Firegl 256: ATI FireGL X3-256 Specs | TechPowerUp GPU Database

25 Comments

Index3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 200 TechnologyNVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 TechnologyATI FireGL X3-256 TechnologyThe CardsThe TestSPECViewperf 8.0.1 PerformanceSPECapc 3D Studio Max 6 SP1 PerformanceSPECapc Maya 5.01 PerformanceAutoCAD 2004 C2001 PerformancePro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 OCUS PerformanceDoom 3 PerformanceHalf-Life 2 PerformanceShader AnalysisImage QualityFinal Words

ATI FireGL X3-256 Technology

The FireGL X3-256 is based on ATI’s R420 architecture. While this isn’t a surprise, it is interesting that the highest end AGP offering that ATI has on the table is based on the X800 Pro. On the PCI Express side, ATI is offering a higher performance part, but for now, the FireGL on AGP is a little more limited than on PCI Express. When we tackle the PCI Express workstation market, we’ll bring out a clearer picture of how ATI’s highest end workstation component stacks up against the rest of the competition. As the ATI part isn’t positioned as an ultra high end workstation solution, we’ll be focusing more on price performance. Unfortunately for ATI, the street price of the 3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 200 comes in at just about the same as the Radeon FireGL X3-256 and is targeted at a higher performance point. But we’ll have to see how that pans out when we’ve taken a look at the numbers. For now, let’s pop open the hood on the ATI FireGL X3-256.

We will start out with the vertex pipeline as we did with the NVIDIA part. The overall flow of data is very similar to the Quadro, except, of course, that the ATI part runs with 12 pixel pipelines rather than 16. The internals are the differentiating factor.

We can see that the ATI vector unit supports the parallel operation of a 4x 32-bit vector unit and a 32-bit scalar unit. This allows the same type of operation that the NVIDIA GPU supports, but the FireGL lacks the VS 3.0 capabilities and support for vertex textures. Interestingly, in the documents that list the features of the FireGL X3, we see that «Full DX9 vertex shader support with 4 vertex units» is mentioned in addition to its «6 geometry engines». This obviously indicates that 2 of the geometry engines don’t handle full DX9 functionality. This isn’t of as much importance in a workstation part, as the fixed function path will be more often stressed, but it’s worth noting that this core is based on the desktop part and we didn’t pick up this information from any of our desktop briefings or data sheets.

The FireGL X3-256 employs the HyperZ HD engine that the Radeon uses, which combines early/hierarchical z hardware with a z/stencil cache and z compression. The hierarchical z engine looks at tiles of pixels (in the case of the FireGL 16×16 blocks), and if the entire block is occluded, up to 256 pixels can be eliminated in one clock. These pixels never need to touch the fragment/pixel processing hardware and save a lot of processing power. When we look at the pixel engine, we can see that ATI divides their pixels into «quad» pipes as well, but an NVIDIA and ATI quad is defined slightly differently. On ATI hardware, data out of setup is tiled into those 16×16 blocks for the hierarchical z pass. It’s these blocks on which each quad pipe shares its efforts.

Inside each of the pixel pipes, we have something that also looks similar to the NVIDIA architecture. It is possible for ATI to handle completing two vector 3 operations and 2 scalar operations in combination with a texture operation every clock cycle. This is what the hardware ends up looking like:

Since the texture unit does not share hardware with either of the shader math units, ATI is able to handle theoretically more math per clock cycle in its pixel shaders than NVIDIA. The 3 + 1 arrangement is also not as robust as NVIDIA claims it to be, as NVIDIA is capable of handling 2 vector + 2 vector operations.

ATI is not as robust as either NVIDIA’s architecture or 3Dlabs with only PS2.0 support. The FireGL can only support between 512 and 1536 shader instructions depending on the conditions, and uses fp24 for processing. The Radeon architecture has favored DirectX over OpenGL traditionally, so we will be very interested to see where these pre-dominantly OpenGL benchmarks will end up.

As far as rasterization is concerned, ATI does not support any floating point framebuffer display types. The highest accuracy framebuffer that the FireGL X3-256 supports is a 10-bit integer format, which is good enough for many applications today. As with both 3Dlabs’ and NVIDIA’s parts, the FireGL X3-256 includes dual 10-bit RAMDACs and 2 dual-link DVI-I connections allowing support of up to 9MP displays. Unlike the Wildcat Realizm and Quadro FX lines, there is no way to get any sort of genlock, framelock, or SDI output support for the FireGL line. This puts ATI behind when it comes to video editing, video walls, multi-system displays, and broadcast solutions.

The added features that ATI’s FireGL X3-256 supports beyond the Radeon include:

• Anti-aliased points and lines — Lines and points are smoothed as they’re drawn in wireframe mode. This is much higher quality and faster than FSAA when used for wireframe graphics, and is of the utmost importance to designers who use workstations for wireframe manipulation (the majority of the 3D workstation market).
• Two-sided lighting — In the fixed function pipeline, enabling two-sided lighting allows hardware lights to illuminate both sides of an object. This is useful for viewing cut-away objects. SM 3.0 supports two-sided lighting registers for programmable shaders, but these don’t apply to the fixed function light sources.
• OpenGL overlay planes — Overlays are useful for adding to a 3D accelerated viewport without making the buffer dirty. This can significantly speed up things like displaying pop-up windows or selection highlights in 3D applications.
• 6 user defined clip planes — User defined clip planes allow the cutting away of surfaces in order to look inside objects in application that support their creation.
• Quad-buffered stereo 3D support — This enables smooth real-time stereoscopic image output by supporting a front-left, back-left, front-right, and back-right buffer for display.

Undoubtedly, the FireGL line also features a different memory management setup and driver development focuses more heavily on OpenGL and stability. This is quite a different market than the consumer side, but ATI has quite a solid offering with the strength of the FireGL X3-256. Of course, we would rather see a 16-pipeline part, but we’ll have to wait until we evaluate PCI Express graphics workstations for that.

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 Technology
The Cards
Index3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 200 TechnologyNVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 TechnologyATI FireGL X3-256 TechnologyThe CardsThe TestSPECViewperf 8. 0.1 PerformanceSPECapc 3D Studio Max 6 SP1 PerformanceSPECapc Maya 5.01 PerformanceAutoCAD 2004 C2001 PerformancePro/ENGINEER Wildfire 2.0 OCUS PerformanceDoom 3 PerformanceHalf-Life 2 PerformanceShader AnalysisImage QualityFinal Words

PRINT THIS ARTICLE

102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card

1. Home
2. Manufacturers
3. SEARCH BY CATEGORIES
4. Graphic Cards
5. ATI Tech Video Cards
6. 102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card

MCA Product Video

102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card

ATI Tech Part no: 102A6711520-06 | Genuine 102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card

Part No : 102A6711520-06

Manufacturer : ATI Tech

Price : $86. 00

Availability : In Stock(as of Today,)

Usually Ships : Same Day

Warranty : 1 Year

Shipping : Free — No Charge

Quantity :

One Day Delivery To California

This Item Includes:

Part Number: 102A6711520-06

102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card

Since 1990, MCA has been a recognized leader in the supply of quality high-end servers, workstations and components from all the major manufacturers. We can supply you with 102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card at a low price.

In addition to sales of your preferred brand new, manufacturer refurbished, used or pre-owned hardware, we also have extensive experience with repairs and can repair your ATI Tech P/N: 102A6711520-06 . We specialize in hard to find ATI Tech systems and parts that have been become obsolete, end-of-life (EOL) or discontinued by manufacturers, which will help extend the life of your program’s hardware and valuable investment.

We only carry original, genuine manufacturer parts. As a trusted supply chain partner to the US Federal & Military Agencies and Government Contractors, we follow strict ISO 9001 quality standards, including anti-counterfeit services and avoidance. Your 102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card will also come with our 1 year warranty.

With offices and manufacturer spares depot located in California, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, Texas and New York, we can quickly supply you
with a high quality and tested ATI Tech pn: 102A6711520-06 in the USA and Internationally.

If you require a formal quote for this ATI Tech Part Number: 102A6711520-06 please email us at [email protected].


Our goal is to provide you with the best products and customer service possible with your purchase or buy of Part Number 102A6711520-06

This Part no: 102A6711520-06 is a Genuine Original ATI Tech Part


MCA has been a leading ATI Tech independent reseller since 1990, trusted by thousands of clients!

102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card

Get a quote for 102A6711520-06 ATI FireGL V5200 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express Dual DVI-I Video Graphics Card

If you know what you want but can’t find the exact configuration you’re looking for, have one of our knowledgeable sales staff contacts you. Give us a list of the components you would like to incorporate into the system, and the quantities, if more than one. We will get back to you immediately with an official quote.

[email protected]

Windows 95 turns 20 / Sudo Null IT News
marks

Aug 23, 2015 at 19:20

Time to read
2 min

Number of views 18K

History of IT Soft

The Windows 95 operating system appeared in August 1995. It marked the rapid spread of PCs around the world — after all, now computer systems have become understandable not only to the geek, but also to the housewife, in the literal sense of the word. The average PC configuration at that time (at least in the USA) included a 320 MB hard drive, 8 MB of RAM, a 386DX processor or higher (486 was recommended for installation and normal operation of the OS).

The original distribution of the system was supplied on 13 floppy disks. This OS had such innovations as the Start menu, designed as a button in the lower left corner (in Windows 10, the button and menu were returned, of course, in a greatly modified form). The ease of working with the menu opened up the possibility of fast and efficient work with the machine’s file system and applications.

In addition, Microsoft developers have added support for long (up to 256 characters) filenames and the Plug and Play system. Wikipedia tells us that «the major innovation in Windows 95 introduced the ability to run 32-bit applications based on the Win32 API. This feature first appeared in Windows NT, however, systems in this family had higher hardware requirements and therefore could not be compared in popularity with the “regular” Windows series (which was represented by the Windows 3.x family before the release of Windows 95).”

In addition, Internet Explorer has been integrated with the Windows interface (Explorer.exe), which eliminated the complete removal of Internet Explorer files without disrupting the system.

Many things have changed since the advent of Windows 95, for example, computers and electronics have become ubiquitous. In many ways, it was the advent of Windows 95 and subsequent versions of this and other operating systems with a graphical interface that influenced this dynamic. In addition, now many screens — touchscreens, books and magazines are read on tablets and smartphones (of course, paper versions are not gone either), and the Internet, which was still a rarity at the time of the advent of Windows 95, has now become an integral part of the lives of billions of people.

By the way, electronics has changed so much that Windows 95 is now launched even on smart watches, not to mention smartphones or tablets.

Only registered users can participate in the survey. Come in, please.

Are you running Windows 95 now?

3.8%
Yes, at work and at home
62

5.15%
Yes at work
84

5.45%
Yes at home
89

80.02%
No
1306

5.58%
I never saw Windows 95 at all
91

1632 users voted.