Lucid Virtu..... Really worth it?

[Tomtom565]

Hiya,

Just a quick question.... Is lucid Virtu really worth it???? Iv'e read that it affects the performance of discrete GPU's in games, and in a few benchmarks, it rarely outperformed the dedicated GPU........ Whith this in mind...... These two boards seem suitble for my next rig..... but the deciding factor is Lucid Virtu.......i cant decide between the Asus P8P67 EVO Rev3 (http://www.scan.co.u...%29-sata-6g-b-s) or the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4-B3 (http://www.scan.co.u...0-%28x16%29-atx) ...... What do you think???

Note: I shall be doing some heavy OC'ing.......

Cheers in advance.....

Edit: it will be teamed with 16gb total of Kingston 1600mhz ram and an I5 2500K....

 

[dugdiamond]

LucidHydra is the one to go for, else do not bother

 

[Tomtom565]

Mmmmmmmmm...........Thought as much....... Ok.....any other opinions?

 

[SieB]

lucid Virtu can be useful, you can use the Intergrated graphics processor on your CPU to boost your GPU the same as running two cards in SLI/CFX but with the IGP instead of another card, It doesn't allow you to mix AMD and Nvidia though. If you encode a lot of videos as well you can use it for Intel's quick sync which will encode a video really quick.

If you have a good GPU though there isn't really any need for it, unless you want it for the quick sync feature.

 

[dugdiamond]

BTW: if you are going down the SB route, the i5-2500K has an Intel® HD Graphics 3000 on the same die.

this does not mean that by adding another 'discrete' gpu, will result in graphics performance boost.

although, you can decide on what graphic hardware to use at certain times. just surfing the net or doing non-graphics-demanding tasks (or low-end (olde) games) can be handled by the the on-chip gpu. but, high-end gaming or anything requiring DX11, can be then switched to the extra PCI-E GPU (as SB will not cope with it)

unless, you are thinking of using both AMD and nVidia simultaneously (or in parallel (programming)), then any Lucid technology is basically useless.

lucidhydra and virtu are for those of us, that want to use old different-vendor gpus together on the same mobo, as a means to saving money.

i use hydra because, as a developer, i need to test fragment shaders on both vendor gpus, without having to take my rig apart every hour or so - lol

in the end, you are better off going pure SLI or pure crossfireX

 

[SieB]

You can't use Luci Virtu for mixing Nvidia and AMD cards it only allows use of the IGP alongside or without the GPU, only Lucidhydra allows the use of mixing vendors.

You can also use Luci Virtu to boost your GPU in games it just runs the IGP alongside the GPU the same as SLI/CFX.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/05/13/what-is-the-intel-z68-chipset/3

 

[dugdiamond]

and...... hydra does not even come close in the competition, when placed against SLI or cfX

 

[leejc73]

I used lucid virtu for about 5 minutes before disabling the igpu. Admittedly I haven't done a serious amount of rendering but with it enabled I noticed losses on heaven and the 3dmark benches.

 

[Tomtom565]

Hmmmmmmm........So pretty mixed veiws huh? , Well, i dont know still, i think i shall ponder upon it durin the next week or so.... Thanks guys for your help....i shall inform you of my decisions......