NVIDIA, the world leader in visual computing technologies, once again takes the lead in improving productivity for computer-aided design (CAD) and digital content creators with the announcement of the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700, a high-end graphics board capable of delivering a performance increase of up to 2X as compared to the previous generation of product."Dassault Systèmes' PLM solutions customers have always demanded the optimal combination of large-model performance and feature set from their graphic solutions. Now with the tight integration of GPU-based vertex scaling and CgFX-based realistic material shaders within CATIA, the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 comes at the ideal time and with the ideal combination of performance and features," said Christophe Delattre, Dassault Systemes, R&D manager, Visualization. "We certainly feel the Quadro FX 3700 will address our users' demanding expectations."

The Quadro FX 3700 graphics board offers high throughput for interactive visualization, and with 112 parallel processors, 512 MB of onboard graphics memory, and a 256-bit memory interface, the card easily manages the large models and complex, real-time shaders that dominate the CAD and digital content creation (DCC) markets. To greatly streamline the user experience, the Quadro FX 3700 graphics board incorporates the NVIDIA Application Configuration Engine (ACE), which automatically configures the graphics hardware and software to deliver maximum application performance. The board also offers award-winning SLI technology to dynamically scale graphics performance, enhance image quality, and expand display real estate.

The advanced NVIDIA Unifed Architecture, introduced last year, enables sophisticated shaders to simulate a virtually unlimited range of physical characteristics, such as lighting effects (dispersion, reflection, refraction, BRDF models) and physical surface properties (casting effects, porosity, molded surfaces). Real-time shaders allow these effects to be combined and modified interactively, something that is impossible with simple 2D static texture maps.

The Quadro FX 3700 graphics board also offers PCI-Express Gen 2 support, essentially doubling the data transfer rate between the GPU and the Gen 2 chipsets to a blazing fast 16 Gbps. Also, being Energy Star 4.0 compliant, the Quadro FX 3700 graphics board consumes less than 80 watts of power for improved energy management.

"The NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 graphics board is proof positive that NVIDIA continues to invest heavily in leading-edge solutions for professional users," said Dan Vivoli, executive vice president of marketing at NVIDIA. "It combines rich features with outstanding performance to successfully complete a top-to-bottom series of professional visualization solutions that are unmatched in the industry."

The Quadro FX 3700 graphics board supports the NVIDIA CUDA technology, a C-language development environment for NVIDIA GPUs that allows application developers to utilize the massively parallel computation power of the Quadro FX 3700 graphics board to greatly reduce the time it takes to solve complex visualization problems.

NVIDIA Quadro solutions are widely available through leading PC manufacturers like HP, Dell, IBM, and Sun; leading workstation system integrators; and NVIDIA channel partners PNY Technologies (US and EMEA), Leadtek (APAC), and Elsa (Japan). For more information about the full lineup of NVIDIA professional solutions please visit www.nvidia.com/quadro. The Quadro FX 3700 graphics board has an MSRP of $1599 (US).