NVIDIA Quadro

Kepler-based Quadro graphics cards for workstations

Nvidia's range of Quadro graphics cards have powered professional workstations in various industries for many years, and in March 2013 the range was updated with a new wave of products that harnesses the power of the Nvidia Kepler architecture.

Joining the award-winning Quadro K5000 - which debut in September 2012 and also uses the advanced Kepler architecture - four new cards have been added to Nvidia's line-up in an effort to bring cutting-edge professional performance to all three market segments: high-end, mid-range and entry-level. As expected, all cards meet the independent software vendor (ISV) certifications.

Designed to deliver an unmatched professional application experience, the all-new Quadro K4000, K2000, K2000D and K600 are each equipped with Nvidia's latest Streaming Multiprocessor Engine (SMX) and tout a substantial increase in per-clock throughput, resulting in up to 50 per cent greater performance than equivalent previous-generation parts. It is easy to identify Kepler-bearing Quadros because each model number begins with the letter K, whereas previous-generation Quadros do not. The K4000, therefore, will coexist with the older-generation Quadro 4000, which is based on the less-powerful Fermi architecture.

Nvidia Quadro K4000

Introduced as a direct replacement to the older Quadro 4000, Nvidia's new high-end Quadro K4000 carries a 768-core GPU and a large 3GB frame buffer hooked up to a 192-bit bus. That's a healthy performance increase over the previous generation 256-core, 2GB frame-buffer solution, yet the use of a refined Kepler architecture has also seen maximum power consumption fall from 142 watts to just 80 watts. This is why the GPU core is cooled by a simple-looking heatsink.

Nvidia Quadro K2000

The Quadro K2000, measuring 4.4in long in a single-slot form factor, is specifically engineered for customers who need mid-range performance. It comes equipped with 384 CUDA cores (double that of the previous generation) and a 2GB frame buffer that provides 64GB/s of bandwidth via a 128-bit bus. With a TDP of just 51 watts, the K2000 delivers excellent performance in professional applications while requiring no additional power source from the PSU - it'll run straight from an x16 PCI Express 2.0 slot.

Nvidia Quadro K2000D

A tweaked variant of the K2000, the Quadro K2000D offers all of the prowess of its namesake but includes native support for two dual-link DVI displays, making it the ideal choice for ultra-high-resolution medical-imaging displays. Just like the K4000 and K2000, four displays can be driven off one card, by using the two dual-link DVI in conjunction with the single DisplayPort output.

Nvidia Quadro K600

At the entry-level end of the scale, the new Quadro K600 arrives as a direct replacement for the ageing, Fermi-based Quadro 600. The number of CUDA cores has doubled from 96 to 192, and the 28nm Kepler GPU is partnered with 1GB of DDR3 memory. The entire package is presented in a versatile low-profile form factor and has a maximum power consumption rating of just 41 watts.

Kepler Enhancements

Amid the various enhancements available to the Kepler architecture, which encompasses both the consumer GeForce and professional Quadro product lines, a new-and-improved display controller is a key upgrade for end users.

Putting the under-the-hood upgrades to good use, Nvidia's new Quadro cards offer support for 4K resolutions as well as the DisplayPort 1.2 standard, and all but the entry-level K600 are able to drive four simultaneous displays. Using Nvidia Mosaic technology, customers can also use multiple cards to power large-scale installations; with four displays available per card, a quad-GPU workstation can now combine up to 16 displays to create a single large desktop experience.

In addition to offering a wealth of new features, the four above-detailed Quadro solutions each continue to offer support for Nvidia Maximus technology, allowing the new Quadro products to be paired with a Tesla K20 GPU. In this high-performance setup, a single workstation can be configured to use the Tesla GPU for rendering computations, freeing up the system CPU and Quadro GPU for other real-time tasks.

Summary

While the consumer GeForce and server-orientated Tesla cards have already been beneficiaries of the new Kepler architecture, Nvidia has now brought it over to the workstation market. By harnessing the capabilities of the Kepler architecture, Nvidia's latest Quadro graphics cards offer cutting-edge workflow acceleration to professionals in various fields.

Encompassing multiple price points, the Quadro K4000, K2000 and K600 ensure that there's a solution for every scenario. All four of Nvidia's new introductions are available from Scan Computers, please click here to browse our entire catalogue of Quadro products.