AMD Launches FirePro V8800 Graphics Card

More than a year ago AMD rolled out the ATI FirePro V8700 workstation graphics card and months later then pushed out the FirePro V8750 as their new ultra high-end graphics card for those engaging in CAD, imaging, and other tasks. Now though AMD has unveiled the FirePro V8800 series that replaces the V8750 for the top spot.

Last month AMD also rolled out a new FireGL/FirePro driver that delivered significant performance gains. Even when factoring in the V8700/8750 running significantly faster with these new drivers on Windows and Linux, the V8800 pushes the limits even further. The AMD FirePro V8800 series is based on the consumer-grade Evergreen (R800 generation) graphics processor / Radeon HD 5000 series and brings some of its new features like Eyefinity are now available to workstation customers.

The FirePro V8800 carries a launch price of $1,500 USD and is compatible with DirectX 11.0, OpenGL 4.0, OpenCL 1.0, and the other common features and industry standards. This workstation ATI graphics processor is based on the Cypress XT GPU and has 1600 Stream processors, 147.2GB/s of memory bandwidth for its 2GB of GDDR5 video memory, four DisplayPort outputs, Framelock/Genlock support, and there is one Stereo sync output.

Slides we were exposed to last month by AMD report the FirePro V8800 as running 30~80% faster than the previous-generation V8700 series. AMD has sent out an ATI FirePro V8800 2GB graphics card for Linux testing at Phoronix, but we have yet to receive the sample (hopefully today!) and so benchmarks will be published in the coming days. The latest Catalyst for Linux driver should work with the V8800 while the support will be refined in the coming months.

Look for the selection of Evergreen-based FirePro products to expand in the coming months. The ATI FirePro V8800 2GB graphics card can be read about in this morning's press release.