Hydra and me

[QuaziBee]

I was looking at picking up a GTX 460 fermi for a new build when I ran across a benchmark compairing single board and hydra. I assume it's a Sli like configuration but I thought I would come to the experts for some more information.

TLDR:
What is Hydra? Does it require special motherboards and video cards to use? Should I keep it in mind when building a machine to upgrade in the future?

 

[Trotter]

You will need to look for a motherboard that uses the Hydra chip, but any graphics card would work with it. Hydra allows you to mix and match cards from both Nvidia and AMD.

 

[PP Mguire]

Lucid Hydra is a chip used on certain motherboards that will allow multiple configurations of GPUs from both Nvidia or ATI. On its initial release it kind of fell on its feet due to lackluster software and horrible support. Its a technology alot of us where interested in but didnt quite deliver kind of like PhysX when introduced by Ageia.

I would not keep it in mind for future builds due to the fact that it will probably take a few more years for them to properly develop or improve upon the software to make it work properly. If you see it making a big stink in news articles then id start to pay attention a bit more but i wouldnt hold my breath on it.

 

[QuaziBee]

Thanks guys,

Here is the link to the benchmark review that was done in case anybody was wondering.
Lucid Hydra GTX 460 Benchmark Comparison - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

 

[PP Mguire]

Well SLI is naturally attainable so that review is kinda fud. He needed to have a 460 and another ATI card in there to really see how it doesnt work all that great.