This white paper from AMD and featured on DesignWorld, is a great introduction for anyone who is in CAD / CAE, DCC, Scientific Visualization, or Medical Imaging but doesn’t really completely understand all of the buzzwords or specs-and-feed language typically espoused by the 3D graphic card vendors. It’s basically a from top to bottom explanation of how 3D graphics work, what makes up a graphics card, what OpenCL, OpenGL and DirectX do, and how to combine GPUs to do even more. It then goes on to give real examples of how various industries benefit from GPU acceleration. Finally it described some of the FirePro advantages (notably ability to handle huge datasets, Eyefinity, reliability, and support).
A complete unboxing and setup video for the FirePro V7900 video card with an example of driving 3 displays using Eyefinity. These little Newegg videos are actually the next best thing to actually unboxing and handling one of the cards. (Also see the videos for the FirePro V4900 and FirePro V5900.)
You can see the the packaging, the included CrossFire X connector, 3D connector, 4 active DisplayPort-DVI adaptors (for older displays) and the actual card including the 4 DisplayPorts. It also discusses the PowerTune and GeometryBoost tech, as well as the Catalyst Control center software.
SolidWorks World 2012 is coming up Feb 12-15, 2012 in San Diego. The AMD FirePro team will again have a strong presence reflecting the long-standing collaboration and optimization with SolidWorks/Dassualt Systemes.
On display in Booth #207, AMD FirePro engineers will present demos of FirePro graphic cards for entry to high-end users, mobile workstations, Eyefinity and 3DVIA Composer.
In Break Out Session #4080 on Tuesday, February 14, 10:30 AM, Oliver Zegdoun will present: “Tuning Your Workstation to Get the Best Out of SolidWorks”
This video give an example of how Formula 1 Motorsports uses a 3-display Eyefinity FirePro setup with the Autodesk design suite and models imported from Inventor and CATIA, to test that the engine block, transmission and differential housing designs can stand up to the stress of motorsports requirements.
The Dassault Systemes Customer Conference (DSCC 2011) brings together customers, partners and technology leaders representing 11 industries and users of the DS 3D and PLM brands: CATIA for designing the virtual product, DELMIA for virtual production, SIMULIA for virtual testing, ENOVIA global collaborative innovation, EXALEAD for search-based applications, 3DSwYm for social collaboration and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences.
The AMD FirePro team demoed a common manufacturing workflow using AMD Eyefinity technology across 3 displays using a single FirePro graphic card to create assembly and maintenance instructions of a radio controlled car. The multi-application workflow moves from design using CATIA V5 or V6 to 3DVIA Composer for technical illustration, exploded views and bill of materials lists. From there you can output in 3D XML or 3D pdf format for use in the field or on the shop floor as a technical manual .
The first video shows this multi-application workflow running on a Dell T3500 workstation with a a FirePro V7900 card.
The second video shows CATIA running across 3-display using Eyefinity on the FirePro M8900 Mobility Pro 2GB graphics card that is standard on the Dell Precision M6600 mobile workstation.
And some photos if you don’t have time for the videos.
Everything else aside, the new FirePro V4900 achieves an immediate 20% compute and texture advantage over the V4800 at the same clocks. The V4900 comes with 1GB of 128-bit GDDR5 RAM and supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.2, and OpenCL. It also supports Eyefinity with 1 DVI port and 2 full size DisplayPorts which means the V4900 can be used to drive up to 6 displays when paired with MST hubs. Like all FirePro cards, the drivers are certified for specific professional applications and the board comes with a 3 yr 24/7 warranty. At $189 the V4900 doesn’t have any direct competition - it’s more than $200 cheaper than the Quadro 2000 and competitive with the Quadro 600.
OPTIS discusses AMD FirePro Professional Graphics cards and OpenCL in use with OPTIS THEIA-RT to manipulate high detail models in real time with physically correct lighting across three simultaneous monitors with AMD Eyefinity technology.
I read SolidSmack’s blog post about SolidWorks 2012 using the GPU for acceleration. The blog only talks about the Quadro 2000 and 4000.
So I just wanted to clarify what SolidWorks 2012 accelerates using the GPU (FirePro V5900 / V7900 or Quadro 2000 / 4000) and its support for multiple displays:
SolidWorks 2012 uses GPU hardware acceleration of OpenGL for Ambient Occlusion in RealView (Ambient occlusion is a global lighting method that adds realism to models by controlling the attenuation of ambient light due to occluded areas.)
SolidWorks 2012 can now support dual display systems on Nvidia cards, but also use 3 or more displays using Eyefinity on FirePro cards.
PhotoView does not benefit from GPU acceleration. Two options for rendering that are integrated tightly with SolidWorks 2012: Bunkspeed which is Nvida Cuda only. But even more interesting is platform-agnostic, OpenCL-accelerated OPTIS THEIA RT which is truly real-time.
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