NVIDIA Quadro 3000M X2

Power and Cooling

The NVIDIA Quadro 3000M X2 is a mobile workstation graphics solution with a thermal design power (TDP) of 150 W. This figure is substantial for a notebook-oriented component, indicating that the cooling solution must be robust enough to handle sustained professional workloads. The board is delivered as an MXM Module, a standardized form factor for laptops that allows for field-replacement and upgradeability, but it also means thermal design is largely dependent on the host system's chassis and cooling implementation.

Power delivery for this card is handled entirely through the MXM connector itself, as the FACT PACK lists no auxiliary power connectors. This is a notable distinction from desktop GPUs, which typically require dedicated 6-pin or 8-pin PCIe power cables. For system integrators and end-users, this simplifies installation but places a hard limit on the power that can be drawn through the module. The data shows no suggested PSU rating, which is consistent with its portable nature; power supply recommendations are typically reserved for desktop components. The absence of a dedicated PSU recommendation suggests that the host laptop's power adapter and internal voltage regulation are the determining factors for stability, rather than an external power supply unit.

The 40 nm process node from TSMC, housing 1,950 million transistors on a 332 mm² die, contributes to the power profile. A transistor density of 5.9M per mm² is modest by modern standards, but for its era, this chip balances compute capability with thermal constraints. The 150 W TDP should be viewed as a peak figure; actual consumption will vary based on workload. For professional tasks like rendering or simulation that stress the GPU continuously, the cooling system must sustain dissipation at or near this TDP without throttling. In contrast, lighter 2D workloads will draw significantly less power. The end-of-life production status implies that replacement thermal pads or fans may become harder to source, an operational consideration for long-term fleet maintenance.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Quadro 3000M X2 is built on the Fermi architecture and does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores; the FACT PACK lists both as null. This is a critical limitation for modern workloads that leverage hardware-accelerated ray tracing, such as photorealistic rendering in DCC applications or real-time RT effects in supported game engines. The card relies entirely on traditional rasterization and compute shaders for visual output.

API support is defined by DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6. The DirectX 12 support is feature-limited to the 11_0 tier, which means that while the driver can expose DX12 interfaces, the hardware lacks the full feature set of higher-tier DX12 GPUs. This includes limitations on features like mesh shaders, variable rate shading, and advanced bindless resources. OpenGL 4.6 support is more complete and remains relevant for many professional CAD and simulation applications that rely on this API. Notably, Vulkan support is absent; the FACT PACK lists null for this API. This omission restricts compatibility with newer engines and applications that have moved to Vulkan as their primary low-level graphics interface.

For professional ISV applications, the lack of RT and tensor cores means that any AI-accelerated denoising or machine learning-based features must be handled on the CPU or not at all. The card's feature set is firmly rooted in the Fermi generation's capabilities: robust geometry processing, high fill rates, and compute via CUDA cores, but no specialized hardware for the modern era of hybrid rendering. The 240 shading units and 32 ROPs are the fundamental execution resources; they deliver raw throughput but lack the dedicated acceleration blocks found in contemporary workstation GPUs.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark data for the Quadro 3000M X2 is sparse: the average benchmark score is 0, and the percentile versus all GPUs is 50. This indicates that the card sits exactly at the median of the database's tracked GPUs, but with no actual benchmark entries to corroborate a performance estimate. The nearestRivals array is empty, so direct comparative scoring against specific competitors is unavailable from the FACT PACK. This absence of data is itself a finding: the card's performance class must be inferred from its raw specifications rather than measured results.

Looking at the computational throughput, the card delivers 432.0 GFLOPS of FP32 compute. This is a hard number derived from the 240 shading units at the given clock rate. Pixel fill rate is 14.40 GPixel/s, and texture fill rate is 18.00 GTexel/s. These figures suggest a card designed for balanced throughput in mid-range professional workloads of its time. The 50th percentile ranking implies that in the database's historical context, half of all tracked GPUs were faster and half were slower. However, this percentile is not tied to any specific benchmark score, making it a relative position without an absolute performance anchor.

Given the absence of rival data, the analysis relies on the internal consistency of the specs. The FP32 compute of 432.0 GFLOPS, combined with a memory bandwidth of 80.00 GB/s, suggests that the card is compute-bound in many scenarios rather than bandwidth-limited. The 256-bit memory bus is wide for the era, but the effective 2.5 Gbps memory speed yields a bandwidth figure that is moderate. For professional applications like SolidWorks or AutoCAD, which are often geometry and fill-rate limited, the 18.00 GTexel/s texture rate and 14.40 GPixel/s pixel rate are more indicative of real-world performance than raw FP32. For compute-heavy tasks like finite element analysis or fluid dynamics, the 432.0 GFLOPS is the governing metric.

FAQ

Q: Does the NVIDIA Quadro 3000M X2 support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The FACT PACK lists RT cores as null, indicating the Fermi architecture lacks dedicated ray tracing hardware. Any ray-traced workloads would run on the 240 shading units via compute shaders, which is inefficient.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth and how does it affect performance?

A: The card has 80.00 GB/s of bandwidth from a 256-bit bus and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. This bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p professional workloads but may bottleneck at higher resolutions or with large texture sets.

Q: Is this card compatible with Vulkan applications?

A: No. The Vulkan API field is null in the FACT PACK. Only DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6 are supported.

Q: What is the power consumption of this GPU?

A: The TDP is 150 W. Power is delivered entirely through the MXM connector, as no auxiliary power connectors are listed.

Q: What is the production status?

A: The card is marked as end-of-life, with a release date of February 21, 2011. Its successor is the Quadro Kepler-M series.

Q: How many transistors does the chip contain?

A: The EXMF104 chip contains 1,950 million transistors on a 332 mm² die, manufactured on a 40 nm process at TSMC.

How It Compares

The nearestRivals field is empty, meaning the FACT PACK provides no direct competitor names, scores, or deltaPct values. This precludes any quantitative comparison to specific rival GPUs. The percentileVsAllGpus of 50 places it at the median of the entire database, which is a broad statement rather than a targeted comparison. Without rival data, the card's position must be described in terms of its own specifications and historical context. It is a Fermi-generation mobile Quadro, positioned between the lower-end x000M variants and the higher-tier x000M models in the same generation. The predecessor is the Quadro FX Mobile series, and the successor is the Quadro Kepler-M series, indicating a generational leap from Fermi to Kepler. The 40 nm process and 1,950 million transistors put it in a similar class to desktop Fermi parts, but the MXM form factor and 150 W TDP constrain its performance relative to desktop counterparts with higher power budgets.

Who Should Consider It

Given the benchmark data shows no actual scores, recommendations must be grounded in the raw specifications. The 432.0 GFLOPS FP32 performance and 80.00 GB/s bandwidth are indicative of a card suited for 1080p professional visualization tasks. For CAD applications like 3D modeling and drafting, the 14.40 GPixel/s pixel rate and 18.00 GTexel/s texture rate are adequate for moderate complexity scenes at 1080p. Users working with 2D CAD or light 3D solid modeling will find the card sufficient. However, for 4K resolution or large assembly models with heavy texture usage, the 2 GB VRAM and 80.00 GB/s bandwidth will become limiting factors.

The 50th percentile ranking suggests that in the database's historical context, this card is a mid-pack performer. It is not a flagship product and should not be considered for high-end simulation or AI training workloads, which require tensor cores and higher compute throughput. The card is best suited for legacy professional environments where the software stack is built around OpenGL 4.6 and where the absence of Vulkan and RT support is not a hindrance. For users with older ISV certifications that require specific driver versions, the end-of-life status may still be acceptable. The 150 W TDP means it is suitable for mobile workstations with robust cooling, not thin-and-light laptops. The 2 GB GDDR5 memory is the minimum viable for modern professional work; anything beyond basic 3D will require careful texture and geometry management.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem is built around 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, a capacity that was generous for a 2011 mobile workstation but is now considered entry-level. The 256-bit memory interface is a key differentiator from lower-tier cards that often used 128-bit buses; a wider bus generally improves memory efficiency for large, contiguous data transfers. The memory clock is rated at 625 MHz, which translates to 2.5 Gbps effective data rate. This yields a total bandwidth of 80.00 GB/s.

This bandwidth figure is the single most critical number for high-resolution performance. At 1080p, 80.00 GB/s is adequate for most professional workloads, but at 1440p or 4K, the demand for texture fetches and framebuffer reads increases non-linearly. The 2 GB capacity also presents a hard limit on texture memory. For datasets that exceed this limit, the driver must spill to system memory over the PCIe bus, which incurs a severe performance penalty. The 256-bit bus mitigates this somewhat by providing higher peak bandwidth than a narrower bus, but the absolute capacity remains the bottleneck.

The pixel rate of 14.40 GPixel/s is closely tied to the memory bandwidth, as each pixel write consumes bandwidth. The ROP count of 32 is sufficient to drive the pixel rate at the given clock. The texture rate of 18.00 GTexel/s, driven by 40 TMUs, is balanced against the bandwidth; in typical workloads, the card will not be texture-bound before it is bandwidth-bound. For frame buffer operations at high resolutions, the 80.00 GB/s will saturate quickly. For example, a 4K frame buffer at 60 FPS with 32-bit color requires roughly 2 GB/s just for the final write, leaving headroom, but when combined with texture reads, depth buffer operations, and compute shader access, the margin evaporates. This memory configuration is best suited for 1080p or lower, with settings adjusted to keep texture memory usage below 2 GB.