Owner's manual

16
Technology Overview
Power Mac G5
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
If industrial-strength 3D design work, stereo 3D visualization, or using two 30-inch
Apple Cinema HD Displays is at the top of your wish list, you can confi gure your
Power Mac G5 with the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500.
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One of the most sophisticated
graphics cards available, the Quadro FX 4500 is an ideal choice for advanced design
and visualization. It features:
• An integrated stereo 3D port, so scientists can use goggles for stereo-in-a-window
visualization applications
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• Hardware support for anti-aliased points and lines, accelerated clip planes, and
two-sided lighting
• Two dual-link DVI ports for connecting two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays,
delivering the largest workspace available using a single graphics card
Graphics card specifi cations
GeForce 6600 LE GeForce 6600 GeForce 7800 GT Quadro FX 4500
Card interface 16-lane PCI Express 16-lane PCI Express 16-lane PCI Express 16-lane PCI Express
Memory interface 128-bit 128-bit 256-bit 256-bit
Frame bu∂ er memory 128MB GDDR 256MB GDDR 256MB GDDR3 512MB GDDR3
SDRAM SDRAM SDRAM SDRAM
Memory bandwidth 6.4 GBps 8 GBps 32 GBps 33.6 GBps
Vertices per second 225 million 225 million 700 million 181 million triangles
Fill rate 1.2 billion 2.4 billion 8 billion 10.8 billion
(texels per second)
Ports One single-link One single-link One single-link Two dual-link DVI
DVI and one DVI and one DVI and one and one stereo port
dual-link DVI dual-link DVI dual-link DVI
Slots occupied One One One Two
Choosing a graphics card
Which card is right for you? More powerful graphics processors and faster, larger frame
bu∂ ers perform 2D and 3D operations more quickly. When selecting a graphics card,
consider your primary uses, along with the following:
• Memory bandwidth determines how fast images and textures can be accessed by the
graphics processor from its own memory. The higher the bandwidth, the more capable
the card is of supporting real-time, complex 3D images.
• Vertices are the key building blocks for 3D images in the OpenGL graphics environ-
ment in Mac OS X. More vertices means greater complexity, resulting in more realism
onscreen.
• After a 3D object is assembled from the vertices, it must be fi lled. Each 3D object can
contain many pixels, each with a di∂ erent appearance based on the texture, lighting,
and color being applied. The higher the fi ll rate, the more lifelike an object appears.
• Frame bu∂ er memory, or video memory, stores the information being used by the
graphics processor to create onscreen images. The faster the memory, the more
capable the graphics card is of generating lifelike, complex 3D screens in real time.
For best performance, choose GDDR3 memory, developed by the graphics industry
for intensive 3D applications. Note that larger frame bu∂ ers also improve support
for a multiple-display confi guration in which large, complex screens are created for
both displays.
16-lane PCI Express
The 16-lane PCI Express graphics interface
provides throughput of up to 4 GBps, almost
double that of the AGP 8X standard. And by
supplying up to 150 watts of power to the
primary graphics processing unit, the new
Power Mac G5 provides the headroom for
high-performance, next-generation graphics
processors and applications—enabling
even higher resolutions for stunning realism.