NVDIA Quadro FX 5600 architecture now available top-to-bottom
(Product News, 01 Oct 2007 )
Earlier this year, NVIDIA unveiled its record-setting NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 and Quadro FX 4600 professional graphics boards based on an industry-changing unified architecture that delivers high-performance processing, support for Shader Model 4.0, NVIDIA GPU computing, and other breakthrough features. Today, the company extended the family, with the launch of new mid-range and entry-level 2D and 3D Quadro boards for professionals in the CAD/CAM, DCC, medical imaging, digital video and financial sectors. The new Quadro professional graphics also redefine the price/performance dynamic for professional graphics-from the Quadro FX 370, available for the unprecedented entry price of $129 MSRP to the Quadro FX 1700, with an MSRP of $699. These new boards have the capabilities required to visualize the latest generation of complex 2D, video and 3D content. Now there is a Quadro solution for many types of users, projects and budgets.
The NVIDIA Quadro professional series now includes:
Market Name / Frame Buffer Size Price (MSRP) Entry-Level 3D Quadro FX 370, 256 MB $129 Professional 2D Quadro NVS 290, 256 MB $149 Quadro FX 570, 256 MB $199 Mid-Range 3D Quadro FX 1700, 512 MB $699
"NVIDIA breathed new life into the upper end of the professional graphics market, and now they're pushing in the other direction with the Quadro FX 370-driving current generation GPU technology to a very aggressive sub $150 price point-and this focus should be rewarded once more," said Jon Peddie, principal, Jon Peddie Research. "There are a lot of budget conscious professionals out there who may have opted for consumer-class graphics in the past, but will now take the step to the promise of better performance and reliability of ISV-certified Quadro FX hardware."
The new NVIDIA unified architecture dynamically allocates geometry, shading, pixel processing and compute power, allowing 3D content developers to use the full power of the board's rendering capabilities regardless of the type of rendering they require. Game developers who have performance-optimized polygonal models with lots of textures will devote more of the board's shaders to textures. Automotive and aerospace engineers, whose models consist of high-density polygonal models and few or no textures, will use most of the board's power for vertex calculations. And a styling designer working with both polygon and vertex-based models will find that the board dynamically allocates the shader pipeline based on what part and how much detail of the model is visible.
In addition to sharing the same core unified architecture and drivers, all NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics solutions are now Shader Model 4.0 compliant and come with the increased frame buffer capacity needed to make them fully Microsoft Vista ready.
These latest boards also support the new NVIDIA CUDA(tm) GPU-computing software architecture. Computing with NVIDIA CUDA technology extends the functionality of the GPU to address a wide range of mathematically intensive problems. This breakthrough computing architecture in NVIDIA's latest generation of GPUs is complemented by the CUDA C language programming environment and tool suite.
"With a complete line-up of new graphics technology, HP and NVIDIA can now provide engineers and artists with a choice of solutions to meet their needs," said Will Wade, global product manager for HP workstations. "This complete line-up provides the latest technologies of NVIDIA's unified architecture and Shader Model 4.0 to every user, from the entry-level review of assembly drawings all the way up to the most extreme designer."
"NVIDIA continues to elevate graphics performance for professional SOFTIMAGE(r)|XSI(r) artists in the 3D animation community, and the company's certification programs and ongoing commitment to driver development ensures stability in the production pipeline," said Marc Stevens, General Manager and Vice President of Softimage, Co, a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. "By unifying its Quadro series of graphics with its high-performance unified architecture, NVIDIA solutions combined with SOFTIMAGE animation tools offer outstanding graphics performance, reliability, and price points to the most demanding 3D artists."
NVIDIA Quadro solutions are widely available through leading system manufacturers such as HP, Dell, IBM, Lenovo, and Sun; leading workstation system integrators; and NVIDIA channel partners PNY Technologies (US and EMEA), Leadtek (APAC) and Elsa (Japan). For more information about the complete lineup of NVIDIA Quadro professional solutions, please visit www.nvidia.com.
