AMD rolled out the ATI FirePro V9800 which features a 4GB GDDR5 frame buffer and six mini DisplayPorts to drive up to six HD displays. AMD is clearly targeting a new market focused on low-cost video walls for design/review, large volume data sets (medical, oil/gas) digital mockups, 4k video compositing, and client presentations. Unlike a multi-card GPU solution, the FirePro using Eyefinity has all memory in the same memory block, so almost any CAD or DDC software offers high performance across all of the displays out of the box (See Develop3D story).
Of course the FirePro V9800 offers full DX11, OpenGL 4.X and OpenCL 1.X support, as well as stereo3D.
The ATI FirePro RG220 graphics card is an integrated graphics card that includes display compression and IP transmission. It compresses dual-display graphic data at the host and outputs it over a regular IP network to a remote thin client device.
If you listen past the marketing hype, this video is actually pretty informative, describing how the card works, where it fits in, and who it will benefit. It’s a real cloud computing solution to offer serious graphics power to “thin clients”. Think small, quiet, cool, and secure. Wonder if I could use this for serious graphics on my iPad?
I just received a StudioGPU newsletter announcing a very cool time-limited offer on MachStudio Pro. Pre-order MachStudio Pro 2 by August 31st, and get a discount of 25% on the price. You will immediately receive the current version of MachStudio Pro bundled with the ATI FirePro V8800. You will receive MachStudio Pro 2 later this quarter when it ships.
MachStudio Pro 2 will offer native integration with Pixar RenderMan, MetaSL and mental ray support, a unified pass renderer, volumetric and global illumination and it will also fully implement DirectX 11 support for even faster GPU acceleration, tessellation and multi-threading. This means significant performance boots on the ATI FirePro V8000.
ATI FirePro V7800, V5800 and 4800 professional graphics cards are immediately available with the Dell Precision R5400, T1500, T3500, T5500 and T7500 Workstations for design engineers and digital content creation professionals. These cards all support ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology so a single graphics card can drive up to three independent 30’ displays. They of course, also provide full support for DirectX11, OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL. These cards are rigorously and exactingly certified for over 90 of the leading CAD and DCC applications.
MachStudio Pro v1.4 is now available in North America for $3,999 (USD) or bundled with the ATI FirePro V8800 3D workstation graphics card for $4,999 (USD). Previously the bundle included the ATI FirePro V8750, so moving to the FirePro V8800 is a significant upgrade in performance with no upgrade in price.
MachStudio Pro allows artists, designers, engineers, directors, and technical directors (TDs) to work with 3D lighting, camera views and multi-point perspectives in an interactive non-linear fashion for real-time high-fidelity views as they will appear in the final rendered format. When paired with MachStudio Pro software, artists can take advantage of real-time performance and features exclusive to ATI graphics such as real-time displacement mapping using hardware tessellation.
If you already own an ATI FirePro card, particularly the DX11-optimized new FirePro line (V4800, V5800, V7800 or V8800) or even a high-performance Radeon HD 5870, you can download a free 30-day trial, full-featured copy of MachStudio Pro and test it out .
At yesterday’s Computex Press Conference, AMD unveiled their first demo of Fusion APU - the integration of the CPU and GPU into a single die.
From AMD’s senior vice president of technology & development, Rick Bergman, “This explosion in multimedia requires new applications and new ways to manage and manipulate data. Low resolution video needs to be up-scaled for larger screens, HD video must be shrunk for smart phones, and home movies need to be stabilized and cleaned up for more enjoyable viewing. When AMD formally launches the AMD Fusion family of APUs, scheduled for the first half of in 2011, we expect the PC experience to evolve dramatically.”
The first APUs are expected to ship in the first half of 2011, the 32nm “Llano” for desktops and the 40nm “Ontario” for notebooks/netbooks. Microsoft is actively working with AMD for high performance DX11.
The on-demand press conference video is available here.
Bergman starts speaking about the APU at about 44 min into the press conference. Importantly (to me) he or colleagues mention growing support for OpenGL and OpenCL!
Below is a demo of an early prototype Fusion mobile(?) processor playing a DX11 game.
Phoronix reviews the new ATI FirePro V4800 & ATI FirePro V7800 under Linux:
Cut to the chase quotes:
FirePro V4800
“The AMD FirePro V4800 was certainly competitive in our Linux tests and filled the void between the entry-level FirePro V3800 and the mid-range FirePro V5800. In many of the tests, the V4800 was closer to performing at the V5800 levels rather than the V3800. The FirePro V4800 has an MSRP of $189 USD compared to the V3800 at $109 or the V5800 at $469. The FirePro V4800 doesn’t even cost half of what the V5800 is selling for, but its performance is respectable in comparison and both graphics card offer 1GB of GDDR5 memory, one dual-link DVI connector, dual DisplayPort connections, and have about the same power consumption. The Redwood-based V4800 is an excellent performer and for only costing about $80 more than the V3800, it is an even better bargain.”
FirePro V7800
“The FirePro V7800 does not quite perform at the V8800 levels in the most demanding tests, but there is several hundred dollars that separate the two high-end products. The FirePro V7800 should be able to suit your needs if you have a decent amount of money to spend on a new workstation graphics card, but don’t need the quad monitor Eyefinity support of the V8800 or the absolute best performance available from the Evergreen-based graphics cards. ... The FirePro V8800 also boasts a Stereoscopic output where as the V7800 does not, but both support Framelock/Genlock as well as CrossFire.”
The following video shows the production workflow integration between Maya, MachStudio Pro and PhotoShop running on a single ATI FirePro V8800. The three 2560x1600 displays are all being driven by the single FirePro graphics card using ATI Eyefinity technology.
There is a good whitepaper on Eyefinity for professional markets that explains the configurations, usage scenarios, etc.
Do multiple monitors really matter for productivity? IDC did a quick study and wrote up a whitepaper on the experience of three different companies (Cosworth, Kirkham Motorsports, and Slappy Studios) that recently made the move to multiple monitors using ATI Eyefinity. All saw notable improvements in productivity and creativity from those employees who received a multi-display upgrade.
When AMD released the ATI FirePro V8800 it was clearly just a matter of time before we saw the entire FirePro lineup upgrade to the new DX11, OpenGL 3.2/4, Eyefinity Evergreen-based chips. Well the wait is over. Today AMD released 4 new FirePro models in addition to the V8800. (see the ATI FirePro family page and press release for more details)
Below are some summary specs for the new FirePro accelerators (red) with a comparison to the workstation graphics card they replace (gray).
Entry
Mid-Range
High End
FirePro
V3700
FirePro
V3800
FirePro
V3750
FirePro
V4800
FirePro
V5700
FirePro
V5800
FirePro
V7750
FirePro
V7800
FirePro
V8700
FirePro
V8800
Memory Size
256MB GDDR3
512MB GDDR3
256MB GDDR3
1GB GDDR5
512MB GDDR3
1GB GDDR5
1GB GDDR3
2GB GDDR5
1GB GDDR5
2GB GDDR5
Number of Slots Required
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
Stream Processors
40
400
320
400
320
800
320
1440
800
1600
Max Power (W)1
32
43
48
69
58
74
76
138
151
208
Supplemental Power Requirement
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
1 x 6-pin
1 x 6-pin
2 x 6-pin
2 x 6-pin
Number of Dual-Link DVI Outputs
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
DisplayPort Outputs
0
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
4
Maximum Resolution per Output (@ 60 Hz)
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
2560 x 1600
Stereo 3D Connector (3-pin DIN)
X
X
Form Factor*
FH/HL
HH/HL
FH/HL
FH/HL
FH/HL
FH/FL
FH/FL
FH/FL
FH/FL
FH/FL
Eyefinity Support
X
X
X
X
Framelock/ Genlock
X
X
ATI CrossFire Pro2
X
X
X
X
X
X
Suggested MSRP (price)
$99
$109
$199
$189
$599
$469
$899
$799
$1799
$1499
* FH = Full Height, HH = Half Height, HL = Half Length, FL = Full Length
1. Measured under 3DMark 03.
2. Specific power, chassis space, connector and resource requirements may apply. Check with system manufacturer to see if dual cards are supported.
Obvious standouts to me: Faster memory, more memory (think VBO performance), huge increases in number of stream processors (a.k.a shader units), and Eyefinity support on all but the V3800. What I would like to also know is energy consumption in idle mode as well as some noise comparison to previous models. I know the V8800 was significantly better in both regards to its predecessor.
One last note: AMD actually released a 5th new card: the FirePro 2460 Multi-View - essentially a low-power, low-profile FirePro quad display solution designed for financial traders. So it is not for the CAD and DCC realm, but still pretty interesting because of the 13W average power consumption.
Ever since the Radeon 5XXX series I've been eagerly waiting for the FirePro professional cards that are based on the Cypress architecture. The , announced today does not disappoint. It clearly takes the crown as the most powerful workstation graphics card on the market. Here's the gist:
1600 stream processors for more than double the computational power of the V8750
2GB of ultra high speed GDDR5 memory
Full 30-bit display pipeline (essential for medical imaging, pro video and photo editing)
Four DisplayPort outputs driven by ATI Eyefinity technology giving the option of a multi-monitor desktop of over 10,000 pixels wide; driving a 4K projector; delivering combinations of portrait and landscape orientations; driving virtual prototyping and curved "surround view" video walls.
Native CrossFire Pro multi-card support
OpenCL support!
Hardware tessellation
Stereo3D support
Windows and Linux drivers
Certified for leading CAD and DCC apps (i.e. guaranteed reliability)
Check out the FirePro V8800 web page and data sheet for complete specs.
One last note: At $1499 ($300 less than the FirePro v8750!) I want to point out that this is a really competitive price for high-end workstation graphics.
I haven't yet seen any actual performance specs, but I really want to see how this performs for Autodesk products, CATIA, and MachStudio Pro, in particular with the recently released v8.702 or better drivers. If anyone has any test results, please drop a comment.
Update: 04/07/10 - Performance reviews are already coming in from HotHardware and most notably 3DProfessor. General consensus is: performance at a completely new level.
Also worth noting are two PDF case studies for the V8800 used in Broadcast 3D CG and CAD visualization
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