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AMD FirePro W9000

AMD FirePro W9000

AMD FirePro W9000: Professional Power for Demanding Tasks in 2025

Introduction

The AMD FirePro W9000 is a graphics card designed for professionals in 3D modeling, rendering, and scientific computing. Despite being released over ten years ago, this model remains relevant in specific scenarios by 2025. In this article, we will explore its architecture, performance, and features to understand who can benefit from it today.

Architecture and Key Features

The FirePro W9000 is built on the Graphics Core Next (GCN 1.0) architecture, which became the foundation for many subsequent AMD developments. The card was manufactured using a 28-nanometer process, which at the time provided a balance between performance and energy efficiency.

Unique Features:

- Support for OpenCL 1.2 and DirectX 11.2, which is relevant for professional applications but limits compatibility with modern games.

- AMD Eyefinity technology for connecting up to six monitors—useful for engineers and designers.

- App Acceleration—optimized for software like AutoCAD and Maya.

It’s important to note that the FirePro W9000 does not support modern features like Ray Tracing (RTX) or FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). This makes it less appealing for gamers, but not critical for specialized tasks.

Memory: Type, Size, and Bandwidth

The card is equipped with 6 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 264 GB/s. In comparison, modern cards with GDDR6X (e.g., NVIDIA RTX 4080) achieve up to 1 TB/s, but such specifications were revolutionary in 2012.

Impact on Performance:

- The large memory capacity allows for handling heavy 3D models and textures.

- High bandwidth accelerates rendering and scientific calculations.

However, for machine learning tasks or working with neural networks, 6 GB in 2025 is no longer sufficient—modern models require a minimum of 12–16 GB.

Gaming Performance: Conditional Stamina

The FirePro W9000 was not created for gaming, but its capabilities can be evaluated in older projects:

- The Witcher 3 (1080p, Ultra): ~25–30 FPS.

- CS:GO (1440p, High): ~90–110 FPS.

- Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Low): <20 FPS—almost unplayable.

Support for Resolutions:

- 1080p: acceptable for less demanding games.

- 1440p and 4K: only in 2010s projects like Skyrim or Dota 2.

Ray tracing is absent, and drivers are not optimized for modern APIs (DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan).

Professional Tasks: Where the W9000 Still Shines

1. Video Editing:

- In Adobe Premiere Pro (using OpenCL), rendering 4K video takes 20–30% longer than on the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000, but the card handles 1080p editing confidently.

2. 3D Modeling:

- In Autodesk Maya and Blender (Cycles), rendering complex scenes is stable due to driver optimization.

3. Scientific Calculations:

- OpenCL support allows the card to be used in MATLAB or for simulating physical processes, but performance is lower than modern GPUs with CUDA (NVIDIA) or ROCm (AMD).

Power Consumption and Heat Generation

TDP of the FirePro W9000 is 274 W, requiring a well-thought-out cooling system.

Recommendations:

- A case with at least three fans (2 for intake, 1 for exhaust).

- A Tower Cooler type CPU cooler to avoid overheating.

- An ideal operating temperature is up to 85°C under load.

For comparison, modern cards like the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti (285 W) offer double the performance at a similar TDP.

Comparison with Competitors

1. NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (2013):

- 12 GB GDDR5, 288 GB/s, TDP 225 W.

- Better performance in CUDA tasks but more expensive at launch ($5000 vs. $3500 for the W9000).

2. Modern Alternatives (2025):

- AMD Radeon Pro W7800 (32 GB): 420 W, support for FSR 3.0, price starting at $2500.

- NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada Generation: 24 GB GDDR6X, ray tracing, $4000+.

The FirePro W9000 lags in speed but wins on cost in the secondhand market (officially discontinued, new prices in 2025 are not relevant).

Practical Tips

1. Power Supply: At least 600 W with an 80+ Gold certification.

2. Compatibility:

- Motherboards with PCIe 3.0 x16 (backwards compatible with PCIe 4.0/5.0).

- Updated drivers available on the AMD website (Legacy branch).

3. Drivers: Use specialized "Pro Edition" packages for stability in professional applications.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Reliability and durability.

- Support for multi-monitor configurations.

- Optimization for professional software.

Cons:

- High power consumption.

- Lack of support for modern APIs and technologies.

- Limited memory capacity for 2025 tasks.

Conclusion: Who is the FirePro W9000 Suitable For?

This graphics card is a choice for those who:

1. Work with "legacy" professional applications from the 2010s (e.g., older versions of SolidWorks).

2. Seek a budget solution for basic 3D modeling or editing (when purchased used for $200–300).

3. Need a multi-monitor system without investing in modern GPUs.

For gaming, AI development, or 8K rendering, the W9000 is no longer relevant. However, its legendary reliability and low secondhand market price make it a niche but practical tool in 2025.

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Basic

Label Name
AMD
Platform
Desktop
Launch Date
June 2012
Model Name
FirePro W9000
Generation
FirePro
Bus Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
Transistors
4,313 million
Compute Units
32
TMUs
?
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.
128
Foundry
TSMC
Process Size
28 nm
Architecture
GCN 1.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size
6GB
Memory Type
GDDR5
Memory Bus
?
The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.
384bit
Memory Clock
1375MHz
Bandwidth
?
Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.
264.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate
?
Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.
31.20 GPixel/s
Texture Rate
?
Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.
124.8 GTexel/s
FP64 (double)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
998.4 GFLOPS
FP32 (float)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
4.074 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units
?
The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.
2048
L1 Cache
16 KB (per CU)
L2 Cache
768KB
TDP
274W
Vulkan Version
?
Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.
1.2
OpenCL Version
1.2
OpenGL
4.6
DirectX
12 (11_1)
Power Connectors
1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Shader Model
5.1
ROPs
?
The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.
32
Suggested PSU
600W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)
Score
4.074 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS
GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB GP104
4.285 +5.2%
Radeon HD 7990
4.178 +2.6%
FirePro W9000
4.074
Arc A380M
4.014 -1.5%
Tesla K20X
3.856 -5.4%