A $2000 Graphics Card

[johnnymk]

This appears to be for high end workstations

http://www.deskeng.com/Articles/Hardware-Review/New-Graphics-Power-200705251909.html


NVIDIA recently sent us its Quadro FX 4600, one of two new ultra high-end graphics cards announced in February. Both the FX 4600 and the even more powerful Quadro FX 5600 are based on NVIDIA’s new G80 GPU architecture, first introduced last November in the company’s GeForce 8800 GTS and GTX cards. Both of the new Quadro boards are targeted at high-end users who need interactive display of large, complex models, including automotive and aerospace design, oil and gas exploration, and scientific visualization.

The new FX 4600 is the successor to the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, which we reviewed last year (see June 2006 DE), and offers significant improvements in capabilities and performance. For example, according to NVIDIA the Quadro FX 4600 offers up to 1.6 times performance improvement over the FX 4500.

Like its predecessor, the new Quadro FX 4600 has an ATX form factor, measuring 4.38 in. x 9.0 in. The board plugs into a PCI Express X16 slot, and its maximum power consumption of 134 watts means that an auxiliary connection to the system power supply is also required. A large cooling fan and plastic cowl protrude more than an inch from the board, making it impossible to use the adjacent expansion slot.

On the output side, the Quadro FX 4600 provides two DVI-I display connectors, both with dual link capabilities, enabling the board to power two monitors. Analog resolution tops out at 2048 x 1536, while the board can power ultra-high-resolution digital displays at up to 2560 3 1600, or as high as 3840 x 2400 at 24/41 Hz refresh rates.

There’s also a VESA stereo connector and both the FX 4600 and 5600 support the forthcoming version of NVIDIA’s Quadro G-Sync and SDI option cards, providing frame lock and broadcast-quality video capabilities, respectively. The new Quadro FX 4600 and 5600 are also the first professional graphics cards to offer support for HCP, which allows protected commercial HD DVD and Blu-Ray movies to be played back on a PC.

More info on the link

[InfiniteNothing]

Hmmm, it's not exactly what I'd call a plain old graphics card. It's more like a graphics co processor for profesional editing/rendering.

[Memo]

Ya the Quadros are professional cards. Not really for playing World of Warcraft hehe.

[redcolours]

its not a big surprise to see ultra high-end graphics cards to get that expensive. its for doing actual work - if it can do complex models easily, then it should be worth it.

kinda like flying the Concorde (before it was grounded) - $10k a flight is nothing for businesses that deal with multi-million dollar deals.

better than buying a $1500 keyboard. :rolleyes:

[Napoleon54]

its not a big surprise to see ultra high-end graphics cards to get that expensive. its for doing actual work - if it can do complex models easily, then it should be worth it.

kinda like flying the Concorde (before it was grounded) - $10k a flight is nothing for businesses that deal with multi-million dollar deals.

better than buying a $1500 keyboard. :rolleyes:

:stupid:

No private individual will be buying this thing, it's gotta be targeted to businesses that need absolutely the highest-end stuff. "High price" really isn't significant when you're doing stuff like that; it's a minor expense. If investing in a vid card like this will speed up the progress of a multi-million dollar project, then the decision to buy is a no-brainer.

[Jeffbx]

Yeah, the Quadro line are 'certified' to work with specific CAD & design packages. So once you drop your $35k for the license, it's not so painful to spend another $5k on a PC to run it.

Back in the day, you needed a UNIX machine to run these programs since the Wintel architecture just couldn't keep up. Back then (probably about 5-7 years ago), it wasn't unusual to spend $35-40k on the UNIX workstation to run this stuff. Now that Wintel holds its own against commercial UNIX, just about everyone is switching over.

The stupid thing is that the architecture on the Quadro and GeForce lines are almost identical, but the Quadro costs about 2x more because it serves this 'high end' market. The only reason people still pay for it is because they were used to spending so much for the UNIX hardware, so even with the grossly overpriced cards they're selling, it's still WAY cheaper than AIX, HP/UX or IRIX.