Has anyone else got their hands on a Quadro Plex 1000?

sabregen

sabregen

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I work for a high performance computing integrator, and we have an nvidia quadroplex 1000 (dual quadro 5600's, 1.5gbRAM/ea, internally SLI'd) that I may or may not get to take home, sometime soon. We have it because we do a lot of HPC intergration, and have people permanently staffed at the Tri-Labs who do development on these kinds of boxes. I'm not at liberty to discuss the projects or anything like that.

Anyways, The CEO is a big gamer, and we have one of these units in the shop...just sitting there. Tons of graphics power just sitting there. I'm trying to get him to let me take it home over the weekend, but it's an arduous process (talking him into it). I previously had an 8800 320mb sc, then dual sc's in SLi, then a GTX...but not two GTX's...or let alone two quadros with 1.5GB RAM/ea.

Anyways, the potential issue here is that the HBA that goes in the x16 slot has Windows drivers, and even 32-bit ones, so that's likely not an issue. What may be the issue is that the certified supporting chipsets for this HBA are all nvidia workstation based chipsets, and I currently have a 570SLI chipset in my home rig. I know there are certainly differences between a desktop SLI chipset, and a nvidia workstation chipset, but does anyone know for sure if this will work?

Even is I get naysayers...and I can get the unit home for the weekend (or one weekend soon)...bet your butt I will test it out anyways!

LMK what you guys think!

Update: for those of you wondering what the hell I'm jabbering about...it's this guy, right here (NOTE: Model IV): http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadroplex.html

Overpriced? - Check
Well beyond my means? - Check
64x FSAA? - Check
3GB of frame buffer? - check
$28k + and not available to the public? - Check
Only marginally faster than Ultra SLI for gaming? - Check
Sweet piece of hardware that ensures you will get no sleep? - Check
 
Where do you see marginally faster in gaming? I was under the impression that 3d design cards are garbage for gaming, and im sure your going to see the same thing here.
 
in most cases, you would be correct. Most graphics products designed for workstatations generally have lower gaming performance than their desktop counterparts. Usually, this is because they have crippled the card in some way, but the Quadro 5600's do not have this limitation. Here's an nvidia forum thread:

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t30495.html

gizmondo article: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripher...ditors-graphics-pros-apple-excited-241478.php

Quote from TomsHardware forums:
Somethings weird. In this test at xbitlabs http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/v [...] html#sect0


The Quatro 5500 only scores 5800 on 3D Mark 06 with a quad core 3.0 processor. My friend's 8800 gtx running on a 3.0 dual core scores about 8700+. The Quatro 5600 scores 12k + which seems about right, but the guys over at New Egg aren't seeming like the most reliable sources, to say the least.
Click to expand...

Hardware secrets article: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/news/1916
 
sabregen said:
Only marginally faster than Ultra SLI for gaming? - Check
Click to expand...

I think you mean *slower* than the 8800 Ultra

Quadro FX5600:
Core clock: 600mhz
RAM: 800mhz

8800 Ultra:
Core clock: 612mhz
Ram: 1080mhz

Totally cool to game with (make sure you load up on the pics - nobody would believe you otherwise :D ), but ultimately it isn't going to be the fastest or anything.
 
kllrnohj said:
I think you mean *slower* than the 8800 Ultra

Quadro FX5600:
Core clock: 600mhz
RAM: 800mhz

8800 Ultra:
Core clock: 612mhz
Ram: 1080mhz

Totally cool to game with (make sure you load up on the pics - nobody would believe you otherwise :D ), but ultimately it isn't going to be the fastest or anything.
Click to expand...

you are aware that clock speeds dont mean shit when comparing different cards right? I dont know the specs of the card in question but its possible that this card may have more stream processors or some else different. Again I dont know, however you citing clock speeds as proof that one card is more powerful than another is very...well, incorrect to put it nicely.
 
:eek: under specs it says power: 480W, do they mean the PSU? If so, that's crazy low
 
Tylerdurdened said:
:eek: under specs it says power: 480W, do they mean the PSU? If so, that's crazy low
Click to expand...

well a single quadro fx 5600 pulls 171w so im assuming that since the quadroplex 1000 has two of these plus other gizmos it would be basically impossible to run a system off just a 480w psu. However... If you look at the pics of this product it is a completely self contained unit so it is my guess that is has its own power supply inside its chassis. So basically what you read, is that it has a 480w psu devoted just to running the two video cards and whatever else is in the quadroplex case which should be plenty of power.
 
i really want to see the benchmark and crysis results of this card...plz keep us posted :)
 
Good luck finding quadro drivers that will properly support all the games you want to play :)
 
King_Weaver said:
you are aware that clock speeds dont mean shit when comparing different cards right? I dont know the specs of the card in question but its possible that this card may have more stream processors or some else different. Again I dont know, however you citing clock speeds as proof that one card is more powerful than another is very...well, incorrect to put it nicely.
Click to expand...

Its the same GPU (both have 128 stream processors) :rolleyes:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/quadro-fx5600-fx4600_4.html
 
Well, I got red-lighted on the "can I take it home" idea. I suppose I can bring my personal rig into the shop and see how it goes, or if I can even get it working. The requirements list for the QuadroPlex 1000 Model IV calls for an nforce professional series chipset, and I've got a 570SLI based board, which theoretically, should work. We shall see. If that doesn't work, maybe I can wipe one of our IBM x3755's (quad dual core opteron 4U, 64GB RAM, 15k SAS drives, nforce pro chipset, etc). I couldn't do it today, maybe tomorrow. I'll keep everyone posted.
 
I tried my (single) 5600 in crysis and it was slightly slower (maybe 5%) than my 8800GTX (in the same PC). The main problem with workstation cards in games is the drivers - they don't get the game-related optimisation love that the GeForce cards do.
 
Be prepared to be dissapointed. That card wont game better than an 8800 GTX. It may theoretically be capable of some gaming goodness but unless you find someone to make you some custom drivers you wont get far at all.

It may work ok in a few games but if your expecting to use it as a gaming card your nuts.
 
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