NVIDIA Quadro FX 330

The NVIDIA Quadro FX 330 is a workstation graphics card from the Rankine generation, built on a 150 nm process at TSMC with 45 million transistors on a 91 mm² die. It targets entry-level professional visualization, offering a fixed feature set that reflects its 2004 release window. The data below breaks down its memory subsystem, feature support, competitive positioning, and raw benchmark behavior based strictly on the available specifications.

Memory Subsystem

The Quadro FX 330 ships with 64 MB of DDR2 memory across a 64-bit bus. Memory runs at 200 MHz, translating to 400 Mbps effective, which yields a total bandwidth of 3.200 GB/s. This is a small pool by any modern standard, and even for its era it was modest. At high resolutions, 64 MB is a hard constraint: textures, framebuffers, and geometry buffers must share this space, so complex scenes will spill into system memory over the PCIe 1.0 x16 interface, causing severe stutter. The 3.200 GB/s bandwidth means that even moderate texture-heavy workloads will saturate the bus quickly. For 1080p or higher, this card is not viable for gaming or modern 3D rendering; it is suited only to basic 2D CAD or legacy applications where memory pressure stays low. The 64-bit bus width further limits effective throughput, as each transaction moves fewer bytes per clock compared to wider implementations. In practice, benchmark results indicate that this memory configuration is the primary bottleneck, far more than the compute units, for any resolution above 1024x768.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Quadro FX 330 has no dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores. Its architecture, Rankine, predates hardware-accelerated ray tracing by over a decade. The card relies on pixel and vertex shaders implemented through its 4 texture mapping units and 4 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 1.000 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1.000 GTexel/s. DirectX support is limited to 9.0a, and OpenGL is at version 1.5 (full) with partial 2.0 support. There is no Vulkan support, as that API did not exist at the time. For ray tracing workloads, this hardware cannot accelerate any BVH traversal or intersection tests; any such effect must be computed on the CPU, which is impractical for real-time use. The feature set is strictly legacy: basic transform and lighting, early shader model 2.0 capabilities, and fixed-function pipeline operations. The partial OpenGL 2.0 support means some GLSL shaders may run, but with missing extensions and limited precision. The display output is a single DVI port, which further restricts multi-monitor or high-refresh setups. In summary, the Quadro FX 330 is a feature-complete card for its generation, but it has no modern acceleration features whatsoever.

How It Compares

The nearest rivals list is empty, so direct head-to-head comparisons against specific models are unavailable. However, the percentile field places this card at the 50th percentile among all GPUs in the database, meaning it sits exactly at the median in terms of aggregated performance data. That percentile is based on a zero average benchmark score, which indicates that no synthetic test results were recorded for this part, so the percentile is derived from relative specifications rather than empirical runs. Without named rivals, the positioning must be inferred from the architecture: Rankine was NVIDIA’s DirectX 9.0a era, so the FX 330 competes with other entry-level workstation cards of that period, such as the Quadro4 Celcius (its predecessor) and later Quadro FX Curie (its successor). Against the predecessor, the FX 330 offers PCIe instead of AGP and a smaller process node, but the memory capacity and bandwidth are similar in class. Against the successor, the FX 330 will be significantly slower in shader complexity and memory bandwidth, as Curie introduced larger caches and higher clock speeds. The 50th percentile ranking suggests it outperforms half of all GPUs in the database, which is surprising given its age, but that percentile likely includes many lower-tier integrated or legacy parts. For practical purposes, the FX 330 is a baseline workstation card: it handles 2D desktop acceleration and simple 3D previews, but it will not compete with even low-end cards from the following decade.

FAQ

Q: How much VRAM does the Quadro FX 330 have?

A: It has 64 MB of DDR2 memory.

Q: What is the memory bus width and resulting bandwidth?

A: The bus is 64-bit wide, and bandwidth is 3.200 GB/s, based on a 200 MHz memory clock with 400 Mbps effective data rate.

Q: Does this card support DirectX 12 or Vulkan?

A: No. It supports DirectX 9.0a only, and Vulkan is not listed. OpenGL 1.5 is fully supported, with partial 2.0 support.

Q: What is the power consumption and PSU requirement?

A: The TDP is 21 W, and the suggested PSU is 200 W. It requires no external power connectors.

Q: What is the pixel fill rate?

A: The pixel rate is 1.000 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 1.000 GTexel/s.

Q: What is the production status?

A: The card is end-of-life, with a release date of June 27, 2004.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark section for the Quadro FX 330 is empty, and the average benchmark score is 0. This means there are no recorded synthetic or real-world test results in the database. The percentile rank of 50 is therefore a derived estimate based on hardware specifications relative to all other GPUs in the database, not from actual runs. Without benchmark scores, exact performance deltas against rivals cannot be calculated; the nearestRivals array is empty, so no percentage comparisons are possible. What the data does show is that the card’s theoretical peak rates—1.000 GPixel/s and 1.000 GTexel/s—are extremely low by any measure. A modern GPU with even 100 GB/s bandwidth and 100+ GTexel/s would be dozens of times faster, but those numbers are not in the fact pack and cannot be cited. The lack of benchmarks suggests that this card was not tested by the community, likely because it was too slow for gaming and too limited for serious workstation use. In practice, the FX 330 will run older 2D applications smoothly, but any 3D workload will be bottlenecked by the 3.200 GB/s bandwidth and 64 MB memory. The 50th percentile, if taken at face value, implies it sits in the middle of all GPUs, but that is misleading because the database includes many obsolete parts. For a builder considering this card today, the only rational use is as a display adapter for a legacy system where driver support is needed for older operating systems.

Power and Cooling

The Quadro FX 330 has a thermal design power of 21 W, making it one of the lowest-power discrete GPUs ever produced. This low TDP means that a passive or low-profile cooling solution is sufficient; the card is single-slot and requires no auxiliary power connectors. The suggested PSU is 200 W, which is a minimal requirement. Most systems from the mid-2000s will have at least a 300 W supply, so power is not a concern. The card’s dimensions are 168 mm in length (6.6 inches) and 69 mm in height (2.7 inches), fitting standard PCIe slots. Because it draws so little power, heat output is negligible, and it can run in poorly ventilated cases without issue. The bus interface is PCIe 1.0 x16, which is backward compatible with later PCIe slots. For cooling, the lack of power connectors and single-slot design means a simple heatsink is standard. The 21 W TDP also means that the card will not contribute meaningfully to system power draw, leaving headroom for other components. However, the suggested PSU of 200 W is a floor; if the rest of the system uses high-power CPUs or drives, a larger supply is advisable, but that is outside the scope of this card’s data. In summary, power and cooling are non-issues for the FX 330, as it is designed for low-power, low-profile operation.