NVIDIA Quadro CX Pro Graphics For Adobe CS4

While the QuadroCX hardware is not extremely surprising, as it has identical specifications as the QuadroFX 4800, we're still dealing with some heavy duty hardware here. With a price tag of over $1,500, we would expect nothing less. This is a high-end workstation graphics card which just so happens to be targeted at creative users, but still, the hardware here can be used for any workstation-related task.

The QuadroCX card is a double-slot card from a height perspective, and a full-length card from a width perspective. The card will extend beyond the length of a standard ATX motherboard, so it's best suited in an Extended ATX class chassis, although one isn't specifically required. The card utilizes a PCI Express 2.0 interface and requires a single 6-pin PCI Express power connector.

The board has an array of outputs which should please most workstation users. The card has one dual-link DVI port on the top right, capable of handling displays up to 2560x1600 resolution. On the bottom row, there are also two DisplayPort connectors, which can run at this same resolution (and beyond), but also can take advantage of the Quadro CX's 30-bit color support, as long as you have a 30-bit color equipped display (there aren't many of you out there). On the top left, there is a 3-pin stereoscopic output port, and a small set of airflow exhaust vents in between.

The cooling system relies on a single cooling fan which sits on the right side of the board, sucking in chassis air, running it over the GPU and memory, and exhausting it out the left side of the board. The card is equipped with an airflow shroud which helps move this cool air in the proper direction, letting it breath out by the edge of the chassis. The cooling system is very quiet by default, even under heavy loads. During the majority of our testing, the fan on the Quadro CX was spinning at under 1,500 RPM, which made it nearly inaudible, which is definitely a positive for the workstation-environment.

If one monstrous GT200 chip isn't enough to satisfy your pixel crushing lust, you can equip two of these boards in an SLI configuration. It's extremely unlikely that potential QuadroCX customers will want this functionality, and even more unlikely that Adobe applications would even make use of multiple boards in SLI (at this time, they do not), but hey, the functionality is there if you need it for other tasks.