Bravo Notes on Video Cards for High-end CAD, Media & Financial Markets June 29, 2015

In the past 15 years, the industry has long settled on 3 chipset brands: Intel, ATI and nVIDIA, with Intel being the preference for business world, and ATI & nVIDIA locked in a war of perpetually vying for dominance in the enthusiast and CAD markets.

AMD (acquired ATI in 2006)

nVIDIA

Video Card Manufacturers 

GPUs

Features sel criteria

nVIDIA CUDA Architecture

AMD FirePro W7000 AMD FirePro W7100

Memory

  • 4GB GDDR5
  • Interface: 256-bit
  • Bandwidth: 154GB

Compute Performance

  • 2.4 TFLOPs single precision and 152 GFLOPs double precision floating point performance

Display Outputs

  • DisplayPort: Four standard
  • Max DisplayPort 1.2 Resolution: 4096x2160
  • Max DisplayPort 1.1 Resolution: 2560x1600

API/Features/OS Support

  • DirectX® 11.1
  • OpenGL 4.2
  • OpenCL™ 1.2
  • Shader Model: 5.0
  • AMD Eyefinity Technology Support: Yes
  • AMD CrossFire™ Pro Support: Yes
  • AMD HD3D Pro Support: Yes (via stereoscopic 3-pin mini DIN)
  • OS Support: Microsoft® Windows® 8, Windows® 7, Windows® XP, Windows Vista® and Linux® (32- or 64-bit)4

Cooling/Power/Form Factor

  • Max Power: <150W
  • Slots: One
  • Form Factor: Full height/ full length
  • Bus Interface: PCIe® x16, 3.0 for optimal performance
  • Cooling: Active fan

System Requirements

  • Available PCI® Express x16 (single slot), 3.0 for optimal performance
  • A power supply and one AUX power connector (6-pin)
  • 2GB system memory
  • Microsoft® Windows® 8, Windows® 7, Windows® XP, Windows Vista® and Linux® (32- or 64-bit)
  • Internet connection for driver installation

Memory

  • 8GB GDDR5 memory
  • 256-bit memory interface
  • Up to 160 GB/s bandwidth

Compute Performance

  • 1792 stream processors (28 compute units)
  • 3.3 TFLOPS peak single-precision floating-point performance
  • 206 GFLOPs peak double-precision floating point performance

Display Outputs

  • Four Standard DisplayPort outputs
  • DisplayPort 1.2a support, including Adaptive-Sync and HBR2
  • Maximum DisplayPort 1.2a resolution 4096x2160
  • Maximum DisplayPort 1.1 resolution 2560x1600

API & OS Support

  • DirectX® 11.2 / 124
  • OpenGL 4.44
  • OpenCL™ 2.03
  • AMD Mantle
  • Shader Model: 5.0
  • Microsoft® Windows 8.1 and Windows® 7 (32- or 64-bit)
  • Linux® (32- or 64-bit)

Cooling/Power/Form Factor

  • <150W maximum power consumption
  • Discreet active cooling solution
  • Full height/full length single-slot form factor
  • PCIe® 3.0 compliant, x16 bus interface 

System Requirements

  • Available PCIe® x16 (dual-slot), 3.0 for optimal performance
  • 8GB system memory
  • Microsoft® Windows 8.1, Windows® 7 or Linux® operating system (32- or 64-bit)
  • Internet connection for driver installation