14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that LucidLogix is genuinely determined to make Intel CPUs and discrete graphics work as well as possible together, with a certain applications having been made available as a free trial.
Some time ago, LucidLogix announced that it had created an application that allows an operating system to automatically switch between the built-in Sandy Bridge CPU graphics and any discrete GPU available.
This functionality is more or less similar to the NVIDIA Optimus technology, the main difference being that it works on AMD video controllers as well.
The trial set up for direct availability should, thus, lead to energy savings when the discrete GPU is idle. It will even work in two configurations.
One of the modes is d-Mode (discrete GPU), for when the screen is plugged into the graphics card's display connector, while the other is i-Mode, for having the monitor connected to the Sandy Bridge CPU.
When determining which of the two graphics solutions is most suited for whatever task, Virtu takes into account both power and performance features.
“With Virtu software, Lucid allows the user to seamlessly enjoy all of the features of their graphics and media devices,” said Offir Remez, president and founder of LucidLogix.
“We quickly learned that every user has his own preferences and needs from their systems, preferring their own unique mixture of high performance, feature rich or power efficiency, therefore we’ve further simplified things by eliminating the requirement to choose a specific display connection.”
The invention that really gave LucidLogix the recognition it has now was the Hydra technology, which spawned SoCs (system-on-chip) that removed all limitation form multi-GPU setups, allowing both AMD and NVIDIA cards of whatever model to combined forces.
The Virtu, unlike Hydra, is a software solution, meaning that users can more easily get it. In fact, the aforementioned free trial can be downloaded form this page.