AMD announces $4k FirePro W9000 GPU, entry-level FirePro A300 APU for CAD and graphics pros

After a brief tease earlier this summer, AMD just announced pricing and availability for its new market-leading FirePro W9000 graphics processing unit -- the $3,999 GPU is available now through AMD resellers, and is compatible with Supermicro SuperWorkstations. Joining that "world's most powerful" rig are the W8000, W7000 and W5000, which sell for $1,599, $899 and $599, respectively, and can each power six 30-inch 4K displays. Power-hungry pros will want to opt for the top-of-the-line model in order to take advantage of four TFLOPs single precision or one TFLOP double precision, along with 6 gigs of high-speed GDDR5 RAM. The W8000, on the other hand, offers 3.23 TFLOPs single precision and 806 GFLOPs double precision, followed by the W7000 with 2.4 TFLOPs / 152 GFLOPs, both with 4 gigs of RAM, along with the W5000, which packs 1.27 TFLOPs single and 80 GFLOPs double, with 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM.

Design pros with slightly more modest demands may find the FirePro A300 APU more in line with their budgets -- we don't have precise pricing to share, since third parties will ship their own configs, but terms like "entry-level" and "mainstream" make it clear that you won't be drawing in more than a couple zeros in the checkbook to make your purchase. The integrated solution utilizes AMD's Turbo Core tech, supports Eyefinity and Discrete Compute Offload, and can power horizontal display arrays of up to 10,240 x 1,600 pixels. You'll find all the nitty-gritty in the pair of press releases after the break.

Update: Our pals over at HotHardware have just pushed out a review of the W8000 and W9000, but found the results to be a bit of a letdown. Hit up their post for the full skinny.

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AMD Launches World's Most Powerful Workstation Graphics Line1 - Provides Unmatched Improvements in Productivity and Workflow

– New AMD FirePro™ W9000, W8000, W7000 and W5000 workstation graphics cards are optimized and certified for leading professional software applications to deliver exceptional graphics experiences to the workstation market –

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - August 7, 2012 - Today, AMD (NYSE: AMD) launched its latest line of workstation graphics, leading with the AMD FirePro™ W9000 Graphics Processing Unit- the most powerful workstation graphics card ever created1. The AMD FirePro™ W9000 GPU features incredible compute, increased memory bandwidth and greater multi-display support performance than the competing solution.1 Following closely are the AMD FirePro™ W8000, W7000 and W5000 workstation graphics cards, all built on the AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture, and designed to balance compute and 3D workloads efficiently for computer-aided design and engineering, and media and entertainment (M&E) professionals. The AMD FirePro™ W9000, W8000, W7000 and W5000 GPUs are optimized and certified for leading software applications enabling users to unleash their creativity by ensuring ultra-high geometry performance. The latest AMD FirePro™ workstation graphics cards can enable smooth handling of complex models and feature dynamic power management that enables great performance and efficient power usage. Using AMD Eyefinity technology, the AMD FirePro™ W9000, W8000, and W7000 GPUs can drive up to six, 30" independent displays via Multi-Stream Transport (MST) hubs for maximum workspace utilization at ultra-high 4096x2160 resolutions.2

"As professionals work with larger data sets that demand advanced visualization and complex models, they need a graphics solution that is fast, powerful, and reliable," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD Graphics. "Certified for today's software applications, the new AMD FirePro™ workstation graphics cards bring a range of features and capabilities for professionals working in digital signage, broadcast graphics, CAD/CAE and M&E, delivering the ideal balance of power, performance and reliability at the right price point."

With the latest AMD FirePro™ workstation graphics offerings, graphics professionals can create more complex models and interact with them in real time, helping improve workflows and boost productivity. Through GCN and GeometryBoost , the state-of-the-art AMD FirePro™ W9000 workstation GPU delivers a record shattering 1.95 billon triangles per second, which is 1.5 times as great as the competitor's most powerful workstation graphics card, and up to 83% greater memory bandwidth than the competing solution, for outstanding application responsiveness.1,3

"Supermicro is excited to bring the latest generation of AMD FirePro professional graphics cards first to market in our SuperWorkstations," said Don Clegg, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development at Supermicro. "Our SuperWorkstations combined with FirePro deliver phenomenal 3D graphics performance and maximize workflow and productivity. Digital content creation and computer-aided design professionals will be thrilled by the accelerated performance of our combined efforts and upcoming FirePro-based solutions."

The AMD FirePro™ W8000 workstation GPU, features Error Correcting Code (ECC) memory support and offers category leading dual-precision compute performance, up to 2.2 times as fast as the competing solution.4 This helps professionals experience greater accuracy in calculations performed for structural and molecular analysis and computational fluid dynamics without impacting application performance. Not to be outdone, the AMD FirePro™ W7000 workstation GPU is up to five times as fast as the competing solution in single-precision compute performance, while the AMD FirePro™ W5000 workstation GPU is the most powerful mid-range workstation graphics card ever created, delivering significantly better resolution, memory and display output performance than the competing card.5,6

The AMD FirePro™ W9000, W8000, W7000 and W5000 workstation graphics cards are optimized and certified for leading workstation applications. Additionally, these new AMD FirePro™ cards support PCI Express® 3.0 and AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore Power technologies for dynamic power management.7, 8

AMD FirePro™ W9000
High-performance CAD engineers, media designers, digital signage professionals
4 TFLOPs single precision
1 TFLOP double precision
6GB of high speed GDDR5 memory
USD$3,999

AMD FirePro™ W8000
High-performance CAD engineers, media designers, digital signage professionals
3.23 TFLOPs single precision
806 GFLOPs double precision
4GB of high speed GDDR5 memory
USD$1,599

AMD FirePro™ W7000
Mid-range solution for CAD engineers, media designers, digital signage
2.4 TFLOPs single precision
152 GFLOPs double precision
4GB of high speed GDDR5 memory
USD$899

AMD FirePro™ W5000
Mid-range solution for CAD engineers, media designers, digital signage
1.27 TFLOPs single precision
80 GFLOPs double precision
2GB of high speed GDDR5 memory
USD$599

AMD FirePro™ W9000, W8000, W7000, W5000 workstation graphics cards are available via AMD resellers and are supported in Supermicro SuperWorkstations. AMD FirePro™M6000, M4000 and M2000 mobile workstations graphics cards are also available via AMD resellers and are featured in new systems from HP and Dell.

AMD Launches First-Ever AMD FirePro™ APU Providing a Powerful Integrated Visual Computing Platform for CAD and Media and Entertainment Workflows

– AMD FirePro™ A300 Series Accelerated Processors deliver performance and unbeatable value for entry-level and mainstream CAD and Media and Entertainment (M&E) design professionals –

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - August 7, 2012 - Today AMD (NYSE: AMD) launched the AMD FirePro™ A300 Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) for entry-level and mainstream desktop workstations. Featuring AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, the new AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs are designed for users who demand a high-performance computing platform to power their computer-aided design and media and entertainment (M&E) workflows. The new AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs combine industry-certified performance and reliability for professional applications with world-class 24-hour customer support, delivering high-tuned performance and robust feature support across a range of professional applications and tools.

"Design professionals demand workstation-class tools that enable productivity and flexibility in their workflow, and the AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs enable workstation integrators and OEMs an exciting new computing platform on which to design and build powerful, entry-level desktop workstation configurations that deliver unbeatable value for CAD and M&E workflows," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD Graphics. "The AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs combines AMD FirePro™ graphics technology with advanced CPU technology, delivering incredible compute performance, refined design flexibility and outstanding efficiency."

The Edge You Crave
The AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs are the first single chip processors capable of delivering workstation-class visual computing performance required for today's advanced professional design workflows. The introduction AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs offers OEMs and workstation integrators (WSIs) greater design flexibility which enables new workstation designs that help save space, are energy efficient, and have low heat and noise levels without compromising true workstation-class performance and reliability.

The Performance You Demand
AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs deliver incredible performance for the entry-level and mainstream workstation segments, providing a perfect blend of CPU and GPU performance and industry-leading features to keep design professionals efficient:
• Support for AMD Eyefinity Technology for enhanced efficiency and immersive, multi-monitor productivity;
• AMD Turbo Core technology, where CPU and GPU performance are dynamically scaled depending on workload demands, effectively providing a more responsive experience;
• Support for horizontal display resolutions up to 10,240 x 1600 pixels, enabling large desktop spaces across multiple high-resolution display devices for advanced multitasking1;
• Support for Discrete Compute Offload (DCO), allowing additional compute capability by using discrete AMD FirePro GPUs in parallel with APU graphics for extended GPGPU performance;
• 30-bit color support to enable breathtaking image and color fidelity for advanced workflows such as color correction and image processing when using displays capable of 10-bit-per-channel operation;
• Dedicated UVD (universal video decoder/VCE, or video CODEC engine) media encoding hardware for faster "fixed function" GPU processing of H.264/MPEG4 files and other motion media formats when using compatible software, to free up CPU resources for other tasks

The Reliability You Deserve
AMD prides itself on maintaining high standards of internal quality control to help ensure unbeaten end user experiences. To that end, AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs deliver comprehensive application compatibility and technical support to provide users with the reliability they deserve.

AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs are vigorously tested and certified for reliability and compatibility with a wide range of professional applications. All AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs are powered by AMD Catalyst™ Pro software, enabling application performance and compatibility with ISV-certified software and optimized performance for CAD and M&E applications. The AMD FirePro™ graphics ISV Alliances team maintains very close collaboration with dozens of ISVs to ensure close alignment for product and driver updates.

Pricing and Availability
The AMD FirePro™ A300 Series APUs will be available in systems from a number of workstation integrators starting in August of 2012.