Your application software and CPU define the basic 3D model, and then hand it off to the video card’s GPU and memory to handle the complex stuff like rendering, shading, and animation. Evolution through the years included multiple GPU’s working in parallel to speed things up even more. ATI produced both consumer and engineering cards.

Note that although I’ve used the past tense so far doesn’t mean ATI doesn’t exist any more. ATI was acquired by well-known chip manufacturer AMD of Sunnyvale, CA, in 2006. Since then, rumours had circulated that AMD were more interested in the consumer market because not much seemed to be happening with their engineering boards.

A recent media event in Sunnyvale (I didn’t known where it was either; it’s about 50 miles south of San Francisco Airport) soon dispelled that rumour. It seems they had been devoting a very high percentage of their R&D and design efforts on developing a whole new-from-the-ground-up series of high end and very high end graphics cards, based on a whole new architecture. 

Everything is so new that I could probably write a very extensive report that consisted of almost nothing except buzz phrases, acronyms, and trade names. Consider, for example, the phrase “Up to 128 Z/stencil ROP’s per clock.” I rest my case.

AMD’s major competition in the video card game is NVIDIA, and so model-for-model comparisons were inevitable at the media event. AMD’s numbers claimed their cards were 1.5 to 10x faster than comparable NVIDIA models, although admittedly NVIDIA have introduced updated models since the media event. The bottom line, however, is that the AMD cards are FAST.

The Need For Speed…
Okay, now let’s get real. Do you really need a $4,000 video card? Let’s start by defining the difference between “want” and “need.” I “want” to get a new car. I “NEED” a Lamborghini. The good news is that AMD offer a range of engineering cards to suit every need. 

Let’s start with the basic question “Why do I need an engineering card?” The answer is simple. 3D computer games grab the entire video system and have no need to interact with other programs. The games are typically written with a variety of 3D modules that are simply thrown up on screen.

Engineering cards, on the other hand, may have to deal with several 3D files in more than one application open at one time. You want to cut and paste specific selected photorealistic objects from one window into one running a different application… well, you get the idea.If all you are doing is basic 2D drafting in isolation using relatively small file sizes then a consumer card may be adequate. 

At the other end of the scale, if you are trying to produced live, photorealistic rendered animations for a TV commercial, or if you are trying to create a 3D model of a million-part ship or airplane, or if you are trying to render an architectural model of a complete city, then maybe you need something a little better. Ray-traced photorealistic renderings, especially of semi-transparent materials, definitely need more power.

The new AMD FirePro W series ranges from the “entry-level” W5000, which would probably be sufficient for general small assemblies, through to the top-of-the-line W9000. This behemoth has 2048 shader processors, 6 GB of video RAM, and six video output ports.

There is a bit of fine print, however. Power needs power. Before buying one of the high-end cards, check its power requirements versus your computer’s capabilities. One of the key features in AMD’s FirePro series is power management. The card is smart enough to recognize when it is not being used to its maximum capabilities, so it shuts down the unused sections to save power. Even so, the W9000 can draw up to 274 watts.

The bottom line is that AMD are indeed still in the high-end graphics card business big time.