Graphics company ATI Technologies unveiled Monday its latest professional graphics solution – FireGL V5000 – powered by RADEON X700-series graphics architecture. The product is expected to offer affordability amid high performance in professional applications.

“The FireGL V5000 was designed to feature the price benefits of our entry-level workstation graphics accelerators with the feature set of a higher priced solution,” said Dave Rolston, Vice President and General Manager, Workstation and Embedded Products, ATI.

The FireGL V5000 graphics chip is a superset of the RADEON X700 graphics processor (aka RV410) that is made using 0.11 micron process technology at TSMC and consists of 110 million of transistors. The chip has 8 pixel pipelines and 6 vertex pipelines, yielding more complex specifications compared to previous mainstream visual processing units by ATI Technologies. The RADEON X700-series supports innovative technologies found in the RADEON X800 family of visual processing units unveiled earlier this year, such as Shader Model 2.0b and 3Dc.

FireGL V5000 also gives users advanced features such as dual DVI connectors for multi-display applications, dual link support for 9 megapixel displays, stereo 3D capabilities with quad-buffered support.

ATI provided no information about performance of the FireGL V5000.

FireGL V5000 cards are certified with all the leading 3D applications, such as Discreet 3dsmax, Autodesk VIZ 2005, Catia, Maya, Softimage|XSI and SolidWorks.

The FireGL V5000 is shipping today and is available through Workstation OEMs, Workstation System Integrators and Value Added Resellers. The FireGL V5000 rounds out the FireGL Visualization PCI Express series, which includes the FireGL V3100, FireGL V3200, FireGL V5100 and FireGL V7100, which have been selected by over a dozen industry leading OEMs and Workstation System Integrators for their new PCI Express based systems.

ATI’s FireGL products are supported by a unified driver and certified by professional 3D ISV partners making system administration and upgrades cost effective and simple. Those partners who have selected the FireGL V5000 include: Alienware, ABS, Boxx, Colfax, Elsa, Matek, Maxdata, Monarch, Research Machines, Sys Tech, Xi Computer and Xworks Interactive.

All FireGL products come with a three year warranty and unlimited direct access to a dedicated workstation technical support team.