14 DAY TRIAL // AMD announced today two new professional graphics accelerators, the ATI FirePro V5700 and ATI FirePro V3700, meant to ensure raised performance for applications like Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Digital Content Creation (DCC). The company has also introduced a new brand for its professional graphics accelerators, the ATI FirePro, which shows the commitment of the company towards the professional graphics market.
The ATI FirePro V5700 graphics accelerator marks a perfect balance between price and performance level for CAD and DCC professionals. Shader-intensive application performance will be boosted twice than that of previous generations of cards. The ATI FirePro V5700 will come with 512MB of frame buffer memory, dual link DVI and DisplayPort connections, and a true 30-bit display engine capable of delivering more that a billion colors. The Unified Video Decoder 2.0 is able to provides full Blu-ray feature support, dual-stream and picture in a picture (PIP) capabilities, while also handling decoding of various formats in the graphics processing unit (GPU), freeing up the CPU for other tasks.
"At Dell, we strive to provide design professionals with outstanding 3D graphics technology and with support from AMD, we can meet that need," said Antonio Julio, Director, Dell Product Group. "The Dell Precision T7400, T5400, and T3400 desktop workstations are designed to handle the demands of 3D OpenGL applications for engineering, architecture and digital content creation and we will soon offer ATI FirePro to meet customer needs."
The ATI FirePro V3700 graphics accelerator includes 256 MB of frame buffer memory, two dual-link DVI connectors and VGA mode support on all display outlets. The card sets a new low entry price for professional 3D graphics. All the 3D performance and application certification professionals need can be delivered by ATI FirePro V3700 at an MSRP of $99.
The CAD market is growing, and professional solutions like ATI FirePro are needed
"Following the ATI acquisition, AMD increased its investment in the professional graphics business and now delivers professional graphics accelerators that perform better than the competition at every price point. The new ATI FirePro brand communicates this focus on performance and features that matter to engineers and designers," said Janet Matsuda, senior director, AMD Professional Graphics. "ATI has been known for delivering value-priced solutions for CAD and DCC professionals. The product reviews over the past year have validated the fact that ATI offers outstanding application performance as well."
Jon Peddie Research published the Worldwide CAD Market Report 2007-08, which shows that the installed base of CAD users grew to 5.31 million worldwide during 2007, a 20 percent increase from 2006. The same report predicts that the CAD market will experience growth throughout 2008, marking revenues raised by 15 percent to $6,025.37 million that it will reach about $8.1 billion by 2012.
"Historically, 3D technologies were expensive and used only by senior designers within a large manufacturer or architectural firm. As technologies advanced and prices dropped, 3D graphics for entry level CAD designers was no longer a pipe dream but a necessity," said Jon Peddie, president and founder of Jon Peddie Research. "Today's entry- and mid-level CAD users need to create and render more complex designs and models, and graphics accelerators from AMD can deliver the performance and reliability professionals need at a price where 3D becomes the rule, not the exception."
The ATI FirePro V3700 and V5700 cards come with full support for the industry's standards needed by CAD and DCC professionals, including DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 2.0 support, PCI Express 2.0 interface and Shader Model 4.1.
"Our customers need high performance graphics hardware that is stable, reliable and compatible with eyeon Fusion and eyeon Generation to foster increased collaboration while enabling more complex work," said Steve Roberts, Chief Executive Office, at eyeon Software Inc. "Based on our experiences with AMD, we are confident that ATI FirePro 3700 and 5700 can be utilized in unique clustering configurations to meet the specific needs of our visual effects customers and certainly those of the film industry overall. The recent enhancements to ATI's FirePro series are consistent with the company's superior customer service."
While ATI FirePro V3700 is generally available with an MSRP of $99, the ATI FirePro V5700 should come with an MSRP of $599. Shipments of the card are expected to begin in September. The AMD ATI FirePro, ATI FireGL and ATI FireMV workstation graphics accelerators will be available at workstation OEMs, system integrators and channel partners worldwide.
According to Business Wire, AMD plans to showcase ATI FirePro professional graphics accelerator at SIGGRAPH 2008, which will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California, from August 12 to August 14.