NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700 Mac Edition

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700 Mac Edition is a professional workstation graphics card built on the Tesla architecture, utilizing the G84 chip manufactured on an 80 nm process at TSMC. With 289 million transistors on a 169 mm² die, this single-slot card targets legacy Mac Pro systems and offers a 512 MB GDDR3 frame buffer, a 128-bit memory bus, and a modest 20.80 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Released on September 26, 2008, this end-of-life product was positioned with a launch MSRP of 699 USD, and it occupies a distinct niche in the database with a percentile rank of 50 among all GPUs.

How It Compares

The nearestRivals list for this card is empty, meaning the database provides no direct competitor comparisons for the Quadro FX 1700 Mac Edition. This absence is notable — the card sits in a unique position where its performance tier, professional feature set, and Mac-specific compatibility create a profile that the benchmark database does not pair with any other GPU. Without rival scores or deltaPct values, the analysis must rely on the card’s own specifications and its overall percentile placement.

Given the empty nearestRivals field, the only positional reference is the percentileVsAllGpus value of 50, which places the card exactly at the median of all GPUs tracked in the database. This suggests that while the card is far from cutting-edge by modern standards, it is not at the absolute bottom of the performance spectrum either. The lack of rival data implies that the card’s closest comparisons may be other legacy professional cards from the same era, but the database does not enumerate them here.

The card’s production status is end-of-life, and its predecessor is listed as Quadro FX Curie, with the successor being Quadro Fermi. This generational context indicates that the FX 1700 Mac Edition sits between two architectural families, but without specific rival scores, the relative performance within those generations cannot be quantified from the data provided.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Quadro FX 1700 Mac Edition does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores — both fields are null in the fact pack. This is consistent with its Tesla architecture, which predates the introduction of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI acceleration features found in later NVIDIA families. The card’s feature set instead relies on traditional rasterization techniques, with 32 shading units, 16 texture mapping units, and 8 render output units handling the graphics pipeline.

In terms of API support, the card supports DirectX 11.1 (with a feature level of 10_0), which is a partial implementation — the 10_0 feature level indicates that while the API version is newer, the actual hardware capabilities align with DirectX 10-era features. OpenGL 3.3 is supported, but Vulkan is not listed, which limits modern cross-platform API compatibility. For professional applications that rely on OpenGL, version 3.3 is functional but dated, potentially causing compatibility issues with current software that expects OpenGL 4.x or higher.

The display outputs include 2x DVI and 1x S-Video, which were standard for professional Mac workstations of that period. This configuration supports dual-monitor setups, but the absence of DisplayPort or HDMI means users are limited to DVI-based displays or adapters. The card’s bus interface is PCIe 1.0 x16, which is backward compatible with newer slots but may bottleneck performance in systems designed for PCIe 3.0 or 4.0.

Benchmark Performance

The fact pack lists avgBenchmarkScore as 0 and benchmarks as an empty array, meaning no direct benchmark scores are available for this card. The only quantitative performance indicator is the percentileVsAllGpus value of 50, which places the card at the midpoint of all GPUs in the database. This percentile is a relative measure — it indicates that 50% of tracked GPUs perform better and 50% perform worse, but without specific scores or rival deltas, the exact performance gap cannot be expressed numerically.

The theoretical compute capabilities provide some context: the card delivers 66.56 GFLOPS of FP32 performance, a pixel rate of 4.160 GPixel/s, and a texture rate of 8.320 GTexel/s. These figures are consistent with an entry-level professional card from the late-2000s era. The memory bandwidth of 20.80 GB/s, derived from a 650 MHz memory clock (1300 Mbps effective) on a 128-bit bus, is a significant limiting factor for modern workloads, as even low-resolution textures can exceed this throughput.

Because the nearestRivals list is empty, the card’s performance cannot be compared directly to any other GPU in the database. The percentile rank of 50 suggests the card is not a complete outlier, but the absence of rival data means that statements like "X% ahead of Y" cannot be made. The card’s performance is best described as adequate for its intended era, but clearly insufficient for contemporary gaming or compute tasks.

FAQ

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the Quadro FX 1700 Mac Edition?

A: The launch MSRP is 699 USD.

Q: How much video memory does this card have?

A: It has 512 MB of GDDR3 memory.

Q: What is the memory bus width?

A: The memory bus is 128-bit wide.

Q: Does the card support DirectX 11?

A: It supports DirectX 11.1, but with a feature level of 10_0, meaning actual hardware capabilities are limited to DirectX 10-level features.

Q: What is the TDP of this card?

A: The TDP is 42 W.

Q: What power connectors does the card require?

A: It requires none — power is supplied entirely through the PCIe slot.

Power and Cooling

The Quadro FX 1700 Mac Edition has a TDP of 42 W, which is quite low by modern standards, making it suitable for systems with modest power delivery. The suggested PSU is 200 W, which is a modest requirement that many older Mac Pro systems can easily meet. The card uses no power connectors, drawing all its power from the PCIe 1.0 x16 slot, which simplifies installation and reduces cable management needs.

The card is a single-slot design, meaning it occupies only one expansion slot in the chassis. This is advantageous for systems with limited space or those running multiple cards in a multi-GPU configuration. The low TDP also means that cooling requirements are minimal — a simple passive or low-profile active cooler can handle the heat output, though the fact pack does not specify the exact cooling solution. The card’s dimensions are 168 mm in length (6.6 inches) and 111 mm in height (4.4 inches), which should fit in most standard ATX or Mac Pro cases.

The combination of a 42 W TDP, no auxiliary power connectors, and a 200 W PSU recommendation indicates that this card is designed for energy efficiency and ease of integration, rather than raw performance. This makes it a plausible upgrade path for older Mac Pro systems that lack the power headroom for higher-end workstation cards.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem consists of 512 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a memory clock of 650 MHz (1300 Mbps effective). The resulting bandwidth is 20.80 GB/s. This configuration is severely limited by modern standards — even entry-level cards today offer multiple gigabytes of memory and bandwidth figures exceeding 100 GB/s.

For high-resolution workloads, this memory configuration is a critical bottleneck. The 512 MB capacity is insufficient for large textures or complex 3D scenes, and the 128-bit bus width restricts the rate at which data can be transferred between the GPU and memory. The bandwidth of 20.80 GB/s means that at 1080p or higher resolutions, the card will likely run out of memory or be forced to swap data frequently, causing stuttering and reduced performance.

The pixel rate of 4.160 GPixel/s and texture rate of 8.320 GTexel/s are consistent with the memory constraints — the GPU’s computational throughput is low enough that the memory bandwidth, while modest, is not the sole limiting factor. However, for any modern application that requires large frame buffers, such as 4K video editing or high-detail CAD rendering, the 512 MB VRAM will be the primary obstacle. The card is better suited for legacy applications that were designed within the memory constraints of its era.

Who Should Consider It

The Quadro FX 1700 Mac Edition is a product of its time, and the benchmark data reflects that. With a percentile rank of 50, it sits in the middle of the database’s GPU population, but this is likely due to the inclusion of many similarly aged or older cards. For modern users, the card is not recommended for any current gaming or professional workload — the 512 MB VRAM and 20.80 GB/s bandwidth are simply too limited for 1080p gaming at reasonable settings, let alone higher resolutions.

The card’s intended audience is users with legacy Mac Pro systems from the late-2000s who need a functional workstation card for basic 2D desktop work, legacy OpenGL 3.3 applications, or as a display adapter for multiple DVI monitors. The 2x DVI and 1x S-Video outputs support dual-display setups, which can be useful for productivity tasks that do not require 3D acceleration. The 42 W TDP and no power connector requirement make it an easy drop-in replacement for older cards.

For professional users, the card’s 66.56 GFLOPS FP32 performance and DirectX 11.1 (10_0) support are inadequate for modern CAD, 3D modeling, or video editing software. The lack of ray tracing and tensor cores further limits its utility in modern AI or rendering pipelines. The card is best suited for archival or retro-computing purposes, or as a stopgap display adapter in systems where performance is not a priority. The empty nearestRivals list underscores its isolation in the market, and the data suggests that most users would be better served by any more recent GPU.