Quadro

Quadro
Quadro DIV Vpro VR3
Release dateJanuary 1, 2000; 24 years ago (2000-01-01)
DiscontinuedOctober 5, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-10-05)
History
SuccessorNvidia RTX

Quadro was Nvidia's brand for graphics cards intended for use in workstations running professional computer-aided design (CAD), computer-generated imagery (CGI), digital content creation (DCC) applications, scientific calculations and machine learning from 2000 to 2020.

An Nvidia Quadro K6000, released in 2013[1]

Quadro-branded graphics cards differed from the mainstream GeForce lines in that the Quadro cards included the use of ECC memory and enhanced floating point precision. These are desirable properties when the cards are used for calculations which require greater reliability and precision compared to graphics rendering for video games.

The Nvidia Quadro product line directly competed with AMD's Radeon Pro (formerly FirePro/FireGL) line of professional workstation graphics cards.[2]

Nvidia has since moved away from the Quadro branding for new products, starting with the Turing architecture-based RTX 4000 released on November 13, 2018 and then phasing it out entirely with launch of the Ampere architecture-based RTX A6000 on October 5, 2020.[3] To indicate the upgrade to the Nvidia Ampere architecture for their graphics cards technology, Nvidia RTX is the product line being produced and developed moving forward for use in professional workstations.

  1. ^ "NVIDIA Quadro K6000 Specs".
  2. ^ Ung, Gordon (July 25, 2016). "AMD introduces a new Radeon Pro WX series to replace FirePro". PCWorld. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  3. ^ Smith, Ryan (October 5, 2020). "Quadro No More? NVIDIA Announces Ampere-based RTX A6000 & A40 Video Cards for Pro Visualization". AnandTech. Retrieved November 28, 2022.