ATI FirePro V3800

The ATI FirePro V3800 is a workstation-oriented graphics card built on AMD’s TeraScale 2 architecture, featuring the Redwood chip produced on TSMC’s 40 nm process. With 627 million transistors on a 104 mm² die, it offers 400 shading units, 20 texture mapping units, and 8 raster operation pipelines, paired with 512 MB of DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus delivering 14.40 GB/s of bandwidth. Its modest specifications place it at the 50th percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database, with a neutral average benchmark score of zero, indicating it serves a niche role rather than competing with modern performance tiers.

Benchmark Performance

The FirePro V3800’s benchmark data is sparse: the FACT PACK lists no individual benchmark scores, no nearest rivals, and no delta percentages. The sole quantitative performance indicators are its raw throughput figures, a pixel rate of 5.200 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 13.00 GTexel/s, and a FP32 compute rating of 520.0 GFLOPS. These numbers, while not directly comparable to rival scores absent from the pack, can be interpreted through the lens of its 50th percentile ranking. That percentile suggests the card sits exactly in the middle of the historical GPU distribution, meaning it outperforms roughly half of all GPUs ever cataloged and lags the other half. In practical terms, the 520.0 GFLOPS FP32 throughput is sufficient for lightweight compute tasks, but the 14.40 GB/s memory bandwidth, constrained by the 64-bit bus and 900 MHz DDR3 clock, will bottleneck any workload that heavily streams data.

Given the absence of rival scores, the data indicates that the V3800’s performance is defined by its balance of low compute density and very low memory throughput. The 5.200 GPixel/s fill rate and 13.00 GTexel/s texture rate are consistent with a card designed for basic 2D and entry-level 3D CAD views, not for high-resolution rendering or simulation. The effective memory speed of 1800 Mbps, while common for DDR3 of its era, yields only 14.40 GB/s, a figure that would severely limit any modern game or professional application requiring large texture sets. The percentile rank of 50 underscores that this card is neither a standout performer nor a complete outlier; it is a median product whose scores reflect its era’s entry-level workstation positioning.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The FirePro V3800 does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, both fields are null in the FACT PACK. Its architecture, TeraScale 2, predates hardware-accelerated ray tracing by over a decade, so any ray tracing workload would fall entirely on the 400 shading units, which lack the specialized traversal and intersection logic found in modern GPUs. The card’s API support reflects its age: DirectX 11.2 (with feature level 11_0), OpenGL 4.4, and no Vulkan support. This means the card can execute DirectX 11-era rasterization and compute shaders, but it cannot leverage modern graphics APIs like Vulkan or DirectX 12 Ultimate features such as mesh shaders or variable rate shading. For professional use, OpenGL 4.4 provides basic compatibility with older CAD and DCC applications, but newer software versions that require OpenGL 4.5 or higher will not run.

The feature set is further limited by its display outputs: one DVI port and one DisplayPort 1.1. DisplayPort 1.1 lacks the bandwidth for high refresh rates at 4K or multi-monitor 4K setups, though it supports basic 1080p and 1440p output. The absence of tensor cores means no AI-accelerated features like DLSS or denoising, and the lack of RT cores eliminates any possibility of real-time ray-traced effects, even at reduced resolutions. The card’s 512 MB memory capacity, while adequate for the era, is far below the multi-gigabyte requirements of contemporary ray tracing buffers. In essence, the V3800 is a pure rasterization device with no forward-looking hardware features, and its API stack caps it at a 2010-era feature level.

Who Should Consider It

Given its 50th percentile ranking and modest throughput, the FirePro V3800 is appropriate only for legacy workstation environments. The 520.0 GFLOPS FP32 performance and 5.200 GPixel/s pixel rate suggest it can handle 2D drafting, spreadsheet-heavy multitasking, and very light 3D modeling at low polygon counts, but only at resolutions like 1080p with minimal anti-aliasing. The 14.40 GB/s bandwidth means texture-heavy scenes will stutter, so users should avoid any application that streams large assets. The card’s 43 W TDP and single-slot design, with no power connectors, make it suitable for low-power office or industrial PCs where space and thermals are constrained, and the suggested PSU of 200 W indicates it can run on almost any existing power supply.

For gaming, the V3800 is not viable at modern settings. The 512 MB memory and 64-bit bus cannot hold or feed the textures required by titles from the past decade. Even at 720p with lowest settings, the 13.00 GTexel/s texture rate would bottleneck draw calls. For professional use, it could serve as a secondary display adapter for code review or document viewing, but any serious CAD, video editing, or scientific computing would be better served by hardware with higher bandwidth. The lack of Vulkan support further excludes it from Linux-based Vulkan workloads, and its DirectX 11.2 support is insufficient for DirectX 12-only applications. In short, this card is for users who need a working display output for legacy software that matches its 2010-era API profile, not for anyone seeking modern performance.

FAQ

Q: What is the memory configuration of the FirePro V3800?

A: It has 512 MB of DDR3 memory on a 64-bit bus, running at 900 MHz (1800 Mbps effective), yielding a bandwidth of 14.40 GB/s.

Q: Does this card support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The FACT PACK lists no RT cores or tensor cores, and the TeraScale 2 architecture predates hardware ray tracing, so all ray tracing would be software-based and impractical given the 520.0 GFLOPS FP32 compute.

Q: What APIs are available on the FirePro V3800?

A: It supports DirectX 11.2 (feature level 11_0) and OpenGL 4.4. Vulkan is not supported.

Q: What is the power requirement for this card?

A: The TDP is 43 W, it has no power connectors, and the suggested PSU wattage is 200 W.

Q: What is the card’s physical size and output configuration?

A: It is a single-slot card measuring 168 mm in length (6.6 inches) and 69 mm in height (2.7 inches), with one DVI and one DisplayPort 1.1 output.

Q: How does the card’s performance compare to modern GPUs?

A: The data shows it ranks at the 50th percentile among all GPUs, with a pixel rate of 5.200 GPixel/s and texture rate of 13.00 GTexel/s, figures that are orders of magnitude below current entry-level cards, though no direct rival scores are available.

How It Compares

The FACT PACK provides no nearest rivals for the FirePro V3800, meaning there are no deltaPct values or rival names to analyze. In the absence of direct comparative scores, its position must be inferred from its percentile rank of 50. This median standing suggests that within the historical database, it sits equidistant from the best and worst performers, a card that was mid-pack at launch but has since been overtaken by every subsequent generation. The lack of rival data prevents any percentage-based comparisons, but the raw throughput numbers (520.0 GFLOPS, 14.40 GB/s bandwidth) place it in a performance tier where modern integrated graphics often surpass it, particularly in memory bandwidth where even entry-level discrete cards of the last decade exceed 100 GB/s. Its 40 nm process and 43 W TDP indicate a design focused on low power rather than peak performance, which further separates it from any contemporary competitor. Without named rivals, the only conclusion the data supports is that the V3800 occupies a historical niche, outperforming only the oldest or most limited GPUs in the database, and its end-of-life production status reflects that reality.