3DProfessor reviews the new Intel Gulftown desktop CPU (Core i7- 980 Extreme Edition 3.33GHz) with an ATI FirePro V8750 as the graphics accelerator. The CPU/GPU combination shows some ground breaking scores on several benchmarks. Two word summary: Extremely Fast!
The entire family of ATI FirePro professional graphics has been certified by Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corp for SolidWorks 2010 on Microsoft Windows 7.1 SolidWorks software is optimized to work in tandem with ATI FirePro professional graphics and Windows 7 to deliver fast performance and advanced stability for professionals working with mechanical designs.
This evaluation on Icrontic pits the ATI FirePro V7750 (online for around $600) against its direct competitor, the NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 (online just over $700). However, they also tossed in results for the FirePro V8750 to give some perspective on the price/performance ratio of the V7750. The general summary is “astonishing value for the dollar” but it is easier to quote from the article then summarize the detailed tests:
“The showdown between the V7750 and the FX 3800 was a close one, but the V7750 narrowly edged out its competitor in virtually every benchmark. Its OpenGL performance in Cinebench was impressive, yielding nearly 1000 more points than the FX 3800. Viewperf scores in both SolidWorks and 3ds Max were very close, with the V7750 winning the majority in SolidWorks, while the two GPUs won seven a piece in 3ds Max.
“Maya, however, continues to tell a story of ATI dominance; the FirePro V7750 bested the Quadro FX 3800 by more than twice the average frames per second. In fact, the V7750 did so well in the Maya tests that its average frame rate was actually close to that of the FirePro V8750. AMD must be working some crazy driver voodoo to pull off such impressive scores in Maya.”
Expreview benchmarked the FirePro V8700 and V3700 under Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and compared it against the current high-end NVidia Quadro cards. The results are impressive anywhere where the application takes advantage of the GPU including Microstation, Cinebench (60% better OpenGL performance!), Lightsmark, SPECviewperf 10, and SPECapc SW/Maya/ LW.
Summary: “We’re really impressed with the outstanding performance delivered by ATI FirePro V8700, which outperformed Quadro FX 3800 by a large margin. Even if Quadro FX 4800 steps up, we don’t think the situation would change much. But as we see, the catch is the high power consumption.”
“ATI FirePro V3700 also performed great enough to fight against Quadro FX 370 which is more expensive. Its greatest highlight is the affordable price.”
And remember, the V8750 is actually the top of the line FirePro card!
CG Channel recently reviewed the FirePro V8750 in the leading DCC apps, and directly compares the performance to the Quadro FX4800, the much pricier Quadro FX5800, and the FirePro V8650 (its predecessor). Cut to the chase: the FirePro V8750 is able to match or outpace all of the Nvidia cards across the majority of tests in Max, Maya, Softimage and Mudbox. And if you are a MachStudio Pro user, you will see a doubling of performance with the V8750 vs the V8650.
Quotes from the article:
“AMD has got a winner on it’s hands in the FirePro V8750. It is an excellent piece of hardware with excellent performance numbers. To say it was a pleasant surprise is a bit of an understatement, as I was a bit shocked that it performed so far ahead of it’s competition, and even outpaced it’s competitor’s highest end offering, the mighty 4 GB Quadro FX5800, something that it’s not even targeted at.”
“If you are considering purchasing a Quadro FX4800, or even a 5800, I suggest you seriously consider the FirePro V8750, believe me, you won’t be disappointed.”
I’ve written before about the real difference in CAD and DCC performance between using a professional graphics card like a FirePro and a consumer graphic card like a Radeon. But what about the new “Evergreen” line of DirectX 11-based GPUs like the Radeon HD 5870. This is getting awesome performance reviews. So how does this compare to a top of the line FirePro card?
Icrontic recently had the same question so he ran some benchmarking tests (Cinebench R10, SPECviewperf 3ds Max, and SPECviewperf Maya) between the Radeon HD 5870 and the FirePro V8750 (with a GeForce 8800GTX thrown in for comparison).
Quote from the article for Max: ”The FirePro V8750 handily overpowered the Radeon HD 5870 by more than twice the average framerate. The Radeon HD 5870 followed with a strong showing of its own, as it doubled the average framerate put up by the GeForce 8800 GTX.”
Quote for Maya: ”Results in Maya were nothing short of shocking. While the HD 5870 was in a virtual dead heat with the 8800 GTX, the FirePro V8750 quite simply facepounded both of them. In fact, the V8750’s average performance increase over the big, bad Radeon came out to about 650%. Six hundred fifty percent.”
Why is this the case when the basic hardware specs look so similar? Chip and board-level optimizations on the FirePro account for the bulk of the performance difference (sorry softmodders). On top of that are the optimized drivers and heavy testing to ensure optimal performance. Icrontic is actually going to talk to AMD engineers to get more details.
Also one great quote from the comments referencing the price differential: “One thing to remember is that the cost of the card is inmaterial compared to the cost of the people running the hardware. If the artist is waiting for screen re-draws that’s productivity lost.”
This review on Icrontic is a great explanation of why a workstation GPU is needed for serious production work, and how a gaming GPU just doesn’t cut it.
“To understand why it’s beneficial to use a workstation GPU, you first need to understand how they differ from their desktop cousins: It’s all in the presentation. In gaming, many effects and techniques are “cheated.” A desktop card may skip the rendering of certain shaders or textures if they are not critical to the player’s eye, and they may even approximate output in some conditions. This is done because high framerates and performance are preferred when playing a game. Workstation graphics cards use different firmware and drivers which assure that nothing is cheated; rendering operations are complete and thorough. This difference improves rendering quality at the expense of speed. When working in a 3D application, this trade greatly improves productivity and performance.”
The blog post gives the author’s real-world experience using the FirePro V8750 in a production environment.
3DProfessor has a review of the Intel WX58BP Entry Level Workstation Board for the Xeon processor W3500 series. The gist: “For many years the owners of UP workstation mainboards have had the luxury of marching around boasting the best from Supermicro, Tyan and the Tier 1 companies. Not so anymore. This has been a bold move from Intel ... this is a good optional workstation mainboard… we have to award Intel’s Workstation Board WX58BP (Banroof Point) a joint Editors Choice Award with Supermicro’s X8SAX”
Now for me the especially interesting part of the story is the SPEC 10 benchmark comparing a FireProV7750 card with two FirePro V7750 cards in CrossFire mode. See the table below (taken from 3DProfessor), but essentially this confirms the significant acceleration for Ensight, Maya and UG/NX.
Fast on the heals of the review of the new V8750 from HotHardware is one from 3D Professor. But the 3D Professor review of the V8750 tests in 64-bit mode and using CrossFire Pro (i.e. use multiple GPU’s to dynamically scale graphics performance) - seeing especially big gains in Maya, Ensight and UG NX.
The professor separately reviews CrossFire Pro using the previous flagship V8700 graphics card and declares that CrossFire Pro “will be rattling a few cages in many sectors as its performance success today within certain applications has been absolutely astonishing.”
I’ll be reporting more after we actually see these things in action at Siggraph. But right now I can say I am drooling.
The webinar Optimizing Your Workstation for SolidWorks by Allen Bourgoyne, AMD graphics guru and SPEC Graphics Performance Characterization committee member, is now available on-demand. (hint: fast forward the first few minutes to get to the meat of the presentation)
Allen shares his tips for getting higher performance from your SolidWorks application. He covers how to analyze and tune your workstation, analyze and improve component performance, and identify software issues that can affect performance.
Accompanying the video webinar are links to the presentation slides and the awesome Questions & Answers transcript.
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