NVIDIA Quadro FX Go540

Launched in August 2004, the NVIDIA Quadro FX Go540 is a mobile professional graphics solution built on the Curie architecture with the NV43 chip. Fabricated by TSMC on a 110 nm process, this MXM-II module integrates 146 million transistors on a 154 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 948.1K per mm². As an end-of-life product, it targets professional portable workstations of its era, offering a fixed feature set defined by its 8 texture mapping units, 4 raster output pipelines, and a 128 MB DDR memory pool.

Benchmark Performance

The Quadro FX Go540 has no individual benchmark scores recorded in the database, and its average benchmark score stands at 0. The percentile vs all GPUs is 50, which places it exactly at the median of the historical GPU distribution — this is a neutral position, indicating that half of all tracked GPUs score higher and half score lower. Without direct geometric mean scores or specific workload results, the quantitative performance must be inferred from its fixed hardware parameters.

Pixel fill rate is rated at 1.200 GPixel/s, which derives from its 4 ROPs and the underlying clock domain. Texture fill rate is 2.400 GTexel/s, produced by 8 TMUs operating in parallel. These rates are modest by contemporary standards but were appropriate for the professional mobile segment in 2004. The lack of a shading unit count or FP32 throughput figure means shader-bound workloads cannot be precisely quantified; the data only confirms that the architecture supports the DirectX 9.0c (9_3) feature level, which covers pixel shader 3.0 and vertex shader 3.0.

Given the absence of nearest rivals in the FACT PACK, no direct percentage deltas can be computed. The 50th percentile ranking, however, suggests that in a hypothetical comparison against the full database, half of all GPUs would outperform it and half would underperform it. This is a purely positional metric — it does not imply a competitive edge against contemporary mobile workstation parts, only that the Go540 sits at the midpoint of the entire historical GPU spectrum. For multi-core or single-core integer workloads, no data exists; the only definitive compute rates are the pixel and texture throughputs, which are fixed by the ROP and TMU counts.

How It Compares

The FACT PACK lists no nearest rivals for the Quadro FX Go540. Consequently, no cross-GPU comparisons with specific score deltas can be made. The absence of rival data means that any positional analysis must rely solely on the percentile field. At the 50th percentile, the Go540 occupies the exact median of the tracked GPU population — a position that is neither strong nor weak relative to the historical average, but rather a statistical midpoint. Without rival names or their scores, no statement about outperforming or lagging behind a specific product can be made.

What can be stated qualitatively is that the Go540 belongs to the Quadro FX Go series, which succeeded the Quadro4 Go line and was itself succeeded by the Quadro FX Mobile family. This generational placement, combined with the 2004 release date, indicates it was part of the transition from DirectX 8-era mobile professional parts to the DirectX 9 generation. The 110 nm manufacturing node and 25 W TDP further define its position as a low-power mobile solution, but these are attributes, not performance comparisons.

Memory Subsystem

The Quadro FX Go540 is equipped with 128 MB of DDR memory operating at 225 MHz, which translates to 450 Mbps effective data rate. The memory bus is 128 bits wide, yielding a total bandwidth of 7.200 GB/s. This configuration is the sole memory specification in the FACT PACK — there is no mention of GDDR3, GDDR5, or any higher-speed variant.

For high-resolution workloads, this memory subsystem presents significant constraints. The 128 MB capacity is small by modern standards, and the 7.200 GB/s bandwidth is a fraction of what contemporary GPUs offer. In 2004, professional applications at resolutions such as 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 would have placed heavy demands on both capacity and bandwidth. The 128-bit bus width, while providing double the throughput of a 64-bit interface, still limits the amount of texture data and frame buffer content that can be streamed per second. With only 4 ROPs, the pixel output rate of 1.200 GPixel/s further compounds the memory bottleneck: even if bandwidth were sufficient, the ROP count caps the fill rate.

The DDR type, as opposed to DDR2 or GDDR3, indicates a first-generation double-data-rate memory. At 450 Mbps effective, the memory clock is low, and the bandwidth figure of 7.200 GB/s is the only quantitative metric available. For a professional card intended for CAD or DCC applications, this would have been adequate for moderate resolutions and simple scenes but would likely struggle with large textures or anti-aliased rendering at high pixel counts. The data does not specify any memory overclocking or ECC support.

FAQ

Q: What is the manufacturing process for the Quadro FX Go540?

A: The GPU is fabricated on a 110 nm process at TSMC, with a die size of 154 mm² and a transistor count of 146 million.

Q: How much memory bandwidth does the Go540 have?

A: The memory subsystem provides 7.200 GB/s of bandwidth, derived from a 128-bit bus and 225 MHz DDR memory running at 450 Mbps effective.

Q: What is the pixel and texture fill rate?

A: The pixel rate is 1.200 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 2.400 GTexel/s, based on 4 ROPs and 8 TMUs respectively.

Q: Does the Go540 support hardware ray tracing?

A: No, the FACT PACK lists no RT cores and no tensor cores. The architecture is Curie, which predates hardware ray tracing and tensor operations.

Q: What is the power consumption?

A: The TDP is rated at 25 W, with no power connectors required — the slot itself is an MXM Module with an MXM-II bus interface.

Q: What is the release date and production status?

A: The release date is August 8, 2004. The production status is listed as end-of-life.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Quadro FX Go540 has no dedicated ray tracing cores and no tensor cores — the FACT PACK explicitly lists both fields as null. This is consistent with the Curie architecture, which predates the introduction of RT and tensor hardware by more than a decade. Consequently, any workload involving real-time ray tracing or AI-accelerated features would have to rely on the general-purpose shader pipeline, but the FP32 and FP16 throughput figures are also null, so no compute rate can be quantified.

The API support is limited to DirectX 9.0c (9_3) and OpenGL 2.0 (full) with OpenGL 2.1 (partial). DirectX 9.0c brings support for Shader Model 3.0, which allows for longer shader programs and dynamic branching compared to earlier versions. OpenGL 2.0 full support indicates compliance with the core 2.0 specification, while the partial 2.1 support suggests some but not all features of that revision are implemented. No Vulkan support is listed, which is expected for a 2004 product.

The feature set is further defined by the fixed-function units: 8 TMUs and 4 ROPs. These are the only hardware units explicitly enumerated besides the memory interface. Display outputs are described as "portable device dependent," meaning the specific connectors and resolutions depend on the laptop chassis. The bus interface is MXM-II, a standardized mobile module form factor, and the slot width is listed as MXM Module. The power draw is capped at 25 W TDP, with no auxiliary power connectors needed — the module draws all power from the MXM slot. This low TDP, combined with the 110 nm process, indicates a thermal design suited for thin-and-light professional laptops rather than high-performance mobile workstations.