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ATI Introduces FireGL V5000

Posted by Zonk on from the shiny-can-be-expensive dept.

karvind writes "Folks at Tomshardware> are running a review of ATI's new FireGL V5000. The card's X700 processor, code named R410GL, is based on a 110-nanometer process and the card sports eight pixel pipelines, six geometry engines, 128 MB of GDDR3 memory, dual DVI connectors for multi-display applications and dual link support for 9 megapixels displays. Anandtech also posted a review."

23 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by TheKidWho · · Score: 2, Funny

    The video card for the rest of us...

  2. One man's mid-range is another man's budget.... by erick99 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Since this product is aimed at the mid-range market with its price-tag of $699...

    I do understand that is a mid-range market price and card, but, damn, I just bought my son a very nice computer with a very servicable video card for less than that.

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
    1. Re:One man's mid-range is another man's budget.... by TheKidWho · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a workstation graphics card, not a gaming card...
      Take a loot at the other FireGL's or Quadros, they go in the price range of $2,000 and above!

    2. Re:One man's mid-range is another man's budget.... by be-fan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Does your son by any chance model jet engine compressors on that thing? It's a total apples to oranges comparison! It's like saying that a 777 is more expensive more expensive than your Toyota. Strictly, it's true, but it's a meaningless statement.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    3. Re:One man's mid-range is another man's budget.... by rtaylor · · Score: 5, Funny

      [i]Does your son by any chance model jet engine compressors on that thing? It's a total apples to oranges comparison! It's like saying that a 777 is more expensive more expensive than your Toyota.[/i]

      Not only that, but the Toyota is easier to parallel park and handles tight corners better.

      --
      Rod Taylor
  3. Pointless benchmark? by rokzy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    they take an OpenGL workstation card, the only type of ATI card with proper linux support, and benchmark it on XP SP2?

    1. Re:Pointless benchmark? by Rufus211 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      (-1, Troll)

      The first linux drivers ATI released were for their firegl line of workstation cards. You could hack them to work with the normal cards, but for quite a while now ATI has provided drivers that work with all the cards. In fact, you can read anandtech's review of ATI and nVidia cards under Linux here.

  4. Folks, WORKSTATION card, not gaming by MightyPez · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These cards are meant to be used for workstation uses like 3D editing and creation. These aren't gaming cards. I realize you bought your gaming card for far less, but these are a completely different product.

  5. Sometimes I get confused... by aendeuryu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Since this product is aimed at the mid-range market with its price-tag of $699 (630), potential customers can't expect the full feature set.

    Hold the friggin' phone. 700$ is mid-range? What, do you have to take a second mortgage out to get top of the line stuff?

    Anyway, it's good to see that ATI is going with V**** enumerations to match NVidia's Quadro FX ***** enumerations. Those X700/X800 and 6600/6800 patterns were too easy to remember, IMHO. It's not a free market unless you're confusing the hell out of your customer base with numbering schemes.

    1. Re:Sometimes I get confused... by TheKidWho · · Score: 3, Insightful

      omg omg omg the corporations are out to get us!!!! run for cover!!!

      You are being overly ignorant, these video cards are Workstation graphics card. The higher end versions usually cost somewhere in the range of $2,000 and above. Not to mention the software that actually benefits from these cards cost on the order of $1,000-$10,000+.

      Yes they certainly are gouging the engineers because you know, engineers can't keep track of numbers...

    2. Re:Sometimes I get confused... by delirium+of+disorder · · Score: 2, Informative

      $700 is still mid-range. You want high end....check this out:

      http://www.sgi.com/products/visualization/prism/

      --
      ------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
    3. Re:Sometimes I get confused... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you are paying engineers and designers $60k or more a year, it makes sense to provide them a product that maximizes their productivity.

      Workstation cards are optimized, validated and supported for specific products. Companies that make software these things use heavily test their products using specific driver revisions. Compared to the annual wage of the people that use this, that's peanuts. Think Avid, SolidWorks, Renderman and such. Don't think Blender or other consumer or hacker software.

  6. Gotta catch 'em all by tepples · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will ATI go on to make a LeafGL card that's green?

    1. Re:Gotta catch 'em all by TheKidWho · · Score: 4, Funny

      only after they make WindGL, EarthGL, and WaterGL.

      Then Captain Planet can come and save the day from the evil corporations!

    2. Re:Gotta catch 'em all by tehshen · · Score: 2, Funny

      You're missing HeartGL! Spread the love! Embrace ATI!

      --
      Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
  7. well by FidelCatsro · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can do a small modification to some ATI radeons to make them fireGL cards http://www.rojakpot.com.nyud.net:8090/default.aspx ?location=3&var1=185&var2=0

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  8. How do these compare by xRelisH · · Score: 3, Interesting

    to regular video cards? I've always been curious that exactly these cards offer ( other than more raw power ) over regular video cards other than the dual DVI setup.

    Are there any benchmarks comparing regular video cards versus these graphic workstation cards on modelling? Also, how do these cards do in games? Do these cards perhaps do worse in games ( optimizations toward different types of rendering, like more photo-realistic hardware rendering that isn't that distinguishable for games but is for 3d work )

    1. Re:How do these compare by TheKidWho · · Score: 5, Informative

      The drivers are more optimized for the tasks that they perform. And yes there are benchmarks, and no they are not better then gaming specific cards. Usually the gaming specific video cards beat the living shit out of the workstation graphics cards.

      Here

  9. Aren't FireGLs the same as regular cards? by BigBuckHunter · · Score: 4, Informative

    If I remember correctly, ATI fireGL cards are the same chip as their normal line, with one or two resistors added/removed from the external chip packaging. All you have to do is:

    1: Remove/add the resistors and change the BIOS.
    or

    2: Used a readily available hacked driver to recognize your stock card as a FireGL

    All in all, there is no market for a 128MB solid modeling card. We had 128MB video cards in 1996 (Glint based). This card would be a huge step backward for a number of engineers.

    BBH

  10. Damnit! When will they stop? by multiplexo · · Score: 4, Funny
    I just sold my left kidney so I could afford an nVidia 6800. I'm not selling a testicle just so I can upgrade my video card! Unless it gives me a 3fps framerate increase in Doom III, then I might consider it.

    --
    cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
  11. Re:GL? by tonsofpcs · · Score: 2, Informative

    The FireGL series has been around since it was a workstation graphics card line owned by Diamond. ATI bought Diamond's graphics cards a while ago, and then started to make their own FireGLs. The new ones are more for gaming than the old ones were, but they are still decent workstation graphics cards. They are supported in Linux using the default ATI driver as far as I am aware. These cards are called FireGL due to their amazing OpenGL accelleration.

    My Diamond FireGL 3000 is sitting around waiting for a new machine (old one died), until then, I cannot really tell you much about Linux support.

    --
    Video Production Support
  12. Confirmation by Dixie+Flatliner · · Score: 3, Informative

    Workstation cards provide almost no performance for games, unless those games are entirely OpenGL based, in which case they simply provide very poor performance. They do however run Maya and other high end rendering environments, something even your papa's SLI 6800U can't handle. Although I've tried another FireGL card in this performance range and was less then impressed. Stick with a FX3000 Quadro if you're at all serious about what you do.

    And yes, it will work perfectly with an Apple 30" Cinema display.

    Apple 30" Cinema
    Dual Xeon 3.2GHz
    4GB ECC DDR RAM
    Quadro FX3400

  13. Re:Not only software, also hardware by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Dual Link DVI is not the same thing as simply having two DVI ports. Dual Link DVI ports (of which this card has two) have twice the signal bandwidth of standard DVI ports, and so can drive higher resolution displays.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News