AMD launches its next-gen FirePro graphics card lineup, we go hands-on at SIGGRAPH (video)

AMD launches its nextgen FirePro graphics card lineup, we go handson at SIGGRAPH video

Just as you've cozied up with "Tahiti" and "Cape Verde," AMD has returned to grow its "Southern Islands" family of graphics cards with four fresh FirePros, offering up to four teraflops of graphics computing power. That spec can be found in the company's new W9000, which is capable of four TFLOPs single precision and one TFLOP double precision with a price tag just shy of $4,000. That behemoth of a card offers 6GB of GDDR5 RAM and requires 274 watts of power. More humble members of the fam include the W8000, which has the same form-factor as the higher-end W9000, but eases back on the specs, consuming 189 watts of power and carrying a $1,599 price tag.

We had a chance to take a closer look at both cards at SIGGRAPH, and while they packed a significant amount of heft, you'll likely never take a second look once they're buried away in your tower rig. Fans of smaller housings (and price tags) may take notice of the W7000 and W5000, which are both considerably more compact and require less power to boot, with pricing set at $899 and $599, respectively. Those cards were also on hand for our demo, and can be seen along with the top two configs in our gallery below. You can also sneak a closer peek in the hands-on video after the break, and glance at the full specs over at our news post from earlier today.

Continue reading AMD launches its next-gen FirePro graphics card lineup, we go hands-on at SIGGRAPH (video)

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AMD launches its next-gen FirePro graphics card lineup, we go hands-on at SIGGRAPH (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD announces $4k FirePro W9000 GPU, entry-level FirePro A300 APU for CAD and graphics pros

AMD announces $4k FirePro W9000 GPU, entrylevel FirePro A300 APU for CAD and graphics pros

After a brief tease earlier this summer, AMD just announced pricing and availability for its new market-leading FirePro W9000 graphics processing unit -- the $3,999 GPU is available now through AMD resellers, and is compatible with Supermicro SuperWorkstations. Joining that "world's most powerful" rig are the W8000, W7000 and W5000, which sell for $1,599, $899 and $599, respectively, and can each power six 30-inch 4K displays. Power-hungry pros will want to opt for the top-of-the-line model in order to take advantage of four TFLOPs single precision or one TFLOP double precision, along with 6 gigs of high-speed GDDR5 RAM. The W8000, on the other hand, offers 3.23 TFLOPs single precision and 806 GFLOPs double precision, followed by the W7000 with 2.4 TFLOPs / 152 GFLOPs, both with 4 gigs of RAM, along with the W5000, which packs 1.27 TFLOPs single and 80 GFLOPs double, with 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM.

Design pros with slightly more modest demands may find the FirePro A300 APU more in line with their budgets -- we don't have precise pricing to share, since third parties will ship their own configs, but terms like "entry-level" and "mainstream" make it clear that you won't be drawing in more than a couple zeros in the checkbook to make your purchase. The integrated solution utilizes AMD's Turbo Core tech, supports Eyefinity and Discrete Compute Offload, and can power horizontal display arrays of up to 10,240 x 1,600 pixels. You'll find all the nitty-gritty in the pair of press releases after the break.

Update: Our pals over at HotHardware have just pushed out a review of the W8000 and W9000, but found the results to be a bit of a letdown. Hit up their post for the full skinny.

Continue reading AMD announces $4k FirePro W9000 GPU, entry-level FirePro A300 APU for CAD and graphics pros

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AMD announces $4k FirePro W9000 GPU, entry-level FirePro A300 APU for CAD and graphics pros originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD previews FirePro W9000 graphics, possibly throws in dual-chip Radeon HD 7990 for good measure

AMD previews FirePro W9000 graphics, possibly throws in dualchip Radeon HD 7990 for good measure

AMD's CTO Mark Papermaster may have just dropped a minor graphics bombshell at the end of the AMD Fusion Developer Summit. His presentation was officially to show off the FirePro W9000, a beast of a workstation graphics card with 6GB of GDDR5 memory, a 264.8-megapixel fill rate and four teraflops of single-precision math. While the screen behind him showed the one-fan FirePro card, however, he was clearly holding another, three-fan card in his hands -- and though it could be that the W9000's cooling system went through a major revision between presentation slide and production, it may be a clue to a gamer-friendly Radeon part instead. Attendees like Tweakers.net have reason to believe it might be the Radeon HD 7990, a long-rumored dual-chip version of the 7900 series for the very upper echelons of gamers. If so, the bets are on it keeping up the tradition of having two slightly underclocked versions of AMD's fastest chip (here the Radeon HD 7970) working in tandem to produce a big leap in speed despite occupying the same two card slots. AMD hasn't set the matter straight with either a yea or a nay, but with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 690 largely cornering the high-end market unopposed, it's tough to picture AMD simply twiddling its thumbs.

AMD previews FirePro W9000 graphics, possibly throws in dual-chip Radeon HD 7990 for good measure originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jun 2012 02:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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