Periodically, you may suddenly feel the urge to drop an insanely large amount of cash on something that really won’t do you much good in the future. We all know this feeling, and it usually associates itself with the words “Fast” “Shiny” “Sleek” “Action-Packed” and, depending on your gender, “Fashionable” and/or “Weapon”. Lately, I’ve been looking to upgrade my graphics card, so naturally, I’d want to drop some big “Gs” on something that can send my FPS through the roof. Prepare to meet your match; I’ve found the ULTIMATE overkill.
Here comes the nVidia Quadro Plex 1000 Model I – III. The three most powerful graphical solutions that nVidia can offer! The Quadro Plex 1000 platform is a pair of Quadro FX 5500 boards running in SLI configuration, with the ability to be chain-linked to other Quadro VCS platforms, further boosting the graphical power. For obvious reasons (see “Price”), the Quadro Plex 1000 series is offered to professional buyers (and residential ones wanting to hemorrhage money) looking for high-end platforms for everything from geography and meterological sciences to graphical art and 3D modeling to even animation a la Pixar! You can even slap a few of these in a server rack mount and use them to power your virtual reality simulation! Below you can see the Model II with its many DVI outputs…

Check out some of the resolution modes on this thing (Model III):
- 1080i 47.96 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080i 48.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080i 50.00 Hz (SMPTE295)
- 1080i 50.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080i 59.94 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080i 60.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080PsF 23.976 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080PsF 24.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080PsF 25.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080PsF 29.97 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080PsF 30.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080p 23.976 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080p 24.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080p 25.00 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080p 29.97 Hz (SMPTE274)
- 1080p 30.00 Hz (SMPTE274
…and that is only about the middle block of outputs that the Model III supports. Did I mention it can output up to 4 different channels of fill, in all of these outputs, simultaneously?
There’s a reason I left the price until last. Mostly because it’s time to wake up. While I’d love (Translation: REALLY LOVE) to have one of these to 1) show off and 2) run Crysis on, I’d have to drop about $17,500 on the Model I if I wanted even the wimpiest of the three. So, until I make it big in the world, I’ll have to put off getting one of these big honkin’ machines. *sigh*
Renders courtesy of: nVidia

March 21st, 2007
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