NOTE: Please also read news-story titled "NVIDIA Clarifies Quadro FX 4000 Technology, Pricing".

NVIDIA Corporation unveiled its new professional graphics accelerator based on the recently announced GeForce 6 also known as NV40 architecture. Along with quite some new capabilities compared to the previous-generation Quadro products, the new Quadro FX 4000 also boasts with improved performance.

The heart of the new Quadro FX 4000 is NVIDIA’s latest graphics processor GeForce 6800 Ultra containing approximately 220 million of transistors that form 16 pixel pipelines, 6 vertex processors as well as other important integrated circuits of the chip. Higher fillrate and geometry power typically allow graphics cards to demonstrate higher performance in various applications.

Designed for professional CAD, DCC, and scientific applications, Quadro FX 4000 delivers 7%, 8% and 45% improvements in proe-02, 3dsmax-02 and ugs-03 professional benchmarks respectively, according to NVIDIA.

In addition to performance improvements, NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 also features Pixel Shaders and Vertex Shaders 3.0 functionality that enhance the feature-set of the current DirectX X 9.0 version and are likely to be eventually exposed by professional and gaming applications. The main idea of Shader Model 3.0 is a great expansion of Shader Model 2.0 specs and allowing software makers to create longer and more complex programs for modern graphics processors.

The Quadro FX 4000 graphics card also features 256MB of GDDR3 onboard memory functioning at 1000MHz. The card also features two DVI-I connectors to drive multiple very high-resolution displays at up to 3840x2400 resolution rates, satisfying demanding medical, satellite, and geospatial imaging application requirements.

NVIDIA said that its latest professional graphics solution will be available in May and will be sold by original equipment manufacturers like HP and add-in card partners such as PNY (US and Europe), Leadtek (Asia/Pacific), and Elsa (Japan), as well as value-added resellers and system builders. Pricing of the Quadro FX 4000 was not declared, but typically this class of products from NVIDIA cost from $2000 to $3000.