Posted on 07/28/2010 7:24:36 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Whether you are an owner of an ATI FirePro V3800 that retails for just over $100 USD, the proud owner of an ATI FirePro V8800 that goes for over $1,300 USD, or any of the FirePro products in-between, you will want to update your graphics driver when AMD puts out their next stable software update. Back in March AMD put out an amazing FirePro Linux driver that increased the performance of their workstation graphics cards already on the market (and the other Evergreen-based workstation cards that entered the market soon after) by an astonishing amount. Our independent tests of this proprietary Linux driver update found that the performance in some workstation applications had increased by up to 59% by simply installing this updated driver while other OpenGL tests had just improved rather modestly with 20%+ gains. AMD though is preparing to release another driver update for Microsoft Windows and Linux that ups their workstation graphics performance even more! We have run some tests of this new beta driver against their older driver with both their low-end and ultra-high-end FirePro products and have found the improvements again to be astonishing.
On Monday there was a new beta driver from Advanced Micro Devices that they released for Windows and it was tagged the 8.76.2 beta. While on the Windows consumer side they were focusing on OpenGL ES 2.0 support, on the workstation side they have been further optimizing their OpenGL stack. AMD's press department had told us that this updated driver provided a "More than 50% increase in performance for ATI FirePro V8800 on the 3ds Max subset of the SPECviewperf 10 benchmark, as well as a 40% gain on the Catia subset, a 20% gain on the Pro E subset and more than 20% gain on the overall composite." AMD also advertised a 62% performance gain for the V3800 and an 81% performance gain for the V8800 in other benchmarks when comparing the fglrx 8.76.2 beta to their previous driver.
AMD's announcement on Monday was targeting their Windows workstation customers and had only made available publicly a Windows 8.76.2 beta driver, but we decided to test these claims on the Linux side.
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At Newegg:
| Chipset | |
| Chipset Manufacturer | ATI |
| GPU | FirePro V3800 |
| Stream Processors | 400 Stream Processing Units |
| Memory | |
| Memory Size | 512MB |
| Memory Interface | 64-bit |
| Memory Type | DDR3 |
| 3D API | |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| OpenGL | OpenGL 3.2 |
| Ports | |
| DisplayPort | 1 |
| DVI | 1 |
| Spec | |
| Digital Resolution | 2560x1600 @ 60Hz |
| Cooler | With Fan |
| Dual-Link DVI Supported | Yes |
| Operating Systems Supported | Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows, Vista, Linux (32-bit or 64-bit) |
| System Requirements | 512MB of system memory CD-ROM drive (or internet access) for software installation 350-Watt power supply or greater |
| Features | |
| Features | AutoDetect Technology As a user moves between applications, or opens new ones, the graphics driver settings are automatically configured for optimized performance Full 30-bit Display Pipeline Enables more color values than 24-bit products for more accurate color reproduction and superior visual fidelity Multi-View Display With one DisplayPort output and one dual-DVI output, Multi-View enables up to two displays with independent display resolution, refresh rate, and display rotation settings Full Shader Model 5.0 Support Create more complex geometry and scenes without taxing the CPU |
ATI Stream Technology - Consumer
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Using ATI Stream Technology, owners of ATI Radeon™ graphics processors can unlock the potential in their digital applications and see improvements with their overall computing experience. ATI Stream can help accelerate next-generation entertainment, gaming and productivity, applications from companies such as ArcSoft and CyberLink.
In December 2008, AMD released an update to its ATI Catalyst™ drivers, software version 8.12, that instantly unlocks new ATI Stream acceleration capabilities already built into millions of ATI Radeon™ graphics cards.
AMD Accelerates Adobe® Flash Player 10.1 with ATI Stream Technology
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Adobe and AMD have been working closely together to optimize and dramatically improve video playback performance of Flash Player 10.1 by taking advantage of hardware video acceleration on Windows-based PCs equipped with ATI Stream-enabled GPUs.1
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 introduces hardware-based H.264 video decoding to enable smooth, high quality video with minimal system overhead across mobile devices and PCs.
ATI Stream technology accelerates Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 on systems equipped with ATI Stream-enabled GPUs to enable high-quality, high definition (HD) video on rich Web content and applications based on Adobe’s Flash platform. ATI Stream technology enables a balanced approach using both AMD CPUs and GPUs for an amazing experience, including improved video playback, amazing image quality, and reduced CPU utilization.
Users will be able to enjoy a much smoother viewing experience when accessing rich, H.264 video content built with the Adobe Flash Platform from popular sites like Hulu.com or YouTube on systems equipped with ATI Stream-enabled GPUs.
Using ATI Stream technology, owners of ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 Series graphics cards can accelerate the conversion of standard and HD video into multiple formats for use on various consumer electronics devices. By harnessing the massive parallel processing power of AMD GPUs, transcoding files has never been easier. The free ATI Video Converter2 enables basic GPU transcoding of HD video streams.
For more advanced transcoding functionality CyberLink’s MediaShow Espresso video converter application leverages AMD’s unique Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2) through its ATI Stream technology to quickly convert digital video files for use on portable devices like Apple iPhone and Sony PSP.
Nvidia may have something like this also...but I know nothing about it.
That is the little card in the picture....
The big one is the FireproV8800...:
| Chipset | |
| Chipset Manufacturer | ATI |
| GPU | FirePro V8800 |
| Stream Processors | 1600 Stream Processing Units |
| Memory | |
| Memory Size | 2GB |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 |
| 3D API | |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| OpenGL | OpenGL 3.2 |
| Ports | |
| DisplayPort | 4 |
| Other Ports | Stereo (3-pin DIN) |
| Spec | |
| Digital Resolution | 2560x1600 @ 60Hz |
| CrossFire Supported | CrossFire Pro |
| Cooler | With Fan |
| Operating Systems Supported | Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux 14 (32-bit or 64-bit) |
| System Requirements | 512MB of system memory CD-ROM drive (or internet access) for software installation Power supply w/225W for graphics Two 2x3 power connectors |
| Auxiliary Power Connector | 2 x 6 Pin |
IBM 5080 GRAPHICS SYSTEM FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE CAD/CAM, DATA, AND ENGINEERING/SCIENTIFIC GRAPHICS
Vintage late 1980's and was about $100,000+ per work station.
I really just got into the CBDS page...From Bell Northern...and was a Circuit Board Design Program...We had a company we came very close to getting an order for it.
They did electronic equipment for the railroads.
See post # 5.
We all have new puters at work, and SolidWorks 2010 now runs almost without glitches, (not so for the operators of these work stations < /humor >.)
Dassault Systemes SolidWorks....so that is a renamed Catia?
Well I guess I will not be considering this one, since I just bought the new system with integrated medium power NVIDIA video controller on MB.
I'm an OpenCL developer on the AMD platform. Anything in particular you are looking for?
OpenCL is a computing platform that lets software developers use the (many many) CPU processors that are in the graphics card for general purpose computing. There are several algorithms that can run a lot faster on a graphics card than on the main processor. However not all algorithms can achieve this speedup, so the programming skill to use the card this way is still quite a specialty.
All those little engines just seems really juicy to find a use for....
And the 30 bit video interface might be useful....
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