AMD has just announced mass-availability for its first commercially available 3D workstation graphics card equipped with VESA's DisplayPort interface. According to the company, the ATI FireGL V7700 professional graphics accelerator delivers improved rendering speeds and enhanced 3D performance for 3D graphics and computer-assisted graphics design.

Especially used in the design industry, the workstation graphics card must deliver high response times for accurately rendering information in real time. The new ATI FireGL V7700 offering also comes with AMD's Ultimate Visual Experience technology and a 10-bit display engine to offer life-like image quality.

The new graphics card from AMD can be used on multiple professional operating systems, including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux. The card ships with an unified graphics driver that helps users reduce the total cost of ownership by simplifying installation, deployment and maintenance.

The card is powered by a new generation of graphics cores with 320 unified shaders. The GPU can automatically allocate the graphics computing power to the applications that require it most, while the PCI Express 2.0 interface ensures smooth data transfers even for the most graphics-intensive software.

"Imaging and 3D professionals require innovative, high-performance solutions and are increasingly turning to AMD to meet their real-world needs. The ATI FireGL family of workstation graphics accelerators is designed to deliver visible advantages and performance leadership at every price point, from entry level to ultra-high end," said Janet Matsuda, senior director of Professional Graphics at AMD.

The ATI FireGL V7700 graphics card is future-proof, as it can work on the existing technology, while offering support for the upcoming hardware and software. The connectivity options are well-covered, with a combination of DisplayPort and a Dual Link enabled DVI output that allows graphics professionals to use multiple-monitor setups, in order to gain extra working space.

According to the company, users can get a multi-monitor desktop over 5000 pixels wide from a single accelerator. The card's performance can be scaled up by adding another FireGL V7700 card, supported via the CrossFire technology.

The ATI FireGL V7700 3D workstation graphics accelerator will start shipping in April at an estimative retail price of $1,099.