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”
AMD today announced the AMD Radeon HD 7970. Why this is particularly interesting to the professional CAD/DCC community is because of the new SIMD-based Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture first detailed at the 2011 Fusion Developer Summit. Basically GCN enables the card to act both as a a graphics workhorse and a computing (e.g. OpenCL, C++ AMP, DirectCompute) workhorse for the processing of non-3D workloads such as video rendering, photo editing, code cracking, physics FX and scientific calculations.
The 28nm process means the new cards are faster than their 32 nanometer predecessor equivalents, without consuming significantly more power, or generating more heat (even though the number of stream processors increased from 1536 to 2048 and clock speed increased from 880MHz to 925MHz).
Also of note is Eyefinity 2.0 which adds support for stereo 3D, universal bezel compensation, brand new display configurations and an expanded and more immersive field of view. This allows users with 2560x1600 monitors in an AMD Eyefinity 5x1 landscape configuration to achieve a horizontal resolution of 12,800 pixels, driving more than 20 million pixels of screen real estate.
Take aways from my perspective: GPGPU computing is now mainstream. High-performance with low power consumption is mainstream. 3+ display Eyefinity and stereo 3D are mainstream. And lastly, this makes me excited about the next generations of FirePro graphics cards.
This is one of the first videos I have seen focused on the $189 FirePro V4900 that was announced at the beginning of November
If you missed the news, 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.
If you are interested in the latest AMD FirePro line, I just came across http://www.fireprographics.com/. The site has a wealth of information about the FirePro V4900, FirePro V5900 and FirePro V7900.
There are some truly interesting case studies for CAD and DCC, as well as videos comparing performance, and full comparative specs.
Even if you aren’t in the market for a new or replacement graphics card, the resources on this page are interesting to check out just to see how AMD is radically transforming their marketing and presentation. They’ve always had great cards. Now they are actually letting users know about them.
At this years SC11 Nov 14-18, Super Micro Computer will show off their new HPC server based on 16-core AMD Opteron 6200 processors. Supermicro’s A+ HPC exhibit will include the 4U/Tower server supporting dual AMD Opteron 6200 processors, up to 256GB of memory, and up to three AMD FirePro GPUs.
In addition to their own booth #2918, Supermicro will also be showing in the AMD booth #823 where you can enter to win a Supermicro H8DGi-F motherboard.
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.
ZDNet reviewer Dawson gives his take on HP’s EliteBook 8460w mobile workstation.
“Weighing in around 5 pounds with the extended life battery (which, by the way, is giving me around 8 hours of battery life under normal use), the 8460w has a bright, clear screen with an antiglare finish running at 1600×900. My test model topped out at about $2700, which isn’t cheap by any means, but is actually right in line with a comparably equipped MacBook Pro. In fact, the price of the HP could be shaved to $2450 by just removing the Blu-Ray burner. It would still include a 2.3GHz second-gen Core i7 quad core processor, AMD FirePro graphics (with support for up to 4 monitors), 3 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB power/2.0 port, and a USB/eSATA port…. Being a workstation, it also features various ISV certifications and HP has added a variety of security and power management software”
While not specific to FirePro graphics, these new Bulldozer-based servers and desktop systems promise to drive new levels of high performance graphics through OpenCL and tighter integration with the GPUs.
Two videos worth catching:
Bulldozer promo
Competitive performance for AMD FX processors (also see press release)
Post #3 in the 4-part series on remote graphics for CAD, talks about remote graphics solutions that include hardware accelerated encryption and high-speed transmission PCoIP technologies like the FirePro RG220 Remote Graphics card.
For high performance CAD this is a 1:1 solutions (one thin client mapped to one remote graphics card). The big gain for companies where intellectual property is critical, is security. With remote graphics and PCoIP, the data resides on the server and graphics card and never is at risk for theft (inadvertent or intentional) from the local machine. For engineering companies who do projects for government or large defense manufacturers, remote graphics give high performance, but eliminates many security issues.
The post also talks about remote management and gives and example from an Oil & Gas company using the soluiton
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