Conclusion: AMD's FireGL V7700 Provides The Best Workstation Value
The Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 may wear the performance crown, but the AMD FireGL V7700 is working at chopping off the legs of Nvidia’s throne. The FX 5600 takes first place in many benchmarks. However, it can’t claim to be the undisputed leader—the FireGL V7700 wins in too many categories.
A year ago, the Quadro FX 5600 would have deserved editorial recommendation, but today it appears a little outdated, as discussed in the technology part of this article. And at the steep price of $2,700, it’s certainly no bargain. Nvidia will certainly improve its portfolio for Siggraph and beyond, but not in this roundup.
AMD, like Nvidia, has problems clearly maintaining the internal product positioning of the older FireGL V8650 and V8600. The AMD FireGL V7700 is simply the next generation and can easily set new records. In addition, the price of $1,000 is undoubtedly attractive. Therefore the AMD FireGL V7700 deserves to be awarded Tom’s Hardware Recommended Buy.
We are already eager to see whether manufacturers will use Siggraph to introduce workstation graphics cards based on the NVIDIA GT200-chip or the ATI RV770. If they do so, the first cards could arrive in the test laboratory in the fall.
Here is a link to our current workstation graphics cards charts.
