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NVIDIA launches industry's first 4GB graphics card

NVIDIA is one of the biggest players in the graphics market and has a full line of GPUs and graphics cards for different needs including those of the general consumer, business user and gamer. NVIDIA's line of Quadro graphics cards are some of the most popular cards in the business market and today NVIDIA has introduced its latest Quadro graphics card.

The card is called the Quadro FX 5800 and its biggest feature is the first time in the industry that a graphics card has featured 4GB of graphics memory. Even NVIDIA's dual GPU enthusiast video cards like the 9800 GX2 only sported 2GB of RAM.

NVIDIA's Jeff Brown, GM of professional solutions said in a statement, "The size and complexity of data is growing at an exponential rate. The challenge for today's professional is to make sense of the mountain of data by distilling it into a form they can comprehend, analyze, and use to make impactful decisions.”

“At stake can be billions of investment dollars, or even people's lives. The Quadro FX 5800 has advanced features to allow massive datasets to be viewed beyond traditional 3D enabling professionals to make fast and accurate decisions."

In addition to the massive amount of RAM, the FX 5800 offers up to 240 CUDA programmable parallel cores. The card supports interactive 4D modeling with time-lapse capability. Memory bandwidth is up to 102 GB per second and fill rates exceed 52 billion texels per second. Geometry performance is reported to be 300 million triangles per second. The card also features 10-bit color.

The FX 5800 supports both Open GL and DirectX 10 applications. Multi-system and multi-device virtualization is supported with Quadro G-Sync II. NVIDIA says that the levels of performance the FX 5800 offers is needed for demanding environments like oil/gas exploration, medical imaging, and styling/design applications.

The Quadro FX 5800 is available now at an MSRP of $3,499. NVIDIA saw its profits drop significantly in Q3 so it needs a popular product to help it regain its former glory.

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I'll Take 2!
By pauldovi on 11/10/2008 11:10:41 AM , Rating: 2
I think even a business person who does intensive graphical design would have a hard time justifying this. Current hardware is plenty sufficient, for a fraction of the price.




RE: I'll Take 2!
By StevoLincolnite on 11/10/2008 11:18:23 AM , Rating: 2
Not to mention people have had allot of success in the past of modding there Geforce/Radeon into Quadro/FireGL cards with a BIOS change or modded drivers.


RE: I'll Take 2!
By theapparition on 11/10/2008 12:10:36 PM , Rating: 2
Ha....unfortunately, those BIOS tweaks are long gone.

I remember soldering zero-ohm resistors on Geforce2 cards to make true Quadro2 cards. No difference.
Than came the BIOS tweaks for the Geforce 3 and 4 cards. While performance increased sporatically, it was nowhere near the performance of a true Quadro4 card. Stability went down, and that's a major no-no in a business enviroment.
Even now, there may be some silly way to trick the Quadro drivers onto the system, but in reality, the GPU is different and it lacks the hardware to take advantage of the Quadro features.


RE: I'll Take 2!
By Cypherdude1 on 11/10/2008 11:36:18 PM , Rating: 1
There's another new nVidia product which is cheaper and can connect up to four (4) digital monitors or TV's, the $500 nVidia Quadro NVS 450:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadro_nvs_45...

nVidia made some improvements from its aging NVS 440 design. I guess too many people were opting for 2 ATI 4850 performance cards instead of one 2D NVS 440. The NVS 450 has 4 separate connectors and can now handle video. While it isn't meant for playing games, it can be used for business applications, especially Wall Street applications. Although the $500 NVS 450 didn't make any headlines as the $3,500 Quadro FX 5800 did, the NVS 450 will certainly be a big hit with traders. The NVS 450 will outsell the FX 5800 by at least 10-1.


RE: I'll Take 2!
By Cobra Commander on 11/10/2008 11:19:27 AM , Rating: 2
By graphical design you're referring to, "...demanding environments like oil/gas exploration, medical imaging, and styling/design applications."?


RE: I'll Take 2!
By theapparition on 11/10/2008 12:01:51 PM , Rating: 2
I actually put several of these on order today before even reading the article.
When dealing with complex 3D models in an engineering/analysis enviroment, even small increases in performance can lead to signifigant increases in productivity.


RE: I'll Take 2!
By headbox on 11/10/08, Rating: 0
RE: I'll Take 2!
By rykerabel on 11/10/2008 4:02:08 PM , Rating: 2
Seriously.

Even this will still be slow when trying to visualize scientific data that we have here.


RE: I'll Take 2!
By The0ne on 11/10/2008 5:44:29 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not sure if your scientific data is 3D intensive enough to warrant these types of video cards. While I'm not a CAD user myself I have and know plenty of mechanical engineers that work on complexed 3D models. As someone said within this thread, on very complex task that does require the power from these cards, seconds matters a whole lot.

Even my modeling analysis don't require the high end cards. But still nice to have one that runs things "smoothly." :)


RE: I'll Take 2!
By The0ne on 11/10/2008 1:27:01 PM , Rating: 2
No doubt most users here have never used or had the need to use these types of video cards


RE: I'll Take 2!
By VaultDweller on 11/10/2008 1:34:11 PM , Rating: 2
Nay, I say. If current hardware is sufficient, why do people use things like render farms?


So it's a GTX280...
By DanoruX on 11/10/2008 1:38:06 PM , Rating: 2
...with 3 more gigs of ram. At $1000/GB. How do you justify this?




RE: So it's a GTX280...
By theapparition on 11/10/2008 2:17:50 PM , Rating: 5
Because it's not just 3GB of extra RAM.

It's also extra hardware based features (the GPU is diferent than the consumer based one) that can drastically speed up certain applications. Games, however, have absolutely no benefit from these features and they are omitted from the consumer level cards.

You also get different drivers, that must pass through more rounds of testing than the consumer ones and generally get certified for your hardware and applications.

Plus you get actual direct support, something you'll never get with a consumer level card.

If the above features mean nothing to you (like most), than save your $3K. For some business, however, that $3K can be money well spent.

FYI, my hardware budget PALES in comparison to my software one. Who cares about spending $10K on a machine that has over $100K worth of software loaded on it?


RE: So it's a GTX280...
By Lord 666 on 11/10/2008 4:50:19 PM , Rating: 2
Have you tried to run a VMWare converter tool to make a copy of rendering rig? Would be interesting to see if it worked.

Assuming you are in the oil industry or other GIS based gig.


RE: So it's a GTX280...
By theapparition on 11/11/2008 6:59:28 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Assuming you are in the oil industry or other GIS based gig.

Nope, I own a design engineering/analysis firm.

quote:
Have you tried to run a VMWare converter tool to make a copy of rendering rig?

Never tried. What would be the benefit, trying to get a pseudo GPU hyperthreading?


RE: So it's a GTX280...
By emboss on 11/11/2008 4:41:02 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
the GPU is diferent than the consumer based one


The GPU itself on a Quadro card is and has always been the same as some GPU in the consumer line. There are usually some small differences at the board level (such as when the Quadros had two DVI ports vs a VGA and a DVI on the Geforce cards).

It used to be that there was just a quick check in the Quadro drivers to limit them to only work on Quadro cards. However, NVidia has now added fuses in the die to prevent the Quadro features from working on Geforce cards. Basically the same as Intel using fuses to limit the maximum multiplier on non-Extreme CPUs. ATI, AFAIK, still relies solely on driver checks.

The rest of your post is right though - you're basically paying for the drivers and the support.


RE: So it's a GTX280...
By theapparition on 11/11/2008 7:05:14 AM , Rating: 2
Yes, but the end result is the same. You cannot enable Quadro features on a Geforce card, no matter what driver you are able to install.

I don't know much about the ATI cards, since for OpenGL applications, the Radeons have been severly lacking in performance compared to the Quadro line. Until I see that change, I'm sticking with nVidia.


RE: So it's a GTX280...
By King of Heroes on 11/11/2008 9:43:19 AM , Rating: 3
Actual, tested, not-beta, certified-to-work drivers? Competent tech support?

I think it sucks that you have to pay such an enormous premium to get stuff that SHOULD be standard to all the products they sell. Just the driver part alone angers me. I have to pay over $3,000 just to get a guarantee that the drivers I need to use my new card actually work? Shouldn't I be getting that no matter what card I buy?


What's in a name
By AmberClad on 11/10/2008 11:42:07 AM , Rating: 3
What is it with both Intel and Nvidia dredging up old product names that were better off left forgotten?

Intel: Pentium D EE 965 --> Core i7 965EE
Nvidia: GeForce FX 5800 (aka Dustbuster) --> Quadro FX 5800




RE: What's in a name
By Cobra Commander on 11/10/2008 11:56:32 AM , Rating: 2
Do you fault BMW for have a 335i and a 535i? even though 75% of the model's names are identical?

Similary "Pentium D" is not = "Core i7" just as "GeForce" is not = "Quadro". There's plenty dissimilarity here to not be a problem.

NVIDIA has not dredged anything up, they've been using "Quadro FX" for about 5 years now.


RE: What's in a name
By omnicronx on 11/10/2008 3:24:17 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Do you fault BMW for have a 335i and a 535i? even though 75% of the model's names are identical?
Worst example ever! That's the engine size.. a 328 is a 3 series with a 2.8 liter engine, a 330 has a 3.0 engine a 535 is a 5 series with a 3.5 liter engine and so on.. They are not re-using model names..

I agree with the OP, first thing I thought of when I read fx 5800 is the P.O.S dustbuster. Very bad marketing on Nvidias part regardless if it is a different line of video card. Why on earth would you want people to remember possibly their worst line of video cards ever.