3Dlabs announces Wildcat Realizm 500 PCI Express professional graphics card

3Dlabs announced the Wildcat Realizm 500 professional graphics accelerator. The new Wildcat Realizm 500 offers high-end graphics performance to Computer-aided Design (CAD) and Digital Content and Creation (DCC) professionals for an MSRP of only US$899.99.

The Wildcat Realizm 500 provides twice the onboard memory (256 MB) of any competing mid-range graphics accelerator. Also touting superior graphics performance, the Wildcat Realizm 500 beats competing mid-range products on five SPEC Viewperf 8.1.0 viewsets, including the 3ds max-03 viewset, with a score of over 48 frames per second, which is 29 percent higher than the closest competing PCI Express-based product.

“In Q1 of CY05 the workstation graphics industry's largest 3D segment was the mid-range category,” said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research. “With the introduction of the Wildcat Realizm 500, which offers the best performance in the mid-range segment at an amazing price, 3Dlabs strikes a very strong competitive position in the category with genuine growth potential.”

“The Wildcat Realizm 500 provides a compelling new choice from our line of PCI Express-based professional graphics accelerators, providing a great value proposition for CAD, DCC and visual simulation professionals who need industry-leading graphics for both high-end and mid-range projects,” said Hock Leow, president of 3Dlabs.

Five Viewperf 8.1.0 Viewset Scores	ATI		Nvidia		3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 500
MSRP	$699	$799	$899	$999	$899
Memory	128 MB	128 MB	128 MB	128 MB	256 MB
	FireGL V5000	FireGL V5100	Quadro FX 1300	Quadro FX 1400	Scores	Performance Gains**
3dsmax-03	35.06	37.21	26.31	35.74	48.31	29.8%
Ensight-01	17.26	19.05	7.57	19.14	25.70	34.3%
Light-07	23.44	23.94	26.63	27.55	28.86	4.8%
Maya-01	49.42	49.64	54.53	55.07	60.28	9.5%
SW-01	26.40	27.25	13.92	27.01	32.17	18.1%

_{*Chart uses SPECViewperf 8.1.0 scores generated by in-house testing with the Wildcat Realizm 500 and competitors’ cards. All tests were conducted in the same 3.8 GHz Pentium 4-based system with 1 GB of system memory using the latest drivers (as of 6.15.05) from each company to achieve the most accurate comparisons possible. For more information and Viewperf scores, please see www.spec.org web site. **Performance gains are based on overall performance increase over the nearest PCI Express competitor’s score.}

The Wildcat Realizm 500 will be available by the end of August.