Wildcat Realizm 800: 3Dlabs MultiGPU First Look

by Derek Wilson on 3/25/2005 10:00 AM EST
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  • Athlex - Tuesday, April 5, 2005 - link

    I know this is a preview, but this article seemed a bit thin- no pictures of the actual hardware, no screenshots of driver config screens, would that break an NDA or something? Also, are "default professional settings" the same across brands? Seems like that might skew results if the driver defaults to different values between ProE/Solidworks/Maya, etc. Maybe a subjective appraisal of display quality could be part of this? Do these DVI ports also do analog output or is that unavailable with a dual-link DVI port?
    Might also be fun to see an OpenGL game benchmark on the pro cards to contrast the game cards running OpenGL apps...

    Can't wait to see the roundup!
  • BikeDude - Thursday, March 31, 2005 - link

    I too would like to see some game tests. I want a dual-link capable PCIe card and this effectively rules out all of the consumer cards! Before I fork out a lot more money for a "professional" card, I'd sure as hell would like to know that I would be able to play a mean game of Doom3 on the darn thing... (and using Photoshop is a priority as well)

    --
    Rune
  • Zebo - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link

    Why are there no game tests??? Lifes not all about work ya know.. stop and smell roses..specially if you have an office door like me.
  • Calin - Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - link

    The "Professional 3D" cards have OpenGL performance several times greater than what you can obtain from consumer cards (by consumer I mean pro gaming). Even the ATI cards for professional 3D (FireGL series) are several times faster in OpenGL than their gaming counterparts.
    Also, "professional 3D" cards really needs high resolution/high refresh rates outputs, and multiple outputs.
  • Draven31 - Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - link

    The difference is in the types of instructions used most often and the precision of many operations.

    And, more often than not in 3D, the number of polygons involved.
  • JustAnAverageGuy - Saturday, March 26, 2005 - link

    Tom's had a good comparison.

    It's a little over twice the size of a dollar bill. :)

    http://www.tomshardware.com/business/20040813/sigg...
  • cryptonomicon - Saturday, March 26, 2005 - link

    holy crap, that board is huge
  • Jkames - Saturday, March 26, 2005 - link

    arg! I meant to say "Are the differences internal instructions?"
  • Jkames - Saturday, March 26, 2005 - link

    I mean that are the differences internal instructions.
  • Jkames - Saturday, March 26, 2005 - link

    What is the difference between workstation hardware and desktop hardware? I understand that workstation is more expensive and used for professional applications but would anyone be able to elaborate on the uses of workstation hardware? Is it the internal instructions such as MMX or junk like that?

    Any info would be appreciated thanx.
  • Draven31 - Saturday, March 26, 2005 - link

    Nice performance, too bad if performs so poorly in other applications...

    3dLabs cards are great if 3d is the *only* thing you're doing on it. If you're doing anything 2d, or that uses 2d overlays, forget it. This means problems in After Effects, Combustion, Photoshop CS...

    For those of you that don't know, most 3d artists at least use Photoshop to create textures.
  • faboloso112 - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    good shizzle...how about some reviews of a 512mb vid card meant for gaming...i think i saw someone posted a thread for one in AT forums as a hot deal...was it a 6800 ultra or the x850 series that had the 512...cant remember...wonder if this next mem bump really helps with the FPS in the latest gaming engines...anyone wanna second that?
  • JustAnAverageGuy - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    All that and not a single pic of the card itself?

    Dissappointing!
  • hoppa - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    Wow does that card really cost $15500 and suck so bad?
  • stephenbrooks - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    May I discreetly point out that 'discreet' and 'discrete' have discrete meanings (page 2).
  • Turin39789 - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    *card
  • Turin39789 - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    Where are the Doom 2 Benchmarks, how does this care compare!?
  • BaronVonAwesome - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    Um, so how well would one of these workstation cards work on games?
  • Johnmcl7 - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    It's sad, but I would like to see some proper pictures of this card as well. A quick search showed the Realizm 800 alongside some of the other cards:

    http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/photo/articles/2004/09/12...

    John
  • brownba - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    seriously, give us pics

    we need our geek-pron
  • Quiksel - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    pics???

    I want to see said full-length card. Pictures of nice hardware are truly beautiful things, and yet you keep them to yourselves!

    Mean, mean, Derek! ;)

    How about at least a pic or two.

    ~quiksel ^_^
  • Spacecomber - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    #3: Yeah, I think the price on the FX 4000 was suppose to read $1500.

    Space
  • PrinceXizor - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    A nice "quick" review. But, can someone please step out of the mold and do a really thorough workstation class video benchmarking.

    I know the readership for a mainstream video card review is much higher than for a workstation review, but, I'd like a meaty review to cleanse the pallate of all those cookie-cutter worthless reviews in CAD trade magazines. All they run is spec too, so what.

    Multi-monitor support;
    Multi-monitor functionality;
    Benches using multiple monitors;
    Custom benchmarks
    ---time to open an AT developed large assembly in various different CAD programs
    ---time to render custom scenes
    ---view rotation benchmarks

    All of these at the various resolutions and bit depths with functions such as AA utilized.

    I guess I'm hoping for a mainstream video card style review on a workstation card. I can get spec scores anywhere. While I appreciate the review, I'd just like to see more time invested by AT.

    Just my thoughts.

    P-X
  • jeffrey - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    What in the hell?
    Not even a picture of the card..... sad.
  • brownba - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    "NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000
    Street Price ~$15500"

    15500? i'm assuming that's a misprint?
  • compudog - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    "Workstation"
  • compudog - Friday, March 25, 2005 - link

    Nice job Derek. Looks like a good part for the Worstation market.

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