Conclusions

In our previous review of the FireGL V8650 we stipulated; this is going to be as controversial as it gets.

Now, these 2 articles certainly have been extremely controversial.  Many readers will still be reeling from the shock of the article we posted less than a month ago.   This saw the ever so powerful NVIDIA Quadro FX5600 being executed ever so ruthlessly from its throne.  Now unequivocally the FireGL V8600 has demonstrated its destructive raw power at the Ultra High End.  The total dominance by ATI’s FireGL cards across the range must have all in a state of thorough astonishment.

Todays exclusive showing of the FireGL V8600 has shown it to be the final nail in the coffin of the current remit of high end Quadro FX Series.   Both FireGL V8650 and V8600 have shown they have what it takes at a fraction of the cost.    Talking of cost here is those all important price points you have been eagerly awaiting on;

* Approximately £900 - £950 UK Pounds, $1710 - $1800 US Dollars, €1160 - €1250 Euros.

*Prices taken from various online Resellers on going to press.   Availability of the card by some online Resellers claim lead times of 1 – 2 days.   We would advise calling to get absolute dates.

On a further important note which you the reader must take fully into consideration.    The Western Digital GP Drives have to be seriously taken into consideration now as they most certainly have proven; they do what they claim.  

It has also to be remembered that the Western Digital 320GB drives are of a previous generation with its 160GB platters v 1TB GP Drives with their 250GB platters.  With this in mind, it shows how much the technology advancements on their Hard Drives have been made by Western Digital over the last year.    

Additionally, we must also take into consideration 1 further point.   Although a system of this magnitude drains a huge amount of power, the small but significant saving the Western Digital GP drive makes adds up in the long run to an overall saving with time.   

To briefly recap lets once more look at the SPECviewperf® 10.0 benchmark scores side by side that have been produced.

The figures shown above provide hard factual evidence that the Hard Drive delivers what Western Digital have claimed.   Finally this now should put to bed the unfounded claims that it does not deliver – it does as proven above.

Corsair’s memory modules still prove to be versatile as always especially in Intel’s new DX38BT Mainboard under stress here.   Although the memory modules used are rated especially for 64 bit operations (more to follow soon on this), they functioned flawlessly showing once more the versatility of the Intel’s DX38BT mainboard.

Another point of important note is that the FireGL V8600 deliveries results of similar high standards at the higher resolutions without any performance drop.   This will give the end user the much needed confidence of working at those higher resolutions without worry of performance degeneration.

One important point that is being persistently missed by both online sales and VAR’s is the actual power consumption of the cards and required minimum power supplies needed to power these spanking new cards.   Therefore to reiterate and helping out many readers who e-mailed asking for these magical set of figures. 

ATI FireGL V3600 - Minimum 350 Watts PSU
ATI FireGL V5600 - Minimum 350 Watts PSU
ATI FireGL V7600 - Minimum 450 Watts PSU
ATI FireGL V8600 - Minimum 650 Watts PSU
ATI FireGL V8650 - Minimum 650 Watts PSU

Penultimately we must also remember the 6 month refresh point for ATI is coming up……..

Ultimately we have to sit back and respect what the ATI FireGL Team have achieved.   A card which completely outperforms both its nearest rivals; both in performance and at the all important price point.    More memory, faster GPU and memory clock speeds, though to reiterate the most important point – more performance.  Overall bang for buck, the FireGL V8600 has all that is claimed by ATI.   In todays environment this is a remarkable achievement!  

The ever so Precious Diamond studded golden crown of the professional graphic card arena.  Now remains powerfully in the grasp of the ATI FireGL Team’s claw, who firmly hold the status of being the Dominate Force in all arenas.

With these thoughts in mind, need we say anymore……

www.3dprofessor.org award for the AMD’s FireGL V8600 Ultra High End
Professional Workstation Card

5 out of 5 - Editors Choice – Joint Position with the FireGL V8650