ATI FirePro V5700 3D Graphics Card

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Don’t be fooled by the snazzy colors and big fan on this video card, it is not designed for high-performance gaming. Sure, it’s got 512MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory and will run games from a few years ago just fine, but you shouldn’t buy it for that purpose. Believe me.

I made the same mistake when I was building a gaming PC a few years ago. Only after installing it did I realize it’s more suitable for mid-level professional 3D rendering. A lot of people in my shoes might have returned the card or gotten another one. But not me. I decided to run with it, and started getting involved in the thrilling world of 3D drafting.

The card’s Unified Shader architecture makes it ideal for creating intricately-detailed plans for municipal utility structures, so that’s what I went with. I got pretty good at it, and was eventually hired on by my city’s Civil Engineering Office to draft a plan for the new viaduct.

I guess what I’m saying is that it all started out as an accident, but instead of fighting against the tide I swam with it. Now I barely have time to play video games, as I’m so busy as a structural architect. Whodathunk?

ATI FirePro? 3D Unified Superscalar Shader Architecture:

• 320 Stream Processing Units
  – Dynamic load balancing and resource allocation for vertex, geometry, and pixel shaders
  – Common instruction set and texture unit access supported for all types of shaders
  – Dedicated branch execution units and texture address processors
• Anti-Aliasing Features
  – Multi-sample anti-aliasing: 2, 4, or 8 samples per pixel
  – Up to 24x Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing (CFAA) for improved quality
  – Adaptive super-sampling and multi-sampling

Display Capabilities:

• Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2) for H.264/AVC, VC-1, and MPEG-2 video formats
• Two independent display controllers
  – Drive two displays simultaneously with independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls and video overlays for each display
  – Full 30-bit display processing (10-bit per RGB component)
• Two integrated DisplayPort outputs
  – Each supporting 24- and 30-bit displays at resolutions up to 2560×1600
• One integrated Dual Link DVI display output
  – Support 18-, 24-, and 30-bit digital displays at resolutions up to 2560×1600
  – Includes a dual-link HDCP encoder with on-chip key storage for high resolution playback of protected content

API and OS Support:

• OpenGL 3.2 with OpenGL Shading Language
• Microsoft? DirectX? 10.1
• Windows? XP, Windows XP64
• Linux? 32 and Linux 64
• Windows Vista? and Windows Vista? 64

System Requirements:

• PCI Express? based workstation with available x16 lane graphics slot
• 350-Watt power supply or greater (assumes fully loaded system)
• 512MB of system memory
• Installation software requires CD-ROM drive

In the box:

• ATI FirePro? V5700 Workstation Graphics Accelerator
• DisplayPort to DVI Adapter
• DVI to VGA Adapter
• HDTV Adapter
• CrossFire?  Pro Cable
• Driver Disk

Woot