GRID K540Q vs Quadro FX 3500

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking1182not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency0.57no data
ArchitectureCurie (2003−2013)Kepler (2012−2018)
GPU code nameG71GK104
Market segmentWorkstationWorkstation
Release date22 May 2006 (18 years ago)2 July 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$1,599 $3,599

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA coresno data1536
Core clock speed450 MHz745 MHz
Number of transistors278 million3,540 million
Manufacturing process technology90 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)80 Watt225 Watt
Texture fill rate9.00095.36
Floating-point processing powerno data2.289 TFLOPS
ROPs1632
TMUs20128

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

InterfacePCIe 1.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length173 mm267 mm
Width1-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount256 MB4 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed660 MHz1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth42.24 GB/s160.0 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors2x DVI, 1x S-VideoNo outputs

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX9.0c (9_3)12 (11_0)
Shader Model3.05.1
OpenGL2.14.6
OpenCLN/A1.2
VulkanN/A1.1.126
CUDA-3.0

Pros & cons summary


Recency 22 May 2006 2 July 2014
Maximum RAM amount 256 MB 4 GB
Chip lithography 90 nm 28 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 80 Watt 225 Watt

FX 3500 has 181.3% lower power consumption.

GRID K540Q, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 8 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 221.4% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between Quadro FX 3500 and GRID K540Q. We've got no test results to judge.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500
Quadro FX 3500
NVIDIA GRID K540Q
GRID K540Q

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Community ratings

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