AnandTech - ECS P67H2-A Review: A visit back to Lucid's Hydra

AnandTech - ECS P67H2-A Review: A visit back to Lucid's Hydra :


by Ian Cutress on 7/21/2011 9:00:00 AM
Posted in ECS , Motherboards , P67 , Lucid
If you remember back to October 2008, there were distinct murmurings about Hydra - an encompassing hardware and software solution to bring multiple GPUs together to act as one. Then, in January 2010, Ryan tested the Hydra chip, with the end result being: more development required. In my hands is the ECS P67H2-A, the latest board to include the Hydra solution. Armed with the latest version of the Hydra software too, I'm here to review this board, to see if it works as a suitable P67 solution, and if Hydra has anything to offer.

In terms of the P67H2-A itself, there are still quite a few areas that need polishing in order to improve the end user experience. There are BIOS issues relating to usability; there's a serious overclocking issue in the case of multithreading over 4.4 GHz, and the Hydra solution still isn't what we want (but you could say it's getting there, possibly). Out of the box, very few people would have issues. But it's when you get into the meat of the product where some slightly uncomfortable ridges occur, which other competitors have potentially worked on to get the better product"