ATI FireGL compared to x700....(isnt a really obvious question)

Okay, i need help..I know that the FireGL v5000 is the same card as the x700 except it is optimized for CAD rather than gaming performance..but does that mean that the card wont perform on games aswell as the x700 will? In my position i sorta need the both of best worlds....

So my main question: Does the optimization towards Cad and 3d work lower the performance in games?

 

It's actually give and take. Here's the senarios:

In benchmark tests like 3DMark you'll lose approx. 100 points FireGL (2450 + or -) to X700 (2550 + or -), in typical real world gaming situations that difference will be negligible since when you play a game by default the FireGL card will use DirectX to manage the graphics unless it detects a game optimized for OpenGL, like Doom3, Call of Duty, Hexen, Half Life, which is optimized for OpenGL. So in most cases, you won't see a significant difference in gaming performance vs an pure X700 card.

List of OpenGL Application Games

The type of processor, memory, and hard drive will also affect performance benchmarking, so be sure to take these factors into consideration when making comparisons between the X700 and FireGL V5000.

The bottom line is you'll have the best of both worlds with the FireGL V5000. You'll be able to push mega pixels in games and ridiculous polygons and geometry in CAD/3D (where the FireGL simply blows away an X700)

 

yes thats true but having said that, in my work i use alot of CAD/3d geometry etc and so far my "normal" x700 has had no problems and is more than capable.

so if budget is of concern then the normal x700 will be fine, i would think a notebook containing the fireGL card would be expensive

 

Exactly. You can usually softmod a Radeon to a FireGL too.

The point is, the cards are essentially the same. You will not notice more significant differences in performance as you would notice from, say, two X700 cards by different manufacturers. There is a certain margin of error in all cases.

If there is a particular notebook that you really like and have no problem with the price, don't let the X700 vs V5000 be a decision maker.

 

Hi dr_st,

Do you know any practical way of doing that? It sounds quite interesting to me.

Cheers,

 

I seem to recall a rather long thread on some web-forum discussing soft-modding of Radeons to FireGLs... I'll try to look it up. Hopefully the techniques can be applied to the Mobility GPUs as well.

Edit: You can start here and see where it takes you.