seX-Fire

[-RK]

So if y'all can remember back to the days of the x1950s there was this idea ATI threw around for a bit about using triple crossfire with one card performing physics acceleration.

What I'm wondering is what it would be called if they put 3 4870x2s into that configuration. That's six gpus, they couldn't very well call it sextuple crossfire, no one would call it that. everyone would abbreviate it into seX-fire.

Alright, I'll admit that I'm drunk posting, but it's an interesting idea isn't it?

seX-Fire... Kinda catchy ain't it?

[Radiator]

Three HD 4870 X2's you mean ? I can't think of anything that would actually make use of it all ... but with 5 of those Hydra chips ( between the GPUs and between the cards ) that would result in 7.2 teraflops of pure processing power .

[Headfoot]

I remain skeptical about the Lucid Hydra chip, but oh man do I want to believe it will work.
It'll be the the biggest thing in video cards since their inception (and/or Larrabee if that comes out first...)

But yeah if 6 Card Crossfire came out I would call it seX-fire

[Radiator]

There's a big chance , that Larrabee will be a flop , though... because it has a low number of pipes ( 32 or whatever they are planning ) and 16 ALUs per pipe in the traditional sense , albeit it will be a fair bit different , but still ... there's a chance , a big one , that it'll flop , because ATi's superscalar architecture has 5 ALUs per pipe and look how many ALUs it really needs , because of the inefficiency ... I really hope Larrabee will work and they'll find a way around the problem with putting all of the ALUs in use , and that Hydra chip , I believe it will indeed work , and I do hope ATi , nVidia and Intel ( when Larrabee is released ) all embrace it .

[-RK]

...

hay guiz, this wasn't a srsbzns post...


but if you wanna continue feel free: http://techgage.com/article/lucid_hydra_engine_multi-gpu_technology/1

There was a working demonstration model, it looks like something is gonna rock ATI and Nvidia's multi-gpu setups.

[Sunny]

but if you wanna continue feel free: http://techgage.com/article/lucid_hydra_engine_multi-gpu_technology/1


Thats a crazy article if they could get that implemented in mobo's it would be better for everyone with an SLI or Crossfire setup. I mean crap, if they could get each card to balance load evenly that would mean everything would scale 100% could you imagine benchmarks, games, rendering and everything you use GPU's for would seem beneficial. According to the article they wouldn't even have to be in SLI or Crossfire mode. Thats freakin crazy. I would definately buy a new mobo that incorporated such a chip.

[Radiator]

I hope ATi will use that HYDRA chip in their next X2 card ( logically it should be named HD 5870 X2 ) , THEN it would pwn .
And lol at "seX-Fire" :P .

[-RK]

They do make a good point in that article about how post processing would be handled with the Hydra chip. Sending the whole finished frame to one GPU to Anti-Alias might be problematic.

[Radiator]

Luckily I don't really care about AA , but that's just me , indeed effects like AA and HDR and whatever else could indeed be problematic , but I'm sure there's a way around that .

[Headfoot]

Radiator -- Stay that way! Don't go to the AA side of life. It's too expensive! ;)

[Radiator]

Too bad I love HDR , though . I just don't see the point in AA , if you use your monitor's native resolution there really is no point in my opinion , that's unless you are sitting about a centimeter from your monitor :P .

As for postprocessing , like AA ... would it be possible to do that aswell while putting together the frame , instead of sending it to one GPU AFTER .

[Headfoot]

Well on the lastest generation they fixed it so you can simultaneously use AA and HDR (Both GT200 and 4xxx, I think 3xxx and G80 too but not sure). I always thought it was dumb you couldn't do both.

Anywho, as long as you don't like AA keep it that way. I have seen the AA and it is good. So now I have to spend more money on videocards!!! Which is bad because I like keeping my money. ;)

[Radiator]

I've managed to use 4xAA on my card with virtually no performance drops ( HL2 series , some other older games ) , and I don't miss 4xAA .
I just finished Far Cry 2 at 1024x768 and medium settings ... nearly 24 hours of gametime . On ATi's cards , HDR+AA has worked since the X1900 cards .
Anyway , my concern isn't making them work simultaniously , my concern is about that how will any sort of postprocessing be made if you use that HYDRA chip .

[-RK]

There is most definitely a place for AA in games, even at extremely high resolutions there can be seriously noticeable jaggies along slow moving straight lines.


Post processing should be possible, but it may have to be done on a single GPU unless they can find a way to reliably post-process different sections of the screen and stitch them back together.

hmmm... perhaps by a new implementation that splits the screen into multiple unique frames then uses an equal number of remaining GPUs to do a quick run over the individual segments to patch them together successfully? A way to split up post processing into segments...

Or perhaps the hydra chip can somehow effectively split the entire screen's calculations between the gpus... but that would require some hefty analysis.

ehh... speculation is useless until we see it running.