Triedout the "Lucid Virtu" feature on the gigabyte UD4, and.......

[Phil2008]

I thought I would see if this really works,, and yes it does (but)

First I downloaded and installed the intel display drivers and the virtu software, then I unplugged the dvi cable out of my 6950 and plugged in a hdmi cable between the onboard graphics and the monitor. I tried crysis benchmark and shift2, with crysis I lost about 2-3fps and with shift2 I lost 10-15 fps.

So yeah It works but you loose a bit of speed even tho its using the correct gpu and its clever how it outputs your main graphics gpu through the onboard gpu socket.

So basically if there wasn't any fps lost, I would use the feature, as its really good on paper, but not all that great in practice yet. also the mountain on the benchmark of crysis wasn't very detailed

 

[Phil2008]

Yeah I tried connecting it from 6950 to monitor, but it was using the 6950 while browsing the net, and the whole idea of it, is to only use your main gpu for gamming. But connecting it this way, didnt use the onboard gpu at all.

 

[Phil2008]

You need a wall socket showing you how much power you are taking from the wall to get a real feel for how much less power you are drawing when using LV. From there you can decide if the overheads that cause the slight fps loss are really worth it. That said when you are gaming, it does not take much effort to turn LV off.

But it will be connected to the onboard gpu,, so its not that easy as just turning the LU on and off

 

[Phil2008]

Also when you turn off the LV it disables the main gpu from working, as I tried and was getting about 10fps in games.

 

[Phil2008]

By plugging the cable into the graphics card, the onboard gfx helps with decoding or something like that anyway. So to make it work so your main graphics card only works with demanding stuff, you have to be connected to the onboard graphics.

 

[Phil2008]

Plus the 3d kicks in for firefox with my 6950, so I mode would be handy for that too, letting the processor's gpu work firefox instead of the 6950.

Like I said, if it wasn't for the performance loss in games I would use LV

 

[Phil2008]

I thought Lucid was for using Quicksync with discrete graphics cards because Quicksync will only output to the onboard graphics.
Therefore it saves you the hassle of having to enable and disable drivers and outputs manually and rebooting.
So if you are encoding, enable virtu, get your fast encoding done (whilst viewing what ever display is connected to your onboard vga). When encoding finished switch back to normal mode using the discrete gpu (on whatever display is plugged into your card).
I didnt think it actually used your discrete card's power and pushed it through to your onboard vga output?

the fast encoding feature works if your connected up to your main gpu and not the onboard's gpu

 

[Phil2008]

Im about to order a Z68 itx board that has both intels onboard video and a onboard nvidia GT430. It says it has lucid virtu. Would this mean if I ran my screen off one of the video outs that normally handles the intel video then it might actually use both depending on the application been used and load?

I understand fps may or may not take a hit which is something that would need to be tested.

You got it spot on. Plus you can add progs/games in the profile that you what your main gpu to use. So everything thats not listed in the profile will use the intel's onboard gpu. http://www.youtube.com/v/Y7Br3W3fX4U?autoplay=1&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&playerapiid=ytplayer

Tell us how you get on with it