Is NVIDIA's Latest Graphics Board Too Good for You?

NVIDIA is moving fast. The new Pascal architecture has just begun shipping; last week, the new Titan X was launched based on the Pascal architecture; this week, the top-of-the-line Quadro boards were launched.

This is a faster introduction across product lines than NVIDIA did for the last two major GPU releases: the Maxwell and Kepler architectures.

• The Quadro P6000 and P5000 are based on NVIDIA’s GP102 graphics processor
  
• The Quadro P6000 has 24 GB of memory and 3840 compute unified device architecture (CUDA) cores—nearly 300 more cores than the Titan X
  
• For virtual reality (VR) and 3D stereo application, simultaneous multi-projection allows for left and right eye projections to be created in a single geometry pass
  
• Loaded with GDDR5X memory, which delivers twice the bandwidth of the GDDR5 found on the previous generation board (the Quadro M6000) and is critical for GPU computing
  
• Unified virtual memory, available on Linux, will accelerate GPU-computing problems with very large data sets
• Dynamic load balancing of graphics and computing applications delivers better GPU-computing and graphics mixed-mode operations
• Designed to accelerate GPU-based ray tracing, video rendering and high-end color grading
• Boasts 8K display resolutions with support for DisplayPort 1.4

 The basic characteristics of the two new Quadros are laid out below.

It is worth pointing out that the Quadro P6000 is absolutely the fastest, most powerful graphics board in the NVIDIA family. Not only does it have 24 GB of GDDR5X memory, twice the memory of the Titan X, it also has 3840 CUDA cores compared to the Titan X with 3584 CUDA cores. There is no faster GPU in the NVIDIA line up.

Another key point for professionals is that the Quadro P6000 and P5000 unified memory architecture is perfect for compute applications with large data sets running on Linux. The unified memory architecture allows tasks of unlimited size to be calculated and rendered. The unified memory architecture is only possible on Linux. It does not exist under Windows.

The Pascal architecture can dynamically balance graphics and computing work on the GPU. This enhances the Quadro's ability to work interactively with realistic, GPU-computed ray tracing in the application viewport. Imagine Iray's realistic rendering in a Maya viewport for a faster lighting and illumination workflow in visual effects (VFX) scenes.

Users, especially those with budgets to consider, may elect to look at graphics hardware a level below NVIDIA recommendations. NVIDIA seems to have taken care to spec a card for the power user for each software application, not wanting such a user to be hardware constrained. But let’s consider a typical user, say for 3ds Max, who does 3D modeling but rarely, if ever, uses the Iray plugin for GPU ray tracing and rendering. For that user, Quadro K1200 may perform well and be preferred over the recommended Quadro M4000.

A Final Word

NVIDIA is upgrading the Quadro family with the Pascal architecture faster than any architecture change that I can remember.

The Pascal architecture is faster than any previous architecture.

The Quadro P6000 surpasses the raw performance of its consumer/gamer counterpart, the USD$1,200 Titan X, adding nearly 300 additional CUDA cores and doubling the graphics memory. In addition, the new architecture, combined with NVIDIA's excellent GPU-computing support for ray-tracing as well as power to accelerate VR, make the Quadro P6000 and the P5000 worth considering as professional workstation graphics for those doing rendering or creating/viewing VR content.

About the Author

Tom Lansford is an international marketing consultant and manages the sites Professional Workstation, CADplace France and CADplace UK. He has been living in Europe since 1992, and previously managed workstation marketing in Europe at NVIDIA. Lansford is a professional videographer and his interests include design visualization, simulation, graphics and GPU computing.