Summary and Conclusion
Our benchmark test shows that the FirePro V3900 is a viable OpenGL-oriented accelerator. It dominates the similarly-priced Quadro 400, and even bests the more expensive Quadro 600 in most scenarios, sometimes dramatically so.
Workstation Card or Consumer Card?
We included the V3900’s desktop cousin, the Radeon HD 6570, and Nvidia's entry-level GeForce GT 430, which shares the GF108 chip with its workstation sibling, Quadro 600. Consequently, we see some massive performance dips attributable to the consumer-grade drivers. You're asked to pay a notable premium for workstation cards built on familiar graphics processors and their specially-optimized drivers. But even if that deliberate segmentation seems excessive, for folks whose jobs depend on good performance and validation in money-making applications, paying the extra money is probably justified.
Image quality is something that can't be quantified using the bar graphs from a benchmark. However, the mainstream gaming cards do have noticeably inferior image quality. We ran across plenty of examples of edges that should have been hidden, but weren't (see the picture above), which you simply don't see from workstation cards. The professional hardware also renders wire frame models and textured areas much better. If you use CAD software for a living and want the best results, you really should be using a FirePro or Quadro, and not a Radeon or GeForce. If you're just experimenting with professional software and don't require professional quality, you may get by with a consumer-grade card.
Closing Thoughts
The FirePro V3900 is a fitting successor for the V3800. Priced at $110, we consider it to be a good value in the entry-level workstation graphics card space. As long as you're primarily looking at mostly static CAD images, this card is a good alternative to the low-end Quadro cards, both with respect to price and performance.
We aren't going out on a limb when we call it a price/performance leader for its segment. However, we must stress that the graphics processing potential of this card is comparably low-end compared to the Radeon HD 6570 with which most folks are familiar. Thus, the FirePro V3900 may be unsuitable for more demanding professional workloads, such as complex CAD animations. In the end, you need to take the application software, the use case, and your budget into account when making your purchase decision. If you don't need high-end graphics performance, a low-power, low-profile card like the V3900 may be the right buy for you.
- Meet AMD's FirePro V3900
- Can We Turn A Radeon HD 6570 Into A FirePro V3900?
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: EnSight
- Benchmark Results: Catia
- Benchmark Results: LightWave
- Benchmark Results: Maya
- Benchmark Results: Pro/ENGINEER
- Benchmark Results: SolidWorks
- Benchmark Results: Siemens Teamcenter Visualization Mockup
- Benchmark Results: Siemens NX
- Power Consumption And Noise
- FirePro V3900: Faster Than Quadro, Still Entry-Level


Just curious
CAD apps like AutoCAD had Optimized code to run better on Professional Video Cards because the Optimized code in the Drivers.. Unlike Gaming Video Cards which has Optimized codes for Games but not on this CAD apps..
Just for the heck of it, and also to answer the question:
- Which card is the better choice for my work station if I'd also like to run a game or two during the lunch break?
This travesty needs to stop.
I'd especially like to see some benchmarks on mid-range pro cards.
Also, same question as above, can I use a Profession CAD graphics card along side a gaming card and get CAD benefits on one monitor and gaming on the other.
Unless your motherboard supports PCI Express slot switch off via software you can't. Even if it would, you would need to restart. Plus knowing AMD driver compatibility and reliability I wouldn't even hope atm. If you are gaming a lot and doing a lot of 3D, question is, what is more important to you, games or 3D content creation? If you are just beginner and doing CAD for fun, you will get by with gaming GPU. Otherwise, you must be making money on your projects and you should afford mid-high GPU for CAD.
Holly cow, you weren't kidding when you said 'Entry Level', this is more like 'Impoverished Level.'
To me an entry level are sub-$400 cards; nVidia Quadro 2000 series and AMD FirePro v5800. Obviously, Pro GPU's are tailored for their use.
Key word is support. Try to reach support with your 7 series GPU and then try the same when you are professional CAD user with CAD dedicated FirePro.
Blender is a free tool. Hardly AMD would be spending money to optimise for freeware.
its not about optimization for a free tool.. the cost of the tool isn't relevant. it is probably the most used tool in the graphical modelling/rendering world. hence a benchmark would be nice. Like i said, not everyone is build 3d engineering schematics with CAD.
Blender may well be a free tool, but it is amazingly powerful and many large companies use it with their own UI and plugins for very large projects. It is used from everything from movies to video game design, and it would be very nice to see how it stacks up.
Still, if you are making any amount of money doing this kind of work I am pretty sure you would be spending a minimum of $250 on your card, and likely somewhere in the $500-1000 range because it is the bottleneck of your productivity and the main determining factor on how many projects a person can do in a year.
Lastly, I would love to see how this card scales on different hardware to see how much was the $100 GPU, vs how much was due to running a duel CPU setup