Nvidia Introduces New Quadros, Multi-OS SLI

Nvidia has refreshed nearly its entire Quadro line with a handful of new cards fit for the those who use GPUs for work instead of play.

Pairing up with the new Intel Xeon chips based on the Nehalem architecture are five new Quadro products. Nvidia actually lists seven Quadros as being new, but the FX 5800 and FX 4800 have occupied the stratosphere since late last year with onboard memory and prices that rival entire gaming rigs.

New, and definitely more economical for the non-heavy industrial user are the FX 3800 ($900), FX 1800 ($600), FX 580 ($150), FX 380 ($100) and NVS 295 ($100).

Perhaps even more significant is Nvidia’s introduction of SLI Multi-OS, which enables use of multiple Quadro GPUs from a single graphics workstation in a virtualized environment.

"In today's economy, organizations are turning to virtualization to increase productivity and maximize cost savings," says Jeff Brown, general manager of professional solutions at Nvidia. "Now professionals working with visualization applications can benefit from virtualization."

SLI Multi-OS is available on the Quadro FX 4800, FX 5800 and the new FX 3800. According to Nvidia, SLI Multi-OS works in association with Parallels Workstation Extreme virtualization software and Intel's VT-d technology, assigning both the host and guest virtual machine its own dedicated GPU.

The new Quadro cards are available now from PNY Technologies, Leadtek and Elsa and systems from Dell, Fujistu-Siemens, HP and Lenovo.