NVIDIA stuffs four Quadro FX 5600 GPUs into 1U server

Yeah, we all agreed that the Quadro Plex 1000 was hot stuff in its heyday, but NVIDIA's latest GPU server blows away prior iterations by cramming four Quadro FX 5600s into a 1U enclosure. The Quadro Plex VCS Server packs a "record number" of GPUs into a 1U form factor, and its 6GB frame buffer (1.5GB per GPU) and mind-boggling computational abilities should please those interested in remote graphics / offline rendering. Additionally, it's built to "dynamically allocate compute, geometry, shading, and pixel processing power for optimized GPU performance," and while there's no mention of a price, those actually in the market for this beast probably aren't concerned.

[Via MacsimumNews]

[Ruben @ Aug 7th 2007 9:19PM]

I get the feeling that blue gene will be getting a whole lot smaller.

[ethana2 @ Aug 7th 2007 11:04PM]

I hope so. When all you're after is massive floating point, there's no good reason to waste all that space and power on 64 bit instruction sets.

Let the era of the stream co-processor begin.

[MxSix @ Aug 7th 2007 9:27PM]

Imagine a GPU Folding@Home client on that thing!

[scott @ Aug 7th 2007 9:34PM]

Sounds like a good surface to make your grilled-cheese sandwiches on...

[Andir3.0 @ Aug 7th 2007 9:44PM]

Oh, I thought the guy that always asks if it will play Doom would be here already. I'm disappointed.

[Stagg @ Aug 7th 2007 9:47PM]

But can it play doom?

[scott @ Aug 8th 2007 2:37AM]

You're late again Johnson...

[Zaidyn @ Aug 7th 2007 10:02PM]

More like, "Will it run Vista with Aero?"

[Slvrgun @ Aug 7th 2007 10:21PM]

That's sad your crap computer can't run Aero and Firefox at the same time.

[ethana2 @ Aug 7th 2007 10:59PM]

Wow, you poor little person. I'd like to see compiz fusion on this thing.

Screw Aero.

[Akiosarin @ Aug 7th 2007 10:10PM]

will it blend?

[ethana2 @ Aug 7th 2007 11:01PM]

I hope it's processing power is flexible enough. Imagine Yafray, 1800x1600, at like, 5 fps rendering. *drools*

...I wish I knew how to use that beast of a 3d animator. I would be... happy ;)

[ethana2 @ Aug 7th 2007 11:12PM]

Honestly, I don't know how many fps it would have to be to be awesome, so I just guessed. If you're making your own rendering of Elephant's Dream at aforementioned resolution, would 5 fps be awesome?

[Samer @ Aug 8th 2007 12:33AM]

I'd like to think so.

[Chir @ Aug 8th 2007 1:54AM]

"and while there's no mention of a price, those actually in the market for this beast probably aren't concerned."

Is there anything further from the truth? Those who would invest in such equipment are probably using it for professional and profit-seeking reasons. A tiny bit of price difference cuts into the bottom line and reduces profits. How can price not matter? Furthermore, this thing is in a 1U formfactor for a reason: so it can fit into racks squeezed between other equipment of similar nature. When you get into volumes even the difference of a few cents would eventually matter.

[Alvin @ Aug 8th 2007 2:04AM]

HOORAH! Now I can finally build my Crysis rig!

[Franssu @ Aug 8th 2007 8:03AM]

"and while there's no mention of a price, those actually in the market for this beast probably aren't concerned." Of course they're concerned, because they're not buying one or two, but more likely at least 20 or 50 of these nice blades. And that's beginning to represent some serious $$$, even for a hip vfx company.

[lancer @ Aug 8th 2007 5:36PM]

The price doesn't matter because The people that use these (oil companies) are using them to find much larger chunks of cash than what this thing costs.