Lucid Virtu MVP: Revolution in benching?

[Massman]

Hello all,

As you might have read on the Gigabyte Tech Daily blog, there's a new software technology by LucidLogix to be launched shortly. We all know Lucid because of the crazy "let's have nvidia and ati cards work together"-technology, but this stuff is more software than it is hardware. For now.

The HWBOT staff is currently discussing its policies regarding this new technology. Given the size of impact it might have on competitive benching here at HWBOT, we also like to hear what the community has to say on it.

Anyway, in short, what is Lucid MVP about? Well, here's a bit of lecture for ya!

Virtu MVP

Uncompromised Game Response Performance

At Lucid, we believe there shouldn't be a tradeoff between frame rates and visual quality. We think that when you click the mouse it should interact with the screen instantaneously. So we created the ultimate competitive weapon. Virtu MVP, is an optimized Lucid Virtu GPU virtualization software that makes your PC look better, respond faster, process video and media smoother, all within a low power environment.

Designed for the next generation of Intel Sandy Bridge Z68/H67/H61 and other Intel integrated graphics as well as many AMD processor-based notebooks, all in one PCs and desktop motherboards, Virtu MVP has many of the same features as the popular Virtu software, but with a twist – the addition of the optional Hyperformance™ feature for intelligent reduction of redundant rendering tasks in the flow between the CPU, GPU and display. Together with improved power management, Virtu MVP:

• Boosts responsiveness to the game at any frame rate
• Improves gaming frame rates 30-70%
• Increases Vsync frame rates – up to 120 FPS and beyond
• Sharpens visual quality without tearing
• Works seamlessly with hundreds of game stations

How Hyperformance Works

3D games put the greatest demands on both the CPU and GPU. And as the race for higher performance on the PC and now in notebooks never ends, both CPUs and GPUs keep getting more robust. Despite this, display refresh rates have remained fairly flat over the years, 60-75 Hz, except for 3D stereo displays at 120Hz. Lucid takes advantage of this disparity and eliminates redundant rendering tasks and predicts potential synchronization issues in the graphics delivery pipeline and intelligently removes and or replaces them for better game control.

For more details on the specific approach Lucid took with this software, please refer to the whitepaper. In my opinion, a must-read to really understand the main concept of the technology. Whitepaper: http://www.lucidlogix.com/download/W...s%20181011.pdf

To summarize a lot of text, here's what's going on:

1) Lucid combines any IGP with a discrete graphics card
2) The IGP's task is to track down redundant frames
3) When there's a redundant frame, the IGP tells the discrete graphics card not to render it. This means that instead of rendering the entire frame (=100%), the discrete graphics card might render a part of the (~25%) or not at all (0%).
4) Because some frames are not rendered completely, more frames can be processed (20% rendering instead of 100% = 5x faster).
5) The FPS counter goes up super-dooper fast.

So it boosts FPS, what's the big deal?

As the PR states, the Virtu MVP is very likely to boost FPS rates by 30-70%. From tests, however, some reports state over 400% boost in FPS. A miracle? Or just cheating the counter?

Neither.

As Lucid indicates in interviews, the boost in FPS is not a real increase in FPS. Here are some quotes:

Originally Posted by Anandtech

In this overview Lucid has made it clear here that the principle feature of HyperFormance is that it’s reducing the rendering workload on the dGPU by intercepting and removing some rendering tasks within a frame. This in turn would reduce input lag by either allowing a GPU to render a frame faster and move on to the next frame, or just hold off entirely until it's closer to a refresh cycle so that the rendered frame is not as old.

~ http://www.anandtech.com/show/4795/i...nce-technology

Originally Posted by Techreport

Jarringly, the Fraps frame rate counter shot up to over 600 FPS with HyperFormance turned on—a consequence of the Lucid software choosing, behind the scenes, to render some frames only partially. Remez pointed out the Fraps count wasn't really a correct number, but he asserted that the higher FPS reading was an indication of responsiveness.

...

The key to HyperFormance is delivering the right frame at the right time, not an increased frame rate.

~ http://techreport.com/articles.x/21682/2

Cheat! Cheat! Cheat!

Hehe, I knew you'd react in this manner (since I wrote this post). Yes, on first sight it seems to be a cheat of the FPS counter. But, well, it's not. The 'false' FPS reading is not so much the fault of the Virtu MVP, but in fact ... the fault of the FPS counter itself. Virtu MVP does not directly address the FPS counter to make the performance look better. Actually, the Virtu MVP software doesn't 'care' about the FPS when doing its tasks, it cares about render resource efficiency.

As you understand fromt the process summary, this new technology makes it possible to either partially render frames or skip them entirely. The cool thing about this is that the image quality does not go down and Lucid claims the gaming responsiveness actually improves due to a better balance! Now, this technology is in fact very interesting because it resolves efficiency related issues: because the IGP figures out which frames have already been rendered, the discrete graphics card doesn't have to render it again. Instead of doing double (or triple work), the IGP makes sure it's only doing the necessary work. In my humble opinion ... it's the future .

Software ... or hardware?

Now, here comes another tricky part! In the whitepaper written by Lucid, they mention different implementations of this technology. One of the ideas is to have this technology embedded on-chip. Practically, put it on the IGP silicon. That would make it a hardware-based solution, not software.

Just imagine this technology being implemented on a next-generation Intel IGP, with the software being adopted as one of the instruction sets. That would mean you wouldn't have to install any additional software to have the FPS boost. It would be a complete hardware-based solution.

Allow or disallow?

There are a lot of arguments that can be made either against the software or in favor of it. I'd like to hear your opinion on this. Please, if you want to give your opinion, also use some sort of argumentation. Posts such as "this is total shit" will not be read. Instead, you might want to post "I think this is shit, because ...".

[Leeghoofd]

I vote against, as a 2nd IGP or whatever aids the other card in setting new records... The choice in hardware components will be far more limited when this will be allowed...

[Sam OCX]

I vote against using it on existing benchmarks since this may skew the current rankings, but on some 3DMark2013 or whatever (after this technology is oficially released) why not ?

[xbeaTX]

allow ...

companies are pushing apu in the market....why not exploit them?
apu are cheap ... it would be a benefit for those who can not spend thousands of dollars for high end cpu ...I think this would make the competition for top positions affordable for more people

[Leeghoofd]

Originally Posted by xbeaTX

allow ...

companies are pushing apu in the market....why not exploit them?
apu are cheap ... it would be a benefit for those who can not spend thousands of dollars for high end cpu ...I think this would make the competition for top positions affordable for more people

So you assume the top benchers will not rebench with this ? Nothing will change there, current scores will just become higher...

[dinos22]

...bring it on

[flanker]

This is good impression, but for HWBOT points I say "NO". Only without point submission category (many people hard worked at points without this category in last years and now they cant lost points because exists Lucid Virtu MVP)

[Pt1t]

exemple of the gain with Gigabyte GV-R7770OC-1GD stock :

[dinos22]

I don't know what difference GPU brand makes but I can guarantee you this result was not obtained with a Gigabyte motherboard.

[Massman]

Performance leak by OBR (HyperFormance tech)



http://pctuning.tyden.cz/component/c...rtu-mvp-v-akci