The power hungry professional may look at the quiet, little Quadro FX 3800 workstation GPU and scoff. They may not even give the FX 3800 a passing glance.
“This card isn’t the mighty FX 4800, or the unstoppable 4GB monster that is the FX 5800,” they would say.
But those people would be missing out on an outstanding product. Trust us when we say that this GPU is a serious contender as an all-purpose solution–one of the best price/performance products in the workstation GPU market.
The NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 is based on the 55nm G100GL architecture, which is exclusive to NVIDIA’s workstation boards. This 1GB single-slot GPU contains 192 CUDA cores and sports an impressive amount of features:
- NVIDIA G100GL GPU
- 55nm process node
- 600MHz core clock
- 192 CUDA Cores
- 1GB 800MHz GDDR3
- 256-bit Memory Bus
- 51.2GBps memory Bandwidth
- 1×6-pin PCIe power connector
- 108W power consumption
- 2 x DisplayPort, 1 x DL-DVI Outputs
- 3-Pin Stereoscopic (3D) Support (Optional)
- Serial Digital Interface (Optional)
- SLI Multi OS Support
- Supports DirectX 10
- USD$899 MSRP
The Quadro FX 3800 replaces the venerable FX 3700, but ups the ante by doubling the amount of onboard memory; increasing the core clock from 500MHz to 600MHz; adding an additional 80 CUDA cores; and adding support for technologies like optional serial digital interface (SDI) and SLI Multi OS support. The feature palette of this GPU is impressive, but let’s talk for a moment about what may be the most significant addition: SLI Multi OS.
NVIDIA SLI Multi OS allows a user with a single workstation and an SLIed pair of compatible Quadro cards to virtualize multiple Windows and/or Linux operating system environments. SLI Multi OS harnesses Parallels Workstation Extreme to assign the host OS to one dedicated Quadro GPU, and assign guest operating systems to the other. This allows one user to seamlessly operate in two different operating system environments on the same machine, eliminating the need for multiple stations. This technology is especially useful to smaller studios that do not have sufficient funds to furnish the workplace with many different workstations. SLI Multi OS is currently available on the HPz800 and the Dell T7500 certified workstations.
For this evaluation, we pitted the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 against the ATI FirePro V8750. While the FX 3800 was outclassed from the start (mid-range vs. ultra-high end), this review isn’t just a battle of speed and numbers; we’re also looking to assess the FX 3800’s overall performance for the dollar. We were confident that the Quadro FX 3800 would put on a good show, especially at its price, which is less than half of the ATI solution.
Performance
As expected, the ATI FirePro V8750 did manage to best the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800. In Cinebench R10, the V8750 took the crown by a little over 1000 points in the OpenGL test. The results from ViewPerf 3DS Max were rather tight, as the V8750 had an increase of 7 frames per second on average. However, ViewPerf Maya results told the real story in which we see the V8750’s larger memory bandwidth and speedier GDDR5 memory play their role in for a 300% higher score.
Those numbers are hardly the point of the comparison, however. The real point of interest is the value found in the Quadro FX 3800 in its price/performance/feature window. Priced at $899, the Quadro FX 3800 is half the price of the FirePro V8750. That is some serious professional bang for your buck, especially considering the technologies that come with this GPU, most notably hardware stereoscopy and SLI Multi OS. For the professional artist that simply can’t afford the ultra high-end, the Quadro FX 3800 is quite an attractive solution.
Concerns
A point of concern for us when assessing the FX 3800 was its single-slot cooling configuration that actually works to blow heat back towards the center of your PC. We can’t recall seeing any other major GPUs that employ a similar cooling solution. Considering that most PCs are designed to pull air in from the front and exhaust out the rear, this seemed counter-productive.
Even so the Quadro FX 3800 did maintain stable, moderate temperatures during our testing process. We even put the GPU to a true stress test with FurMark; under a constant full load for four solid hours, the Quadro FX 3800 was completely stable at a temperature of 81 degrees Celsius. The 3800 can take the heat, but we do worry about the rest of the system. We can’t help but feel that exhausting hot air back into a chassis churning out heat under full load for extended periods of time isn’t the best idea.
Final thoughts
When it’s all on the table, the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 is an impressive workstation GPU. It is packed to the brim with compelling features and specifications in a svelte, single-slot design. Though it certainly isn’t the fastest board from NVIDIA or AMD, its price imparts outstanding the value, particularly for single users and small studios that need the reliability, speed and support of a workstation GPU without the price tag of a flagship board.
Beyond our cooling and ventilation concerns, we can completely recommend this product as an excellent workstation GPU solution.
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