Ati FireGL 8800 128MB gfx card - any good?

[Jonty]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I currently have a GeForce3 gfx card and know where I can obtain an ATI FireGL 8800 128MB card. Useful link below...

http://www.dvdirect.com/shop/product.asp?sku=ATI5034

This card seems as though it's aimed more at 2D/3D design, but curious as to whether it would be an excellent gaming gfx card, irrespective of price.

Anyone care to comment?

Regards,

Jonty.

 

[rbV5]

Its supposed to be a "create it - play it" solution, should have respectable gaming performance. Get one and let us know.

 

[Mingon]

its just a radeon 8500 but i think slightly different clock speeds 250/290 so it should be OK see this for more info

 

[43st]

If you spend a lot of time rendering and you hate getting up and taking a break everytime you render something then get it. It's a top rated card for what it's meant to do.

It's not a consumer card. Yes you can "game" with it but you're better off with your consumer card. As it says... "workstation graphics accelerator"

 

[Sunner]

The GFX card doesn't improve rendering speed in any way, thats all about CPU speed(well in Pro3D apps anyway, gaming is of course another matter).

 

[AA0]

I will work, but don't expect the gaming of the 8500 to be there, it doesn't have the driver tweaks and d3d emphasis.

 

[43st]

Autodesk apps (3DMAX and AutoCAD) have hardware based rendering options. They need to be set up in the options menu. Hardware rendering is much faster for me.

 

[Mingon]

iirc the TnL unit of the card does some of the caluclations for rendering.

 

[Rand]

If your into 3D animation, CAD, 3D design apps then yes it's a hell of a card, with the outstanding driver support FireGL is known for.
It tends to outperform the FireGL2 in most all areas with the noteable exception multiple light sources, and tends to outperform the GF4 based Quadro's in 3D design apps be a decent degree and competes quite well against the Wildcat II 5110.

If your purchasing it for gaming uses though, then your definitely better off with the regular Radeon 8500 which can offer usually better performance in DirectX and 90-105% of the performance in OpenGL games for a fraction of the cost.
The only thing you miss out on is is the superb pro 3D rendering capabilities, and FireGL's phenominal driver support. And of course the ISV certification, but a gamer wouldnt care about that either.

But then the areas in which the FireGL driver team typically excells is not of much import to gamers, and the Pro 3D level capabilities of the card are also nearly useless for gamers.

End result: For gaming, buy the R8500.
3D design/animation/CAD: FireGL8800 is very impressive indeed, and looks to be a worthy successor to the FireGL 3 in the mianstream Pro 3D market.

 

[ArmandKarlsen]

OT: anyone seen how well the Wildcat III 6210 does?