14 DAY TRIAL // Nvidia has just announced the expansion of its Quadro professional line of graphics cards with five new models which, when compared to their predecessors, double the size of the video buffer available to the GPU and increase the number of shaders while also featuring the company's Optimus technology.
The flagship of the new Quadro line is the 5010M which features 384 shaders and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory that is connected to the GPU via a 256 bit wide bus.
Judging by its specifications, the card seems to be based on a full version of the GF114 core, the same GPU used in the desktop GTX 560 Ti, but, the mobile version of the card, features a reduced TDP, which is estimated at 100W by Nvidia.
Next in line is the Quadro 4000M which is most likely based on a cut down version of the GF114 GPU as it packs the same 256-bit memory bus as its older, and more powerful, brother while carrying the same 100W TDP.
This card, however, comes with “only” 336 CUDA cores and 2GB of GDDR5 memory that works at reduced clock speeds in comparison with the 5100M since the memory bandwidth has been cut down from 83.2GB/s to 80.0GB/s.
The same memory bandwidth is available in Nvidia's next Quadro graphics card, the 3000M, but this time, the GPU features 240 stream processors and a reduced 75W TDP.
One step beneath the 3000M is the Quadro 2000M that is based on a yet-unreleased Nvidia GPU as it drops the 256-bit wide memory bus of its older brother for an 128-bit video buffer interface while also using slower DDR3 memory and just 192 CUDA cores.
This means that the 2GB of video buffer installed are able to provide only 28.8GB/s of memory bandwidth, more than 2.5 times less than the Quadro 3000M or 4000M.
But this also means that the card features a reduced TDP which is rated at 55W.
Even more power efficient is the Quadro 1000M that has a TDP of only 45W, 96 stream processors, 2GB of DDR3 video buffer and a 128-bit wide memory interface.
All the new cards feature Optimus support which automatically switched between the dedicated video card and the processor (or chipset) built-in graphics when less power hungry tasks are run.
