AMD FirePro M2000 vs AMD FirePro M8900
AMD FirePro M2000
► remove from comparisonThe AMD FirePro M2000 is a lower middle-class mobile workstation graphics card with DirectX 11 support. It is based on the same Turks-chip found in the Radeon HD 7600M series.
Compared to the Radeon consumer line, the FirePro offers certified drivers for professional 3D applications. Due to optimizations and some unlocked features, the performance when using professional applications is more efficient with the FirePro M2000.
The integrated 480 Stream processors of the FirePro M2000 are based on the new Terascale-2-architecture.
The gaming performance is similar to the Radeon HD 7570M. Therefore, the card is able to run modern games (2012) in low details and HD resolution fluently.
The FirePro M2000 also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU. Called Enduro, the technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Furthermore, the card can directly support up to 6 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.
The integrated HD audio processor is able to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos).
The power consumption of the M2000 is best suited for notebooks 14 inches or greater.
AMD FirePro M8900
► remove from comparisonThe AMD FirePro M8900 is a high-end graphics card for mobile workstations. It is based on the same chip as the Radeon HD 6970M (Blackcomb XT) and therefore offers UVD3 decoding and slightly improved Tessellation performance compared to cards found in the previous generation (e.g., Radeon 6800 series).
Compared to the Radeon consumer line, the FirePro offers certified drivers for professional 3D applications. Due to optimizations and some unlocked features, the performance when running professional applications is highly improved.
The 960 Stream processors should be still based on the "old" 5D architecture, similar to the 5000 series. Due to the different architecture of the FirePro M8900, however, the core count cannot be directly compared to the 1D cores of current Nvidia GPUs. The Stream processors can be used with DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.1, DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL. With the later two, the cores can also be used for general computations like transcoding videos.
The theoretical performance of the FirePro M8900 is similar to the consumer counterpart, the Radeon HD 6970M. However, due to the specialized professional drivers, games may run a bit slower. The 6970M is able to run modern games in high settings and resolutions fluently (see benchmarks on the HD 6970M page).
The new UVD3 video decoder supports the decoding of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash and now also Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos on the graphics card.
Furthermore, the FirePro M8900 integrates a HD audio controller to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI or DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos).
The AMD HD3D Technology offers support for Blu-Ray 3D and 3D displays (integrated and external). However, the solution is not as mature as Nvidia's 3D Vision.
Thanks to Eyefinity, the M8900 graphics chip is able to theoretically drive up to 5 monitors simultaneously. However, this only works if the laptop features enough DisplayPort outputs.
The power consumption of the chip should be similar to the HD 6970M and is therefore best suited for large laptops (17-inch or greater) with good cooling solutions.
AMD FirePro M2000 | AMD FirePro M8900 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FirePro M Series |
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Codename | Turks GLM | Blackcomb XT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | Terascale 2 | Terascale 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pipelines | 480 - unified | 960 - unified | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Core Speed | 500 MHz | 680 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Speed | 3200 MHz | 900 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Bus Width | 64 Bit | 256 Bit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Max. Amount of Memory | 1024 MB | 2048 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shared Memory | no | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
API | DirectX 11.1, Shader 5.0, OpenGL 4.2 | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Power Consumption | 33 Watt | 75 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 716 Million | 1.7 Billion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
technology | 40 nm | 40 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | OpenCL 1.2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notebook Size | medium sized | large | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of Announcement | 01.07.2012 | 12.04.2011 |