Fire GL8800 in stock at Newegg

[rbV5]

Browsing Newegg, I see the FireGL 8800 in stock $699 shipped(ATI cards at Newegg) I can almost justify getting this bad boy LOL (to keep the wifey happy, I think I'll settle for a AIW 7500 instead for now)

 

[AA0]

Fire GL cards suck at gaming, they are professional 3d CAD cards, you might get GTS speeds for games out of them.

 

[rbV5]

Well actually, the FireGL8800 is based on the 8500 GPU, its touted as a "create it and play it" workstation solution. It has full OpenGL and full Directx 8.1 hardware support. It should quite easily blow away a GTS in every way including gaming. However it is not a gaming solution, it is a mid-level workstation graphics card. I work alot with video and 3D animation as well as 2D applications, this would be the first workstation class board I would consider for my everyday rig, right now I just can't justify it.

BTW, my very first graphics addon board was a 8MB FireGL1000 so I could work with 3DSMax 1.0 in my NEW p5 100 rig. Now THAT board was a poor gamer(worked great in Max though)

 

[AA0]

Its based off the chip, but I've been told it games poorly at best. Drivers aren't meant for it.

 

[AmdInside]

I would not order this product until ATI can provide ISV certified drivers.

 

[AA0]

FireGL cards have always had incredible drivers, don't even think of bringing in ATI driver problems.

 

[AmdInside]

Don't compare ATI to FireGL though. Most of the engineers from the FireGL days have left before ATI even took over the FireGL line. ISV certified drivers are important to all workstation cards. That is part of the reason why customers pay so much more money for workstation cards.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

The FireGL boards based off of ATI's Radeon chips are meant to be mid range workstation cards, but they can still play games. The Radeon FireGL boards are very similar to what nVidia has been offering with their Quadro solutions since the GeForce 256. You wouldn't buy a FireGL 8800 strictly for gaming, but it can do it and do it very well. rbV5 is correct, the FGL 8800 is meant for "create it and play it" situations.

 

[rbV5]

ATI has released ISV certified drivers for several high end applications since they took over the fireGL line, theres no reason to not expect 8700 and 8800 drivers as soon as they finish the certification process.

UPDATE: according to Rage3d "ATI claims its FIRE GL 8800 to be based on RADEON 8800 graphics processor" and "RADEON 8800 (code-named RV250) will also be launched at CeBIT and have 128 MB of memory. Due to improved 0.15 micron manufacturing process, the boards will operate at 350 MHz core/memory."

I had always heard the FireGL8800 was based on the 8500, perhaps not..........and now a Radeon 8800 @350mhz clock.........interesting