X-bit labs

There Will Be Speed: The Clash of Modern Multi-GPU Technologies (page 4)

Category: Video

by Alexey Stepin , Yaroslav Lyssenko, Anton Shilov

[ 03/24/2008 | 05:01 PM ]

HybridPower

Hybrid CeossFire and HybridPower are logical additions to traditional power-saving technologies such as ATI PowerPlay supported by ATI Radeon HD 3000 family. While the point of PowerPlay is in dynamic management of the frequency and voltage of the GPU and in turning off functional subunits that are idling at the given moment of time, then HybridPower and Hybrid CrossFire work completely differently. If supported by the mainboard, this technology allows using the graphics core integrated into the chipset to output 2D image, disabling discrete graphics cores and thus reducing the power consumption of the platform.

Although the power draw of one G92 chip is rather low in 2D mode, this capability may come in handy if the system includes two GeForce 9800 GX2 cards because they carry a total of 4 such chips. We estimate the power draw of a GeForce 9800 GX2 Quad SLI system at 140W and more even in idle mode. If the idle chips are disabled, the platform may get more economical.

HybridPower itself is a subset of Hybrid SLI technology, but the ability to work together with an integrated graphic core is not very important for such a powerful graphics card as GeForce 9800 GX2. That’s why this new interesting card doesn’t support the other part of the technology, GeForce Boost.