Radeon Pro WX 5100 100-505940 8GB 256-bit GDDR5 Workstation Video Card

Pros: My workstations run Linux (Gentoo), primarily for CAD and software development. I like to build SFF desktops that pack as much processing power as possible into small, power-efficient spaces. The WX 5100 fits perfectly into one PCIe slot of my SFF Shuttle, replacing an old 2-slot Eyefinity HD6450 EyeFinity card, and at 75W max doesn’t stress out the power supply. The fan is inaudible over the whisper of my case fan, even when pushing the card hard with Unigine OpenGL demos. Installation was no more difficult than compiling the amdgpu and radeonsi drivers alongside the radeon and r600 driver modules I had been using previously. I rebooted the computer and my three HD monitors came up without a hitch. Honestly, I was shocked at how easy it was–I’ve never had a video card transplant go so easily on Linux before. The performance increase is very noticeable. Although I don’t game I did use some of the Unigine demos for benchmarking, and this card easily runs all of the one I tried at 60 fps full-screen without a hitch. I plan to move to 4K monitors soon for CAD work, and this card should be able to handle the load.

Cons: I would really like to see AMD finish porting OpenCL and Vulkan to the amdgpu drivers. It’s a pain having to load in the amdgpu-pro drivers in order to get those features.

Overall Review: I’d move to Ryzen as well if AMD would fix its problems on Gentoo…

Pros: Reliable. Tried using 4 Nvidia cards at the same time and I just couldn’t get the reliability like I can with 4 of these.

Cons: Don’t use multiples of these side by side. They throttle really bad if right next to each other. I recommend having a slot gap between.

Pros: + Cheap
+ Small footprint
+ 75W TDP – doesn’t require additional power
+ 4x DP1.4 ports

Cons: – None

Overall Review: Built myself a new workstation to replace an 8 year old one. Purchased this card for my build after looking at high-end consumer cards and Nvidia’s professional offering. I wanted a low-watt card that wasn’t loud and would power Adobe CC, Autodesk Design Suite, SolidWorks, Cubase, and other similar programs. The consumer cards used more power than I wanted and while I knew they would mostly work, I didn’t want to chance any incompatibilities. The Nvidia offerings were easily $200 more for close to the same performance. So I gave this WX 5100 card a try and it’s worked perfectly for me. Powering 2x LG 43″ 4K LED monitors no problem. Very quite and lower power which is keeping my tiny studio much cooler than my previous box. Highly recommend this card for the professional on a budget.

Pros: Low power requirements (my last card took 2x 6pin plugs for power and this gets it all from the PCI slot), SolidWorks approved, intro. price lower than any other workstation graphics card in its speed range. Almost the same hardware as RX 480 for ONLY $100 more. It seems most workstation graphics cards are a generation behind the gamer cards and double the price. This is better than that benchmark on both counts.

Cons: Almost the same hardware as RX 480 for $100 more.

Overall Review: No other user reviews so this purchase was mostly on hype…Which it seems to live up to. I’ll have to use it more and update this but so far I’m pleased. Got a passmark score of 2D Graphics Mark 1,100 & 3D Graphics Mark 6,551. SolidWorks has a history of being very picky when it comes to video cards and it seemed to do better than average on the SW portion of the tests.

Update: 12/27/16
My wonderful wife got me a 29″ Ultrawide monitor for Christmas. It took a bit of searching but this is what it took to get it working at native 2560×1080:
Right click on desktop and choose AMD RadeonPro settings, click on the display tab. Go to Custom Resolutions. The next info I got from Custom Resolution (CRU 1.3) that you can find on google:

Horizontal Resolution: 2560
Vertical Resolution: 1080
Refresh Rate: 60
Interlaced/Progressive: Progressive
Timing Standard: CVT
G.Pixle Clock: 148500
G.Refresh Rate: 48.011
H.Timing Total: 2784
H.Timing Display: 2560
H.Timing Front Porch: 64
H.Timing Sync Width: 64
V.Timing Total: 1111
V.Timing Display: 1080
V.Timing Front Porch: 3
V.Timing Sync Width 10
H.Timing Polarity: Negative
V.Timing Polarity: Negative

I never would have guessed all those settings without CRU! Then you change the resolution the normal way in Win.

Pros: Put in a Ryzen Solidworks station that is used to design parts, and send them to an SLA printer for high resolution prints.

Machine also runs circuitboard design software, and a few other CAD interfaces.

Card handles everything and it’s 4K monitor great, and runs very quiet. I ran a 24hour burn in on the card and even maxed out it didn’t get too hot, loud, ect. Great MEch workstation.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Driver rescission is worth taking this step vs using a consumer level card in the workstation. CAD software doesn’t necessary run faster, but I don’t see any of the rendering errors I would typically see in a consumer level card.

Overall Review: I got this as part of my first build and it works great. It was really easy to set-up with a little help from some videos.

Pros: Reasonable price for pro card
SolidWorks does not seem to max out the card, for my needs any more power or $$$ would be wasted, Great all around performer.

Cons: Older generation card

Overall Review: Old gaming card not compatible with latest SolidWorks, this fixed it and added silky smooth frame rate when rotating models. Haven’t loaded any large asm yet, so cannot speak to how it will work when I do.

Pros: Rock solid

Cons: Not extremely fast

Overall Review: I got in the pro drivers and updated my bios.
I wanted 10 bit support for a BenQ sw271
With this card the calibration and validation function flawlessly…