Elsa Announces First Lucid Logix Powered Multi-GPU Applications.

And a more palpable update for "Lucid Logix Powered Multi-GPU":

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/news/...inboard_bg.jpg

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/news/...d_cards_bg.jpg

The source and the bad news:

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The first ultra high end professional graphics accelerator based on Lucid Hydra will be able to support up to four Nvidia GeForce or Quadro graphics cards as Elsa Japan exclusively sells only Nvidia-based solutions. The product is not aimed at gamers and will be supplied in 2U rack mount case.

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Meaning it's not the one expected which handles both ATi and nVidia cards...:shrug:

shame, although its nice to know where we're standing at the moment with the whole lucid hydra. I was more looking forward to the better performance scaling to be honest

it's a start lets hope this keeps coming and matures well :)

The source doesn't say that it can't work with ATI or mix different GPUs. Seriously I can't imagine them selling mixed setups, what for?
Obviously this doesn't mean that it can work with ATI though.

What exactly does this do? I am admittedly quite uninformed when it comes to this technology but after reading the article, I still don't see the point in it.

I thought the whole point of something like this was to have nVidia and ATI in the same system, working together, now all I see is a seperate Quad-SLI board.

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Originally Posted by inCore

What exactly does this do? I am admittedly quite uninformed when it comes to this technology but after reading the article, I still don't see the point in it.

I thought the whole point of something like this was to have nVidia and ATI in the same system, working together, now all I see is a seperate Quad-SLI board.

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That's quite simple SLI - SUX! (CF SUX MORE) so this might be a better alternative for SLI. At least in theory, with early news about this project was shown to be, not just more capable but "capable/scalable", Meaning you pay for 2 nVidia card cards, from same model and you get almost double performance not just 30%, meaning both cards use only 65% of their potential as it does with Sli, but 82% or something like that.

Sorry to be the dumbass that asks this question but how does it interface with a motherboard? I assume this is for driving enormous displays or high-powered rendering engines (or both) but where do you plug the thing in :D

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Originally Posted by CyberDruid

Sorry to be the dumbass that asks this question but how does it interface with a motherboard? I assume this is for driving enormous displays or high-powered rendering engines (or both) but where do you plug the thing in :D

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Do you see the connector on the side? You plug a cable in it. The cable goes to some PCIe daughter card. It's external, 2U to be precise.

So, even through it is not aimed at gamers, let's ignore that fact, how can we use this for gaming? xD

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Originally Posted by CyberDruid

Sorry to be the dumbass that asks this question but how does it interface with a motherboard? I assume this is for driving enormous displays or high-powered rendering engines (or both) but where do you plug the thing in :D

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don't you see that SCART connector?

Hey, I just noticed something strange.
Even though they claim it's 2U, it won't fit. The thing on the pictures needs 3U. So what we can see here is probably far from final.

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Originally Posted by IronWarrior

So, even through it is not aimed at gamers, let's ignore that fact, how can we use this for gaming? xD

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This is just a "professional" beginning, maybe a solid competition for FASTRA. So gaming might be the next in line. :)

Arent normal sized graphics cards (and the ones this would be used for) taller than 2U? I thought modern cards were a lot closer to 3U tall...

Yes, 3U unless they are on a riser and parallel to the motherboard. Or they are very low end.

The best part about this is how much it should scare us about Lucid BSing...
They said that their only market was gamers but showing this, obviously it isn't. Also what is the point of this product? GPGPU calculations already scale linearly, in most situations, so what is the need of this?

If the Hydra really does work in the way they presented it at IDF then I will be very interested to see ATI and Nvidia's reaction when it's actually released on production motherboards. Even if the first models only support two GPU's it will be huge.

This is AMD and Nvidia's worst nightmare with the economy and spending being down as it is. At first it might spur sales but those won't be sustainable sales increases.

Also this is in the Intel Larrabee pile right now until they show some real world benches.

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Originally Posted by inCore

What exactly does this do? I am admittedly quite uninformed when it comes to this technology but after reading the article, I still don't see the point in it.

I thought the whole point of something like this was to have nVidia and ATI in the same system, working together, now all I see is a seperate Quad-SLI board.

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it's a dedicated I/O processor for load balancing.

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Originally Posted by Blauhung

it's a dedicated I/O processor for load balancing.

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And how exactly is it different than an nforce 200?

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

And how exactly is it different than an nforce 200?

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nForce 200 is only a PCIe switch. It contains nothing else. nForce200 is like the PLX chip on X2 cards.

if mainboard vendors were to run with this, then it would eliminate any competitive advantage that one platform (that is, SLI vs CF) has over the other, and you could choose either flavor (nvidia vs ati) for your multi-gpu needs.

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Originally Posted by XSAlliN

Sorry to disappoint you but the war might be over soon and you might see a lot rigs with both of them combine, both nVidia and ATi.:peace:

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What for? I can only see 2 reasons: Being different and upgrading with hope that the old card helps some.

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Originally Posted by LordEC911

Also what is the point of this product? GPGPU calculations already scale linearly, in most situations, so what is the need of this?

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Good question.

Unless it lets you drive additional monitors too (not sure how many would find this useful)?

I believe from previous/recent articles/user comments that you can not mix and match cards from different companies (AMD + nVidia = no go). They have said it is because you can only have one driver (from AMD or nVidia) on your windows O/S (at least for now).
what can stop four top-of-the-line graphics cards?
Larrabee (HEHE jk!!)
...for now

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Originally Posted by m0da

I believe from previous/recent articles/user comments that you can not mix and match cards from different companies (AMD + nVidia = no go). They have said it is because you can only have one driver (from AMD or nVidia) on your windows O/S (at least for now).
what can stop four top-of-the-line graphics cards?
Larrabee (HEHE jk!!)
...for now

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That is not true anymore, you can mix cards on XP and Windows 7.

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Originally Posted by IronWarrior

That is not true anymore, you can mix cards on XP and Windows 7.

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:eek: any articles? I wanna get in on the info too!!:)

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Originally Posted by m0da

:eek: any articles? I wanna get in on the info too!!:)

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Try this: http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=33521

It's not prefect, but I suspect there are other ways to do it, doesn't seem to be anyone sharing, other than this guy. :(

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Originally Posted by IronWarrior

Try this: http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=33521

It's not prefect, but I suspect there are other ways to do it, doesn't seem to be anyone sharing, other than this guy. :(

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Thats more like PhysX on nVidia card+graphics on AMD card. Far from the same. The point is 2 drivers cant render D3D at the same time.

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Originally Posted by m^2

What for? I can only see 2 reasons: Being different and upgrading with hope that the old card helps some.

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So I wouldn't have to sale my card at half price or less, when buying a new one which offers some performance boost.

If this technology is application-independent like they claim to be, I don't see why this couldn't be used for gaming (except for the ridiculously high price tag).

If hydra can match the performance ratio of CF then we're in for some nice gains. Finally nvidia users will get real multi GPU performance instead of the monstrosity they call SLI.

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Originally Posted by Shintai

Thats more like PhysX on nVidia card+graphics on AMD card. Far from the same. The point is 2 drivers cant render D3D at the same time.

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I never said it was, I was replying to the fact that you can mix cards.

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Originally Posted by IronWarrior

I never said it was, I was replying to the fact that you can mix cards.

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But only one display driver is loaded. So how is that mixed cards again`?

Im not well read on this but it looks like it could be used for GPU processing without the cost of adding in capable mobo, CPU, RAM, etc etc. Give it some HDD storage and an ethernet port and you have a crunching farm.

More details about LucidLogix Hydra revealed.

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Originally Posted by LordEC911

The best part about this is how much it should scare us about Lucid BSing...
They said that their only market was gamers but showing this, obviously it isn't. Also what is the point of this product? GPGPU calculations already scale linearly, in most situations, so what is the need of this?

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Maybe GPGPU is the only way they can get it to scale like they claim :wiggle:

Or it was requested by the customer(ELSA)? No........ that couldn't be. Why would ELSA put money into this if they weren't getting a gain? Just to lead YOU guys along?

LOL!

Lucid Hydra is nothing but positive.

Finally it will FORCE Nvidia and ATI to come up with GOOD MULTI-GPU SOLUTIONS. Todays SLI/CF is nothing but a big joke. 2 cards works "ok" but not as good as it should. 3-4 cards are just meh,

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Originally Posted by Aberration

Or it was requested by the customer(ELSA)? No........ that couldn't be. Why would ELSA put money into this if they weren't getting a gain? Just to lead YOU guys along?

LOL!

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No... more like it was stated there was no reason for them to go into that market but yet they did. The fact that Lucid already lied to us isn't a good sign.

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Originally Posted by Smartidiot89

Lucid Hydra is nothing but positive.

Finally it will FORCE Nvidia and ATI to come up with GOOD MULTI-GPU SOLUTIONS. Todays SLI/CF is nothing but a big joke. 2 cards works "ok" but not as good as it should. 3-4 cards are just meh,

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If it works like they say it does.

You go into any market where there is demand. Obviously ELSA demanded it.

What lie?

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Originally Posted by Aberration

You go into any market where there is demand. Obviously ELSA demanded it.

What lie?

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Originally Posted by AnandTech.com

Obviously it'll accelerate games. What about GPGPU? That's not the focus of Lucid right now. They said they want to look at the largest market for the part and target that first, and gaming is certainly where that is at. It is physically possible that the hardware and software could load balance other tasks across the hardware, but this isn't something that is currently being explored or developed.

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http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3385&p=2


Why would you make that statement and then almost immediately after, go back on it?

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Originally Posted by Shintai

But only one display driver is loaded. So how is that mixed cards again`?

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Where do you get only one display driver from? Are you talking about Vista which nobody cares about?

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Originally Posted by STEvil

Where do you get only one display driver from? Are you talking about Vista which nobody cares about?

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Vista+Windows 7. Tried running D3D on both cards at the same time? I guess not...

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Originally Posted by STEvil

Where do you get only one display driver from? Are you talking about Vista which nobody cares about?

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33% of people in the last steam survey are running vista. I think you might still be living in 2007.

really? damn... why are so many moving to vista?
i dont get it... its terrible...

Well maybe because it's not terrible. It's been better than XP in all areas (especially stability) since I got it.

really? damn... why are so many moving to vista?
i dont get it... its terrible...

btw, you CAN mix ati and nvidia cards with hydra, but only on XP... on vista it wont work, but thats a MS thing cause they dont allow running 2 seperate 3d drivers...

yay, vista is so much better than xp... :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by saaya

really? damn... why are so many moving to vista?
i dont get it... its terrible...

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:yepp: vista is a big joke

yeah vista is like coke zero... sweetener is cheaper than sugar, so they try to force it onto us even tho its terrible and nobody likes it.
but they keep spamming us with ads of how great it is and people actually start to believe it :eek:

:shakes:

so... uh.. is there an option for those with more than 3gbs of ram ? xp64 ? not..

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Originally Posted by Shintai

Vista+Windows 7. Tried running D3D on both cards at the same time? I guess not...

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I'll add it to my list of to-do's. Fortunately for me I did not quantify my statement to be Direct3D only and your statement does not qaulify updates or backend work that may allow it to work. :up:

triniboy - Thanks for the misinterpretation. "Nobody" (by which I mean people who see XP and 7 as better than Vista for requisite use) cares about Vista because 7 is coming and XP worked as well or better than Vista.

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Originally Posted by STEvil

triniboy - Thanks for the misinterpretation. "Nobody" (by which I mean people who see XP and 7 as better than Vista for requisite use) cares about Vista because 7 is coming and XP worked as well or better than Vista.

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Sure, man. It's your right to believe that everybody in the world shares your narrow-minded viewpoint. What specifically is wrong with Vista? And in what areas does XP work better?

thats a repost

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=145

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Originally Posted by IronWarrior

Try this: http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=33521

It's not prefect, but I suspect there are other ways to do it, doesn't seem to be anyone sharing, other than this guy. :(

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Cool, I have to try this. BTW can you fold on both at the same time?

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Originally Posted by saaya

yeah vista is like coke zero... sweetener is cheaper than sugar, so they try to force it onto us even tho its terrible and nobody likes it.
but they keep spamming us with ads of how great it is and people actually start to believe it :eek:

:shakes:

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Coke Zero exists because real men don't drink Diet Coke, there's a joke add out there somewhere but the net failed me, I think I got it in an email.

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Originally Posted by trinibwoy

Sure, man. It's your right to believe that everybody in the world shares your narrow-minded viewpoint. What specifically is wrong with Vista? And in what areas does XP work better?

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That is a trolling post, or did you just selectively read what you wanted?

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Originally Posted by STEvil

That is a trolling post, or did you just selectively read what you wanted?

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The first post you made about Vista was trolling and basicly asking for another flamewar between XP and Vista amoung people.

Standards are good. Double standards twice as good.

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Originally Posted by STEvil

That is a trolling post, or did you just selectively read what you wanted?

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Because you're a mod you can go around calling people trolls when you are the one making unfounded biased and uninformed claims? Ego trip much?

How about you address the issue and point out Vista's flaws instead of attacking me personally?

Just use Server 08. Server 08>XP>Vista. Done deal.

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Originally Posted by [XC] riptide

Just use Server 08. Server 08>XP>Vista. Done deal.

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Server 08 is Vista SP1. Just tweak Vista in that case to be 08 ;)

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Originally Posted by [XC] riptide

Just use Server 08. Server 08>XP>Vista. Done deal.

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Vista actually runs better in general. Aero and overall system responsiveness. General CPU crunching performance is slightly better in Server 2008. Ive tried Vista Business and Server 2008 Enterprise.

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Originally Posted by B.E.E.F.

Vista actually runs better in general. Aero and overall system responsiveness. General CPU crunching performance is slightly better in Server 2008. Ive tried Vista Business and Server 2008 Enterprise.

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I'm only interested in CPU performance :clap:
You can turn Aero on. I don't use it. I find it irritating.

They say Server08 is same codebase yada yada... but why the diff?

Following shows some OS against each other. I think ServerEnt is Pre SP1.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/600721/PerfRessmall.gif

i run windows mobile. it is far more efficient with my 4 gigs of ram and quad core cpu and gtx 260, components that vista64 never gets close to challenging in any form.
:p:

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Originally Posted by [XC] riptide

IThey say Server08 is same codebase yada yada... but why the diff?

Following shows some OS against each other. I think ServerEnt is Pre SP1.

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There is no Pre SP1 2008 Server. Windows 2008 SP0=Vista SP1. 100% identical base code.

Also you compare the OSes thats tweaked for 2 different purposes. Remove areo etc in Vista and try again.

With Windows 7 the server and client OS will be on the same service pack level again so to say. Windows 7=Server 2008 R2. But with Vista and Server 2008. Vista got +1.

Ah right. Wasn't sure about teh SP1 for 2008. ;)

Cool charts, riptide. Now please tell use what variance can we expect in these tests.