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Hardware NVIDIA PDFs Leak Quad SLI Quadro Details
Sven Olsen (Blog) - April 23, 2006 3:52 PM

18 comment(s) - last by hstewarth.. on Apr 24 at 12:03 AM

NVIDIA announced Quad SLI for its desktop series in January of this year

Rudimentry Quadro X2 benchmarks from NVIDIA

Quadros to go Quad SLI

NVIDIA's most recent Quadro FX Overview (PDF) has quite a few references to a GeForce 4500 X2 adaptor. On Thursday, NVIDIA released six new Quadro FX adaptors, including the Quadro FX 5500 series which is exactly the same as a Quadro FX 4500 but with 1GB of GDDR2 memory instead of 512MB of GDDR3. However, the Quadro FX 4500 X2 has not been announced yet, even though it shows up all over NVIDIA documentation.

NVIDIA insiders tell us the Quadro FX 4500 X2 is two Quadro FX 4500 adaptors built on the same PCB used for Quad SLI GeForce 7xxx series graphic cards. The Quadro FX 4500, which already consumes 108W during peak operation, can usually be had for approximately $2,000. NVIDIA insiders tell us the X2 uses more than 200W during peak operation, but would not reveal core or memory clock speeds. The behemoth features four Dual-Link DVI outputs, and is SLI-ready for Quad SLI.

The NVIDIA Quadro linecard (PDF) has a little bit more information about the dual GPU monster, including some bennchmarks (featured, right). NVIDIA's Detonator 84.20 added the following Quadro FX 4500 X2 to the supported adaptor list, so we can almost certainly expect to see a launch before the next Detonator release.

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Hmm...

By OmegaPrime on 4/23/2006 4:33:38 PM , Rating: 2

I hope this isn't a stupid question, but how come it's the 4500 series? I would've thought it'd be something like 7900, unless quad setups use a different numbering system...

RE: Hmm...

By skyyspam on 4/23/2006 4:39:57 PM , Rating: 2

Quadro = nvidia's "high-end" professional video cards. They're for CAD and the like.

They're not designed for games, and they're very expensive.

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RE: Hmm...

By skyyspam on 4/23/2006 4:42:47 PM , Rating: 2

I think I misread your question, sorry.

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RE: Hmm...

By ZombieRitual on 4/23/2006 4:51:31 PM , Rating: 2

I suppose they use a different numbering system because it's a completely different line of cards aimed at a completely different market as opposed to the Geforce line.

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RE: Hmm...

By Samus on 4/23/2006 5:33:59 PM , Rating: 2

I wonder if you can modify the firmware on a 7600 to a 4500 and run quad sli with a set of 7600's.

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RE: Hmm...

By plewis00 on 4/23/2006 6:16:19 PM , Rating: 2

There was a load of stuff before about modding consumer cards to professional ones, i.e. Radeons to FireGLs and GeForces to Quadros. I remember reading an article on it a while back turning a GeForce MX440 into a Quadro (not sure of the model number). I think these days they make it harder to do so, even though the silicon is theoretically the same.

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RE: Hmm...

By poopyman67 on 4/23/2006 7:00:39 PM , Rating: 2

I've been trying to figure this out for a long time, but I still can't understand what exactly the difference is between a quadro and a 7600 is. I know theyre used by professionals for 3d modeling, etc, what what tangible benefits do they provide?

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RE: Hmm...

By hstewarth on 4/23/2006 7:12:47 PM , Rating: 1

The nVidia link provides a PDF that documents the technical difference between GeForce and Quadro graphics.

http://www.nvidia.com/attach/168466?type=support&p...

I think its things like Anti-alias lines for cad and clip regions in hardware. I also heard it really only necessary if you have the large professional monitors.

I do stuff with Lightwave and lot of people use high end gaming cards quite successfully.

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RE: Hmm...

By smitty3268 on 4/23/2006 7:23:19 PM , Rating: 2

This post may be shredded later by people who know more than I do, but I think the main difference is that consumer cards are optimized to bring data from main memory -> the video card, while the professional cards have much better performance transferring data from the video card -> main memory. It used to be mainly a difference of drivers, but maybe they've added features into the hardware since then.

They really do produce a significant difference when it comes to modeling, though.

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RE: Hmm...

By PrinceGaz on 4/23/2006 8:42:18 PM , Rating: 2

The drivers for Quadro cards enable a number of additional features mainly in OpenGL, the most well known of which is support for anti-aliased lines. There are numerous other things they also enable along with a whole load of additional options in the drivers, but none of them are of any real value unless you are a 3D graphic-designer that would run the kind of applications where a Quadro card is advantageous.

Many models of GeForce card can be soft-modded such that it installs and fully utilises Quadro driver support through utilities such as RivaTuner. But there is zero value in doing so if you're a gamer, in fact performance will probably go down slightly in games as Quadro drivers don't have all of the game specific tweaks. Having said that, if you have a moddable card (only certain NV cores and designs are) and are interested in messing about with it, your SPECviewperf scores will probably more than double after successfully soft-modding.

Given how much a professional Quadro/FireGL card (or a modded GeForce/Radeon) outperforms even the best gamer cards in SPECviewperf, it always amazes me that AT even include it in benchmarks for CPUs with gamers cards, and in benchmarks of gamers cards as no serious designer would be using them. If you want to test how SPECviewperf runs with new CPUs, put a proper graphics-card in the box! :p

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Any news for SLI for Woodcrest processors

By hstewarth on 4/23/2006 7:01:46 PM , Rating: 2

I am curious if there is any plans for for SLI/Quad SLI on Woodcrest processors ( Xeon 51xx ).

These are professional graphics cards and they are more suit for Xeon processors in the Intel camp.

RE: Any news for SLI for Woodcrest processors

By killerroach on 4/23/2006 7:23:19 PM , Rating: 2

You're forgetting that, in a professional rendering environment, you're probably talking more than one CPU as well as those massive GPUs, in which case AMD's solutions do (at present) have it all over Intel.

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RE: Any news for SLI for Woodcrest processors

By hstewarth on 4/23/2006 8:36:46 PM , Rating: 1

I believe this will signficantly change with the Woodcrest for the following reasons:

1. Intel claims 80% faster than existing Xeons
2. 1333Mhz dual independent bus
3. FB-Dimm memory is 4x faster than current memory
4. 3Ghz Woodcrest should be faster than 3Ghz Conroe with
would be way faster than any current processor.
5. Combine with SAS 15k drives and fast SATA II drives.

I am not worry about any existing system, its Conroe and Woodcrest that will make the difference.

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RE: Any news for SLI for Woodcrest processors

By Scrogneugneu on 4/23/2006 8:57:27 PM , Rating: 2

1. Ever heard a company claiming a huge performance advantage, but in reality struggling to get half of it in most situations?

2. Will definately help on Intel's architecture.

3. See #1.

4. Should, would, might. Conroe isn't out yet, we can't be sure of it's performance advantage. Woodcrest isn't out yet, we can't be sure of it's performance comparison with Conroe. If you believe Conroe is 50% faster than everything actually existing in the processor area, please go back to #1.

5. That has nothing to do with Intel vs AMD, as both can use fast drives.

For now, AMD has it on the server side. Intel does have something coming up, and there are several reasons that might give back the edge to Intel. However, those reasons are not based on pre-launch PR. And never forget : Intel isn't stupid enough to stand still while AMD launches great processors, but AMD isn't stupid either. Conroe/Woodcrest will/should be a great improvement over current performance, but you can't say AMD won't come up with another trick either. Until everything is really available, then, we shall assume that AMD rules the server market. For now.

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RE: Any news for SLI for Woodcrest processors

By fishmonger12 on 4/23/2006 9:50:51 PM , Rating: 2

We aren't concerned with the server market. Noone puts quad-sli in a server. Workstations :). And I would definitely go with AMD, as they have the best product at the moment and near future. The long run is not very easy to predict (see article "Prescott and the move to 90 nm")

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RE: Any news for SLI for Woodcrest processors

By hstewarth on 4/23/2006 11:51:10 PM , Rating: 2

Woodcrest systems are not all for server market - the one I am talking about is for Highend workstation market. Which by the way the cards mention in this article are design for.

When you mean near future, you mean next 2 or 3 months. Because Woodcrest is coming in July. Yes the 80% is from Intel - but there have been already Conroe tests and there severly impressive. The FD-Dimm memory speeds are not from Intel but the memory manufactors themselves.

I have yet to see any performance tests with the Woodcrest and that is probably for a reason. I believe Intel wants them to be a surprise. It just a feeling on behave, just by reading up on propose tech specs - its got to make an extreme distance. The thing about it is the technology in the Woodcrest will likely not be in desktops until 2007/2008 time ( FD Dimms and new bus ).

One thing. these systems are not cheap - I estimate that the system I planned to build will be $5000. But its likely 4 to 6 times faster than my 3.2Ghz P4. Just my prediction

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RE: Any news for SLI for Woodcrest processors

By hstewarth on 4/23/2006 11:55:40 PM , Rating: 2

One more thing, I would not doubt AMD will be taking advantage of FD-Dimm's as soon as they can. To take advantage of 64 bit they need it. FD-Dimm allow up to 192G of memory on system. Even though I heard that the Woodcrest chipset only allows up 64G.

It would be best if AMD support it. Why because it means that the price of memory will go down - supply and demand. So it would best to both Intel and AMD fans if both systems supported.

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RE: Any news for SLI for Woodcrest processors

By hstewarth on 4/24/2006 12:03:27 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
1. Ever heard a company claiming a huge performance advantage, but in reality struggling to get half of it in most situations?

That may be true in Netburst, but Conroe and Woodcrest is a whole new ball game - lets just wait and find out.

quote:
That has nothing to do with Intel vs AMD, as both can use fast drives

This was never about AMD vs Intel. This article is about Quad SLI Workstation cards and I am curious if SLI is going to be on Woodcrest Workstation chipset - Greencreek ??? or updated version

http://endian.net/details.aspx?tag=Greencreek

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