HP teams up with Nvidia to build workstations dedicated to 3D content creators, game/application developers and media professionals.
The HP Z Workstation packs the Quadro professional GPUs from Nvidia, making the rigs VR Ready.
Due to the boost in performance that comes via the dedicated GPUs, content creators will be able to craft a flawless and an accurate VR experience. To make sure that the virtual reality behaves smoothly, each configuration is benchmarked using HTC Vive head mounted displays.
"HP Z desktop workstations with Nvidia graphics are the ideal combination for this new content creation era," says Jeff Wood, the vice president of Worldwide Product Management, Workstations and Thin Clients at HP.
The cooperation between HP and Nvidia resulted in the following workstations: the HP Z240, which packs an Nvidia Quadro M5000; the HP Z640, which features an Nvidia Quadro M6000; and the HP Z840, sporting a ferocious dual Nvidia Quadro M6000 GPU.
The companies tout that the new workstations will provide content creators with unprecedented VR performance, meaning higher frame rates and less latency, even in complex VR computations.
Thanks to the dual-card support, the HP Z840 makes full use of the company's VR Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology. This doubles the power of the rig when it comes to rendering VR apps.
Additional pluses of the powerful GPUs from Nvidia are the VR Synchronization and Affinity API capabilities, both of which boost performance while getting rid of image tearing.
Bob Pette, vice president of Professional Visualization at Nvidia explains that virtual reality dips its fingers into multiple life areas, bringing huge improvement opportunities.
"[VR will] revolutionize fields across everyday life - like medicine, architecture, education, product design and retailing," Pette says.
Some other domains that could benefit from the developments of virtual reality are health care and research, gas and oil exploration and last, but not least, entertainment and media.
The professional workstations will come at a hefty price, worthy of the outstanding performance. The price tag of HP Z Workstations begins at $4,363. Sadly, the HP-compatible HTC Vive must be purchased separately.
The two companies announced the powerful line-up during Nvidia 's GPU Technology Conference, taking place between April 4 and 7 at the San Jose Convention Center.
While VR games need powerful PCs to run flawlessly, they might be a bit more affordable than HP's Workstations.
