AMD has announced its newest professional graphics card in the FirePro lineup, the low-profile W4300 which is based on the Bonaire GPU and should offer a significant performance boost compared to the previously available Cape Verde-based FirePro W4100.

While it has earlier updated its complete FirePro lineup refresh, AMD has now updated it with yet another professional graphics card, mostly aimed smaller system and the entry FirePro lineup, the FirePro W4300. As noted, the FirePro W4300 is based on AMD's Bonaire GPU and packs 768 Stream Processors, 16 ROPs and 4GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 128-bit memory interface. The Bonaire GPU is based on AMD's Graphics Core Next 1.1 architecture and in this case, the GPU is clocked at 930Mz while memory works at 6Gbps.

Based on a low-profile form-factor and with a 50W TDP, the new FirePro W4300 is the best CAD performance professional graphics card that can fit in both SFF and tower workstations, according to AMD. AMD already had a similar based FirePro W5100, based on the same GPU and the same specifcations but with a full-size form-factor and a 75W TDP. Although based on the same specifications, it appears that AMD managed to get a better TDP by improving its PowerTune technology.

There shouldn't be a big performance difference between those graphics cards and both feature support for AMD Eyefinity multi-display support with up to four Mini-DisplayPort 1.2a outputs.

According to AMD, the FirePro W4300 is the fastest professional graphics card in that SFF (Small Form Factor) segment which is also the largest growing segment in the workstation market. AMD has put the new FirePro W4300 in the same performance segment as the FirePro W5100 and W4100, which is entry-level CAD/CAM market.

The AMD FirePro W4300 will launch son with an MSRP of US $379 and its direct competition is Nvidia's GM107-based low-profile Quadro K1200 and AMD's W4300 should offer significant performance boost compared to the competition.









Source: AMD.com.