NVIDIA Quadro NVS 420 GPU brings powerhouse graphics to SFF rigs

NVIDIA's Quadro NVS 420 is quite the unique offering -- on one hand, it's rather intriguing that a workstation card has been whittled down to fit within a small form factor PC, but then again, who else outside of advertisers (and their digital signage applications) will even need it? Nevertheless, said card is the industry's only low-profile professional GPU that can sneak within SFF PCs and still power four 30-inch displays at 2,560 x 1,600 resolution via DisplayPort / dual-link DVI. As for specs, it's boasting 512MB of memory, 11.2GB/sec (per GPU) of memory bandwidth and a CUDA Parallel Computing Processor. It'll be available next month for the niche that needs it at $499.

[Via HotHardware]

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:07AM]

edit..shouldn't that read 4 3o-inch pron displays at 60fps?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:08AM]

Not as expensive, due to its low-profile design probably.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 12:51PM]

It is cheap because it is a low-end card.

The Quadro FX series is directed towards CAD workstations and are usually built on high-end chips. Lots of stream processors, VRAM, OpenGL optimization etc. Good 3D performance. Expensive.

The Quadro NVS is directed towards Professionals with 2D rather than 3D processing needs (financial analysts, graphic designers, anyone with the need for a HUGE desktop and/or several displays). Crappy 3D performance. Reasonable price.

For the price, a lot of non-workstation cards offer much better 3D performance for the price.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 1:09PM]

Cheaper... heh

USD 499,- can hardly be described as cheap..

[noppengummi Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:08AM]

four 30'' would make for one hell of a workstation....

does anyone know about its maximal texture size?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:11AM]

But will it run Crysis?



.... Serious question! If I wanted to make a small pc for gaming (say in the living room, where you don't want a tower lying around), would this viable for gaming?

[Oh, I'll slap myself over the head for the over-used Internet meme]

[Andir Posted Jan 21st 2009 12:26PM]

It's a workstation card. While it WILL play games relatively close to it's brother, it's optimized for multiple viewports, OpenGL, and other non-gaming tasks so you're not going to win any FPS shootouts.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:17AM]

it will play crysis but wolf3d you might at well forget about..that game is way to gpu intensive

[jaakennuste Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:26AM]

Not very powerful Cuda, only 16 stream processors, compared with top-end 240 and 480 processors.

Jaak

[Android Overlord Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:50AM]

Designed to function in a completely different way for completely a different task.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:31AM]

Something tells me that SFF factor is going to be useless when the artist in question can't think straight because of the noise...I suspect under load that little fan is going to be at 110%.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 12:58PM]

Why?

It only has two puny G94 cores (maybe even G96, i don't know). Equivalent to what you'll find in a Macbook Air.

This is not a powerful card, it is designed solely to feed huge desktops with pixels.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 1:07PM]

Uses 2 x G98 processors.

Thats 2 mobile Geforce 9300 (same as Macbook Air) on a single PCB.
Combined TDP: ~40W.

I doubt you'll even hear the fan.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:39AM]

Well being a Quad-head GPU this has two NVS 420 gpus that have around 16 or so stream processors each so its like two 9400GTs on one pcb, so no crysis.

[fourthletter Posted Jan 21st 2009 7:57AM]

I've seen alot of Dell's old SFF systems with these type of cards as an option. They look nice and neat but sound like light aircraft taking off from your office.

[ArhcAngel Posted Jan 21st 2009 8:48AM]

These cards are positioned squarely at the trading houses that have traders using 4+ monitors to watch every aspect of their portfolio evaporate before their very eyes. We use these cards extensively in our Dell SFF desktops and even our Thinkpad Advanced docks have them installed.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 8:52AM]

But will it run crysis...

[brandoshido Posted Jan 21st 2009 10:38AM]

is this more powerful than the 8600gt? If it is, I just found the upgrade for HP Slimline tower.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 10:44AM]

Are you me? I have this exact same situation.
It'll be interesting to see how this turns out!

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 21st 2009 12:30PM]

People, this card isn't for your average person or gamer, it's a workstation card.

[hfm Posted Jan 21st 2009 11:33AM]

I bought an ATI 4670 for my SFF. Great card for the $80 I paid for it. And its a good match for the meager PSU in my old shuttle, no external PCI-E connector required and low power for the performance.

Of course this was a little while ago now, there's probably something better at that price point now. And come to think of it, it's not really in the same market as a Quadro.

But if you're thinking of something to get that's better than an 8600GT, take a look at it... It's the best card for SFF since the 7600GT. It breathed a ton of new life into my aging SFF rig.

[brandoshido Posted Jan 21st 2009 1:57PM]

i dont care if its MADE for multi displays, if it has the power for me to not have to trim farcry 2 down to very little detail, thats what ill use it for.

[CaptainReynolds Posted Jan 21st 2009 9:43PM]

will it play crysis ? yes. cards like this BUILT cRysis