Professional OpenGL & DirectX Workstation Graphics Cards

The key to getting the most out of any professional software application is to use a ISV certified professional workstation graphics card. These cards combine world leading OpenGL & DirectX programmable graphics technologies with application certification to enable professional users to gain 100% accurate graphical representation and rock solid application stability.

TWO main manufacturers produce dedicated professional graphics cards for the CAD, CAM, CAE, DCC & VFX markets. These are ATI & NVIDIA; both manufacturers produce high performance consumer based graphics cards (ATI Radeon & NVIDIA GeForce) for gaming and multimedia use for which they are most commonly know, however both manufacturers have a unique workstation division that specializes in the research and develop of ISV certified workstation class graphics cards (ATI FireGL & NVIDIA Quadro).

Both the ATI FireGL & NVIDIA Quadro Graphics cards have similar hardware features to that of their consumer based cousins (to help reduce manufacturing + R&D costs etc), however they are radically different it terms of power and offer unique OpenGL & DirectX programmability that enables them to unleash ultimate application performance (Autodesk Inventor, 3D Studio Max, Viz, Maya, Bentley Microstation, Dassault Catia, Solidworks, Navisworks, UGS Solidedge, NX, I-Deas, Team Center, PTC Pro Engineer, Newtek Lightwave, Maxon Cinema4D, Avid SoftImage XSI and many more) and provide 100% ISV certification for the ultimate graphics workstation experience.

ATI FireGL™ Workstation Graphics Accelerators with Avivo™ Technology, Next Generation Workstation Graphics - Power for Today and Tomorrow

As a world leader within the graphics industry, ATI delivers superior products with the most innovative technologies to a wide range of customers. Serving the professional market, ATI’s FireGL™ series of workstation graphics accelerators is a complete solution that delivers more than just an add-in board. ATI’s FireGL products deliver extreme value to professional markets for industrial design, CAD and engineering, as well as content creation, animation and special effects. FireGL users are valued and talented design professionals running business critical applications based on OpenGL® or Microsoft® DirectX®.

• Powered by ATI’s Next Generation FireGL™ GPU with Avivo™ Technology
• Scalable Ultra-threaded Architecture
• Multiple Parallel Geometry Engines and Pixel Shader Processors
• Full Shader Model 3.0 support for Vertex and Pixel Shaders
• Up to 1GB GDDR3 Graphics Memory & 512-bit Memory Controller
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) Rendering with 8, 10 & 16-bit per RGB Colour Component Support
• High Fidelity Display Engine capable of producing over one trillion colour's
• Up to 2x Dual Link DVI Outputs
• Optimized and ISV Certified for Industry Leading CAD and DCC Applications

Whether you’re an engineer designing mechanical subassemblies or an animator creating eye-popping visual effects, ATI’s award-winning FireGL™ workstation graphics technology delivers the performance, quality, and stability required for the most demanding of 3D CAD and DCC applications. Available with up to 1GB of memory, Dual-Link DVI, the latest AVIVO technology and full ISV certification for industry leading OpenGL® and DirectX® applications. ATI FireGL workstation graphics are the choice for today's top 3D professionals working in Windows® and Linux® environments. Plus, FireGL’s new hardware accelerated rendering delivers real-time cinematic quality previews directly within many professional applications (e.g. Autodesk 3D Studio Max & Autodesk Maya).

NVIDIA Quadro® Graphics Processor Units (GPU's) are robust, high performance desktop & mobile workstation solutions for the professional application user. Whether you're a designer developing the latest automobile, a 3D artist working on the next blockbuster film, or a financial trader on Wall Street, NVIDIA workstation graphics boards and workstation motherboard solutions deliver unmatched power and performance.

NVIDIA Quadro products are 100& fully ISV certified for all professional workstation applications, and are ideal for the CAD (computer-aided design), CAE (computer-aided engineering), DCC (digital content creation), VFX visual effects, visualization and corporate markets.

NVIDIA Quadro® Plex Visual Computing System (VCS) delivers a quantum leap in visual computing. Harnessing the astonishing power of multiple NVIDIA Quadro FX GPU's to deliver never before seen graphical capabilities. Key features include:: -

• Massive Visual Compute Density
• Breakthrough Levels of Capability & Productivity
• Based on Industry Standard Architectures

NVIDIA Quadro FX High-end Graphics Cards are Designed for Professional 3D Applications such as:

• Mechanical Computer Aided Design/Manufacture/Engineering (Inventor/Solidworks/ProE)
• Digital Content Creation (3D Studio Max, Viz, Maya, Cinema4D, Lightwave, SoftImage XSI)
• Visualization Applications (VFX, 3D Motion Graphics)

The NVIDIA Quadro® family of professional solutions for workstations delivers the fastest application performance and the highest quality graphics. Raw performance and quality are only the beginning. The NVIDIA Quadro family takes the leading computer-aided design (CAD), digital content creation (DCC), and visualization applications to a new level of interactivity by enabling unprecedented capabilities in programmability and precision. The industry’s leading workstation applications leverage this architecture to enable hardware accelerated features not found in any other professional graphics solution. In addition to a full line up of 2D and 3D workstation graphics solutions, the NVIDIA Quadro professional products include a set of specialty solutions that have been developed to meet the needs of a wide range of industry professionals. These specialty solutions provide distinct features to enable imaging visualization and broadcast applications from multi system scalability and synchronization to uncompressed 12-bit HD-SDI video output.

NVIDIA Quadro® FX Features and Benefits: -

• Full 128-Bit Precision Graphics Pipeline with 12-Bit Subpixel Precision
• 32-Bit Floating Point Precision
• 128MB up to 1.5GB Ultra High Performance Graphics DDR3 Memory
• Ultra Efficient 256-Bit Memory Interface
• Advanced Colour Compression & Early Z-Cul
• Cg High-Level Graphics Shader Language
• Genlock & Frame Lock
• Full-Scene Antialiasing (FSAA)
• Rotated-Grid Full-Scene Antialiasing (RG FSAA)
• Hardware 3D Window Clipping
• Hardware-Accelerated Pixel Read-Back
• Highest Workstation Application Performance
• High-Performance Display Outputs
• Next-Generation Vertex and Pixel Programmability
• NVIDIA High Precision Dynamic-Range (HPDR) Technology
• NVIDIA Quadro Unified Memory architecture nView Multi-Display Technology
• NVIDIA SLI Technology™ & Quad Buffered Stereo
• Quad Dual-Link Digital Display Connectors Dual Dual-Link Digital Display Connectors
• NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)
  

NVIDIA Quadro NVS graphics cards are designed for professional 2D applications such as General Purpose Business and Corporate Financial Trading.

Matrox Professional Graphics

For further information & pricing on any professional graphics solution (ATI FireGL / FireMV, NVIDIA Quadro FX / Quadro NVS / QuadroPlex or Matrox) please contact us on
+44 (0) 800 180 4801 or e-mail sales@cad2.com