More details released about game and hardware compatibility.
During development, Lucid's Hydra PCI-e switch chip was touted as the next revolution in multi GPU setups for gaming purposes. In reality, the earlier scenario presented has been less than pleasant: there is a list of compatible games and performance isn't worth mentioning over regular SLI or CrossFire setups.
Case and Cooling France has released a list of games that are compatible with Lucid's multi GPU driver and, surprisingly, Crysis is missing - a game more than one year old.
It get's worse though: Radeon HD 5000 series cards aren't supported. This could be due to the added DX11 features that may require a driver rewrite but this type of hindrance may very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back. The cards have been out for almost two months in the retail and specifications for DX11 have been out for some time. I'm interested in seeing how long it will take to see support - more than one month on top of the current two and I'm calling this first round of the technology a dead hydra.
But wait, want to see the the list of games supported with the much anticipated Nvidia + ATI mode? Here:
- 3DMark Vantage
- 3DMark06
- Batman Arkham Asylum
- Call of Duty 4
- Call of Duty World At War
- F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin
- Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising
Five games. Five. This sure doesn't bode well, does it?
The list does mention these are certified games, so nothing is written in stone. Same goes for Radeon HD 5000 series support, the details of the lack of support are still missing. More usually than not it points to a bad underlying product but we'll have to wait this one out a little longer, somewhere in the start of 2010.
Almost forgot, want more bad news? Triple GPUs aren't supported yet(due to software) and multi GPU cards like the GTX 295 and Radeon HD 4870X2 will never be, since the GPUs don't go through the Hydra but the embedded PCI-e switch on the cards.
Source: Case and Cooling France
