Entries tagged as: Reset Your Preconceptions
‘Reset Your Preconceptions’ Program with the FirePro V5700 and SolidWorks - review #4
Posted by
Tony DeYoung on August 03, 2009
The next evaluation has been published in the AMD “Reset Your Preconceptions” program for SolidWorks. This is a unique program where where active, professional SolidWorks users are sent a FirePro card to try out in their everyday working environment. Nothing is asked of them other then to share their experiences - be they good, bad, or indifferent.
As I’ve noted before, all of the benchmarks or reviews you read in online new sites are only one metric - one data point, when evaluating which graphics accelerator is right for you. The real test comes when cards are evaluated in real working environments - without any restrictions or marketing spin control. That is the goal of the Reset Your Preconceptions program.
The latest reviewer to publish is SolidWorks user Richard Williams. Below is a summary from his post:
”…/… Whether it was movements or animations, dark or bright, multi-colored or plain, reflective or direct lighting, it just could not have been better or smoother in this writer’s opinion. Nothing I did was jumpy at all and it didn’t stall even once. I now know what my next graphics card is going to be, so it can do all those things I know that are possible now. I will give it my stamp of approval here and I know it beats anything we have here in the home lab right now. I knew the ATI people would not send us out a system unless they were pretty confident about it and now I am. Bye for now.”
This makes the forth reviewer to write up their experiences. The full list to date is:
I’ve said it before, but this kind of real world testing is what I wish more companies would actually do. Everyone always spins things in their press release benchmarks, picking out the tests that are strongest for their cards. This ‘no-constraints on the user’ program by AMD is the kind of thing we need to see more of, so we can make more informed decisions. In the future I would love to see the CrossFire Pro tested like this real world environments by real users.
SolidMuse gives FirePro v3750 and v5700 a thumbs up for SolidWorks 2009
Posted by
Tony DeYoung on May 26, 2009
About a month ago I wrote about the AMD “Reset Your Preconceptions” program for SolidWorks. In a nutshell, prominent SolidWorks users are being sent a FirePro card to try out in their everyday working environment with the only condition being that they share their experience - be it good, bad, or indifferent. Anna’s SolidMuse blog is the third review to come out.
Summary from SolidMuse: “So what is the bottom line after spending a few weeks with the ATI FirePro’s? I liked the cards, they worked well with my system and are definitely on par with the offerings from Nvidia.”
Perhaps more relevant: “After returning the FirePro’s to ATI, I went out and purchased my own FirePro V8700 “.
Again I need to give an acknowledgement to the FirePro team for running this campaign. It is real world testing with real world users all without any marketing spin control. It is an unusual level of transparency for a hardware company.
AMD and SolidWorks launch “reset your preconceptions” test program
Posted by
Tony DeYoung on April 16, 2009
For over a year now AMD's FireGL/FirePro team have been letting the professional 3D CAD and DCC users know that their new line of cards and drivers have undergone significant transformations with regard to quality, price and performance.
There are still some old preconceptions out there and the fight against past momentum continues. The FirePro team is taking the unusual step of working with a leading 3D CAD vendor - SolidWorks, and sending out workstations with FirePro accelerators to some of their more prominent users/bloggers. The users can evaluate the new cards in their own SolidWorks 2009 workflows relative to any other 3D graphics accelerators they have used.
No marketing spin, no "official" benchmarks to run, no pre-conditions for use. Just try out the card and use it in a way similar to how he or she would work normally. Then share their experience - be it good, bad, or indifferent.
The program will run for several months with 8 individuals in the SolidWorks community.
The first two SolidWorks gurus have already finished up their two weeks real-world use. You can read their evaluations here:
What I find compelling about this program is that the FirePro team is willing to put their cards on the line with real users in real workflows. They are also using this as an opportunity to actively gather feedback on any problems and improve further where necessary. Wish this kind of transparency was coming from every hardware company!
I will keep updating as I come across more posts from these SolidWorks users who are participating in this programs.
