While both Intel and AMD's graphics subsidiary, ATI, are preparing their 2009 graphics solutions for professional users and workstation systems, Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA has just introduced its latest Quadro FX 5800 graphics card. The company's new Quadro solution has been specifically designed to meet the requirements of professionals that demand high performance and advanced visual computing solutions. With the new product, NVIDIA brings forth the industry's first graphics card to boast no less than 4GB of graphics memory.

 

"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," said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Solutions, NVIDIA. "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."

 

The Quadro FX 5800 graphics card is touted to deliver unprecedented performance by incorporating up to 240 CUDA programmable parallel cores, combined with the massive 4GB of graphics memory. In addition, the new professional graphics card also includes features such as interactive 4D modeling with time lapse capabilities, massive memory bandwidth of up to 102GB/s, support for Microsoft's DirectX 10 and OpenGL applications, while, thanks to the Quadro G-Sync II, it also brings advanced multi-system and multi-device visualization environments.

 

In addition to all this, according to the card's technical specifications, fill rates can exceed 52 billion texels/s, while the geometry performance goes all the way to 300 million triangles/s.

 

As you might expect, such a graphics monster doesn't come cheap, but then again, this isn't a card for the everyday gaming user. Designed for computer professionals, this new Quadro FX 5800 graphics card from NVIDIA will become available through leading PC manufacturers and workstation system integrators, as well as through the company’s channel partners, including PNY Technologies, Leadtek and Elsa, for a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $3,499.