ATI FirePro Cards Cater to CAD Pros

The FirePro V3700 and V5700 have been created for digital designers and artists who require a different kind of GPU horsepower in their work rigs.

While most graphics accelerators seem to be put to work by gamers try to squeeze every ounce of performance out of their systems for fragging, many professionals have a need for performance in more serious 3D applications. Namely, computer aided design and digital content creation. To that end, AMD on Thursday announced two new of graphics cards aimed squarely at the digital workforce, the ATI FirePro V5700 and V3700.

Both cards have been tailored to the rendering needs of professionals with faster handling for shader-intensive applications and 30-bit display engines that can generate more than a billion colors. They also include Dual Link DVI outputs for connecting ultra-high-resolution monitors or dual-display setups.

The differences between the cards: the V5700 gets a 512MB memory buffer, handles 320 shader processing units and boasts bandwidth of 28.8 GB/s, while the V3700 gets only 256MB memory buffer, handles 40 shader units, and has been knocked down to 15.2 GB/s bandwidth.

As it turns out, that relatively large performance gulf also produces a large price divide. The V3700 is priced at a relatively affordable $99, while the V5700 will set businesses back $599.