AMD FirePro was AMD's brand of graphics cards designed for use in workstations and servers running professional Computer-aided design (CAD), Computer-generated imagery (CGI), Digital content creation (DCC), and High-performance computing/GPGPU applications. The GPU chips on FirePro-branded graphics cards are identical to the ones used on Radeon-branded graphics cards. The end products (i.e. the graphics card) differentiate substantially by the provided graphics device drivers and through the available professional support for the software. The product line is split into two categories: "W" workstation series focusing on workstation and primarily focusing on graphics and display, and "S" server series focused on virtualization and GPGPU/High-performance computing.
The release of the Radeon Pro Duo in April 2016 and the announcement of the Radeon Pro WX Series in July 2016 marked the succession of Radeon Pro as AMD's professional workstation graphics card solution. Radeon Instinct is the current brand for servers.
Competitors included Nvidia's Quadro-branded and to an extent, Nvidia Tesla-branded product series and Intel's Xeon Phi-branded products.
History The FireGL line was originally developed by the German company Spea Software AG until it was acquired by Diamond Multimedia in November 1995. The first FireGL board used the 3Dlabs GLINT 3D processor chip.
Deprecated brand names are ATI FireGL, ATI FirePro 3D, and AMD FireStream.
In July 2016, AMD announced it would be replacing the FirePro brand with Radeon Pro for workstations. The new brand for servers is Radeon Instinct.
Features
Multi-monitor support
AMD Eyefinity can support multi-monitor set-ups. One graphics card can drive up to a maximum of six monitors; the supported number depends on the distinct product and the number of DisplayPort displays. The device driver facilitates the configuration of diverse display group modes.
Differences with the Radeon Line
The FirePro line is designed for compute intensive, multimedia content creation (such as video editors), and mechanical engineering design software (such as CAD programs). Their Radeon counterparts are suited towards video games and other consumer applications. Because they use the same drivers (Catalyst) and are based on the same architectures and chipsets, the major differences are essentially limited to price and double-precision performance. However, some FirePro cards may have major feature differences to the equivalent Radeon card, such as ECC RAM and differing physical display outputs.
Since the 2007 series, high-end and ultra-end FireGL/FirePro products (based on the R600 architecture) have officially implemented stream processing. The Radeon line of video cards, although present in hardware, did not offer any support for stream processing until the HD 4000 series where beta level OpenCL 1.0 support is offered, and the HD 5000 series and later, where full OpenCL 1.1 support is offered.
Heterogeneous System Architecture HSA is intended to facilitate the programming for stream processing and/or GPGPU in combination with CPUs and DSPs. All models implementing the Graphics Core Next microarchitecture support hardware features defined by the HSA Foundation and AMD has provided corresponding software.
FirePro DirectGMA
GPUOpen: Professional Compute is no longer on GPUOpen
Soft-mods Because of the similarities between FireGL and Radeon cards, some users soft-mod their Radeon cards by using third-party software or automated scripts accompanied by a modified FireGL driver patch, to allow FireGL capabilities for their hardware, effectively getting a cheaper, equivalent, FireGL card, often with better OpenGL capabilities, but usually half of the amount of video memory. Some variants can also be soft-modded to a FireStream stream processor.
The trend of soft-mods was continued with the 2007 series FireGL cards, as follows:
Radeon product GPU Corresponding FireGL soft-mod Radeon HD 2900 XT (1 GB GDDR4 version) R600 XT FireGL V8600 Radeon HD 2900 GT R600 GT FireGL V7600 Radeon HD 2600 XT (512 MB GDDR4 version) RV630 XT FireGL V5600 Radeon HD 2600 Pro RV630 Pro FireGL V3600 Radeon HD 3850/3870 RV670 FireGL V77001 / FireStream 9170 Radeon HD 4870 RV770 FirePro V8700 *1 Radeon HD 3850/3870 products do not have the DisplayPort output presented on FireGL V7700 product.
Products
Workstation Pre-ATI FireGL cards Year Manufacturer Model Chipset Memory (RAM) Bus Type 1995 SPEA FireGL 3Dlabs GLINT 300SX + S3 86C968/86c868 8 MB VRAM + 8-12 MB DRAM PCI 1997 Diamond FireGL 1000 3DLabs Permedia + GLint Delta 4/8 MB PCI 1997 Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro 3DLabs Permedia 2 4/8 MB AGP 2X 1996 Diamond FireGL 2000 3Dlabs GLINT 300SX + S3 86C968/86c868 8 MB VRAM + 8-12 MB DRAM PCI 1997 Diamond FireGL 3000 3Dlabs Glint 500TX + Glint Delta + ALG2564 8 MB VRAM + 8/16/32 MB PCI 1997 Diamond FireGL 4000 Mitsubishi 3Dpro/2MP + CL-GD5446 15 MB 3D RAM/ 4-16 MB CDRAM PCI 1998 Diamond FireGL 5000 Evans & Sutherland RealImage 2100 + Mitsubishi iMPAC-GE 2000 Diamond FireGL 1 IBM Oasis Rasterizer (100 MHz) 32 MB SGR (100 MHz) AGP 2x 2000 Diamond FireGL 2 IBM RC1000 (120 MHz) + GT1000 (190 MHz) 64 MB DDR (120 MHz) AGP 4x 2001 Diamond FireGL 3 IBM RC1000 (120 MHz) + GT1000 (190 MHz) 128 MB DDR (120 MHz) AGP 4x Pro 2001 Diamond FireGL 4 IBM RC1000 (150 MHz) + GT1000 (205 MHz) 128 MB DDR (150 MHz) AGP 4x Pro
FireGL Series
ModelLaunchMicro-archi-tectureCoreFab (nm)Bus interfaceCore clock (MHz)Memory clock (MHz)Core configFillrateMemory Processing power(GFLOPS)API compliance (version)Notes Pixel (GP/s) Texture (GT/s) Size (MB) Bandwidth (GB/s) Bus type Bus width (bit) Single precision Direct3D OpenGL Vulkan FireGL 87002001R200Radeon 8500150AGP2502702:4:8:4112648.64DDR64 × 28.11.4 rowspan=29 FireGL 88002001R200Radeon 8500150AGP3002902:4:8:411.22.41289.28DDR64 × 28.11.4 FireGL T2-642003R300Radeon 9600 Pro130AGP3252002:4:4:411.31.3646.4DDR1289.02.0 FireGL T2-1282003R300Radeon 9600 Pro130AGP4003202:4:4:411.61.612810.2DDR1289.02.0 FireGL Z1-1282002R300Radeon 9500 Pro150AGP3253104:4:4:411.31.312819.8DDR2569.02.0 FireGL X1-1282002R300Radeon 9700150AGP3253104:8:8:812.62.612819.84DDR2569.02.0 FireGL X1-2562002R300Radeon 9700 Pro150AGP Pro3253104:8:8:812.62.625619.84DDR2569.02.0 FireGL X2-2562003R300Radeon 9800 Pro150AGP3803504:8:8:813.043.0425622.4DDR22569.02.0 FireGL X2-256T2003R300Radeon 9800 XT150AGP4123444:8:8:813.33.325622.0DDR22569.02.0 FireGL X3-2562004R300Radeon X800 XT130AGP4504506:12:12:1215.45.425628.8GDDR32569.0b2.0 FireGL V31002005R300Radeon X300 XT110PCIe x164002002:4:4:411.61.61286.4DDR1289.02.0 FireGL V32002005R300Radeon X600 XT130PCIe x165004002:4:4:412212812.8DDR21289.0b2.0 FireGL V33002006R500Radeon 1300 Pro90PCIe x166004002:4:4:412.42.41286.4GDDR2649.0c2.0 FireGL V33502006R500Radeon 1300 Pro90PCIe x166004002:4:4:412.42.42566.4GDDR2649.0c2.0 FireGL V34002006R500Radeon 1600 Pro/XT90PCIe x165005005:12:4:412212816GDDR31289.0c2.0 FireGL V36002007Tera-Scale 1RV630 GL, HD 2600 Pro65PCIe x166005001202(24×5):8:4:32.44.825616.0GDDR3128144103.3Shader Model 4.0, APP Stream FireGL V50002005R400Radeon X700 Pro/XT130PCIe x164254306:8:8:813.43.412813.6GDDR31289.0b2.0 FireGL V51002005R400Radeon X800 Pro130PCIe x164503506:12:12:1215.45.412822.4DDR2569.0b2.0 FireGL V52002005R500Radeon X1600 XT90PCIe x166007005:12:4:412.42.425622.4GDDR31289.0c2.0 FireGL V56002007Tera-Scale 1R630 GL, HD 2600 XT65PCIe80011001202(24×5):8:4:33.26.451235.2GDDR4128192103.3Shader Model 4.0, APP Stream FireGL V71002005R400Radeon X800 XT130PCIe5004506:16:16:1618825628.8GDDR32569.0c2.0 FireGL V72002006R500Radeon X1800 XT90PCIe x166006508:16:16:1619.69.625641.6GDDR32569.0c2.0 FireGL V73002006R500R520 GL, X1800 XT90PCIe6006508:16:16:1619.69.651241.6GDDR32569.0c2.0 FireGL V73502006R500R520 GL, X1800 XT90PCIe6006508:16:16:1619.69.6102441.6GDDR32569.0c2.0 FireGL V74002006 (Canceled) R500Radeon X1950 Pro80PCIe550?650?8:36:16:16119.8?19.8?512?41.6?GDDR32569.0c2.0never released, superseded by 2007 Series FireGL V76002007Tera-Scale 1R600 GL, HD 2900 GT80PCIe6008002402(48×5):12:12:39.69.651251.2GDDR3256288103.3Shader Model 4.0, APP Stream FireGL V77002007 (2008)Tera-Scale 1R670 GL, HD 387055PCIe 2.077511253202(64×5):16:16:412.412.451272GDDR425649610.1 (SM4.1)3.3DisplayPort. Can do double precision computation via the AMD Stream SDK. FireGL V86002007Tera-Scale 1R600 GL, HD 2900 XT80PCIe6888683202(64×5):16:16:411.00811.0081024111.1GDDR4512440.32103.3Shader Model 4.0, APP Stream FireGL V86502007Tera-Scale 1R600 GL, HD 2900 XT80PCIe6888683202(64×5):16:16:411.00811.0082048111.1GDDR4512440.32103.3Shader Model 4.0, APP Stream 1 Vertex shaders : Pixel shaders : Texture mapping units : Render output units 2 Unified shaders : Texture mapping units : Render output units : Compute Units
FireMV (Multi-View) Series
ModelLaunchCoreBus interfaceCore clock (MHz)Memory clock (MHz)Core config1Fillrate (GT/s)MemoryAPI compliance (version)TDP / idle (watts)NotesSize (MB)Bandwidth (GB/s)Bus typeBus width (bit)Direct3DOpenGLFireMV 2200 PCI.Jan 2006RV280 GLPCI2402001:4:4:40.96643.2DDR648.11.415DMS-59 for dual DVI-D outputFireMV 2200 PCIe.GPU Database FireMV 2200 Specs techpowerup.comJan 2006RV370PCIe x163241962:4:4:41.2961283.2DDR649.02.115DMS-59 for dual DVI-D outputFireMV 2260GPU Database FireMV 2260 Specs techpowerup.comJan 2008RV620PCIe 2.0 x1/x16, PCI60050040(8×5):4:42.425632DDR225610.1FireMV 2260 brochure : "Also with Microsoft DirectX 10.1 support the ATI FireMV 2260 exceeds all of the Windows Vista Aero minimum requirements". Retrieved July 12, 20083.315/8Dual DisplayPort (with adapters: DVI-D)FireMV 2400 PCI. Jan 2008RV380 x2PCI5005002:4:4:42.012816DDR1289.0b2.1202x VHDCI for quad DVI-D output, VGAFireMV 2400 PCIe.GPU Database FireMV 2400 Specs techpowerup.comJan 2008RV380 x2PCIe x15005002:4:4:42.025616DDR31289.0b2.1202x VHDCI for quad DVI-D output, VGA 1 Vertex shaders : Pixel shaders : Texture mapping unit : Render output units 2 Unified shaders : Texture mapping unit : Render output units
FirePro (Multi-View) Series ModelLaunchCoreFab (nm)Transistors (million)Die size (mm2)Bus interfaceCore clock (MHz)Memory clock (MHz)Core config1FillrateMemoryAPI compliance (version)TDP / idle (watts)NotesPixel (GP/s)Texture (GT/s)Size (MB)Bandwidth (GB/s)Bus typeBus width (bit)Direct3DOpenGL (OpenCL)FirePro 2250GPU Database FireMV 2250 Specs Techpowerup.com2007-01-01RV51680107100PCIe x1/x166005002:4:4:42.40.325632DDR22569.0c2.1 (no)20/11DMS-59 for dual DVI-D outputFirePro 2270 GPU Database FireMV 2270 Specs techpowerup.com2011-01-31Cedar GL (RV810)4029259PCIe 2.1 x1/x1660060080(16×5):8:4:12.44.851210249.6GDDR36411.04.3 (1.2)15/817/8DMS-59 for dual output: DP or DVI-I or D-subFirePro 2450 Multi-View2009-01-012x RV620 (Terascale 1)552x 1812x 61PCIe 2.0 x1/x166006002x 40(8×5):4:4:12.44.851238.4GDDR325610.13.3 (APP)36/182x VHDCI for quad output: DVI-I or D-subFirePro 2460 Multi-View,ATI FirePro 2460 Multi-View Professional Graphics GPU Database FireMV 2460 Specs TechPowerUp2010-04-01Cedar GL (RV810) (Tera-scale2)4029259PCIe 2.1 x1650050080(16×5):8:4:12.04.051232GDDR56411.04.3 (1.2)17/134x Mini DP for quad output: DP or DVI-D, UVD2, PowerPlay, Eyefinity
FirePro 3D Series (V000)