NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL

Memory Subsystem

The NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL ships with 128 MB of DDR memory on a 128-bit bus, producing a bandwidth of 8.192 GB/s. This configuration places it in the entry-level professional segment of its era, where capacity and throughput were tightly constrained by the 150 nm process and the AGP 8x interface. The memory clock runs at 256 MHz, with an effective rate of 512 Mbps, which is modest even by early-2000s standards.

For high-resolution workloads, the 128 MB frame buffer is a limiting factor. At 1920x1080 or beyond, texture-heavy 3D scenes will quickly exhaust available VRAM, causing the card to rely on system memory over the AGP bus. The 8.192 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 2D CAD wireframes or modest 3D models, but it becomes a bottleneck when handling large textures or multisampled anti-aliasing. Benchmark data indicates a 50th percentile standing among all GPUs, which reflects a mid-pack position—not catastrophic, but clearly not designed for high-fidelity rendering. The 1.100 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1.100 GTexel/s texture rate align with this assessment: the card can push pixels, but the memory subsystem will throttle sustained throughput in complex scenes.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Quadro4 380 XGL is built on the Celsius architecture with the NV18 chip, a design that predates dedicated ray tracing hardware. There are no RT cores and no tensor cores, as those technologies were still years away. The card supports DirectX 7.0 and OpenGL 1.5, which means it can handle fixed-function pipeline workloads but lacks programmable shader support beyond the most basic vertex and pixel operations. For ray-traced rendering, this card is functionally incapable—no hardware acceleration exists, and the API support does not include any ray tracing extensions.

The feature set is squarely aimed at professional 2D and light 3D visualization. The 4 TMUs and 4 ROPs are enough for basic texture filtering and rasterization, but there is no hardware tessellation, no geometry shaders, and no compute capabilities. The AGP 8x bus interface provides a reasonable data path for its time, though modern PCIe interfaces offer far greater bandwidth. Display outputs include one DVI, one VGA, and one S-Video, which supports multi-monitor setups but only at the analog or early digital resolutions common in 2002.

Benchmark Performance

The Quadro4 380 XGL has no recorded benchmark scores in the database, and its average benchmark score is listed as zero. The percentile rank of 50 indicates that it sits exactly at the median of all GPUs tracked, which is a curious data point given the lack of direct scores. However, the nearestRivals array is empty, meaning there are no direct comparison points from contemporary or adjacent products. This absence of rivals is itself informative: the card likely occupied a niche with few direct competitors, or the database simply lacks entries for its immediate peers.

Without rival scores, the analysis must rely on architectural indicators. The 1.100 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1.100 GTexel/s texture rate suggest balanced but low absolute throughput. Compare this to later Quadro generations in the same lineage—the Quadro FX series that succeeded it—which would show substantially higher fill rates, but those figures are not in the fact pack. What the data does show is that the card is end-of-life, released on 2002-11-11, and positioned as a successor to the Quadro2 Celsius line. The 50th percentile rank, taken at face value, means half of all GPUs in the database perform better and half perform worse, placing it in the middle of the pack historically.

Who Should Consider It

Given the 128 MB memory limit and 8.192 GB/s bandwidth, this card is only suitable for legacy 2D professional applications or very light 3D modeling at modest resolutions. Users working with CAD drawings, schematic layouts, or basic 3D previews at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 will find the card adequate. The 1.100 GPixel/s fill rate can handle simple textured surfaces, but any scene with heavy overdraw or large texture sets will cause frame rates to drop noticeably.

For high-resolution work at 1600x1200 or above, the memory subsystem becomes the primary constraint. The 128 MB VRAM cannot hold large framebuffers and texture caches simultaneously, leading to thrashing. Similarly, any workload involving modern shader-based rendering is out of scope, as the DirectX 7.0 and OpenGL 1.5 APIs lack the programmable pipeline features required. This card is best suited for users running legacy software that predates the mid-2000s and who require professional-grade driver support rather than gaming performance.

How It Compares

The nearestRivals array is empty in the fact pack, so there are no direct competitive comparisons available from benchmark data. This is unusual but does not preclude qualitative positioning. The predecessor, Quadro2 Celsius, would have featured an older architecture (likely Kelvin or similar) and lower fill rates, making the Quadro4 380 XGL a clear generational upgrade. The successor, Quadro FX Rankine, would represent a substantial leap in memory bandwidth, shader support, and overall compute capability, but those specifics are not in the fact pack.

Without rival data, the 50th percentile ranking serves as the only comparative anchor. This suggests that among all GPUs tracked in the database—spanning decades and multiple vendors—the Quadro4 380 XGL performs at the median level. That is a remarkable position for a professional card from 2002, reflecting both the longevity of its basic feature set and the fact that many older and less capable GPUs still populate the database. In practice, against cards from its own era, it would have competed with mid-range professional offerings, but the fact pack provides no names or scores to substantiate that claim.

FAQ

Q: What is the memory size and type on the Quadro4 380 XGL?

A: The card has 128 MB of DDR memory with a 128-bit bus width, yielding 8.192 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Does the Quadro4 380 XGL support ray tracing?

A: No. The card has no RT cores or tensor cores, and its DirectX 7.0 and OpenGL 1.5 APIs do not include ray tracing support.

Q: What is the pixel fill rate of this card?

A: The pixel rate is 1.100 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 1.100 GTexel/s, indicating balanced but low throughput.

Q: What bus interface does the Quadro4 380 XGL use?

A: It uses AGP 8x, which was a standard interface for professional cards of its generation.

Q: What display outputs are available?

A: The card provides one DVI, one VGA, and one S-Video output, supporting multi-monitor setups.

Q: Is the card still in production?

A: No, the production status is end-of-life, with a release date of 2002-11-11.

Power and Cooling

The Quadro4 380 XGL has no listed TDP in the fact pack, but the suggested PSU is 200 W, which indicates a modest power draw. The card is single-slot and requires no power connectors, drawing all its power from the AGP 8x slot. This low power requirement is consistent with the 150 nm process node and 29 million transistors, which is a small die by modern standards but typical for early 2000s professional parts. The 65 mm² die size and transistor density of 446.2K per mm² are modest figures, reinforcing the card's low-power nature.

Cooling is a non-issue for most systems, as the single-slot design and lack of auxiliary power connectors mean a basic passive or low-speed fan heatsink suffices. The 200 W PSU recommendation is well within the range of standard desktop power supplies from the era, and even modern systems with higher wattage PSUs will have no trouble powering this card. The absence of power connectors simplifies installation, but users should verify that their motherboard has a functional AGP 8x slot, as this interface is obsolete in modern systems. The end-of-life status means replacement parts are scarce, but the low thermal footprint ensures longevity in any system that still supports the interface.