Nvidia Unleashes New High-Performance Quadro Graphics Cards

Nvidia has unveiled seven new Quadro graphics cards, ranging from a 4 GB behemoth with 240 CUDA cores to a card that can handle two 30-inch displays for under $100.

Graphics developer Nvidia might be involved in a budding patent bruhaha with chipmaking giant Intel, but that’s not stopping the company from rolling out new graphics cards. Today Nvidia unveiled six new entries in its Quadro FX line of high-performance cards, and a new consumer-friendly Quadro NVS 295 card that has enough oomph to handle two 30-inch monitors…at a price under $100.

“Our mission with Quadro is to help customers solve the world’s most challenging visual computing problems,” said Nvidia executive VP of marketing Dan Vivoli, in a statement. “We learn every day from them and are humbled by their brilliance. The new lineup, with the flagship Quadro FX 5800, sets the stage for the next ten years of innovation.”

The two-slot Quadro FX 5800 is indeed an impressive system, aimed at graphics and visualization professionals who need huge modeling capabilities. The Fx 5800 features 240 CUDA parallel processing cores and a whopping 4 GB of onboard video memory; it also features dual link DVI and DisplayPort outputs and memory bandwidth of over 100 GB per second. Of course, it also eats 189 watts all by itself and carries a price tag over $3,100.

At the lower end of the new lineup, the Quadro NVS 295 sports 256 MB of video memory, but can handle two 30-inch (2,560 by 1,600 pixel) displays all by itself—and it will carry a retail price under $100, making it a good choice for users looking to get into multiple monitor setups. And it consumes only 23 watts!

The remainder of Nvidia’s new cards span the high-end to mid-range needs, focusing on CAD and industry applications rather than gaming: think lots of modeling and visualization, but the cards also offer significant raw performance. All seven new cards will be available through OEMs shortly.