NVIDIA Quadro P4000 : Specifications, Architecture, Working, Differences & Its Applications

The Quadro P4000 is a professional graphics card, launched by NVIDIA in Feb 2017. This graphics card was designed like a single-slot card to provide high-performance graphics, power balance & a compact form factor for 3D design, virtual reality, and CAD, So it combines a powerful Pascal-generation GPU with professional-grade features. It is based on the GP104 GPU, featuring numerous enhancements such as support for four 5K displays through HDR, and performance suitable for complex visual computing and VR tasks. So, these can be optimized for enhanced reliability and specialized professional software. This article elaborates on the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 GPU, its working, and its applications.

What is the Quadro P4000 GPU?

The Quadro P4000 was a professional desktop workstation GPU that uses NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture and is built on the 16 nm process. It is based on the GP104 GPU with a die area of 314 mm² & 7,200 million transistors. So, it supports DirectX 12 in its N17E-Q3-A1 variant.

NVIDIA has immobilized some shading units on this GPU to achieve the target shader count of the product. It features texture mapping units – 112, shading units – 1792, and ROPs – 64. It has connected GDDR5 memory – 8 GB with the GPU using a 256-bit memory interface. The GPU operates between 1202 MHz and 1228 MHz, while the memory runs at 1500 MHz.

The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 is a desktop PCI Express module, so it does not require an additional power connector, and its maximum power draw is 100 Watts. This device doesn’t have any display connectivity, because it is not designed to include monitors connected to it. It is a single-slot card that prioritizes stability and reliability for professional applications over gaming performance.

Specifications

The Quadro P4000 GPU specifications include the following.

• It is a professional single-slot graphics card.
• This GPU uses NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture.
• CUDA Cores of NVIDIA Quadro P4000 – 1792
• Memory is 8 GB GDDR5
• Memory Interface is 256-bit
• Memory Bandwidth is up to 243 GB/s
• Peak single precision performance is 5.3 TFLOPS
• System Interface is PCI Express 3.0 x16
• Max power consumption is 105 W
• It features four DisplayPort 1.4 display connectors.
• It has maximum simultaneous displays.
• Form Factor – Single-slot, full-height
• Maximum resolution is 4 x 4096 x 2160 at 60Hz/4x 5120 x 2880 at 60Hz
• Graphics APIs like OpenGL 4.5, Shader Model 5.1, and DirectX 12, Vulkan 1.0
• Compute APIs like DirectCompute, CUDA & OpenCL.
• The thermal solution is active.

How does Quadro P4000 Work?

The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 works with a Pascal architecture GPU, including CUDA cores – 1792 to speed up professional applications like 3D design & visualization. It merges with GDDR5 memory – 8 GB & a memory interface -256-bit for quick data access. This GPU is connected via a PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot to the motherboard to drive up to four 5K displays.

The P4000 GPU utilizes the NVIDIA CUDA parallel computing platform to natively perform standard C or C++, Fortran, and APIs (OpenCL, DirectCompute) programming languages. So, it accelerates complex calculations like video processing, computational fluid dynamics, and ray tracing.

This GPU features dedicated H.264, HEVC encode and decode engines which deliver faster performance for transcoding and video editing applications, independent of the compute or 3D pipeline. Thus, it is designed with particular drivers, optimized & certified architecture for professional applications like media production, CAD, large-format video delivery, and scientific visualization.

Quadro P4000 Architecture

This architecture uses the Pascal architecture of NVIDIA with a 16nm FinFET process that provides a single-slot form factor to use in various workstations. This GPU is designed for demanding professional tasks like CAD, VR production, and 3D modeling by providing some features like GDDR5 memory – 8 GB, supporting up to four 5K displays & higher display technologies.

Components

The Quadro P4000’s main architectural components include Pascal CUDA Cores, GDDR5 GPU memory including a 256-bit interface, a PCI Express 3.0 x16 system interface, and many more. Thus, it can also have a single-slot, an active thermal solution, a full-height form factor & four DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, used for display output.

CUDA Cores

The Quadro P4000 GPU features fundamental processing units like 1792 CUDA cores, which perform a large number of tasks at once, known as parallel processing. These can also be used for high-performance computing & graphics in the card. These cores allow the graphics card to speed up demanding professional applications by performing huge parallel computations. CUDA cores provide up to 5.2 TFLOPS of peak single-precision FP32 performance. These are essential to run GPU-accelerated software, managing complex calculations for simulations, machine learning, and rendering tasks.

Memory

The Quadro P4000 features GDDR5 memory – 8 GB with a 256-bit memory interface & a 243 GB/s memory bandwidth. Therefore, this memory capacity & speed allow the graphics card to manage complex models & datasets for professional applications.

Memory Interface

This graphics card features a 256-bit memory interface for its 8GB of GDDR5 graphics memory. This setup can result in up to 243 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is essential to manage complex professional applications.

Peak FP32 Performance

The peak FP32 performance of this GPU is 5.3 TFLOPS. This metric represents the highest number of floating-point calculations the graphics card can perform per second. So this is a key indicator of its performance within compute-intensive professional applications.

Power Consumption

The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 has a maximum of 105W of power consumption. It represents the maximum power draw the graphics card can achieve under a heavy load. So it is a main consideration for building a system to make sure the power supply is enough.

System Interface

This graphics card features a System interface like PCI Express 3.0 x16. The x16 designation designates that it utilizes 16 lanes for data transfer by providing high bandwidth for professional applications. Thus, it handles large amounts of computational and visual data. This system interface is the logical and physical connection that allows the graphics card to communicate with the remainder of the computer system, especially the CPU & motherboard.

Display Connectors

The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 includes four DisplayPort 1.4 ports and supports 3D stereo via optional adapters and video output for 3D stereo support. These connectors can support high resolutions like 5K at 60Hz and 4K at 120Hz, which drives up to four real-time displays through these ports directly.

Max Simultaneous Displays

This GPU supports four simultaneous displays on a single graphics card. This can be achieved with a resolution of up to 4x 4096 x 2160 at 60Hz or 4 x 5120 x 2880 at 60Hz with its four DisplayPort 1.4 connectors. So, multiple P4000 GPUs can be connected with the Quadro Sync II module for a larger number of displays to attain up to 32 synchronized 4K displays for every system.

API Support

The Quadro P4000 GPU supports various APIs like OpenCL, CUDA, DirectCompute, and OpenGL for GPU computing. These APIs allow developers to control the CUDA cores of GPUs to speed up demanding tasks like scientific simulations, video processing, and ray tracing with standard programming languages. It can also support DirectX 12.0 for graphics applications. Therefore, the particular CUDA version supported mainly depends on the installed driver, with previous drivers supporting CUDA 8.0 to CUDA 10.0 versions.

Thermal Solution

The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 GPU features an active thermal solution, specifically an ultra-quiet active fan sink. This graphics card utilizes a heat sink connected with an incorporated fan to dissipate generated heat actively through the GPU & other components. Thus, the fan forces air using the fins of the heat sink, moving the generated heat away from the graphics card & from the system case. So this design allows the GPU to handle a single-slot form factor while managing a maximum 105 watts of power consumption.

Form Factor

This GPU features a single-slot and full-height form factor with around 4.4 inches in height and 9.5 inches in length. So, it is designed to fit into a typical PCIe x16 slot with an active cooling solution through a fan.

Software System

The Quadro P4000 GPU features software systems like NVIDIA drivers, which are well-matched with Linux and Windows operating systems. In addition, it can also support the CUDA platform, mainly for parallel computing. Its main software components comprise the graphics driver, next the Quadro Sync II for synchronizing various displays & finally the nView desktop management software for handling the display environment. The graphics driver allows communication between the GPU and the operating system. The CUDA Toolkit gives an API and a parallel computing platform with the processing power of a GPU.

Quadro P4000 vs GeForce GTX 1080

The difference between the Quadro P4000 and the GeForce GTX 1080 includes the following.

How to Maintain Quadro P4000 GPU?

The NVIDIA Quadro P4000 graphics card maintenance can be done by keeping it clean and ensuring its system and software drivers are updated to get longevity and optimal performance.

• It is significant to keep the fan & heat-sink of this graphics card free and clean from dust to avoid thermal throttling and overheating.
• The software drivers must be updated to run the graphics card very efficiently. For that, we need to verify the official NVIDIA website for the newest Quadro drivers to improve performance & stability.
• Check whether the graphics card is completely placed within the PCIe slot & any power cables are steadily connected.
• Make sure that the monitor cables are tightly connected to both the graphics card and the monitor.
• Additionally, check that the monitor is placed to the right input source.

Advantages

The advantages of the Quadro P4000 GPU include the following.

• It provides high performance for professional applications. Thus, it supports up to four 5K with HDR displays, outstanding virtual reality capabilities, and an adaptable single-slot form factor.
• In addition, it can also provide driver stability, broad application certification, & pascal memory compression features to enhance efficiency.
• This GPU provides more visualization & rendering performance as compared to earlier generations.
• It uses up to 30% less power than older cards while providing more performance.
• It features GDDR5 memory – 8GB with Pascal memory compression to enhance bandwidth.
• It provides significantly more rendering and visualization performance as compared to earlier generations.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of the Quadro P4000 GPU include the following.

• These are expensive compared to other consumer-grade GPUs.
• The Quadro P4000 GPU is not designed for gaming. When it runs games, it will not achieve similarly priced consumer cards within gaming benchmarks.
• It delivers less performance within consumer applications.
• Its performance can be limited by the CPU in some workstations, particularly in complex workloads.

Applications

The applications of the Quadro P4000 GPU include the following.

• It is designed for professional applications, which include content creation, scientific visualization, and CAD. Thus, it allows users to make complex and large models, develop immersive virtual reality experiences, and render realistic images.
• This GPU is optimized for professional software by providing performance for complex design work, complex rendering & multi-display setups.
• In addition, it can also be suitable for AI & ML tasks because of its computational power & memory capacity. It handles large datasets and complex algorithms very efficiently.
• It drives immersive VR environments through high-quality performance.
• This GPU can visualize complex datasets and scientific simulations.
• It can be connected and drives up to four 5K/4K displays at once.
• It builds large-scale simulation environments like flight simulators, by connecting various P4000 cards & workstations through the NVIDIA Quadro Sync II board.
• In addition, this GPU creates & manipulates large, complex CAD models through many components.
• It renders photo-realistic images & works through complex visual effects.

In summary, the Quadro P4000 GPU is a professional workstation graphics card that provides a good performance balance, power efficiency, and a single-slot form factor for demanding applications. Therefore, this graphics processing unit is the best choice for users who require certified software performance that drives various 5K displays, a stable, reliable & quite low-power solution mainly for professional workloads. Here is a question for you: What is the Quadro P6000 GPU?