NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M is an end-of-life mobile workstation GPU built on the Tesla architecture around the G84 chip. Fabricated by TSMC on an 80 nm process, it integrates 289 million transistors across a 169 mm² die for a transistor density of 1.7M per mm². The card sits at the 50th percentile of all GPUs in the database, though it holds no recorded benchmark scores. Released on 2007-05-31, it occupies the x600M tier of the Quadro FX Mobile generation, positioned between the Quadro FX Go and the Quadro Fermi-M in NVIDIA's mobile workstation lineup.

Power and Cooling

The Quadro FX 1600M carries a 50 W TDP, making it a modest power draw for a mobile workstation part of its era. The 80 nm fabrication process and 289 million transistor count on a 169 mm² die yield a transistor density of 1.7M per mm², consistent with a mid-range mobile GPU from the 2007 timeframe. The slot width is listed as MXM Module, and the bus interface is MXM-HE, meaning the card is designed to plug into laptop motherboards using the MXM standard. No power connectors are required; the board draws all of its power through the MXM slot. The fact pack lists no suggested PSU recommendation, which is expected given the mobile form factor, this is not a desktop card that needs a separate power supply. The absence of auxiliary power connectors reinforces that the 50 W envelope is delivered entirely through the MXM interface. For system integrators, the key takeaway is that cooling must handle 50 W of thermal output within the confines of a laptop chassis, and the MXM-HE bus interface dictates the connector layout on the motherboard. The 80 nm process node, while coarse by modern standards, was typical for the period and directly influences the 50 W thermal budget.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Quadro FX 1600M has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, both fields are null in the specification data. This is consistent with its Tesla architecture and 2007 release, predating the dedicated RT and tensor hardware found in later NVIDIA generations. On the API front, the card supports DirectX 11.1 at a feature level of 10_0. This is a notable distinction: while the driver exposes DirectX 11.1 interfaces, the hardware feature level is capped at 10_0, meaning it cannot fully utilize DirectX 11-level shader models or tessellation features. OpenGL support is at version 3.3. Vulkan support is not listed, indicating the card predates the Vulkan API entirely. The display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent," meaning the actual video outputs depend on the laptop implementation rather than being fixed on the card itself. For professional workstation software of the era, OpenGL 3.3 was a solid baseline, but modern applications requiring Vulkan or higher-tier DirectX features will not run on this hardware. The absence of dedicated tensor cores also rules out any AI-accelerated workflows that rely on those units.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark data for the Quadro FX 1600M is sparse. The database records an average benchmark score of 0, and the benchmarks array is empty, meaning no synthetic or real-world benchmark results have been captured for this part. The percentile vs all GPUs is 50, placing it at the exact midpoint of the database's GPU population. Without rival comparison data (nearestRivals is empty), no delta percentages can be computed against competing parts.

However, theoretical compute metrics are available. The card delivers 80.00 GFLOPS of FP32 compute, a pixel rate of 5.000 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 10.00 GTexel/s. These figures come from the 32 shading units, 16 texture mapping units, and 8 raster output units. The pixel rate of 5.000 GPixel/s means the card can fill 5 billion pixels per second under ideal conditions, while the texture rate of 10.00 GTexel/s indicates it can sample 10 billion texels per second. The FP32 throughput of 80.00 GFLOPS is the headline compute number, it reflects the peak single-precision floating-point capability of the 32 shading units at the card's clock speed. For a mobile workstation GPU from 2007, these figures place it in the entry-to-mid range of professional mobile graphics. The 50th percentile ranking suggests that in the broader GPU landscape, it is neither a high-performance part nor a low-end one, it sits exactly in the middle. The lack of recorded benchmarks means this percentile may be based on specifications rather than measured performance, so it should be interpreted as a positional indicator rather than a performance guarantee.

FAQ

Q: What architecture does the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M use?

A: It uses the Tesla architecture with the G84 chip, fabricated by TSMC on an 80 nm process with 289 million transistors on a 169 mm² die.

Q: How much memory does the Quadro FX 1600M have?

A: It has 512 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 25.60 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock is 800 MHz, or 1600 Mbps effective.

Q: What APIs are supported?

A: The card supports DirectX 11.1 at a feature level of 10_0, and OpenGL 3.3. Vulkan is not supported.

Q: Does the Quadro FX 1600M support ray tracing?

A: No. The card has no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores.

Q: What is the power consumption?

A: The TDP is 50 W. It uses no power connectors, drawing power entirely through the MXM-HE bus interface.

Q: Is this card still in production?

A: No, it is end-of-life. It was released on 2007-05-31, with the Quadro FX Go as its predecessor and the Quadro Fermi-M as its successor.

How It Compares

The fact pack contains no nearest-rival data for the Quadro FX 1600M, so no direct delta comparisons against competing GPUs can be made. However, the product's position in NVIDIA's own lineup is clear from the generation and successor information. The Quadro FX 1600M belongs to the Quadro FX Mobile generation (x600M), with the Quadro FX Go as its predecessor and the Quadro Fermi-M as its successor. This places it as a mid-cycle mobile workstation part within the Tesla architecture era. The 50th percentile ranking across all GPUs in the database provides a positional reference: it sits at the median of the GPU population, meaning half of all GPUs in the database are above it and half are below. Without benchmark scores or rival deltas, further comparative analysis is limited by the available data. The absence of any recorded benchmarks means the percentile ranking is the only positional signal available, and it should be read as a specification-based estimate rather than a measured result.

Who Should Consider It

The Quadro FX 1600M is a legacy mobile workstation part. With 512 MB of GDDR3 memory, 80.00 GFLOPS of FP32 compute, and a 50th percentile ranking, it is suited for professional applications from its 2007 era, CAD, 3D modeling, and similar workstation workloads that ran within the DirectX 10_0 feature level and OpenGL 3.3 API scope. The 5.000 GPixel/s pixel rate and 10.00 GTexel/s texture rate indicate it can handle moderate resolution displays with reasonable fill rates for its generation, but it is not suited for modern high-resolution, high-settings gaming or compute-intensive workloads. The 512 MB memory capacity is a limiting factor for large textures or complex scenes. Users considering this card today should be aware of its end-of-life status and the absence of Vulkan support, which rules out modern graphics APIs. It is best viewed as a historical or legacy-replacement part for old workstation laptops that need a like-for-like MXM module swap, rather than a competitive modern GPU. The 50 W TDP and MXM-HE form factor mean it can only fit in laptops designed for that specific bus interface, so upgrade paths are restricted to the same platform generation.

Memory Subsystem

The Quadro FX 1600M ships with 512 MB of GDDR3 memory, connected via a 128-bit memory bus. The memory clock runs at 800 MHz, which translates to 1600 Mbps effective data rate. This configuration yields a memory bandwidth of 25.60 GB/s. For a 2007-era mobile workstation GPU, 512 MB was a common capacity, but it is a hard constraint for modern workloads, large frame buffers, high-resolution textures, or multi-monitor setups will quickly exhaust the available memory. The 128-bit bus width limits the theoretical bandwidth ceiling compared to wider memory interfaces found in higher-end parts. At 25.60 GB/s, the bandwidth is sufficient for the card's 80.00 GFLOPS compute capability, meaning the memory subsystem is not a severe bottleneck for the shading units' output. However, in scenarios where texture fetching dominates, such as detailed 3D scenes with many high-resolution textures, the 25.60 GB/s bandwidth and 512 MB capacity will be the limiting factors. The pixel rate of 5.000 GPixel/s and texture rate of 10.00 GTexel/s are balanced against the memory bandwidth, suggesting the card was designed as a coherent, if modest, mobile workstation solution for its time. The 128-bit interface, combined with the 800 MHz memory clock, delivers exactly the 25.60 GB/s figure that defines the card's memory ceiling.