New AMD FirePro graphics details

Code names pay tribute to Pixar and Dreamworks

AMD FirePro LogoEarlier in June AMD gave a preview of FirePro W9000 professional graphics card on their last keynote for their AFDS 2012 event. With the professional graphics audience in mind, most people would expect AMD to give more details in the SIGGRAPH 2012 conference and exhibition in August 5-9, in Los Angeles Convention Center.

Before then, here is some more information to spice up the day.

Besides the known FirePro W9000, and W8000, this time, we have FirePro W6000 and W4000 for mainstream graphics workstations.

Another minor bit of information is that the aesthetics of FirePro W8000 and W9000 will not be much different except the visual outputs on-board, as both will be in dual-slot form factor. So the image on the FirePro W9000 slide shown in the last keynote presentation in the AFDS 2012 event was actually a FirePro W8000. (Author’s note: Oh well, as least we finally know which card they were referring to…)

As for the lower-end two, they will be in single-slot form factor. One would probably see the of vapor/liquid chambers on these cards, as they are pretty much the standard for default cooling solution on professional cards and ultra-enthusiast cards.

The most interesting among all these bits of information is that, AMD paid a tribute to Toy Story, created by Pixar in 1995, and Megamind, a 2010 film from DreamWorks Animation, respectively, as the codenames for these cards refer to the main characters from each film, and both Pixar and Dreamworks are remarkable for making feature films entirely in 3D animation with fantastic visuals.

Model Codename
FirePro W4000 Megamind
FirePro W6000 Tighten
FirePro W8000 Buzz Lightyear
FirePro W9000 Woody

In other news, AMD launches new FirePro Mobility GPUs for mobile graphics workstations, namely the FirePro M2000, FirePro M4000 and FirePro M6000. The the first one is based on an older Turks GPU (480 SPUs) with only 64-bit memory interface, while the latter two are based on Cape Verde GPU, with 512 SPUs and 640 SPUs respectively. All three products come equipped with 1 GB to 2 GB GDDR5 memory, and support DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.2 and OpenCL 1.2. The lower-end two will appear on HP mobile workstations, while we anticipate that Pitcairn-based FirePro Mobility GPUs will follow soon.

It looks like AMD will go for a fast-paced top-to-bottom refresh for their desktop (or even mobile) FirePro workstation graphics line soon in late Q2. While the competition still hasn’t got their desktop gaming lineup complete at time of writing we’re looking forward to seeing the FirePro lineup in the plastic.S|A

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Leo Yim

Author at SemiAccurate
Leo Yim is our correspondent from the far flung reaches of East Asia. Fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and English he'd rather be talking about computers no matter what language. A true detail man he dreams of building gaming rigs from workstation class parts.