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NVIDIA Unleashes Quadro FX 3700

NVIDIA is now offering the Quadro FX 3700, a high-end graphics board capable of delivering a performance increase of up to 2X as compared to the previous generation of product. The Quadro FX 3700 graphics board has an MSRP of $1,599.

"Dassault Systèmes' PLM solutions customers have always demanded the optimal combination of large-model performance and feature set from their graphic solutions," said Christophe Delattre, Dassault Systemes, R&D manager, Visualization. "Now with the tight integration of GPU-based vertex scaling and CGFX-based realistic material shaders within CATIA, the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 comes at the ideal time and with the ideal combination of performance and features. We certainly feel the Quadro FX 3700 will address our users' demanding expectations."

The Quadro FX 3700 graphics board offers high throughput for interactive visualization, and with 112 parallel processors, 512 MB of onboard graphics memory, and a 256-bit memory interface, the card easily manages the large models and complex, realtime shaders that dominate the CAD and DCC markets. To greatly streamline the user experience, the Quadro FX 3700 graphics board incorporates the NVIDIA Application Configuration Engine (ACE), which automatically configures the graphics hardware and software to deliver maximum application performance. The board also offers award-winning SLI technology to dynamically scale graphics performance, enhance image quality and expand display real estate.

The advanced NVIDIA Unifed Architecture, introduced last year, enables sophisticated shaders to simulate a virtually unlimited range of physical characteristics, such as lighting effects (dispersion, reflection, refraction, BRDF models) and physical surface properties (casting effects, porosity, molded surfaces). Realtime shaders allow these effects to be combined and modified interactively, something that is impossible with simple 2D static texture maps.

The Quadro FX 3700 graphics board also offers PCI-Express Gen 2 support, essentially doubling the data transfer rate between the GPU and the Gen 2 chipsets to a blazing fast 16 Gbps. Also, being Energy Star 4.0 compliant, the Quadro FX 3700 graphics board consumes less than 80 watts of power for improved energy management.

"The NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 graphics board is proof positive that NVIDIA continues to invest heavily in leading-edge solutions for professional users," added Dan Vivoli, EVP of marketing at NVIDIA. "It combines rich features with outstanding performance to successfully complete a top-to-bottom series of professional visualization solutions that are unmatched in the industry."

The Quadro FX 3700 graphics board supports the NVIDIA CUDA technology, a C-language development environment for NVIDIA GPUs that allows application developers to utilize the massively parallel computation power of the Quadro FX 3700 graphics board to greatly reduce the time it takes to solve complex visualization problems.

NVIDIA Quadro solutions are widely available through leading PC manufacturers such as HP, Dell, IBM and Sun; leading workstation system integrators; and NVIDIA channel partners PNY Technologies (U.S. and EMEA), Leadtek (APAC) and Elsa (Japan).

NVIDIA (www.nvidia.com) is a world leader in visual computing technologies and the inventor of the GPU, a high-performance processor that generates breathtaking, interactive graphics on workstations, personal computers, game consoles and mobile devices. NVIDIA serves the entertainment and consumer market with its GeForce products, the professional design and visualization market with its Quadro products and the high-performance computing market with its Tesla products. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and has offices throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.