Compared to mobile workstations that we have had under review so far, the performance is about on par with the Nvidia Quadro K2100M or the AMD FirePro M5100 depending on the test. In addition, they are relatively affordable with street prices between 140 and 200 Euros (~$152 to ~$217).
We would rather like to see, how much performance you will get by upgrading a 1 to 2 years old desktop PC as a cheap alternative with a tight budget.ĪMD's entry level graphics cards of the FirePro series deliver a solid performance in OpenGL optimized software.
We will probably update this article if we can get hold of suitable graphics cards after all.Īs can already be seen, this article does not compare desktop workstations with highest possible performance with their mobile counterparts. Unfortunately, Nvidia could not provide us with up-to-date devices of the entry-level class for this comparison. The recently introduced AMD FirePro W4300 might be in this price range when it becomes available. AMD's FirePro W4100 (Cape Verde), about 180 Euros (~$196)Īs AMD's FirePro W5100 (350 Euros/~$380) and Nvidia's Quadro K1200 (300 Euros/~$326) are already about twice as expensive, we have not taken them into consideration here.Nvidia's Quadro K620 (Maxwell), about 180 Euros (~$196).
Finally, we have stuck to the following graphics cards: In this article we will basically consider current graphics cards of the AMD FirePro and Nvidia Quadro series of the entry-level class up to 200 Euros (~$217). On the other hand, students, amateur technicians or casual users will appreciate the negligible effort and the low costs as long as a suitable PC is available. In addition, power consumption, system noise and space requirements of a desktop system are higher than those of laptops. Of course, you have to do without welcome features such as the mobility of a notebook or manufacturer's support of a complete system. As a side effect, you get one or more up-to-date DisplayPort 1.2 interfaces, in order to drive 4k displays at native resolution with 60 Hz.
This way, reasonably up-to-date desktop PCs can be easily upgraded and made suitable for professional use. Apart from used and discontinued models, desktop graphics cards are an alternative. While the entry-level model of the ASUSPRO PU551JH has a relatively moderate price of under 1000 Euros (~$1087), more powerful competitors quickly exceed the 2000 Euros (~$2174) mark.
Purchasing a mobile workstation usually implies above-average investment costs. Maximum Display Capabilities Despite its small size, the AMD FirePro W4300 graphics card can drive AMD Eyefinity multi-display set-ups with up to six monitors and up to 4K and 5K resolution.For the original German review, see here. “No Compromise” CAD Performance The AMD FirePro W4300 graphics card supports many of the latest GPUaccelerated features and delivers powerful application performance thanks to its mid-range GPU and 4GB of GDDR5 memory. Maximum Deployment Flexibility The AMD FirePro™ W4300 is AMD’s highest performing professional graphics card that fits in both small and full-size workstations offering unprecedented flexibility in its class. The card enables engineering professionals to work on large geometry-intense models and apply GPU-accelerated features in their projects, such as the new Order Independent Transparency (OIT) mode supported in SOLIDWORKS®. The AMD FirePro W4300 graphics card is certified and optimized for the latest CAD applications, including SOLIDWORKS®, PTC Creo®, NX™, CATIA®, Autodesk® Inventor as well as Revit® and many more. It combines a powerful midrange GPU and 4GB of ultra-fast memory with a low-profile card design and can be installed in small form factor (SFF) as well as full-sized systems. AMD FirePro™ W4300 Professional Graphics Best CAD Performance which fits both Small Form Factor and Tower Workstations 4GB GDDR5 memory 128-bit memory interface Up to 96GB/s memory bandwidth Direct graphics memory access GeometryBoost technology Four Mini-DisplayPort outputs DisplayPort 1.2a support Maximum resolution (4096 x 2160) AMD Eyefinity multidisplay technology2 AMD PowerTune technolog圓 Under 50W max power consumption Discreet active cooling solution 768 stream processors 1.43 TFLOPS peak single precision OpenCL™, DirectX®, OpenGL API support PCIe® 3.0 compliant, x16 bus interface Low-profile design fits SFF and full-size ATX chassis Planned minimum three-year life cycle Limited three-year warranty Microsoft® Windows® 10, 8.1, 7, and Linux (32- and 64-bit) support FCC, CE, C-Tick, BSMI, KCC, UL,VCCI, RoHS, and WEEE compliance The AMD FirePro™ W4300 is AMD’s highest performing professional graphics card for CAD that fits in both small and full-size workstations, offering unprecedented flexibility in its class.