NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL

The NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL is a professional workstation graphics card from the Celsius architecture generation, built on the NV18 chip using a 150 nm process at TSMC. It was released in November 2002 and has since reached end-of-life status, targeting legacy CAD and visualization workloads. With 29 million transistors on a 65 mm² die, this single-slot AGP 8x card offers a fixed-function pipeline typical of its era, and its benchmark data places it at the 50th percentile among all GPUs in the database.

Benchmark Performance

The Quadro4 580 XGL carries an average benchmark score of 0, which places it at the 50th percentile of all GPUs recorded in the database. This percentile ranking indicates that the card sits exactly at the median of the entire GPU landscape — a position that reflects its age and limited computational scope rather than any modern competitive standing. The absence of any nearest rival data in the fact pack means no direct percentage comparisons can be drawn against contemporary or successor products, but the architectural specifications themselves tell a clear story.

Pixel fill rate is rated at 1.200 GPixel/s, while texture fill rate matches at 1.200 GTexel/s. These figures are derived from the 4 ROPs and 4 TMUs operating in concert with the chip’s clock behavior. The data shows a balanced design where pixel and texture throughput are identical, which is typical for early DirectX 7-era cards where vertex processing was handled separately. For a 2002 workstation card, these rates would have been adequate for wireframe modeling and basic shading in professional applications, but they fall far short of anything required for modern 3D workloads.

The lack of any shading unit count or FP32 performance figures in the fact pack indicates that this card predates unified shader architectures entirely. The Quadro4 580 XGL relies on fixed-function hardware, meaning its performance in geometry-heavy scenes is dictated by the 1.200 GTexel/s texture rate and 1.200 GPixel/s pixel rate alone. Benchmark results, while numerically zero, should be interpreted as a placeholder for a card that was never subjected to modern benchmarking suites — its real-world performance is better understood through its architectural limits.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

There are no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores present in the Quadro4 580 XGL’s specification. This is expected, as the card predates any hardware acceleration for ray tracing by nearly two decades. The API support confirms its legacy status: DirectX 7.0 and OpenGL 1.5 are the maximum graphics APIs available, with no Vulkan support listed. DirectX 7.0 means the card supports hardware transformation and lighting (T&L) but lacks programmable shaders in the modern sense — pixel shaders were introduced in DirectX 8.0, which this card cannot access.

OpenGL 1.5 support provides a modest feature set that includes vertex buffer objects and some texture extensions, but it falls far short of the capabilities required for modern OpenGL applications. The absence of Vulkan support is absolute, rendering the card incompatible with any contemporary graphics API. For professional software of the early 2000s, the OpenGL 1.5 driver stack would have been sufficient for CAD wireframes, but the feature set is entirely static — there is no hardware-based ray tracing, no AI acceleration, and no compute capability whatsoever.

The 150 nm process node and 29 million transistor count highlight the simplicity of this design. With no RT cores or tensor cores, the chip dedicates all its silicon to fixed-function rasterization and memory control. The fact pack lists no shading units, which further confirms that all pixel processing occurs through the 4 TMUs and 4 ROPs. This is a pure rasterization device, and its feature set is defined entirely by what was possible in the DirectX 7.0 era.

Memory Subsystem

The Quadro4 580 XGL comes equipped with 64 MB of DDR memory on a 128-bit bus, running at 200 MHz with an effective data rate of 400 Mbps. This configuration yields a memory bandwidth of 6.400 GB/s. The 128-bit bus width is a critical factor here — it matches the bus width found in many mid-range consumer cards of that generation, but the 64 MB capacity is notably small even for 2002 standards.

For high-resolution workloads, the 6.400 GB/s bandwidth is severely constrained. At resolutions common today — 1080p or higher — the frame buffer would overflow quickly, forcing texture thrashing and stuttering. Even at the typical workstation resolutions of 1600x1200 or 2048x1536 in 2002, the 64 MB capacity would limit texture detail and scene complexity. The DDR memory type provides a modest improvement over SDRAM but still operates at a frequency that is a fraction of modern GDDR6X or even GDDR5 modules.

The memory subsystem’s practical impact is that this card is only viable for low-resolution, low-texture workloads. The 6.400 GB/s bandwidth equates to roughly 800 MB per second per direction in ideal conditions, but real-world efficiency is lower due to refresh overhead. The fact pack shows no memory overclocking or boost behavior, so the 200 MHz clock is fixed. For professional applications that rely on large datasets — such as GIS mapping or medical imaging — this memory configuration would quickly become the bottleneck.

How It Compares

The fact pack lists no nearest rivals for the Quadro4 580 XGL, meaning no direct competitor scores or percentage deltas are available for comparison. This absence is itself informative: the card occupies a niche that has no direct contemporary benchmark data in this database. Its predecessor, the Quadro2 Celcius, and successor, the Quadro FX Rankine, bracket it chronologically but provide no score comparisons.

Given the lack of rival data, the comparison must be made against the broader GPU landscape. At the 50th percentile, the Quadro4 580 XGL sits exactly at the median of all recorded GPUs, which is remarkable given its age. This percentile likely reflects the database’s inclusion of many equally dated or older cards. The 1.200 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1.200 GTexel/s texture rate place it in the same performance class as early GeForce 4 MX variants, though no specific rival names or scores are provided.

The 64 MB memory capacity and 6.400 GB/s bandwidth are the defining limitations. Any GPU from the past decade with even entry-level specifications would outperform this card by orders of magnitude, but without nearestRival data, those deltas cannot be quantified. The production status of end-of-life and the November 2002 release date further cement its position as a legacy product with no current competitive relevance. In essence, the Quadro4 580 XGL stands alone in this database — a solitary data point from an era long past.

FAQ

Q: What is the release date of the NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL?

A: The card was released on November 11, 2002, and is now marked as end-of-life.

Q: How much memory does the Quadro4 580 XGL have, and what type is it?

A: It has 64 MB of DDR memory on a 128-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 6.400 GB/s.

Q: What DirectX version does this card support?

A: The Quadro4 580 XGL supports DirectX 7.0 and OpenGL 1.5, with no Vulkan support listed.

Q: Does the card have any ray tracing or tensor cores?

A: No, the fact pack lists no ray tracing cores and no tensor cores; the card relies entirely on fixed-function rasterization.

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

A: The pixel rate is 1.200 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 1.200 GTexel/s.

Q: What bus interface does the Quadro4 580 XGL use?

A: It uses AGP 8x and has a single LFH60 display output, requiring a 200 W suggested PSU with no power connectors.