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ATI FirePro V8800: Features, Connectors, And Driver

Workstation Shootout: Nvidia Quadro 5000 Vs. ATI FirePro V8800
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Our FirePro V8800 sample completely eschews DVI. Instead, the card sports four DisplayPort connectors, allowing four displays to be used in parallel. As on the desktop, this feature is referred to as EyeFinity.

Considering the small installed user base, a DisplayPort-only design is a rather bold move. After all, most folks still have a monitor with a DVI cable sitting on their desk. There‘s no need to worry, though, as ATI includes two active single-link adapters with the card that can translate the DisplayPort output to a DVI signal. Since DisplayPort and DVI are not compatible on the physical protocol level, these need to be active adapters, with a circuit translating the signal from one protocol to the other.

As a side note, DVI-to-HDMI adapters (or vice versa) don’t need an active circuit, since in both cases, the video signal is based on the PanelLink protocol. Instead, you just need an adapter that contains connections linking the various pins for each plug correctly.

The FirePro V8800 also features a 3-pin connector for stereoscopic 3D glasses. Again, that doesn’t necessarily mean the glasses have to be connected by wire. Instead, a little transmitter that synchronizes the stereoscopic images will do just as well.

AMD can put checkmarks in all the important feature boxes, including Shader Model 5.0, DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1. The company knows just as well as Nvidia that modern graphics processors are capable of much more than just rendering pretty pictures. The high transistor count and the many shader cores make current GPUs an attractive choice for scientific calculations. While Nvidia is actively promoting its proprietary CUDA API for GPGPU work (general purpose graphics processing), AMD has all but dropped its Stream API, choosing instead to back the OpenCL standard. While that move is laudable on paper, it’s not like developers are falling over themselves to create software that makes use of OpenCL (yet).

Nvidia, for its part, regularly promotes CUDA at universities, scientific institutions, and to its partners in various industrial sectors in order to inspire developers to use its programming language. And yes, that includes financial support as well.

AMD offers an add-in card for specific usage scenarios called the FirePro S400. Production companies working in the broadcasting sector need Framelock and Genlock when working across several monitors in parallel. The S400 offers this type of synchronization.

The FirePro V8800 is rated with a TDP of 208 W and satisfies its power requirements through two 6-pin auxiliary power connectors. The card also comes with a CrossFire connector that allows two V8800s to be used in parallel.

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Top Comments
  • 20 Hide
    joytech22 , September 1, 2010 6:42 AM
    You need to remember, Fermi is designed not "Just" for games, but was also designed, from day one, with computing in mind as well.
  • 17 Hide
    reprotected , September 1, 2010 7:55 AM
    Why isn't the Quadro 6000 and the FX 5800 in the benchmarks?
  • 15 Hide
    Gin Fushicho , September 1, 2010 6:35 AM
    I really wish I knew what these numbers meant.

    For someone who doesn't do 3-D design these benchmarks are kinda confusing.
Other Comments
  • 15 Hide
    Randomacts , September 1, 2010 6:20 AM
    That graphics card cost more then both of the computers I own. O.o
  • -9 Hide
    tacoslave , September 1, 2010 6:22 AM
    if amd put a little more work on their drivers (i.e crossfire and firepro performance)they would be the clear performance champion.
  • 15 Hide
    Gin Fushicho , September 1, 2010 6:35 AM
    I really wish I knew what these numbers meant.

    For someone who doesn't do 3-D design these benchmarks are kinda confusing.
  • 0 Hide
    TheStealthyOne , September 1, 2010 6:36 AM
    The cooler for the FirePro card is really attractive imo.
  • 20 Hide
    joytech22 , September 1, 2010 6:42 AM
    You need to remember, Fermi is designed not "Just" for games, but was also designed, from day one, with computing in mind as well.
  • 6 Hide
    darthvidor , September 1, 2010 6:56 AM
    I'm impressed to find nvidia beating amd in power consumption.
  • 17 Hide
    reprotected , September 1, 2010 7:55 AM
    Why isn't the Quadro 6000 and the FX 5800 in the benchmarks?
  • 3 Hide
    SchizoFrog , September 1, 2010 8:08 AM
    Once again the arguement regarding AMD Drivers is brought to the fore. But more than this, when AMD has a line of products that could be said to 'miss' they absolutely FAIL. nVidia on the otherhand seem to have learned their lesson well from the 5xxxFX series and can still produce products that can compete at least at some level, ie: GTX460. Although these are Workstation products, nVidia have a complete package with GPUs and Drivers that work from the off.
  • -2 Hide
    scrumworks , September 1, 2010 8:10 AM
    I'm sure you'll be hearing from AMD pretty soon publishing those kind of results.
  • 7 Hide
    davefb , September 1, 2010 8:21 AM
    sort of interesting, but why is there no comparison to mainstream boards? There is a massive premium of cost here but nothing to be able to say 'hey boss, the onboard graphics we use really don't cut it any more, how about a quadro'.
    (or have I sped-read past the reason why ;)  )
  • 6 Hide
    L0tus , September 1, 2010 8:34 AM
    "AMD's best approach would be to commit more resources to its driver team to rectify the situation."

    Hence why I'm selling my HD5770 and getting a GTX460. Much as I like their hardware, ATI sucks balls on drivers...this card won't even shine on M&B and BF2 is a nightmare.
  • -7 Hide
    ohim , September 1, 2010 9:30 AM
    L0tus"AMD's best approach would be to commit more resources to its driver team to rectify the situation."Hence why I'm selling my HD5770 and getting a GTX460. Much as I like their hardware, ATI sucks balls on drivers...this card won't even shine on M&B and BF2 is a nightmare.

    Why do you even want to compare 2 different cards that have different price range ? At least in my country GTX460 costs almost twice as much as 5770. I wonder why nobody can force Nvidia or AMD to bring the workstation optimization found in Quadro - FirePRO drivers to normal cards ... we all know about the past Quadro mods from normal gaming cards ... most of the time all that differes between the 2 cards is amount of memory.
  • 4 Hide
    joytech22 , September 1, 2010 10:44 AM
    ohimWhy do you even want to compare 2 different cards that have different price range ? At least in my country GTX460 costs almost twice as much as 5770. I wonder why nobody can force Nvidia or AMD to bring the workstation optimization found in Quadro - FirePRO drivers to normal cards ... we all know about the past Quadro mods from normal gaming cards ... most of the time all that differes between the 2 cards is amount of memory.


    Because then Nvidia wouldn't have their Quadro lines would they?

    It's mostly for money, they just change a product a bit and market it as a completely different thing, this rakes in more money, and i know you can turn GTX2** Series card's to Quatro's because iv'e turned my GTX285 into one before.
  • 1 Hide
    soo-nah-mee , September 1, 2010 12:17 PM
    It may be an older card, but I hate the Quardo FX3700 that's in my workstation. I can run Inventor and Solidworks far better at home with an HD4870. ...And if you say your paying for durability or service hours, I don't buy it. You could buy 8 "gaming" cards for the price of my Quadro.
  • 5 Hide
    meat81 , September 1, 2010 12:50 PM
    AMD Drivers fault? Big shocker there
  • -3 Hide
    Poisoner , September 1, 2010 1:18 PM
    Maybe the ati cards just suck. Anyways fermi is designed for compute power is almost apples to oranges. This is no surprise to me knowing that fermi rapes g200 in folding.
  • 1 Hide
    geok1ng , September 1, 2010 1:33 PM
    "AMD's best approach would be to commit more resources to its driver team to rectify the situation."

    A true statement if i ever heard one, since AMD merged ATI and fired lots of ATI personnel.
  • 0 Hide
    pinkfloydminnesota , September 1, 2010 1:38 PM
    more or less a twin? could we have more riddles and less actual description of the components next time?

    what is it, not what is it more or less
  • 0 Hide
    saint19 , September 1, 2010 1:39 PM
    This isn't a secret the Nvidia’s Quadro series is an amazing card against his contenders I just wish that this amazing performance was used in the Fermi series :lol: 
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