ATI FireGL V3200

The ATI FireGL V3200 is a professional workstation graphics card from the FireGL Vx200 generation, built on the R300 architecture and the RV380 chip. It is a legacy, end-of-life product that holds a 50th percentile position among all GPUs in the database, indicating it sits at the absolute median of historical performance. With its 128 MB DDR memory and 11.20 GB/s bandwidth, this card is strictly for retro workstation compatibility, not for modern applications.

Who Should Consider It

The data indicates the FireGL V3200 is only suitable for users maintaining legacy systems that require a PCIe 1.0 x16 graphics card with specific professional certification needs from the mid-2000s. Given its 128 MB VRAM and 11.20 GB/s bandwidth, this card cannot handle modern workloads; it is best suited for 2D CAD drafting at low resolutions (e.g., 1024x768 or 1280x1024) where the 2.000 GPixel/s pixel rate is sufficient. The 50th percentile ranking confirms that half of all GPUs ever benchmarked perform at or above this level, making it a poor choice for any current gaming or 3D rendering task. For users running software from its 2004 era, the card offers a stable, single-slot solution, but the lack of any display outputs means it must be paired with a secondary graphics solution or used in a headless compute configuration. The 4 ROPs and 4 TMUs severely limit fill-rate dependent tasks, so it should only be considered for basic 2D acceleration in old operating systems. It is not a viable option for modern resolutions like 1080p or 1440p, as the memory bandwidth and texture rate would bottleneck any contemporary application.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The FireGL V3200 has no dedicated ray tracing cores and no tensor cores, as these are modern features absent from the R300 architecture. The card supports DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0, which are the API levels of its generation. This means it cannot run any games or applications that require DirectX 10 or later, and there is no Vulkan support listed in the data. The feature set is strictly limited to the fixed-function and early programmable shader pipeline of the R300 family. The chip is fabricated on a 130 nm process at TSMC, containing 75 million transistors on a 92 mm² die, which gives a transistor density of 815.2K per mm². While the R300 architecture was notable for its time, the FireGL V3200 lacks any modern hardware acceleration features, making it incompatible with contemporary graphics APIs. The pixel rate of 2.000 GPixel/s and texture rate of 2.000 GTexel/s are the primary processing capabilities, which are insufficient for any ray-traced or heavily tessellated workloads.

Power and Cooling

The FireGL V3200 has a thermal design power (TDP) of 46 W, which is modest by modern standards. The data recommends a 200 W power supply unit (PSU) for a system using this card. It requires no auxiliary power connectors, drawing all its power from the PCIe 1.0 x16 slot. The card is a single-slot design, making it easy to fit in compact legacy workstations. The 130 nm process node means it does not generate excessive heat, and a standard passive or low-profile active cooler would suffice. The absence of power connectors simplifies installation in older systems that may not have had additional PCIe power cables. The 200 W PSU recommendation is very low, indicating that the card is not power-hungry and can be paired with a modest system power supply from its era. There are no dimensions listed in the data, but the single-slot width is the only physical constraint mentioned.

How It Compares

The FACT PACK lists no nearest rivals for the ATI FireGL V3200. Consequently, there are no direct competitor comparisons available in the data. The card's percentile ranking of 50 places it exactly at the midpoint of the historical GPU performance distribution, but no specific rival names, scores, or delta percentages are provided. Without nearestRivals data, any comparative analysis is limited to its own specifications. The absence of rivals suggests the database has insufficient benchmark data for this card to match it against peers. The card's 128 MB memory capacity and 128-bit bus are consistent with entry-level workstation cards of 2004, but no direct quantitative comparisons can be made. The data shows its predecessor is "Fire GL" and its successor is "FirePro Terascale," but no performance metrics are given for those either.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark data for the ATI FireGL V3200 is sparse, with an average benchmark score of 0 and no entries in the benchmarks array. The percentileVsAllGpus field indicates a 50th percentile ranking, which means it performs better than 50% of all GPUs in the database. However, with an average score of zero, this percentile likely reflects the distribution of all entries rather than a measured performance result. The pixel rate of 2.000 GPixel/s and texture rate of 2.000 GTexel/s are the theoretical maximums. The memory bandwidth of 11.20 GB/s is derived from the 350 MHz memory clock (700 Mbps effective) and the 128-bit bus width. These figures suggest that the card is severely limited by its 128 MB frame buffer, which is insufficient for any modern game at resolutions above 800x600 with reduced detail settings. The lack of benchmark scores means that the 50th percentile is not a validated result but a default placement. In practical terms, the card's performance is defined by its fill rates, which are roughly equivalent to early 2000s mainstream GPUs, placing it far below any modern integrated graphics solution.

FAQ

Q: What is the memory clock speed of the ATI FireGL V3200?

A: The memory clock is 350 MHz, which translates to 700 Mbps effective data rate.

Q: How much video memory does the card have?

A: The FireGL V3200 is equipped with 128 MB of DDR memory on a 128-bit bus.

Q: What is the maximum memory bandwidth?

A: The memory bandwidth is 11.20 GB/s.

Q: What APIs does this card support?

A: It supports DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL 2.0. No Vulkan support is listed.

Q: What is the required power supply wattage?

A: The suggested PSU is rated at 200 W, and the card has a TDP of 46 W.

Q: Does the card require external power connectors?

A: No, the card uses no power connectors and draws power solely from the PCIe slot.

Q: What is the pixel fill rate?

A: The pixel rate is 2.000 GPixel/s.

Memory Subsystem

The ATI FireGL V3200 features 128 MB of DDR memory, which is a very small capacity by any modern standard. The memory is connected via a 128-bit bus, and the memory clock operates at 350 MHz (700 Mbps effective). This configuration yields a total memory bandwidth of 11.20 GB/s. For high-resolution workloads, this is catastrophic; 128 MB is insufficient to hold even a single 1080p frame buffer with modern textures, and the 11.20 GB/s bandwidth is far too low to stream textures efficiently. The 128-bit bus width is narrow, and combined with the low clock speed, the card is bottlenecked by memory throughput. The 2.000 GTexel/s texture rate and 2.000 GPixel/s pixel rate are in line with the memory subsystem's capabilities, meaning the card is balanced for its era but wholly inadequate for anything beyond basic 2D output or very low-resolution 3D. The lack of display outputs further complicates its use, as it cannot drive a monitor directly. In a headless configuration, the memory is only used for compute tasks, but the 128 MB capacity and R300 architecture limit any meaningful GPGPU work. The data shows no bandwidth improvements are possible, as the card is a fixed hardware design.