Nvidia Corp. is just in time with inexpensive professional graphics solutions amid economic downturn and widespread intention of businesses to cut expenses, but still be able to use the latest technology.

In a bid to seriously expand the market of professional graphics solutions and boost its market share in that segment, Nvidia has unveiled two graphics adapters that were traditionally not available for professionals. Thanks to Nvidia Quadro-optimized drivers and software, a low-end graphics card as well as an integrated graphics core gained advantages that were previously available only with graphics cards that are sold for $500 and upwards.

“In today’s competitive global marketplace, engineers, traders, designers and power office users demand more functionality and reliability from their desktop computing solutions. The Quadro FX 470 and the Quadro FX 370 LP are precisely tested, certified and designed to maximize productivity and deliver the cost-effective, professional-quality solution these users require on a daily basis,” said Jeff Brown, general manager for professional services at Nvidia.

Nvidia Quadro FX 470 is the world’s first integrated professional graphics platform solution that features Nvidia GeForce 9300/9400-class integrated graphics core with 16 stream processor units. The first ever Quadro chipset supports Intel Core 2 and other processors in LGA775 form-factor with up to 1333MHz processor system bus as well as dual-channel DDR3 memory.

Nvidia Quadro FX 370 LP is a very simplistic DirectX 10-class graphics processor with only 8 stream processors and 256MB of memory onboard. The solution will be available as a low-profile graphics card for small form-factor systems aimed at professionals.

Integrated graphics cores and low-end graphics processing units (GPUs) have never been a part of professional graphics solutions market mostly because many professional digital content creation (DCC) and computer aided design (CAD) applications require rather serious graphics chip horsepower in addition to software optimizations. It remains to be seen whether the novelties will be faster compared to consumer-oriented graphics hardware in CAD and DCC apps.

Many customers will still prefer to have professional-grade graphics solutions over consumer-oriented hardware, hence, the new products may become rather successful, which is exactly whan Nvidia needs during economic crisis.

The Quadro FX 470-based systems are available from Nvidia System Integrator partners for about $700. The Quadro FX 370 LP GPU is available with manufacturer-suggested retail price of $149.

Tags: Nvidia, Quadro