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).
This waterfall demo video from SC11 is running on the recently announced Tyan blade server with a FirePro V8800 graphics card. It shows OpenGL 3D rendering and OpenCL compute simultaneous driving a 3D simulation of particles flow and a 2D simulation of the water surface.
The other pics below are also from SC11: The specs for the Tyan 2U server; two closeup shots of the 2U blade server with FirePro graphics; and MotionDSP’s Ikena OpenCL-accelerated imaging software.
New functionality in the today announced OpenGL 4.2 specification includes enabling shaders with atomic counters for things like object for single-rendering-pass order-independent transparency, capturing GPU-tessellated geometry to enable complex objects to be efficiently repositioned and replicated, modifying an arbitrary subset of a compressed texture, without having to re-download the whole texture to the GPU for significant performance improvements, and enhanced transfer of data between shader stages.
The new AMD FirePro V7900 is based on the third generation of 40nm GPU (formerly codenamed Cayman) and features 1280 stream processors and 2GB GDDR5 memory. It is a single slot solution with four built-in DisplayPort 1.2 outputs and with the use of the included four active adapters, supports single link DVI displays out of the box. This allows it to drive 4 displays simultaneously (Eyefinity technology). It also includes a stereoscopic 3-pin mini-DIN (with included expansion bracket) and supports Framelock/Genlock using the ATI FirePro S400 synchronization module.
The card supports the new PowerTune power management technology for dynamic clock optimization, and adds GeometryBoost which provides 2X transform and backface culling and 3X tessellation performance in OpenGL and DX11. Drivers support OpenCL 1.1. CAD application-certified OpenGL 4.1, and DirectX 11. Additional professional graphics cards can be linked together using CrossFire Prot to enable CrossFire support for windowed applications, as well enabling up to 12 simultaneous Eyefinity displays (think video walls and digital signage on the cheap).
Full review on HotHardware: “if you’re looking for a low power, multiple monitor solution for your 3D animation and rendering workloads, definitely check out the new FirePro V7900 and V5900 cards from AMD.”.
Also see Icrontic
The new AMD FirePro V5900 mid-range professional graphics cards delivers 512 stream processors and 2GB GDDR5 memory. It has two DisplayPort 1.2 and one dual-link DVI outputs built in, and with the use of the included active adapter, multiple DVI-powered displays are also supported out of the box (in other words, mix and match your display types and sizes).
It supports the new PowerTune power management technology for dynamic clock optimization, and adds GeometryBoost which provides 2X transform and backface culling and 3X tessellation performance in both OpenGL and DX11. Drivers support OpenCL 1.1., OpenGL 4.1, and DirectX 11.
The card retails for $599 US.
Full review on HotHardware: “if you’re looking for a low power, multiple monitor solution for your 3D animation and rendering workloads, definitely check out the new FirePro V7900 and V5900 cards from AMD.”
Also see Icrontic
The new AMD FirePro V7800P is specially designed for use in rackmount servers, blade servers and PCIe expansion chassis. The passively cooled, half-length, full height card card requires 10 cubic feet / minute of airflow to keep it cool (servers normally deliver three times that rate in a peripheral slot). It can be plugged into a server proper or can be hosted in an external PCI-Express 2.0 chassis. It draws a maximum of 138 watts.
The card supports OpenCL 1.1 and DirectCompute 11 for massively parallel number crunching, as well as OpenGL 4.1 and DirectX 11 for high performance graphics processing. With all 1,440 cores working simultaneously, the FirePro V7800P can deliver 2 teraflops of single-precision and 400 gigaflops of double-precision floating point performance.
In addition to supporting traditional workstation graphics in a client/server model, AMD FirePro V7800P professional graphics also enable GPU compute, remote graphics and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployments.
The new $149 AMD FirePro 2270 is a low-profile, fan-less, energy efficient (15 watts max, 10 watts average), dual-display graphics card targeting financial and corporate markets. It supports OpenGL 4.1 and DX11.
The new $469 ATI FirePro V5800 is a CAD/visualization solution w/ 1GB GDDR5 memory that can drive two high-resolution 30-bit 5MP medical displays using dual link DVI. It supports OpenGL 4.1, DX11 and OpenCL 1.1.
Today, in conjunction with SolidWorks World 2011, AMD announced the new FirePro v8.801 unified driver with full compatibility for OpenGL 4.1 across the current FirePro line (V3800, V4800, V5800, V7800, V8800 and V9800), for Windows 7, Vista, and XP, as well as Linux. Details include:
Improved OpenCL interoperability for accelerating computationally intensive visual applications
Continued support for both the Core and Compatibility profiles first introduced with OpenGL 3.2, enabling developers to use a streamlined API or retain backwards compatibility for existing OpenGL code, depending on their needs
Easier porting between mobile and desktop platforms with full OpenGL ES 2.0 API compatibility
Ability to query and load a binary for shader program objects to save re-compilation time
Capability to bind programs individually to programmable stages for programming flexibility
Higher geometric precision with 64-bit floating-point component vertex shader inputs
Increased rendering flexibility with multiple viewports for a rendering surface
Support for new ARB extension introduced with OpenGL 4.1
Here is a preview of what to look for in the booth:
DEM Solutions will demonstrate a 25-fold acceleration (compared to CPU alone) as the result of porting their EDEM MCAD/MCAE particle simulation application to OpenCL running on the AMD FirePro V9800 across six 24” displays using Eyefinity
CEI will show a CFD climate simulation demo using Enliten on a six 24” monitor visualization wall acting as one desktop using Eyefinity
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.
FireUser.com is a community resource for visualization, 3D, video and engineering professionals to learn about the latest acceleration and display technologies, discuss support issues, as well as influence the features and direction of the FireGL and FirePro accelerator line.
