ATI FireGL V5000: Well-Rounded Mid-Range
by Derek Wilson on January 31, 2005 3:52 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Test
This time around, we've used the same configuration we did in our previous workstation article, only we've added a PCI Express system to allow for the FireGL V5000. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to get our hands on a DP PCI Express based system, so we were forced to go with a single FX-53 in place of the two Opteron 250 setup. We were not able to retest all the cards in a single processor configuration due to time constraints, but we did retest the ATI FireGL X3-256 with the latest driver in a single processor configuration.Fortunately, most of the benchmarks we run cope well without the second processor. We left out obviously skewed tests like the 3DStudio rendering score from the SPECapc benchmark. When focusing on graphics performance tests we did a good job of targeting applications and tests that were impacted by only the GPU.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | 2 x AMD Opteron 250 |
| RAM: | 4 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 EL ECC Registered (2 per CPU) |
| Hard Drive(s): | Seagate 120GB 7200RPM IDE (8MB Buffer) |
| Motherboard & IDE Bus Master Drivers: | AMD 8131 APIC Driver NVIDIA nForce 5.10 NVIDIA nForce 6.10 |
| Video Card(s): | ATI FireGL V5000 3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 200 ATI FireGL X3-256 NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 HIS Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition IceQ II Prolink GeForce 6800 Ultra Golden Limited |
| Video Drivers: | 3Dlabs 4.04.0608 Driver ATI FireGL 8.083 Driver NVIDIA Quadro 70.41 (Beta) NVIDIA ForceWare 67.03 (6800U) ATI Catalyst 4.12 (X 800) |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| Motherboards: | IWill DK8N v1.0 (AMD-81xx + NVIDIA nForce 3) DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D (for PCI Express boards) |
| Power Supply: | 600W OCZ Powerstream PSU |
The Kingston RAM was used in the single processor Opteron setup, and the 1024MB sticks of OCZ EB were used in the DFI nF4 Ultra board. The Kingston RAM ran with ECC disabled at 3:3:3:10, while the OCZ memory ran with 2.5:3:3:10 timings.
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nadirshakur - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
please please please someone tell me what the hell is that thing in the middle, it looks like s-video but has three pins instead of the usual four on s-video i have the card and trying to connect it to my computer, someone please help, thanks!nadirshakur - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
nadirshakur - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
Draven31 - Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - link
But, it won't fix the occasional OpenGL errors you'll get by risking putting an ATI card in your workstation. No thanks.Shadowmage - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Damn, that's pretty bad. nVidia's going with a mere THREE vertex shader card?Yeah, I didn't mean to demean your review; I just think that getting $500 performance with a $200 card is rather amusing. That's even better than getting $550 performance (X850XT PE) out of a $400 card (X800 Pro VIVO)!
And yeah, there are some driver hacks that let you install the workstation drivers on an UNMODIFIED consumer card.
DerekWilson - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Shadowmage ...There are a few other factors that go into it, but the silion they've stuck on there is the same as the x700.
The differences are the fact that the X700 lacks the 2 Silicon Image TMDS transmitters for 2x dual-link dvi, the stereo connector, has a different bios, and also uses different drivers. Build quality is also generally better with pro boards, and cap/resistor/pcb layouts are slightly different in some cases.
The reason we focused on the hardware rather than on the consumer part from which it is derived is that we are going to take a look at NVIDIA's 3 vertex 8 pixel workstatoin design shortly. We would rather see NVIDIA go with a 6 vertex 8 pixel design for their workstation as well, but this would have meant deviating from their consumer desing (6600). It just so happened that ATI was lucky and their consumer part fit what we wanted to see in a midrange workstation.
We want to encourage NVIDIA and ATI to look at their workstation parts as requiring different silicon. Maybe eventually they will actually start doing things the right way with respect to the end user. Of course, maybe I poured that message on a little thick at the beginning, but we feel it's very important.
By the way, there was actually a guide to modding r3xx cards to their respective fgl cards on adrian's rojak pot in january. We haven't seen documentation on modding r4xx based cards into the fgl v series. It's interesting to note that it's not enough to simply flash the bios and install the drivers -- ati makes it more difficult than that.
Derek Wilson
Shadowmage - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
LOLThis is just the X700 with a different driver! :D
phaxmohdem - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
LOL I just found the pricing info. My bad. Great job Anand.And BTW
1st and 2nd Post's bitches!!! (since that seems to be the staple of bragging rights these days for whatever reason.)
phaxmohdem - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Crap! A story thats been up for nearly 24 hours with no comment love.....Fear not I have not forsaken thee!!
I wish I could find pricing information on this card. Looks to be perfect for my needs dabling in 3D design.