Quadro
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NVIDIA's Adobe-lovin' Quadro CX Pro GPU gets reviewed
NVIDIA's $2,000 Quadro CX Pro GPU actually does more than just improve one's Creative Suite 4 experience, but for whatever reason, the aforementioned firm has decided to market the card's mastery of Adobe over all else. The hardcore benchmarkers over at HotHardware decided to pop this in and give it a critical look, and while they definitely appreciated the speed gains in Premiere Pro and its performance overall, they never could quite swallow that admittedly huge MSRP. In fact, they reckoned that NVIDIA would've been better off offering this up with a slower clock speed and a smaller sticker, particularly when you consider that CS4 isn't really engineered to fully take advantage of all this horsepower. Reviewers did note that something like this may be entirely more beneficial once CS5 or CS6 emerges, but for now, the card's just a bit ahead of its time (and priced accordingly). Hit the read link for the full spill -- trust us, it's worth the read if you're teetering on dropping two large.
NVIDIA delivers 1.5GB QuadroFX 4800 workstation graphics card
NVIDIA's Quadro FX 4800 might not be nearly the beast that the 5800 is, but it'll only run you an arm and three-quarters of a leg versus every limb you've got. The GPU gurus over at HotHardware were able to grab hold of the 1.5GB monster, complete with a GT200 graphics processor and a sticker price around half of that shown on the aforesaid 5800 ($3,499). The board features a 602MHz GPU clock speed, 192 stream processors, an 800MHz GDDR3 clock speed, 384-bit memory controller and a PCI Express 2.0 x16 connector. So, how does the $1,999 workhorse stack up? Hit the read link for the full report, but the gist of it is this: it's a stellar piece, but ATI's FirePro V8700 was found to provide "similar performance (and in some cases, more) with a roughly 25% lower price." Choices, choices.
NVIDIA's Quadro FX 5800 with 4GB graphics memory is 'the most powerful graphics card in history'
That's some serious boasting by NVIDIA, but this is some serious graphics horsepower. The Quadro FX 5800, already seen in NVIDIA's Quadro Plex D data cruncher, replaces the 5600 at the top of the NVIDIA heap with 240 CUDA-programmable parallel cores and the industry's first card with 4GB of graphics memory. MSRP? Just $3,499 for you big spender -- pennies for the companies who can harness the power for the purposes of oil and gas exploration, 4D modeling, and graphics design.
Toshiba keeps 'em coming with Tecra R10 / Portege A600
Toshiba's new bounty is all but out there, but we've still got two more to bring you before the onslaught is over. Up first is the business-minded Tecra R10 (shown after the break), which shows vitals of 4.4-pounds and 1.13-inches thick. It also provides upwards of 5-hours of battery life on a single charge, an Intel Centrino 2 CPU, NVIDIA's 128MB Quadro NVS GPU, 14.1-inch LED-backlit display, ExpressCard slot, USB Sleep-and-Charge / eSATA combo port and a price tag starting at $1,549. On deck, we've got the 12.1-inch Portégé A600, which offers up a Centrino 2 processor and 7.5-hours of claimed battery life while weighing just 3.2-pounds and measuring 1.18-inches thick. As with the rest, this one's ready to be ordered right this moment starting at $1,399.Read - Portégé A600Read - Tecra R10
Alienware slaps NVIDIA's Quadro FX 3600M into Area-51 m15x
Some five months after NVIDIA took the Saran Wrap off of its professional-oriented Quadro FX 3600M, along comes Alienware patting itself on the back. Why? Because its Area-51 m15x is the first 15.4-inch laptop on planet Earth to offer said card, giving users who practically live in CAD, DCC or other visualization applications an option to still look 1337 (and tap into the occasional 3D game) on their lappie. Unfortunately, such graphical prowess will add $600 to the cost of your rig over the standard 256MB GeForce 8600M GT, but no one ever said that dancing on the cutting edge was cheap.
NVIDIA unveils Quadro FX 3600M for laptops
Desktop gamers weren't the only ones scoring a little love from NVIDIA today -- the company also rolled out the Quadro FX 3600M laptop graphics GPU, which it says provides professional workstation-level performance on the road. The CUDA-capable chip is designed to be mounted on a standard mobile graphics board, and the stock configuration sports 512MB of RAM, power-management features, and a 256-bit memory interface that opens up 51.2GB/s of graphic memory bandwidth. Sadly, there's no word on price, but the first machine out the gate with the new GPU will be the 17-inch HP Compaq 8710w, which currently runs in the $2,500 - $3,000 range.
XtremeNotebooks launches quad-core Xtreme 917V laptop
Although being in the presence of a quad-core laptop doesn't have the same allure it did just months ago, packin' a Core 2 Quad processor into a 2.35-inch thick enclosure still manages to get us all hot and bothered (literally, we mean). The latest mobile gaming rig to come equipped with such a workhorse is XtremeNotebooks' Xtreme 917V (yeah, a rebadge of Sager's NP9260), which also features a 17-inch display, dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX GPUs, a dual-layer DVD writer, multicard reader, integrated webcam / speakers, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, room for three 250GB hard drives, a dedicated GPU cooling solution, optional TV tuner, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, and a whole host of ports to boot. Granted, this sucka can only chug along for 60 minutes or so on its 12-cell battery, tips the scales at close to 12 oh-so-solid pounds, and starts at $2,399, but we know there's still a few of you out there willing to give it some love.
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]
NVIDIA's CUDA turns GPUs into high-powered CPUs
NVIDIA's been dancing around the general-purpose processor market for a while now -- we've heard reports that the company is developing an x86 chip, and it bought PortalPlayer last year for $357 million. Well, at this year's Microprocessor Forum the company took another small step by announcing that the final release of CUDA, its framework for utilizing high-end NVIDIA GPUs as CPUs, which will be available to developers in the second half of the year. While the idea of using a GPU as a secondary high-performance processor isn't a new one -- Folding@Home already runs on NVIDIA and ATI chips, and the Peakstream system already leverages GPUs -- CUDA should make it easier for developers to tap into high-performance graphics devices whenever they're available, without having to specifically tailor their apps to do so. CUDA, which stands for "compute unifed device architecture," currently only supports the GeForce 8800 and 8600 and Quadro FX 4600 and 5600, so it's of limited appeal right now, but here's hoping the next gen of NVIDIA chips supports CUDA from the get-go -- the Engadget Folding@Home team is looking for a few new recruits.
Soldam's Altium FC500 studio for the audio pros
Unless you're an Engadget intern or working in the media arts, chances are that your rig doesn't offer 3x displays. Well check the build-to-order Altium FC500 studio setup from Soldam's WINDy DAW series of digital audio workstations. The kit starts with a 2.93GHz X6800 Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 4GB (1GB x 4) PCS-5300 DD2 SDRAM, up to 4x 7200rpm SATA disks (RAID 0+1) with eSATA expansion, a ±R DL DVD super multi-drive, gigabit Ethernet, 6x USB 2.0, 4x Firewire, and of course a couple of NVIDIA Quadro NVS440 graphics cards with 256MB of GDDR3 memory from which to hang your trio of 19-inch displays... with room for a fourth. And because this is targeted at audio pros, it comes flauntin' a high-end DSP from Universal Audio: the UAD-1 PCI card. It all comes packed in an Altium case said to efficiently keep the rig cool while keeping the noise down. Sound good? Now the price -- at ¥1,375,500 (about $11,373) maybe you'd like to take your chances and roll your own?[Via Impress]
Intel's Penryn Core 2 Quad processor "on schedule"
With the rampant delays swarming nearly every aspect of consumer electronics, it's understandable to approach "release dates" with a certain level of skepticism, but Intel's Mark Bohr has stated that the company is already "processing the first samples of the Penryn design," which is good news for Intel fans everywhere. The 45nm, quad-core successor to its Core 2 Extreme QX6700 was previously scheduled to be released "sometime during Q3 2007," and just as Intel nailed their November target on its latest Kentsfield chip, it just might be safe to put a little stock in this date as well. Dubbed the Core 2 Quad, this next generation processor will seek to increase power, consume less energy, and primarily outgun AMD by releasing its 45nm CPUs only months after AMD launches its 65nm Barcelona. Additionally, Penryn could play a role in the part of Montevina, which according to Intel's roadmap, would be the successor to Centrino Pro. Nevertheless, Intel's done a fair job of keeping its promises as of late, so we're banking on them keeping this one as well, which means the first batch of Yorkfield-derived wafers should hit motherboards "in the second half of next year."[Via RegHardware]
Intel readies Quadro chips for November release
Our good friends in Santa Clara, California have been very busy as of late -- Intel's working on getting lasers into silicon and getting its Core 2 Duos into everything under the sun (but sometimes not). But Moore and Noyce's baby isn't stopping there, no sir: DigiTimes is reporting that Intel's first quad-core "Kentsfield" chip, the 2.66 GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6700, will be officially called the Quadro and should be available starting in mid-November. Meanwhile, Reg Hardware chimes in that while Intel is also ramping up its Merom-based Celeron M series for budget laptops, the more interesting news is that the first low-voltage Core 2 Duos will hit the streets in January 2007. According to the Reg, the next generation of low-voltage Centrino chips, the L7200 and the L7400 (code-named the "Santa Rosa"), will feature Core 2 Duos running at 1.33 GHz and 1.5 GHz, priced at $284 and $316, respectively. Speaking of low-voltage chips, we haven't decided if trying to overclock one would be an incredibly brilliant or an incredibly foolish idea -- but we'll find out soon enough.Read - DigiTimes [Photo courtesy of Tom's Hardware]Read - Reg Hardware
Dell Precision 390 workstation goes Core 2, too
Dell's giving that sweet Core 2 love to more than just the XPS 410 and XPS 700 desktops; even workstations are getting into the game. As part of the continuing onslaught of spec-bumped machines, the company announced that its Precision 390 tower is now available with four Core 2 Duo options (1.86GHz E6300, 2.13GHz E6400, 2.40GHz E6660, or 2.66GHz E6700) or even the blazing 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800, along with a seemingly-ancient 3.0GHz Pentium 4. The new rig can handle up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM, up to a 7,200RPM, 500GB hard drive, and comes with a number of graphics options from either nVIDIA (the Quadro series) or ATI (either a FireGL V7200 or V3400). If you act now, you can pick up a base configuration (which includes the E6300) for just $800, though going high-end will cost significantly more: a Core 2 Extreme--equipped setup more than doubles the price to $1,790.[Thanks, Michael]
Toshiba reveals Tecra M7 dual core tablet
So apparently Toshiba has a Core Duo-powered update to the Tecra M4 convertible tablet waiting in the wings, and this one gives you a 100GB hard drive, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, and especially nice, a dual layer Super Multi drive that handles both flavors of recordable DVDs. Although we haven't yet seen any pics of the 14.1-inch, WXGA+ Tecra M7, info on Toshiba's European website seems to indicate that it will look similar to the M4 (pictured), but you're getting a lot more muscle on the inside with either 1.66GHz or 1.83GHz Core Duo chips. Rounding out the specs are nVidia Quadro NVS 110M graphics, a 6-in-1 memory card reader, four USB ports, PCMCIA slot, video out, FireWire, and both WLAN and Bluetooth wireless radios. It's not clear when this model will officially be released (pretty soon, we reckon), but we already have a good idea on pricing: it looks like you'll be able to get a nice configuration for around $1,600 or $1,700.[Thanks, Ethan]
