ATI R630 GPU spotted in major professional 3D attack

AMD HAS changed prices on its FireGL cards in a bit to garner extra market share.

FireGL V3600 is an entry-level card based on the RV630 GPU, also known as the chip that powers HD2600, in a version with 256MB of DDR3 memory. Given the 128-bit controller and the memory clock of 500MHz DDR (1 GHz), bandwidth is set at exactly 16 GB/s. ATI advertises this board as industry's first entry level 256MB card with two Dual Link DVI outputs. The price is set at $299 USD, or £149 in Blighty, down $50 USD.

The FireGL V5600 is based on the same chip, but this time it is loosely based on Radeon HD 2600XT PCB. Memory is changed from 256MB to 512MB, but the company hasn't announced what memory type is being used. It is GDDR4, with memory clock set at high 2.18 GHz (1.09 GHz DDR) - achieving bandwidth of 35 GB/s. Price for this board is set at $599.

FireGL V7600 is the most interesting of the bunch. This board packs R600 chip with 256-bit memory controller, and internal documents call this GPU “R630”. So, if you're expecting Radeon HD 2900 Pro or GT, it is almost certain that it will spot R630 GPU.
Specs of this board call for 320 shader units (compared to 120 of the previous two) and 512MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1.59 GHz (797 MHz DDR), yielding with bandwidth of 51 GB/s. This board eats 150 Watts, significantly down from 225W consumed by HD2900XT, upon which this product is remotely based. The price of this card $999.

Two of the highest ranged products received a $50 price cut, the V8600 and V8650. Both boards are identical, with the only change being the amount of memory.

V8600 comes with 1GB of GDDR4 memory and with 128GB/s, there is little doubt about the memory clock - exactly 2.0 GHz (1 GHz DDR). This board will eat 225W of power, or equal amount as the HD2900XT with half of the memory. This only goes to show that AMD made a wrong call when the company decided against the 1 GB part - luckily, remedied by Diamond. Price of this card is set at $1,899.

Final part is the one that we will get to know real well under more names than one - V8650 will also be known as VFX 2000 (Diamond), and at time of writing we were unsure of the naming convention used by Sapphire, if the company opts to enter the professional market. V8650 is the grand-daddy of professional cards, with 2GB of GDDR4 memory serving as a frame buffer. Rest of the specs is identical to V8600, with the exemption of power consumption. This is the first ATI, Nvidia card to officially exceed the 225W spec (PCIe X16 slot = 75W, 2x6-pin PEG adapters = 75+75W), and it requires connecting 8-pin and 6-pin power cables to the card for work at full speed.
Buying a V8650 will set you back for $2,799 USD. This is quite a lot of money, but still cheaper than Quadro FX 5600. A Quick check gave us quite the difference between advertised price of 2995 USD and the sites that are selling this 1.5 GB GDDR3 laden card. PNY Quadro FX 5600 retails for $4,890according to current conversion rate. This is a massive difference for a part that targets the same audience.

Given the profit margins of this segment, you don't need to be a miracle worker to find that Nvidia and its partners are stowing away at least $2,000 per card. True, this part is much more than hardware parts, since the firms need 150-200 people to dedicate themselves in getting drivers optimised for most common 3D apps, but still it seems a lot.

Knowing that R6xx series by ATI does a complete conversion of shader units to vertex when required, there is little doubt what AMD has in hands. Now, Nvidia can hope that DAAMIT royally screws this time, or we might have a market competition in the world of professional 3D. µ