AMD Launches FirePro W8100 Graphics Card

?AMD FirePro™ W8100 delivers 38X more performance than closest competing product

AMD has launched the AMD FirePro™ W8100 professional graphics card, enabling new levels of workstation performance delivered by the company’s second generation, industry-leading AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. With nearly 38 times the performance of the closest competing product based on double precision testing¹, and powered by OpenCL™, the AMD FirePro W8100 is designed for the next generation of 4K CAD (Computing Aided Design) and Media and Entertainment (M&E) workflows, engineering analysis and supercomputing applications. Bolstering the AMD Professional Graphics product family with yet another productive workstation solution, the AMD FirePro W8100 features a best-in-class 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, up to 4.2 TFLOPS of single precision compute performance, and unmatched double precision compute performance of up to 2.1 TFLOPS.

“Engineering Analysis is becoming increasingly relevant for high-end workstation workflows, and 4K displays drive the need for more performance in media production pipelines,” said David Cummings, senior director and general manager, Professional Graphics at AMD. “By adding the AMD FirePro W8100, we’ve expanded the AMD FirePro family to enable professionals -- in cooperation with our hardware and software partners -- with the right workstation performance they demand for next generation 4K workflows and supercomputing applications.”

“At Dell, we believe in providing our workstation customers with the most effective tools to accomplish their tasks -- Dell Precision workstations with AMD FirePro professional graphics help give our customers those crucial tools,” said Andy Rhodes, executive director, Dell Precision workstations. “Ultra high-resolution workflows and new applications based on OpenCL are becoming more of the rule than the exception for our customers. The AMD FirePro W8100, designed for next generation 4K CAD and M&E workflows, will be a great option for customers that demand high-level performance to tackle their demanding workflows and focus on their work.”

“HP workstation customers will be empowered by the AMD FirePro W8100 to be successful with both computer aided engineering projects as well as digital creative efforts,” said Jeff Wood, vice president, Worldwide Product Management, Commercial Solutions Business Unit, HP. “AMD FirePro W8100 offers our workstation customers with the power and performance required for application success.”

“AMD FirePro W8100 mirrors the philosophy that we provide in our software – uncompromising quality matched with reliable tools,” said Steve Bannerman, vice-president marketing, ASSIMILATE. “We’re starting to see a real transition in our customer base to 4K workflows as SCRATCH artists make feature films, television shows and commercials by pushing the boundaries technology delivers. The AMD FirePro W8100 complements SCRATCH by providing exceptional quality to workflow process.”

“Through our internal testing we have determined that the new AMD FirePro W8100 graphics card will enable our customers to improve productivity based on industry leading professional graphics technology,” said Ray Browell, Lead Product Manager, ANSYS, Inc. “ANSYS customers that handle complex systems and simulations will certainly benefit from the performance, reliability and valued certification that the new AMD professional graphics card provides.”

“The introduction of the AMD FirePro W8100 complements our current SIMULIA release with accelerated compute performance and enhances our customer support for workstations and servers in multiple environments for High Performance Computing,” said Matt Dunbar, Software Architecture Director, SIMULIA, Dassault Systèmes. “With 8GB of dedicated fast memory plus over 2 TFLOPS of dual-precision floating-point performance, AMD FirePro W8100 combines with Abaqus to enable customers with the ability to process even larger simulation datasets and deliver faster, more accurate and detailed results.”

Adrian Thompson, VP of Marketing for SAPPHIRE Technology, the Exclusive Global Distribution Partner for AMD FirePro commented: “The AMD FirePro W8100 delivers the exciting performance levels the professional user is looking for across a broad range of compute and graphically intensive tasks, and is ideal not just for integration into new workstations, but also delivers a stunning upgrade for users looking to increase productivity in today's demanding applications.”

The AMD FirePro W8100 is the ideal professional-grade solution for CAD as well as applications dedicated to video editing, color correction, compositing, design visualization and GPU-accelerated compute tasks. The AMD FirePro W8100 features 8GB of ultra-fast GDDR5 on-board memory, designed to empower workstation users to load much larger datasets or handle ultra-HD video frames on the GPU’s internal memory for processing, diminishing lag while improving the overall responsiveness of the workstation. Up to four AMD FirePro W8100 cards can be combined in a single system for scalable GPU compute performance of over 16 TFLOPS. The AMD FirePro W8100 allows users to be productive with up to four 4K display support and certified application performance with differentiated graphics features.

To address the increased requirements for real-time 4K productivity, the AMD FirePro Ultra Workstation was created with input from industry leaders to bring to market single- and multi-GPU configurations based on the new AMD FirePro™ W8100 that can match the demand of compute-intensive applications. Supporting Workstation System Integrators include: Armari, CARRI, Colfax, Exxact, Mouse Computer, PSSC Labs, Scan International, Tarox, Versatile Distribution Services, Workstation Specialists and Wortmann.

The AMD FirePro™ W8100 is available starting in July from AMD’s global distribution partner SAPPHIRE Technology, AMD FirePro™ Ultra Workstation providers, and major workstation providers.

The AMD FirePro™ W8100 plus a sneak preview of the forthcoming AMD FirePro™ S9150 will be on display at the AMD exhibit booth at International Super Computing 2014 (#150).