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EXCLUSIVE
NVIDIA Quadro FX4600 Review

Test System Set-Ups and Notes

To complete a short review of this magnitude and to show off the new NVIDIA Quadro in its best surrounds we ran with our current in house test systems. Time was really not on our side at all as the few cards out in the wild are in extremely high demand. Therefore we had to make a concessive decision what would be the best way forward that you the professional could quickly grasp. Sadly Cebit demands that all the best equipment goes there so this in turn meant we could not show off some really high end systems with the new professional graphic card in place which is our normal want. However we feel that these in house systems will give you the reader a very good indication of what to expect when you next take on your evaluation upgrade systems.

Test System 1 - Intel Platform

1 X Akasa Mirage 62 Chassis
1 X Akasa ALLInONE Controller
1 X Akasa EVO 120 ^V2 HSF utilising Akasa Pro Grade 460 Thermal Compound
1 X Intel E6700 CPU
1 X MSI 965 Platinum Edition – Modified Version
2 X 1GB PC2 8500 Corsair XMS2 Memory Modules
1 X NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 (Driver Release 91.36)
1 X NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 (Driver Release 97.72)
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Intake Fan
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Exhaust Fan
2 X Western Digital Caviar® SE¹6 250GB SATA Hard Drives configured to Raid 0

Test System 2 - AMD Platform

1 X Akasa Mirage 62 Chassis
1 X Akasa ALLInONE Controller
1 X Akasa EVO BLUE (AK922) HSF utilising Akasa Pro Grade 460 Thermal Compound
1 X AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 6000+ Socket AM2 CPU
1 X MSI K9N Diamond Mainboard
2 X 1GB PC2 8500 Corsair XMS2 Memory Modules
1 X NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 (Driver Release 91.36)
1 X NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 (Driver Release 97.72)
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Intake Fan
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Exhaust Fan
2 X Western Digital Caviar® SE16 250GB SATA Hard Drives configured to Raid 0

In both the mainboards bios settings were left at default automatically finding the new CPU's and the new 800FSB memory. Both mainboards once more automatically adjusting the clock speed settings and voltages to facilitate these new equipment parts to maintain the higher functionality which each mainboard has to offer.

Hardware Suppliers for the Review

MSI for the supply of the Mainboards shown, Corsair, for the supply of their spanking new Dominator memory, Western Digital for the SATA Hard Discs, NVIDIA for the supply of the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 professional graphics card, Man and Machine for the supply of the PNY Quadro FX 4500, and finally but by no means least; Akasa for the major peripherals required for this review . Our thanks to all involved in making this an interesting but exciting review. The CPU - our thanks to the donor of this superb chip, and before anyone says it, no it did not come from AMD.

***We have information that cards should be available from Distributors by the E.O. of next week, for UK System Integrators and VAR's you should direct your enquiry directly to Man and Machine for availability and pricing. Members of the public contact their respective resellers as soon as possible.

Corsair’s new memory really has hit home, expensive in some areas for some, but the performance and stability that we encountered over this last month has been magnificent. Ranting on once more stability in the high-end is of a paramont and for those inclined and feel the need for speed, we can say that this memory on these mainboards and memory can be well tweaked – Mission Control we have lift off!!!

Systems Integrators, OEM’s and VAR’s should contact all companies directly for pricing and availability of all components. Members of the public should contact their respective suppliers requesting the parts directly.

Diskeeper can be purchased from most leading Distributors and software retail outlets. Or those of you wishing a try before buy, a 30 day trial version maybe downloaded direct from Diskeeper Europe. We highly recommend the use of this software as performance increase can be quite considerable in many places.

Benchmarks and Software Used (32 Bit Mode)

The plethora of benchmarks available in this arena; one could spend all day in producing results if the time permitted, paralysis by analysis! Sadly the clock ticked hard and fast against us therefore we did only have a very short time in which to complete this basic but factual review.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
Diskeeper 2007 Professional Premium Edition
** SPECviewperf® 9.0.3

** So that readers will be able to see how much performance increase has been gained throughout the range SPECviewperf® tests by the individual cards. We have split up into their individual test categories from each test system and run. Therefore one page has been dedicated for the benchmark results from the Intel Test System and AMD Test System

To complete all of the tests on the systems has taken some considerable time to complete. Each card completed the tests etc on a clean system hard drive to ensure that no residue drivers were left installed. A test/render has been completed many times over different periods of the system uptime. Maintaining the fair play rules of SPECviewperf® we did not manipulate any of this mainboards functionality and left it at its default settings in which it was supplied. All tests have been conducted at 1280 X 1024 @ 60Hz in 32 bit colour. Results that have been shown on this review are from the application/benchmarks first run in accordance with the SPECviewperf® fair play rules.

Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 Pictures
Page 3 - System Configurations for the Benchmarks
Page 4 - SPECviewperf® 9.0.3 Benchmark Results from an Intel Test System
Page 5 - SPECviewperf® 9.0.3 Benchmark Results from an AMD Test System
Page 6 - Conclusions

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