LucidLogix Virtu Makes Hybrid Graphics on the desktop possible Historically, integrated graphics, with their notoriously lackluster performance, have been of little interest to power users. But perceptions began to change with Intel’s Sandy Bridge, and later its Ivy Bridge, microarchitecture. While Sandy Bridge’s DX10-class, Intel HD 2000/3000 graphics engines aren’t cutting-edge by any means, they offer enough performance for many mainstream PC users, and consequently, helped Intel gain market share in the graphics race. Ivy Bridge further improves the situation with a more powerful graphics core outfitted with additional execution units and DX11 support. Whereas Intel’s HD 3000 offers 12 EUs, Ivy Bridge’s HD 4000 engine has 16. But perhaps the most sought-after feature of Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge is Quick Sync. Quick Sync is a dedicated encoding/decoding engine that can burn through video-encoding tasks lightning-fast. Problem is, Quick Sync is part of the GPU block on Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors, and when a discrete GPU is installed and no monitor is connected to the integrated GPU, Quick Sync is unavailable. Not being able to use Quick Sync and discrete graphics simultaneously didn’t sit well with enthusiasts, but a workable solution was made available when LucidLogix introduced Virtu, a product that can virtualize the GPUs in systems and enabled hybrid graphics configurations. With Virtu, users can enjoy the benefits of a discrete GPU when gami
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