is the only chipset vendor. On other sockets such as LGA-775 and AM3, however, NVIDIA continues to have chipsets that bring with them the incentive of SLI technology support. NVIDIA's licensing deals with motherboard vendors are particularly noteworthy. For socket LGA-1366 motherboards that are based on Intel's X58 Express chipset, NVIDIA charges a fee of US $5 per unit sold, to let it support SLI. Alternatively, motherboard vendors can opt for NVIDIA's nForce 200 bridge chip, which allows vendors to offer full-bandwidth 3-way SLI on some high-end models. For the socket LGA-1156 platform currently driven by Intel's P55 Express chipset, the fee is lower, at US $3 per unit sold.
The Lucid Hydra engine by design is vendor-neutral. It provides a sort of abstraction-layer between the OS and the GPUs, and uses the available graphics processing resources to upscale resulting performance. This effectively kills NVIDIA's cut, as motherboard vendors needn't have the SLI license, and that users of Hydra won't be using SLI or Crossfire anymore. Perhaps fearing a loss of revenue, NVIDIA is working on its drivers to ensure that its GeForce GPUs don't work on platforms that use Hydra. Perhaps this also ensures "quality control, and compatibility", since if the customer isn't satisfied with the quality and performance of Hydra, NVIDIA for one, could end up in the bad books. This could then also kick up warranty issues, and product returns.
MSI has the industry's first release-grade motherboard, the Big Bang Fuzion P55 that uses Hydra to power multiple GPUs, while also allowing users to mix and match various PCI-Express GPUs to suit their needs, something new particularly for NVIDIA users. Earlier expected to be announced around this time, MSI's Big Bang Fuzion, as it is called by its maker, has been indefinitely delayed up to Q1 2010. Apparently to fill the void created by months of hype, MSI rushed in its cousin, a similar-looking motherboard, that uses the nForce 200 chip, to provide 3-way SLI support, called the Big Bang Trinergy P55, which will stay on as the company's top offering for the P55 platform. One can only hope that Hydra doesn't end up stillborn because of corporate strategy by much larger companies.
Source:
Overclock3D.Net
The Lucid Hydra engine by design is vendor-neutral. It provides a sort of abstraction-layer between the OS and the GPUs, and uses the available graphics processing resources to upscale resulting performance. This effectively kills NVIDIA's cut, as motherboard vendors needn't have the SLI license, and that users of Hydra won't be using SLI or Crossfire anymore. Perhaps fearing a loss of revenue, NVIDIA is working on its drivers to ensure that its GeForce GPUs don't work on platforms that use Hydra. Perhaps this also ensures "quality control, and compatibility", since if the customer isn't satisfied with the quality and performance of Hydra, NVIDIA for one, could end up in the bad books. This could then also kick up warranty issues, and product returns.
MSI has the industry's first release-grade motherboard, the Big Bang Fuzion P55 that uses Hydra to power multiple GPUs, while also allowing users to mix and match various PCI-Express GPUs to suit their needs, something new particularly for NVIDIA users. Earlier expected to be announced around this time, MSI's Big Bang Fuzion, as it is called by its maker, has been indefinitely delayed up to Q1 2010. Apparently to fill the void created by months of hype, MSI rushed in its cousin, a similar-looking motherboard, that uses the nForce 200 chip, to provide 3-way SLI support, called the Big Bang Trinergy P55, which will stay on as the company's top offering for the P55 platform. One can only hope that Hydra doesn't end up stillborn because of corporate strategy by much larger companies.
230 Comments on NVIDIA Shuns Lucid Hydra
As far as normal GPU operation is concerned, Hydra never existed. Hydra is transparent being on the HAL.
And picking the Hydra chip might save the motherboard manufacturers $3 or $5 per board on SLi licencing, but how much does the Hydra chip cost? I'm betting more than $5.
I wish the two companies would just quite their petty crap, and open both Crossfire and SLi for all platforms, without licencing. If your motherboard can support Two video card, you can run either, that is how it should be. This crap with nVidia locking it to only their chipsets, and AMD locking it to only their chipsets(and Intel's on the Intel side) is idiotic.
The Hydra technology is cool because you can mix difference graphics cards, but I'm betting the overhead of doing this will be horrible, and the performance gains won't be anything near true Crossfire and SLi.PhysX I understand where you are coming from, even though I also understand where nVidia is coming from in that it was ATi's fault for not allowing PhysX to run natively on it's hardware. But SLi? You're kidding right?
Let me guess, this furthers peoples opinion that Nvidia are evil, or employ underhanded tactics? it's business, and for the most part, they do it well, despite a series of blunders over the past 12-18 months.
No, this is about their revenue almost entirely. This is my opinion.
I rest my case.
Extension to that argument: If performance is worse than SLI/Crossfire overall, what's the point of putting a HD5870 and GTX285 together using Hydra (assuming you had a GTX285) when it will perform the same as GTX285 SLI on a normal X58 board? Why not just buy another GTX285 or sell your GTX285 and get two HD5850 cards and enjoy a real improvement?
Their products are excellent, that's good but their business scheme is hostile and it'll draw unwanted attention given time. They should refocus on what they do best and that's video cards not c*ckblocking everyone and losing some customers in the process.
Lucid is not willing to share their key technology so...
Exactly the same. Plus Nvidia is not blocking Hydra technology, they are just not allowing it to run with their hardware. I'm going to use the mantra of AMD and say that until Lucid makes Hydra an open standard, I'm not concerned wether Nvidia blocks or doesn't block them. I have never liked multi-GPU anyway.
and can we please refer to Nvidia by their real name? I mean come on.
Or have we descended into name calling now?
If X is SLI and Y is Crossfire and lucid hydra is XY then X+Y-X=Y so.. :pYes it's an great view point on the situation. Now wouldn't it be hilarious if AMD did the same thing and bar their hardware on the Lucid Hydra?:laugh:
I'd hardly call that name calling.
Name calling implies malicious/hurtful intentions.
In any case, this move seems typical of their attitude, and I say good on em.
my 2 cents.
spoonfulshovelful, with the recent PhysX cards on systems with ATI incident. It's a great coverup for the uninitiated.If you look at the logo, the eye is the I in invidia. That's solely where it comes from.
anyway I'm over it and yeah its settled.