Next generation of multi-GPU
Lucid has announced a new chip in its Hydra multi-GPU lineup, the Hydra 200. As you may remember, Lucid has announced the first Hydra 100 a year ago, and these chips bring hardware multi-GPU without SLI or Crossfire software. This also means that, thanks to Lucid Hydra, we might see Geforce and Radeon running together on the same motherboard without any issues.
Unlike the Hydra 100, which was built in the 130nm manufacturing process, the new Hydra 200 is made in 65nm, which means that the new chip should be much better and cheaper to produce. The chip is rated at 6W TDP and will be available in three versions, the LT22114, LT22102 and the LT22114. The differences between these chips are the number of PCIe lanes. The low end has single x16 to the CPU and dual x16 for the GPUs while the top offer comes with x16 to the CPU and configurable pair of x16 lanes to GPUs. This means that controller can be set to work in four x8 mode, single x16 and two x8, or even two times x16 mode.
The guys from Anandtech had a chance to check out the MSI Big Bang motherboard which incorporates the high-end model of the Hydra 200 chip, and had a chance to try it out with Nvidia's Geforce GTX 260 running next to ATI's Radeon HD 4890 card in multi GPU mode. The only limitation is that you need Windows 7 in order to have both drivers at the same time. They even had a chance to briefly try Bioshock and FEAR 2.
In any case, Lucid's Hydra 200 sounds like a great thing despite the additional premium cost. According to Anandtech's info, the cost is around US $1.50 per PCIe lane, which translates to about US $72 for the high end chip with 48 lanes. You can check out the Anandtech's preview here, and you can find more info about Lucid's Hydra 200 Link Removed due to 404 Error.
Link Removed due to 404 Error
