Lucid Hydra Fuzion review from Guru3D

[thilanliyan]

AnandTech

Finally:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-big-bang-fuzion-lucid-hydra-review-test/1

BUT they test very few games...and ones that don't require very powerful GPUs to begin with.

"Now then, before we head on over into the conclusion, some subjective words. We also tried creating some game profiles ourselves. Resident Evil 5 failed, Anno 1404 failed, Crysis failed, Far Cry 2 failed. That's something you need to realize. This trick with Hydra requires extensive supported game profiles, and Lucid will need to create them."

 

[TemjinGold]

Looks like this mobo will sell more... ATi cards.

"Hmm... I've always wondered what my GTX260 could do when paired with a 5870."

"Hey, this new MSI board will allow me to do that!"

"Wow, this Hydra thing sucks..."

"Hmm... no SLI on the board."

*buys another 5870 and ebays the GTX 260

 

[Nemesis 1]

I was hoping someone would post that As I cann't start a new thread . I read the review . Hydra has much work to do . But I do recall when NV released Sli weasn't very good than . Same with Ati XF , But time will fix all . But what was really nice is how Ati /Nv cards worked well together. That should help ATI sales on the 5000 series.

No IGP support yet and 2 NV cards don't work Yet . The XF outperformed Hydra but give them some time . That was a great review . Till the End of time. Its also nice that the nay sayers about vaporware are put in their proper place under the bus.

 

[TemjinGold]

I was hoping someone would post that As I cann't start a new thread . I read the review . Hydra has much work to do . But I do recall when NV released Sli weasn't very good than . Same with Ati XF , But time will fix all . But what was really nice is how Ati /Nv cards worked well together. That should help ATI sales on the 5000 series.

No IGP support yet and 2 NV cards don't work Yet . The XF outperformed Hydra but give them some time . That was a great review . Till the End of time. Its also nice that the nay sayers about vaporware are put in their proper place under the bus.

That may be but NV and ATi weren't depending on that tech for their bread and butter yet. Does Hydra have income from anything else? If not, they might not have the funds for time to fix it all.

 

[Nemesis 1]

They have plenty of money behind them . Intel for one

 

[aka1nas]

That's too bad, but not exactly surprising. I don't think this tech is going anywhere in the hands of such a small company, personally. AMD and Nvidia are much larger companies, and even they have a hard time keeping up with profiles for every new game that comes out.

It was naive to believe that this solution could function purely on an API level. Game programmers are often sloppy and fail to follow programming and API conventions out of laziness or ignorance. That's why we need all these game-specific fixes to our video card drivers to begin with.

 

[Dribble]

As expected, after all the hype it's not as good as Xfire or Sli and works worse with cards from different vendors. Hence can't really see the point as most boards have Xfire/Sli in them.

tbh I bet there big hope was to get bought by Intel to do the Sli-equivelent for Larrabee, but now Larrabee has been canned that's not looking so likely.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Your name fits ya. Could you please Link to Larrabee being cancaled PLEASE.

You also suffer from memory loss . What was sli like when released Not good not good at all . Than when Xf came out same thing. Not good . But the NV fanboys had a great time with that release. Give new tech time to mature . that way you don't stick foot in mouth. You don't like new tech . Hell I am glad they released it to early just to get rid of the Vaporware tag. AT Also has a review up .

 

[aka1nas]

You also suffer from memory loss . What was sli like when released Not good not good at all . Than when Xf came out same thing. Not good . But the NV fanboys had a great time with that release. Give new tech time to mature . that way you don't stick foot in mouth. You don't like new tech . Hell I am glad they released it to early just to get rid of the Vaporware tag. AT Also has a review up .

That's the point, much larger and better-funded companies still took quite a long time to mature this sort of technology as they had to go back and produce fixes for individual games.

"Intel-backing" doesn't mean much of anything in and of itself.

 

[alyarb]

it's an intel-owned venture capital firm. they provide funding in exchange for a stake in the business. they do not provide personnel or talent.

larrabee as we know it is cancelled. there will be no 45nm discrete graphics from intel, ever. what they do with the technology they have developed so far is completely up in the air. they haven't said anything.

 

[v8envy]

As expected the technology shows lots of promise. Also as expected, the pricepoint is ludicrous for not offering anything extra to the target audience -- those who must have the best of the best at any price. In fact, with the lack of SLI support and no support for demanding games this product is a value subtract in its current state.

This would be a fantastic technology if it only added about $10 or so to the board cost. I'd be all over it, as would anyone with a slightly obsolete graphics card. Add a 5850 to a 260? Yes please, even if it means DX10 and no PhysX. Spend an additional $350 to do it? It'd be way cheaper to sell the 260 and buy two 5850s instead.

Which is the real problem. For the price-sensitive enthusiast it should always be more cost effective to sell their existing hardware and buy a supported multi-GPU configuration than get a board with a $80 add-on chip. The top shelf enthusiast is better served getting a vendor supported config.

 

[alyarb]

wow, the boards are $350? it is definitely smarter to buy more GPU power than to buy a load balancer.

 

[Nemesis 1]

it's an intel-owned venture capital firm. they provide funding in exchange for a stake in the business. they do not provide personnel or talent.

larrabee as we know it is cancelled. there will be no 45nm discrete graphics from intel, ever. what they do with the technology they have developed so far is completely up in the air. they haven't said anything.

No its not. Larrabee is being used by intel inhouse and developers. If Canceled why the need for developers. Unless you have read something differant than What Intel officially stated . Please Link.

 

[Nemesis 1]

wow, the boards are $350? it is definitely smarter to buy more GPU power than to buy a load balancer.

That would be the majority opion for fact . But as you well know being a minority has its benefits ,

 

[alyarb]

like how the majority of us can communicate clearly?

 

[Nemesis 1]

That's the point, much larger and better-funded companies still took quite a long time to mature this sort of technology as they had to go back and produce fixes for individual games.

"Intel-backing" doesn't mean much of anything in and of itself.

Have you ever looked at its founders . were they come from some at least . Have you never heard of Mitosis

http://www.dvhardware.net/article6594.html

There are some very good articles on the subject who worked on project and all .

 

[Nemesis 1]

like how the majority of us can communicate clearly?

Yep the old if you have no reply attack .

 

[alyarb]

No, it's just that I specifically referred to Larrabee as a discrete card, and you took my meaning to say that I meant Larrabee as an architecture was cancelled. There was nothing unclear in my post yet you mistook it and ask for a link? Stop doing that, it's childish and disrespectful and reveals that all you want is someone to argue with. You should know how to use google to verify your own stuff without succumbing to nonsense. Intel is still developing Larrabee, yes, that's right. There will not, however, be a 45nm high end part in 2010 or likely ever. 32/28nm is another story years from now.

though, I will admit, most people are pretty incorrect about their usage of the name larrabee, but I spelled it out for you anyway. the discrete card is cancelled. No one ever said the architecture is cancelled (they wouldn't start from scratch with the same approach twice. they're pretty dead serious about software rendering despite the caching/memory caveats they've run into). They weren't counting on the discrete card to carry them into a new market segment as much as they had to make their exit from GMA. If you would agree that video is headed onto the CPU die, then you should also agree that this IGP must be GPGPU ready. that is, a wide many-SIMD unit architecture that does dx11 and opencl. AMD has already shown us a working Llano die, so this whole "fusion" thing is already here, and intel has about a year to get it together, which means "Larrabee" as an architecture isn't going anywhere, but "Larrabee" the card, is cancelled.

The graphics may not be good on larrabee. in fact the performance is awful and i want nothing to do with it. but the DP FPU performance, especially for a 45nm part was exemplary and they still have an angle they can work in the HPC space with this architecture as well as on-die vector coprocessors for low power and mobile parts. this is, and should be, way more important than graphics to intel, which is why they aren't canning the whole program. making CPUs is their thing. of course, this would all go without saying if you do your own reading rather than just refreshing forums.anandtech.com all day

 

[Nemesis 1]

Is what Intel wasn't counting on was A 2010 release they wanted 09 release . ATIs 5000 seies took them by surprize. Than with Fermi release when ever. Larrrrabbbeee 45nm was not going to work out for intel .

As for when intel said the newer release time was . It hasn't been set . But for you I will move it out to 2014 if that pleases you. But look for it at 32nm .

 

[Nemesis 1]

You have seen A working larrabee card . Not many have. Tell me about the graphics.

I would like to see This working Llano die,. Please a link of this working. Larrabee has been working die for some time but 45nm is canned.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Yes we do agree that IGP is infact a GPGPU as intel has stated as much. Driver updates are needed . Also intel has or hasn't released Ct yet . All I know is their looking for tester and developers for Ct. Couldn't recall proper name. Beta testers thats it.

I have been wondering what Sandy Bridge will have on it for graphics. IGP or Something differant.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Oh ya your referring to DA Boat

 

[lavaheadache]

I would be willing to sacfrice some frames on the hydra setup compared to Crossfire if it would greatly reduce microstuttering. 45 fps on crossfire is not smooth, Vsync helps but not perfect.

2nd reviews better include Microstutter results!!

Technology looks encouraging

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Looks like this mobo will sell more... ATi cards.

"Hmm... I've always wondered what my GTX260 could do when paired with a 5870."

"Hey, this new MSI board will allow me to do that!"

"Wow, this Hydra thing sucks..."

"Hmm... no SLI on the board."

*buys another 5870 and ebays the GTX 260

I highly doubt many people that wonder that and are uninformed enough to actually try it exist.

 

[thilanliyan]

Apparently Asus and Gigabyte did not like the performance of this solution and that's why they don't have any boards coming.

I guess we'll see if better drivers help but it is definitely a disappointment so far.