The newly emerging but promising Hydra technology has been drawing the attention of professionals and customers alike with its innovative way of providing scalable 3D performace in multi-GPU computing environments. In an interview with TG Daily, LucidLogix representative Kymberly Stowe somewhat elaborated on the technology and the details concerning its release.

The Hydra 200 parallel processor can work with any chipset, CPU and GPU and combines the hardware resources in order to create working and powerful multi-GPU systems. Now in its final stages, the technology only has to resolve a few issues regarding Windows 7 compatibility, the SoC's performance and the company's relationship with MSI.

"Lucid has a clear roadmap that includes additional features and continued performance enhancements. One important issue in the performance perspective – we reached this performance without the need for technical assistance from the game developers," Kymberly Stowe said, when asked whether performance improvements were still possible. Already, the Hydra 200 has yielded benchmark results rivaling those of SLI and CrossFire.

Stowe also made it clear that the Hydra was largely aimed at gamers and highly visual applications. As such, even now the company is testing DirectX 9 and 10 games on it, while also planning to implement DirectX 11 support. It seems that all drivers have already been VHQL-certified and it expects that the actual introduction of the technology on the market will be done at the beginning of 2010.

The representative clearly stated that the delay of the launch until 2010 was not caused by any sort of disagreement between LucidLogix and MSI, as the technology had never failed to meet MSI's requirements. Apparently, MSI revised its marketing plans recently, a revision that moved the launch date slightly further away.

"At IDF, Lucid and MSI announced the availability of the Hydra 200 in Big Bang Motherboards on October 29. Up until that date, Lucid had met all requested MSI hardware and software requirements," Stowe added. "However, MSI has since revised their launch contents and plan. We are happily supporting them. At this time, we are responding to our customer's request and are working at full speed with them to deliver a feature-rich product that they will deem consumer-ready. We are confident that we will be able to meet MSI's requirements in a timely manner."

Although NVIDIA has stated that it does not feel at all challenged by this newcomer in the graphics segment of the IT industry, the fact that benchmarks have revealed performance capabilities on par with SLI and CrossFire may still draw the leading GPU developer's attention.