ATI FireGL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The FireGL range of graphics cards is a series fabricated by ATI for use with CAD (Computer Aided Design) and DCC (Digital Content Creation) programs, usually found in workstations. They are very similar in hardware to the Radeon range, but have slight differences, which the FireGL drivers check in order to allow them to be used. Because of their similarity, some users soft-mod their Radeon cards to use a modified FireGL driver, effectively getting a cheaper, equivalent, FireGL card.
[edit] Differences with the Radeon Line
- They are designed for 3D design programs such as Solidworks, whereas their Radeon counterparts are suited towards video games.
- The biggest difference resides in the drivers. The FireGL drivers are built with maximum image quality and pixel precision in mind. However, because the drivers are also based on the Catalyst drivers made for the Radeon line, it also makes them suitable for casual gaming, at the expense of probable compatibility issues with the very latest games due to the age of the drivers (they are not released each month as the Catalyst suite is).
- The FireGL cards support antialiased points and lines (unlike FSAA, antialiasing only applies to the points and lines), quad-buffered stereo, two-sided lighting, Hardware-Accelerated Clip Planes (6 in FireGL X3-256), dedicated overlay planes buffer (Maya benefits from this). Though, it isn't very clear that the 'features' are present only on FireGL cards or disabled via the drivers on Radeon products.
- This series of cards is also very powerful; on paper FireGL cards push more data than their Radeon gaming counterparts.
- These cards also have an excellent capability for dual monitor applications, mostly because of their inclusion of a Dual-Link TMDS transmitter. Most Radeon cards only have a Single-Link, except in the X1000 series where Dual-Link can be found in all the cards.
- Professional software such as 3ds Max and Maya rely more on the Vertex processors of the cards, instead of the pixel pipelines and texture mapping units used by other 3d software, such as games.
[edit] List of Cards
| FireGL Model |
Based on Radeon |
Pixel Pipelines |
Vertex Processors |
Memory (RAM) |
Bus Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FireGL 8700 | Radeon 8500 | 4 | 2 | 64MB | AGP |
| FireGL 8800 | Radeon 8500 | 4 | 2 | 128MB | AGP |
| FireGL T2-128 | Radeon 9600 Pro | 4 | 2 | 128MB | AGP |
| FireGL Z1-128 | Radeon 9500 Pro | 8 | 4 | 128MB | AGP |
| FireGL X1-128 | Radeon 9700 Pro | 8 | 4 | 128MB | AGP |
| FireGL X2-256 | Radeon 9800 Pro | 8 | 4 | 256MB | AGP |
| FireGL X2-256t | Radeon 9800 XT | 8 | 4 | 256MB | AGP |
| FireGL X3 | Radeon X800 Pro | 12 | 6 | 256MB | AGP |
| FireGL X3-256 | Radeon X800 XT | 16 | 6 | 256MB | AGP |
| FireGL V3100 | Radeon X300 XT | 4 | 2 | 128MB | PCI-E |
| FireGL V3200 | Radeon X600 XT | 4 | 2 | 128MB | PCI-E |
| FireGL V5000 | Radeon X700 Pro | 8 | 6 | 128MB | PCI-E |
| FireGL V5100 | Radeon X800 Pro | 12 | 6 | 128MB | PCI-E |
| FireGL V7100 | Radeon X800 XT | 16 | 6 | 256MB | PCI-E |
| FireGL V7300 | Radeon X1800 XT | 16 | 8 | 512MB | PCI-E |
| FireGL V7350 | Radeon X1800 XT | 16 | 8 | 1GB | PCI-E |
| Mobility FireGL 7800 |
Mobility Radeon 7500 |
2 | 2 | 32MB | AGP |
| Mobility FireGL 9000 |
Mobility Radeon 9000 |
4 | 2 | 64MB | AGP |
| Mobility FireGL T2 |
Mobility Radeon 9600 |
4 | 2 | 128MB | AGP |
| Mobility FireGL V3100 |
Mobility Radeon X300 |
4 | 2 | 128MB | PCI-E |
| Mobility FireGL V3200 |
Mobility Radeon X600 |
4 | 2 | 128MB | PCI-E |
| Mobility FireGL V5000 |
Mobility Radeon X700 |
8 | 6 | 128MB | PCI-E |
| Mobility FireGL V5200 |
Mobility Radeon X1600 |
12 | 5 | 256MB | PCI-E |
[edit] External links
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