MSI Big Bang Hydra review

[polonyc2]

bit-tech got their hands on the new MSI Hydra board...interesting review...want to know how an ATI 4890 and an Nvidia GTX 260 work together?...read on...

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/01/08/msi-big-bang-fusion-lucid-hydra-arrives/1

 

[youngvince23]

looks sick

 

[BeavermanA]

Looks like ass so far. Min fps are horrid. Going to need a huge driver update to be worth a damn, and it sure isn't cheap.

 

[AndroidVageta]

Yeah, if there arent drivers out soon to fix this then the technology will not work. I mean, did Lucid not actually TRY this thing before launch? How did this get released? Complete and utter fail if the low performance is a chip limitation and not software...

Even then games have to be programmed for the Lucid chip too? If I read that correctly...another fail.

 

[Zero82z]

That is a pretty sad showing. So much for Hydra.

 

[SicKlown42012]

As much as performance sucks, at least they delivered on their one big promise that you can use cards from different IHVs. If they can get their drivers up to par, then this technology might be of some use. If not, then yes, fail.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

Oh BitTech, you're so silly with your 1680x1050 for testing multiple GPUs. Also kudos to them for figuring out how to run Fallout 3 in DX10.

While the tech itself is pretty cool, the performance is pretty bad.

 

[bigdogchris]

That is a pretty sad showing. So much for Hydra.

I was highly critical of this when it was announced and I expressed that view here and was essentially told off by people here. Supposedly Hydra reduced overhead and would give a benefit to running 2 identical cards at the minimal if you decided not to mix cards.

Well, benefiting over SLI/X-fire is basically shown to be completely untrue, negative effect as a matter of fact. I still see absolutely zero reason to mix gpu's, just buy another identical one, used if you have to.

 

[Zero82z]

I was highly critical of this when it was announced and I expressed that view here and was essentially told off by people here. Supposedly Hydra reduced overhead and would give a benefit to running 2 identical cards at the minimal if you decided not to mix cards.

Well, benefiting over SLI/X-fire is basically shown to be completely untrue, negative effect as a matter of fact. I still see absolutely zero reason to mix gpu's, just buy another identical one, used if you have to.

The problem is not in the concept, it's in the implementation. There would definitely be merit to a technology like this if it actually worked and worked well. Unfortunately, that isn't the case at the moment.

 

[InvisiBill]

Here are key quotes I got from the review:

This means it had to not only create a multi-GPU hardware solution that bypassed the considerably strong driver ecosystems of both ATI and Nvidia graphics cards, but also develop drivers for every possible graphics hardware combination to work in every game, efficiently.

That's literally thousands of combinations to QA, and with obviously no help seeded from ATI or Nvidia as it goes against their very business model.

The sheer number of combinations is mind bogglingly high, which is why there is a very strict list of compatible parts.

When I mean strict I mean - if the name's not down, don't bother trying. You're totally reliant on Lucid for software updates to make new games and new hardware compatible.

No beta drivers are however, and, if Nvidia releases a new WHQL driver then Lucid has to release a compatible software update too.

Again, it's all backwards: Hydra turns out slower in most cases.

Extra cards don't make a difference, defeating the point of Hydra.

There's no price stated yet - MSI is remaining tight lipped - however given the components used we expect the Fuzion to be expensive. Very, expensive.

It's been spotted for UK£ 228.55 (pre-VAT) which is US$367.67 according to Google.

I love the idea of Hydra. However, it's expensive, offers basically no performance improvement, and is dependent on Lucid for drivers and game support, while still requiring certain ATI/Nvidia drivers too. If you're making a product which is designed to directly cut into another company's profits, you probably don't want your product to depend on that other company.

...it may be the case that MSI put too much commitment to it in the first place and had to go through to ship something.

Right now, this seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Hopefully Hydra will improve in the future, as this would be pretty sweet if it worked well. However, I wouldn't be too surprised if this is the last we hear of Hydra, and possibly even Lucid.

 

[Dozoy]

I don't know. I think Lucid was eager to get something out there. They got something out there that offers no benefit over traditional SLI but they have their foot in the door. I'm excited for future development. They did promise us near perfect scaling, did they not?

 

[Zero82z]

They did promise us near perfect scaling, did they not?

It's easy to make a promise, but not so easy to keep one.

 

[Dozoy]

It's easy to make a promise, but not so easy to keep one.

I understand that. But lets give it some time before we totally discount Hydra.

 

[Zero82z]

I understand that. But lets give it some time before we totally discount Hydra.

I didn't say we should discount them. But in its current implementation, Hydra is worse than useless.

 

[RyanLucier]

WHY are only testing at 1680x1050 w/ 4x FSAA? Even a single GTX260 can do that.

It's driver overhead thats killing hydra I bet, and at 2560x1600 w/ 2x FSAA the driver overhead is probably less than the performance gained by the 2nd card.

 

[RamonGTP]

As much as performance sucks, at least they delivered on their one big promise that you can use cards from different IHVs. If they can get their drivers up to par, then this technology might be of some use. If not, then yes, fail.

Yeah, but what good is delivering on that promise when using your technology nets you worse performance than a single card? Should have been more polished before giving them to reviewers.

 

[BeavermanA]

WHY are only testing at 1680x1050 w/ 4x FSAA? Even a single GTX260 can do that.

It's driver overhead thats killing hydra I bet, and at 2560x1600 w/ 2x FSAA the driver overhead is probably less than the performance gained by the 2nd card.

Anandtech did theirs at 19x12. Think it was even worse for Hydra.

 

[BigBallinGPR]

meh, huge letdown but lets see if Lucid can hang in there and pull some miracle drivers outta their ass. That would be quite nice, especially if they can figure out 3-way hydra. In all likelihood Lucid won't and it'll be no more hydra but wasn't there another guy back in the day who had a dream about two different competitors coming together to work in unity? hmm i forget but im pretty stoked i don't have class this monday cause of the holiday.

 

[vengence]

WHY are only testing at 1680x1050 w/ 4x FSAA? Even a single GTX260 can do that.

It's driver overhead thats killing hydra I bet, and at 2560x1600 w/ 2x FSAA the driver overhead is probably less than the performance gained by the 2nd card.

Anandtech did theirs at 19x12. Think it was even worse for Hydra.

Yep. Sli and crossfire both out scale hydra with ease. To make it worse this board is 50$ more in the US than an EVGA classified. It's a joke.

 

[Ocellaris]

I understand that. But lets give it some time before we totally discount Hydra.

Its a bad idea and its not going to work. You can give Hydra all the time you want, it will not make a different. There is a long Hydra thread on these forums in which myself and a few other people spent months pointing out the failings of this technology while people kept saying "Let's wait and see!!! This might be awesome!!!"

 

[vengence]

Its a bad idea and its not going to work. You can give Hydra all the time you want, it will not make a different. There is a long Hydra thread on these forums in which myself and a few other people spent months pointing out the failings of this technology while people kept saying "Let's wait and see!!! This might be awesome!!!"

The technology relies on a nobody company being able to put more money into drivers than Nvidia or ATI. Because of this it is fundamentally flawed. IF it didn't take a magic driver for every game it a had a chance. But even then they had to do something that good people paid lots of money couldn't do.

 

[Ocellaris]

Because of this it is fundamentally flawed. IF it didn't take a magic driver for every game it a had a chance.

Totally agree with this. The one realistic hope was that this would be a seamless technology and work with any game and any combination of video cards. Scaling may have been terrible, however at least it would have worked and people could have some hope for the future. Requiring driver support on a per-game basis (which is what people were trying to get away from with SLI profiles) killed this before the silicone was ever even put on a motherboard.

 

[LGabrielPhoto]

Did anyone really think this was going to work any good?
I mean really, can you imagine the driver nightmares for new games...I wouldnt' be installed this if it was given to me for free.

 

[vengence]

Did anyone really think this was going to work any good?
I mean really, can you imagine the driver nightmares for new games...I wouldnt' be installed this if it was given to me for free.

Actually yes. LOTS of people thought it was the second coming. If you said anything negative about it they would write 3 pages telling you how you were closed minded and should wait and give it a chance.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Actually yes. LOTS of people thought it was the second coming. If you said anything negative about it they would write 3 pages telling you how you were closed minded and should wait and give it a chance.

I think a lot of us wanted it to work. But I imagine most of us realized there was a good chance it wouldn't.

I really wanted to see this succeed too. A real disappointing day for me.