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Nvidia Quadro FX 5800: the $3500 video card
2:45 PM on 11.10.2008, Dale North 49 comments

Nvidia Quadro FX 5800: the $3500 video card photo
     Money

You hear it all the time: My PC can't run that! But the guy who picks up this new card probably won't ever have that problem.

Nvidia's Quadro FX 5800 is a beast, packing up to 240 of their CUDA graphics cores on on one massive card. How does 4GB of on-board graphics memory sound? I think it sounds f*cking insane! The only thing more insane is the price: $3499.

With a memory bandwidth of 102 GB per second, and fill rates that exceed 52 billion textels and 300 million triangles per second, this PCI Express device would make a kickass gaming card. It's actually intended to be used in the medical and scientific fields, though. 

The card supports OpenGL and DirectX 10, so I wonder if you could really game with it.


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Niero's Avatar
Niero at 11/10/2008 14:48
I wonder if buying a $500 budget Dell with a good power supply and putting that thing in it runs better than paying $4000 for a top of the line Alienware, etc.

SOMEONE MUST FIND OUT!
Surf314's Avatar
Surf314 at 11/10/2008 14:49
It's actually intended to be used in the medical and scientific fields, though.

That explains why there is no half naked chick on it.
scsitransfer's Avatar
scsitransfer at 11/10/2008 14:50
The card could run them but nVidia wouldn't release drivers for games like they do with their other cards, the drivers are written completely different for a workforce GPU
Demtor's Avatar
Demtor at 11/10/2008 14:51
Overkill = bonus points
king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 11/10/2008 14:58
Hear that?

That's the sound of me fapping to this card
Namelessted's Avatar
Namelessted at 11/10/2008 15:01
you wouldn't get very good framerate on any high end games. The card is designed for a workstation, not a gaming machine. If some rich idiot bought this to play games, they deserve the shitty performance that they get out of it.
JamnOnTheOne's Avatar
JamnOnTheOne at 11/10/2008 15:02
Those cards are awful for games.

Anything that has drivers not explicitly tailored for gaming is crap (remember Matrox?). I'm willing to be that the specialized OpenGL performance of the card is absolutely amazing though for imaging and rendering, hence the graphical application only.
jellydoodle's Avatar
jellydoodle at 11/10/2008 15:04
It is pointless, its a GTX280 with more memory, so it will run games the same as the GTX280...it's for other more specialised uses
insomnia's Avatar
insomnia at 11/10/2008 15:04
Yah Namelessted is right, this card isn't designed for games at all, a consumer videocard will blow it away for games...
Narishma's Avatar
Narishma at 11/10/2008 15:06
This card is actually very bad for gaming. Also the only difference between it and the GTX280 (wich too has 240 cores and costs like $400) is that it has 4GB of VRAM instead of 1GB...
Trevor McGee's Avatar
Trevor McGee at 11/10/2008 15:09
I would commission nVidia to build me one of these specifically for gaming if I were a rich som' bitch.

I want a computer that can run like six Crysis' at full settings at the same time windowed. Why? Because my penis isn't big enough for my liking and I'd like to compensate by purchasing an overpowered machine that probably won't even have a quarter of it's potential tapped into.

:P
lhagen's Avatar
lhagen at 11/10/2008 15:13
I just bought six.
Timmeh's Avatar
Timmeh at 11/10/2008 15:13
I think you'd be in for a disappointment if you tried to run games on a Quadro card. They aren't built for it, nor is it supported in drivers as scsi says.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 11/10/2008 15:20
Does it come with an on-board flux capacitor?
Dexter345's Avatar
Dexter345 at 11/10/2008 15:20
Even though it's not meant for gaming, I think this is pretty good evidence as to why console gaming is king these days.
Satsumomo's Avatar
Satsumomo at 11/10/2008 15:26
That doesn't make sense Dexter. It's like saying automobiles are king today because hot dogs are overpriced.

"Even though it's not meant for gaming" <-- Key phrase.
Aberrant Thought's Avatar
Aberrant Thought at 11/10/2008 15:34
Hmmm...

I wonder how many Sterlings would require fellatio before I can get that for free.
Kasmodiah's Avatar
Kasmodiah at 11/10/2008 15:41
"I wonder if buying a $500 budget Dell with a good power supply and putting that thing in it runs better than paying $4000 for a top of the line Alienware, etc.

SOMEONE MUST FIND OUT!"

I agree. Someone test this thing on all new games and post results.

BTW, I'm not gonna buy it, lol. Just curios.
Jon2309's Avatar
Jon2309 at 11/10/2008 15:42
Imagine a quad sli system. Sheesh. Might even play Doom!
smoger's Avatar
smoger at 11/10/2008 15:45
Dexter345 = most flawed logic ever
Brilliam's Avatar
Brilliam at 11/10/2008 15:53
For that amount of money, you think they could've made it a little more gaudy... yawn. This thing looks downright businesslike. Get some bling on that!
exodus1925's Avatar
exodus1925 at 11/10/2008 15:58
and we can win it how? Please say you have one to give away :(
Timmeh's Avatar
Timmeh at 11/10/2008 16:01
@Dexter: Ho ho, you gotta be trolling there. Only a total idiot would make that statement with any seriousness. TOTAL idiot.
Kaspar's Avatar
Kaspar at 11/10/2008 16:07
Wow, I just HAVE to get 2 of those, to replace my other videocards from Mars.
Clbull's Avatar
Clbull at 11/10/2008 16:15
But can it run Crysis?
mix's Avatar
mix at 11/10/2008 16:16
Who the HELL needs to see 300 million triangles per second, can the human even process that amount of triangles?......Why wouldn't you want to play video games on it?

Before $3500


After $3500
x 85,000

All I'm saying is that is a SHIT load of cash...my $250 GPU card works pretty damn well with todays game.
ajaxender's Avatar
ajaxender at 11/10/2008 16:18
Hmm... makes me wonder how fast that thing could ray-trace... perhaps its gaming potential is not as low as we think! Give it a go on that quake 3 or 4 mod that guy was making, see if its playable yet.
MotoRobo's Avatar
MotoRobo at 11/10/2008 16:25
Mmm
John B's Avatar
John B at 11/10/2008 16:35
Please. This is like owning the fastest street-legal car in the world, but you have to be of royal blood to drive it and the fuel is only available in Scandinavia.
Holiday's Avatar
Holiday at 11/10/2008 16:52
You want amazingly real graphics with no lag? Go...Outside.
Edge of Blade's Avatar
Edge of Blade at 11/10/2008 16:53
Let's point that at an open world game. Instead of Grand Theft Auto in Liberty City, that would take a whole damn country...
The Grudge's Avatar
The Grudge at 11/10/2008 16:56
YARR! Smash Dexter!!! Haha, kidding aside. Although it seems to be impressive in concept this video card is over priced correctly for the medical biniz. I could use the money to make a righteous rig and still have enough to rent a stripper and do blow off her ass.
Velt's Avatar
Velt at 11/10/2008 17:13
Is for 3d aplications and renders, not gaming.
Actually I know some people in the 3d business that work on normal video cards (gaming video cards), like the GTX280 and say is most of the time the same thing.
PhazonYoshi's Avatar
PhazonYoshi at 11/10/2008 17:13
Somebody must create the drivers for gaming, now :D
StressedOutCat's Avatar
StressedOutCat at 11/10/2008 17:53
Ive tried expensive Nvidia quadro cards before and also ATI FireGL cards... none of these are any good for gaming most cases they do not even come close to the mid-range or the cheap end cards.. the way the GPU works on this card and the drivers are used is totally different than the gaming version cards.
scsitransfer's Avatar
scsitransfer at 11/10/2008 18:11
@Holiday

Unless you're drunk, then it still lags.
Wedge's Avatar
Wedge at 11/10/2008 18:21
The only thing this shows is the difference between consumer and business products is often a massive price point. It's funny because products with business and consumer variants generally have marginally different performance/usefulness and the only real reason to get one over the other is because of different licenses (which doesn't generally apply to hardware).

I just think it'd be interesting to see how this stacks up against a SLI set of the most expensive consumer model in 3D modelling/simulation apps... though I don't know if the RAM stacks on SLI...
JamnOnTheOne's Avatar
JamnOnTheOne at 11/10/2008 18:40
@Wedge

It wouldn't be a fair contest. The tailor made card for imaging will blow the doors off of consumer model cards.

As someone that has worked in the computer imaging field in a previous development job, consumer level products can't hack it. It's funny, even recently some of those high powered specialty video cards can't run Diablo 2 because they don't have the right drivers for Direct X/3D compatibility.
moshakirby's Avatar
moshakirby at 11/10/2008 18:47
@scsitransfer

And don't even get me started on the sprites! Those clouds don't look at all realistic.

Doesn't drinking just add motion blur? Man I wish there was a website about getting the best out of your system in "Life".
The "drinking adds motion blur" tip would be right up there in the top 10 best i think.
scsitransfer's Avatar
scsitransfer at 11/10/2008 20:01
@moshakirby

I prefer motion blur that doesn't backfire into crazy headaches when i wake up the next morning.
Knyte's Avatar
Knyte at 11/10/2008 22:01
You want to make it work for gaming?

Flash the BIOS with a GXT 280 BIOS.
Then tweak the drivers to see all 4GBs of RAM.

And, Voilla! You now have a $3500 GTX 280.

That would perform just as well as the $600 one.

Unless you are running a monitor that can do 4320p (7680x4320 Resolution.) You're not going to see the RAM make much of a difference. 1GB can handle just about all the textures a resonable monitor can display at its max resolution.
poonster's Avatar
poonster at 11/11/2008 00:32
seriously who would buy a $3500 video card? the average gamer could never afford that,it's ridiculous.
MetalSlug's Avatar
MetalSlug at 11/11/2008 01:46
Haha my computer would explode if I even tried installing this.
Burnt Meatloaf's Avatar
Burnt Meatloaf at 11/11/2008 05:52
Most of that $3500 goes towards developing and supporting the ultra-high end drivers and plugins needed for workstation-class applications. The hardware itself isn't much more evolved than regular video cards.

Maya isn't exactly just a high-end version of the Doom3 engine.
cryocide's Avatar
cryocide at 11/11/2008 08:30
Pro tip: You're gonna need a 64-bit OS for this one. The 4GB addressable memory limitation on Windows -includes- RAM for peripherals such as your video card.
Pixelated's Avatar
Pixelated at 11/12/2008 23:19
The "240 CUDA processing cores" is an Nvidia gimmick. Those 240 CUDA cores are nothing more than Stream Processors and not processing cores in the CPU sense of the word.

So according to Nvidia the ATI 4870 has 800 processing Cores!

I agree that this is nothing but a GTX 280 with 4GB VRAM and some driver tweaks that unlock the Quadro features. After all Nvidia doesn't want you to buy a $400 card and use it for gaming and CAD. They want you to buy a GTX280 for gaming and one of these rip-offs for $3500 to use for graphics design.
The Amazing Shenazin's Avatar
The Amazing Shenazin at 11/16/2008 20:14
3499 for a graphics card or 400 for a console? hmmmmmm
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