Msi P55 The Big Bang - Lucid Hydra Inside - Ati Work With Nvidia

[cupra]

During the last week we have seen many new P55 based motherboards,
among them the new line of MSI , and today , IOPANEL.NET gives you an
exclusive look at the "Hidden" member of MSI product line - The Big Bang,
which is a P55 motherboard with Lucid Hydra chip - which should enable the
operation of NVIDIA and ATI based video cards on the same motherboard.



Who Is Lucid ?

Lucid is an israeli company, located at Kfar-Neter, which is developing the Hydra Chip, which is a Chip that should enable the use of NVIDIA and ATI
video cards on the same motherboard.the company holds some cooperation agreements with some of the biggest players in hardware industry, and the
motherboard that we preview today is one of the first products of this
cooperations.

The Lucid Hydra chip, as mentioned before should enable the use of 2 different video cards together on the same motherboard.
We have been told in the past that there will be different versions of the chip - one will enable the usage of video cards like
Radeon HD 4870 along with a HD 4650 for example , another version will enable the usage of NVIDIA based
video cards together - like a GTX260 together with 9600GT for example, and of course one version will enable a mix of video cards -ATI video card
together with a Nvidia video card on the same motherboard.
The Hydra chip is responsible for the Balance and link between the different video cards.



The Big Bang -

MSI P55 "The Big Bang" is a P55 based motherboard, which hosts the Lucid Hydra chip that will replace the nf200 chip.
As you can see in our photos, the Hydra Chip is located between the CPU socket and the first/Upper PCI-Express Slot.
As for now we can't tell which one of the versions of the Hydra is placed on the motherboard, and how it performs ,
but a source inside one of the companies told us that the Hydra Chip is working as planned.



Link To Lucid Homepage

source: iopanel.net

[Talonman]

Thanks for the post.

[Smartidiot89]

It's here

[purefun65]

So it's not vaporware afterall.

[PrometheusCon]

Mother of God... Thanks for the post!

[Russian]

Very cool. I cant wait to see reviews of this board and how it works out.

[breathemetal]

I just dont see how mixing cards (ati/nv) would be stable...

You'd need two different drivers id assume? Unless Hydra cancels that out? im just guessing here.

[NaMcO]

Wow, this is awesome. Can't recall when i last heard about Lucid Hydra, seems like centuries to me

[Manicdan]

this is going to be quite intersting if they do have to offer 3 different versions of the chip to cover each one.

its actually kind of a let down. whats stopping the chip that can work with both companies from being the one that can do any of the 3? or is it cheaper to make the other versions?

and whats with all the weird ports on the side? are they unique to this or do i just not know what they are

[cupra]

What MSI chose to leave in the dark are whether any of these motherboards support NVIDIA SLI, and about where is the coveted G9P55-DC, which packs an NVIDIA nForce 200 bridge chip for high-bandwidth 3-way SLI.

http://www.techpowerup.com/100983/MS...irst_Wave.html

[Zaskar]

I dont really get why people are so happy about the mixing cards deal, the biggest part to this seemed to be the much improved method of aggregating same cards, if ofcourse it works like they said.

[ExodusC]

No way, is this real?

[Katanai]

Good news! I always like to have more options.

[FischOderAal]

I dont really get why people are so happy about the mixing cards deal, the biggest part to this seemed to be the much improved method of aggregating same cards, if ofcourse it works like they said.

Hopefully we'll know soon

[xVeinx]

Rather than simply mixing cards, I'd rather see if it improves crossfire of (if supported) SLI performance.

[ChinStrap]

oh.... snap.....

[iTravis]

Very interesting, it's finally ready for action. Wondering what performance wise would be.

[screwtech02]

Wonder if this will cure the "no Nvidia" cards for Physx, with ATI cards as a main GPU??? Wouldnt THAT piss Nvidia off????? I hope so.......

[GAR]

LOLLL, wow i never thought id see this day.

[Smartidiot89]

LOLLL, wow i never thought id see this day.

You did say something about quoting in the last thread...

[initialised]

I'm pleased to see this tech get out of the door, I hope it works well and enables the holly grail of 100% scaling with multi GPU systems also a bonus if you can add a card without worrying about clock and memory matching in Crossfire.

BTW... WooHoo 1000th post

[003]

Rather than simply mixing cards, I'd rather see if it improves crossfire of (if supported) SLI performance.

I recently read an article that Lucid had changed it's multi-GPU rendering algorithm to something similar to current AFR based multi GPU rendering, and that it no longer has the huge advantages with scaling that it was originally coined for.

I don't know where I saw this article but if someone could find it that would be great.

[JohnZS]

Flipping eck, will this boards also come bundled with Duke Nukem Forever?

[Bodkin]

Wow, did hell just freeze over? So is DN:F coming with it :P

[nn_step]

Considering that they are using a third party Processor, that hints that their entire product is firmware only. Ultimately suggesting that ATi and nVidia can do the exact same thing in their drivers.