Nvidia brings the graphics ruckus with $18K system
by Christopher Grant 
{ Aug 3rd 2006 at 11:00PM }
You know what we always say here at Joystiq: today's PC graphics cards just aren't expensive enough. We've got about $18K burning a hole in the Joystiq petty cash drawer, so we could either buy the entire staff brand new computers stocked with the latest and greatest graphics cards ... or just grab one of Nvidia's new Quadro Plex 1000s, designed for 12-megapixel HD video, scientific visualizations, and Crysis (we guess). Want some specs?
"According to Nvidia, a node can achieve up to 64x full scene anti-aliasing (FSAA), deliver a performance of up to 148 megapixels on 16 synchronized digital-output channels and eight HD SDI channels. The firm says that the fill rate reaches 80 billion pixels/s while the geometry performance is rated at seven billion vertices/s."
And wouldn't you know it, it starts around $17,500. That means we can scrape together just enough to pick one of these up when they drop in September. Then we'll need to work out an amenable custody plan between all of us.
[Via Engadget]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Einhanderkiller @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:07PM
"One node involves eight Quadro FX cards, jammed into two Plex 1000 systems and paired up via SLI, all of which is hosted by a 32-bit Intel or 64-bit AMD machine running Windows or Linux."
O_O
Microsoft Fag @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:08PM
man an 18 dollar graphics card! i could buy like, 2 of those with the money i have right now.
bill pullman @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:10PM
hey, with that last $500, you could buy a PS3 Premiu-- oh, wait. sorry.
Donutta @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:15PM
Knowing computers, I think I'll just wait 6 months until it retails for $6K.
omgwut @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:26PM
This thing looks like a beast, but $18,000 is just insane. Though I'm sure this will drop pretty fast in a couple of years.. That and the fact that external graphics processing is fairly young technology.
I see a good future for external GPU solutions like this. I'm sure there are downsides to having an extra component outside of your system, and I don't know if current bandwidth and data transfer rates justify such a powerful setup; but there is definitely an upside to being able to essentially use this sort of plug-and-play hardware with any machine at your disposal.
I read this thing can even SLi link with another.
ill trooper @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:30PM
Holy Canoli, them's is APPLE PRICES right there!
I'M KIDDING, I'm a Mac guy to the core... Just joking around there, fellow Mac-heads.
Ethan @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:37PM
leave it to bill pullman to be the one retarded fanboy to bring the PS3 price into a totally unrelated post. And you do realize that with the $500 you could buy the lower end model, that still has better things than the premium xbox.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6703/xbox360tops3comparisonng2.gif
Ragtime @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:50PM
Actually, I think I'd rather have one of these than a car, and for the same price!
bill pullman @ Aug 3rd 2006 11:58PM
"leave it to bill pullman to be the one retarded fanboy to bring the PS3 price into a totally unrelated post."
yeah, 'cause we're not allowed to talk about.... VIDEO GAMES here. and what's with the fanboy comment? i own every Sony console (oops, computer) available: PSX, PS2 and PSP. what more do you want?
heaven forbid someone crack a joke, Ethan. pull them panties back out and play some games.
The3rdNuisance @ Aug 4th 2006 12:08AM
Well, the PS3 does indeed look like a bargain now, even if its graphical capabilities are far inferior to this. Welp, graphics don't matter, so a PS3 seems the better deal.
It doesn't mention on the page, but is this thing capable of working with Windows Vista and Direct X 10? (Can't wait for Direct X 20, or as Final Fantasy would put it, XXX... or just XXL, but still.) Imagine spending all that money, just to find out when you update, it would be completely useless.
GSI @ Aug 4th 2006 12:11AM
Hey Ethan...hate to break it to you but a straight $500 would not even buy you the basic PS3 system. You are forgetting a little thing called "tax" plus the games.
Either way though, you are being an hypocrite by criticizing bill pullman for bringing up the PS3 b/c you brought the 360 & that retarded animated gif.
christian aka nsomneia @ Aug 4th 2006 12:22AM
all is well with having 17,500 in petty cash in the draw.. . but its the tax that will get you .. . ha .. .
sorry for being such a killjoy .. . ha
pete @ Aug 4th 2006 12:30AM
If your a graphics business then you can afford this, and might actually have a reason to want it. For everyone else, ignore it, it's not important to you.
bv @ Aug 4th 2006 12:38AM
Holy Crap. Can anyone say "What's the point?". Seriously, what's this monstrosity good for other than playing Crysis with all the goodies turned up full blast. Is there an option for "chess mode" where I can challenge Kasporov to a million dollar match? If so, sign me up. It's funny though to think of the insane prices that video cards in general go for. Many people will spend 500 dollars on a graphics card just to get that extra frame per second boost, but will lash out at Sony when they release a console that retails for 100 dollars more. Seriously, why buy something that has one purpose and requires a housing, thats even more expensive, to put it in. Get a damn PS3 and realize how silly it is to plop down half a G for the latest stick of transistors. Wait what am I saying. Get a Xbox 360 and spend the extra $200 on a vacation or something. That sounds better.
josh r. @ Aug 4th 2006 12:41AM
Quaddro's are 3d rendering cards, not gaming cards.
Raynre @ Aug 4th 2006 12:54AM
Your GIF vs my JPEG!
FIGHT!
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/Raynre/Motivation/motivator5b4223c4f44d5e256969012f00.jpg
JJ @ Aug 4th 2006 1:21AM
BV this thing isn't about playing games, from the sounds of it this thing would be agraphic artists wet dream.
Bet Pixar will nab a couple of these heh heh.
JPRacer @ Aug 4th 2006 1:38AM
I vote for your picture Raynre! Ethan .gif are full of lies.
ejflex @ Aug 4th 2006 1:47AM
Bill Pullman went to Oneonta. How bout that Pullman?
GSI @ Aug 4th 2006 1:56AM
Hey bv...maybe you should have read the article:
"Nvidia's new Quadro Plex 1000s, designed for 12-megapixel HD video, scientific visualizations"
Pc @ Aug 4th 2006 2:03AM
WOAH !!!!! That's a crazy piece of machinery right there !!!!
Jay @ Aug 4th 2006 3:04AM
18 Large, and it'll likely be obsolete in a year :D
Silver R. Wolfe @ Aug 4th 2006 5:36AM
All you people commenting about the gaming applications of this are silly.
iceatcs @ Aug 4th 2006 6:39AM
Hey Raynre
I have edited of your mistake picture.
It is correction one.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v673/iceatcs/Updates.jpg
Sir Barry @ Aug 4th 2006 7:25AM
Darn and just when I decided to quit robbing banks! I guess I got to make one more heist to get me one for a mere 18K or I could wait a year and buy 4 or 5 at the same price.
Thomas Crymes @ Aug 4th 2006 8:49AM
I bet this is merely promotional move. They might sell 1 of these, and the price will never come down. If I had 18K lying around that I would otherwise wipe myself with, I'd pick it up as an experiment.
I'd like to see how long it takes for standard consumer tech to catch up to this beast and amortize the value over that time to see how much I saved in the meantime by not buying new pCs. Of course 18k is way too high especially considering that there is nothing around that will remotely tax this beast.
What happens when games no longer run on it because of driver incompatability or something and NVidia is unwilling to make a patch for the 5 people that own it. What is the probability that it turns into an 18K conversation piece?
onetrueping @ Aug 4th 2006 9:12AM
Oh, the joys of rendering every last point on the Mandelbrot set! Or building big budget Hollywood movies in my den!
Too bad it's only designed to do the high end stuff. It'd make for a killer game of UT.
ByeLaw @ Aug 4th 2006 9:19AM
This isn't really for games, it is targeting the professional markets eg cgi, simulators etc.
...still would be nice to see battle field 2 on it though :D
Kn1ves @ Aug 4th 2006 9:20AM
OT:::
nintendo? microsoft? sony? think about it.
nintendo can rely on its 1st party support and its low cost to develop, money on every console sold scheme. also has a handheld thats selling by the millions.
xbox has tons of money behind it, so regardless of it failing, itll still come out ok. microsoft has bank! windows sales + office programs + everything in between.
sony on the other hand is in a risky situation. how many times has sony try to dethrone the iPod to no avail? theyre getting outwitted and outsold in every other part of their company. they need to make sure blu-ray doesnt flop like the UMD (whats so universal about it anyway?). they also need to make a new hi-def format, new hardware platform (cell)...
its bad times ahead for sony man! i hope ps3 pulls thru
tman @ Aug 4th 2006 9:25AM
why does no one read the articles? it's NOT for games.
Jeb @ Aug 4th 2006 9:29AM
I don't really see this as a high price for this type of equipment. It's obviously for commercial use.
When you spend upwards of a $1M doing development, this hardware becomes small change. It would cost you more to hire an intern for six months than it would to buy this.
That said, I recently saw that picture of Quake running on something like a 15-monitor display. If I had carefree money I'd buy one of these things just to do that.
Loque @ Aug 4th 2006 9:38AM
Why can't it be for games?
arrakisman @ Aug 4th 2006 9:42AM
This is for rendering to VERY large displays and video wall. Its perfect if you want to play Half Life in a movie theater.
Raynre @ Aug 4th 2006 9:51AM
Hey iceatcs
Sony also said that they wouldnt have two versions of the same console, ridiculing Microsoft in the process.
Youre just trading one lie for an even bigger one.
J.Goodwin @ Aug 4th 2006 10:02AM
arrakisman:
This is actually overkill even for that. Have you ever checked out an HDNet simulcast in a movie theater? Pristine. A 360 is perfectly capable of driving a theater sized screen.
Aykis @ Aug 4th 2006 12:04PM
Hey guys... in the end... Wii will rule all.
Agent MOO @ Aug 4th 2006 12:09PM
Buy a Hyundai instead.
Jack @ Aug 4th 2006 12:12PM
With this I bet I could pull a consistent 59fps avg in Oblivion!
VampireHunter Z @ Aug 4th 2006 12:20PM
12 megapixels!!! 1080p is only 2.1 megapixels. Is that 64x AA in realtime? You would need a IMAX display to fully realize the full potential of any video from this beast. Unfortunately a commoner like me will never see such glory.
Back to my 360 with 720p display.
josh @ Aug 4th 2006 1:21PM
"Holy Crap. Can anyone say "What's the point?". Seriously, what's this monstrosity good for other than playing Crysis with all the goodies turned up full blast."
I guess you missed the part in the post where they wrote: "designed for 12-megapixel HD video, scientific visualizations"
This isn't for gaming, it's for science, engineering, and medical research.
rockintom99 @ Aug 4th 2006 10:10PM
Video card is dead. Long live Video Box!