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Nvidia updates 'Quadro' line of graphics chips

Nvidia introduces a bevy of new top-line professional graphics chips aimed at high-end scientific and engineering users.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
Nvidia's Quadro line is aimed at high-end scientific and engineering users.
Nvidia's Quadro line is aimed at high-end scientific and engineering users Nvidia

Nvidia on Monday introduced a bevy of new top-line professional graphics chips.

Nvidia's new line of graphics processing units (GPUs) are targeted at scientific and engineering professionals--not the gaming crowd, which garners most of the media attention for Nvidia.

"Our mission with Quadro is to help customers solve the world's most challenging visual computing problems," Dan Vivoli, executive vice president of marketing at Nvidia, said in a statement.

Here's a quick rundown of selected Quadro GPUs from the new lineup:

  • FX 5800--4.0GB memory, ultra high-end, priced around $3,100
  • FX 4800--1.5GB memory, ultra high-end, priced around $1,540
  • FX 1800--priced around $450
  • NVS 295--priced around $130

The lineup also brings with it the introduction of Nvidia SLI (Scalable Link Interface) Multi-OS, a technology that enables, for the first time, 3D workstation virtualization on the Quadro GPU. "With SLI Multi-OS, applications and users are able to optimize productivity and costs through the use of multiple Quadro GPU technologies from a single workstation in a virtualized environment," Nvidia said in a statement.

Nvidia Quadro-based workstations are available now from leading system manufacturers such as Dell, Fujistu-Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo.