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Chipmaker Nvidia announced the expansion of its line of Quadro professional graphics solutions based on the company’s Fermi architecture, including the mid-range Quadro 2000 with 192 Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) processing cores and the entry-level Quadro 600 with 96 CUDA processor cores. The company said the Quadro 2000 delivers 1.5 times the geometry performance of the previous Quadro graphics processing unit (GPU) mid-range solution1 and utilizes Nvidia’s Scalable Geometry Engine (SGE) technology to deliver higher performance across CAD and DCC applications such as SolidWorks and Autodesk 3ds Max.
The new entry-level Quadro 600 is a flexible half height solution that features enhanced performance for applications such as Autodesk AutoCAD 2011. Both the Quadro 2000 and Quadro 600 feature 1GB of graphics memory and are compatible with the company’s 3D Vision Pro active shutter-glasses solution, providing visualization and analysis in an immersive, stereoscopic 3D display.
“We believe the technology that Nvidia has built into their new Quadro professional graphics, namely the new Fermi architecture, will provide an exceptional solution for SolidWorks users worldwide,” said Nick Iwaskow, manager of alliances for Dassault Syst???mes SolidWorks. “With our expected certification of the Quadro 2000, SolidWorks anticipates the newest Quadro solutions will empower designers and engineers with the finely detailed geometry, real-time simulation and analysis, and high visual fidelity they demand.”
The Quadro 2000 and Quadro 600 are built on industry standards, including OpenGL 4.1, DirectX 11, Shader Model 5.0, DirectCompute and OpenCL. They also leverage the CUDA parallel computing architecture that enables increases in computing performance. Featuring 30-bit color fidelity (10-bits per color), these Quadro solutions enable the display of billions of color variations for vivid image quality with a broad dynamic range. Both the Quadro 2000 and Quadro 600 are PCI Express 2.0 compliant, the company noted.
“At last month’s GPU Technology Conference, the world learned all about the power of our Fermi architecture and how Quadro GPUs are being used to solve some of the world’s most complex problems,” said Jeff Brown, general manager for Nvidia’s professional solutions group. “With these new Quadro solutions, we’re making this computational horsepower available for all users of professional CAD and content creation software applications.”
The newest line of Quadro GPUs leverages the CUDA parallel processing architecture and Nvidia Application Acceleration Engines to enable fast performance across a range of applications. Additionally, these solutions feature the company’s Mosaic Technology, designed to enable an application to utilize one or more Quadro professional graphics solutions to scale across up to eight high-resolution displays. Whether the application is CATIA, 3ds Max or PowerPoint or Google Earth, users can hit the Maximize button and the application will span across all connected displays.
“As the world’s leading workstation brand, Dell Precision workstations are designed from the ground up specifically for professional users who demand the ultimate in performance of their systems, graphics and ISV application integration,” said Greg Weir, senior manager, Dell Precision Workstations Product and ISV Marketing. “Nvidia Quadro GPUs, combined with our Dell Precision workstations, deliver on those expectations with exceptional value, superior performance, and broad application support for all segments of the market.”
The Quadro 2000 ($599) and Quadro 600 ($199) are available from global workstation manufacturers including Dell, HP and Lenovo, as well as authorized distribution partners including PNY Technologies in North America and Europe, ELSA in Japan and Leadtek in Asia Pacific, according to a company release.