NVIDIA QuadroFX 3700 512 MB

As mentioned in the prior page, NVIDIA’s new QuadroFX 3700 card is slipping into a price point right between the QuadroFX 1700 and the QuadroFX 5600. Let’s see how it stacks up, on paper, before we look at NVIDIA’s final, shipping product.

NVIDIA QuadroFX 1700 NVIDIA G84 Graphics Processor 460 MHz GPU Clock Speed 64 Unified Shader Processors Shader Model 4.0 (DirectX 10) and OpenGL 2.1 Support 512 MB of DDR2 Memory 400 MHz DDR2 Clock Speed 128-bit Memory Controller 12.8 GB/s Memory Bandwidth PCI Express x16 Connector Bus Powered (No Power Connector) Single Slot Aluminum Alloy Cooling System Standard Length Card (ATX/EATX Ready) Two Dual-Link DVI Output Ports HDTV Output Genlock/Framelock Incompatible 2-Way SLI Multi-GPU Support Supports Windows XP and Vista 32-bit and 64-bit, Linux 32-bit and 64-bit, Solaris MSRP : $699 USD

NVIDIA QuadroFX 3700 NVIDIA G92 Graphics Processor 500 MHz GPU Clock Speed 112 Unified Shader Processors Shader Model 4.0 (DirectX 10) and OpenGL 2.1 Support 512 MB of GDDR-3 Memory 1600 MHz GDDR-3 Clock Speed 256-bit Memory Controller 51.2 GB/s Memory Bandwidth PCI Express x16 2.0 Connector 1 x 6-pin Power Connector Single Slot Aluminum Cooling System Standard Length Card (ATX/EATX Ready) Two Dual-Link DVI Output Ports Stereoscopic Output Genlock/Framelock Incompatible 2-Way SLI Multi-GPU Support Supports Windows XP and Vista 32-bit and 64-bit, Linux 32-bit and 64-bit, Solaris MSRP : $1,599 USD

NVIDIA QuadroFX 5600 NVIDIA G80 Graphics Processor 600 MHz GPU Clock Speed 128 Unified Shader Processors Shader Model 4.0 (DirectX 10) and OpenGL 2.1 Support 1.5 GB of GDDR-3 Memory 1600 MHz GDDR-3 Clock Speed 384-bit Memory Controller 76 GB/s Memory Bandwidth PCI Express x16 Connector 2 x 6-pin Power Connectors Dual Slot Copper Cooling System Full Length Card (EATX Required) Two Dual-Link DVI Output Ports Stereoscopic Output Genlock/Framelock Compatible 2-Way SLI Multi-GPU Support Supports Windows XP and Vista 32-bit and 64-bit, Linux 32-bit and 64-bit, Solaris MSRP : $2,999 USD

Sitting between the QuadroFX 1700 and 5600 lineups, the QuadroFX 3700 fits as snug as a bump-mapped, HDR-lit bug in a rug. While the QuadroFX 3700 is based on the newest of the three GPU architectures (NVIDIA’s fairly recent G92), in terms of raw graphics processing power it does have substantially less compared to the high-end QuadroFX 5600 card. The QuadroFX 3700 isn’t too far off though, as it only has a few less shader processors (112 vs. 128), slightly lower clock speed (500 MHz vs. 600 MHz), and has a 256-bit memory interface compared to a 384-bit interface on the 5600 card. Considering the massive $1,000 difference in price, the gaps between the 3700 and 5600 series card tend to look less significant.

The big differences here between NVIDIA’s new high-end and ultra high-end cards are memory and overall board size. The QuadroFX 5600 card has three times the memory as the 3700 card, but also is substantially larger and more difficult to cool. While the QuadroFX 5600 requires a massive PCB with a dual-slot cooler, the QuadroFX 3700 runs on a standard sized PCB with a single-slot cooling system. The QuadroFX 3700 also has a fairly un-impressive 512 MB of memory for a card at this price point. Considering memory prices are so cheap, we would have hoped that NVIDIA would kick it up to 1GB to really set it apart from its other G92 brethren. However, all in all, the QuadroFX 3700 has a strong feature set for a workstation product at this price point, at least on paper. Let’s take a look at this card in greater detail.