3DNN

The Lucid Hydra chip on the Crosshair IV allows the motherboard to run up to four graphic cards. In addition to adding support for SLI, it also allows users to mix Nvidia and AMD graphics card together. It’s something that we’ve always dreamt of. There are three modes supported:
A: AMD CrossFire
N: Nvidia SLI
X: AMD+Nvidia

Setting up the dual cards requires a bit of extra work, but it’s not too bad. In order to run the multi-GPU setup, users would have to first install the graphic cards drivers, then install the HydraLogix driver. Users who wish to update the graphic cards driver must also uninstall the HydraLogix driver first before uninstalling the graphic card driver.

The ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme board is based on the AMD 890FX chipset, and comes with the Lucid Hydra chip, which will support up to three Nvidia cards in SLI and up to four AMD cards in CrossFireX. The CrossFireX is natively supported by the AMD chipset as well as the Hydra chip. In addition, the Hydra chip adds support for up to three cards in SLI or mixed-mode. Be sure to read the manual to see which slots to install the cards and also what type of configurations are available.