Sapphire FirePro W9100

[HEXUS]

AMD's premier workstation card examined.

Read more.

[sertin12]

So basically what I got out of this review is that programs that are still more optimized for CUDA have the M6000 in the lead and those that actually use Open CL and do it well the W9100 kicks ass, basically AMD cards are far more powerful then Nvidea cards for compute performance Open CL just hasn't matured yet still.

[Tarinder]

Yup, that about sums it up, sertin12.

[mapesdhs]

Most of the tests which have the M6000 in the lead (Viewperf) are not using CUDA. It's just OGL acceleration, etc. The bigger problem for Viewperf is the issue of optimisation over time, eg. results from other tests can be different, though it's an issue for both vendors.

However, where OCL and CUDA are compared for the same test, CUDA still often comes out ahead on the M6000, it's just a lot more mature (see the ratGPU data on this link):

http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/nvidia-quadro-m6000,2-898-2.html

Where the FirePro wins hands down though is for OCL FP64 (eg. Monte Carlo Option Pricing).

So it's not just an issue about compute acceleration, in many cases the OGL drivers and basic speed are simply better on NV atm, but this sort of thing bounces back & forth over time. Still, I'd prefer NV overall, keep finding they have better drivers.

Ian.

[nitro912gr]

thanks for this review, is really hard to find PRO card review around the net.
But... I would love to see some consumer/gaming class cards along the pro ones.

Also I have being wondering what is the purpose of anything below the W7XXX range because they seem like they can only driver more monitors than doing anything else. Or at least this is the picture I have from older reviews. If you are about to get a small quadro or firepro, just get a high end gaming card and you are fine.

[mapesdhs]

nitro912gr writes:
> If you are about to get a small quadro or firepro, just get a high end gaming card and you are fine.

It's not as simple as that. There are reliability, support, heat and other issues which may mean using a gamer card is a bad idea. If these don't matter though, then a gamer card can be an alternative. Mind you, used Quadro cards can be a bargain way to gain access to better quality pro performance & features, eg. recently I obtained a K5000 for just a little over 200 UKP.

Ian.