AMD Radeon Vega RX 64 8GB Review

[cangelini]

Radeon RX Vega 64 is here, and we've been testing the card's performance, power, temperatures, and noise. Should it be your next high-end graphics upgrade?

AMD Radeon Vega RX 64 8GB Review : Read more

 

[10tacle]

We waited a year for this? Disappointing. Reminds me of the Fury X release which was supposed to be the 980Ti killer at the same price point ($649USD if memory serves me correctly). Then you factor in the overclocking ability of the GTX 1080 (Guru3D only averaged a 5% performance improvement overclocking their Vega RX 64 sample to 1700MHz base/boost clock and a 1060MHz memory clock). This almost seems like an afterthought. Hopefully driver updates will improve performance over time. Thankfully AMD can hold their head high with Ryzen.

 

[Sakkura]

For today's market I guess the Vega 64 is acceptable, sort of, since the performance and price compare decently with the GTX 1080. It's just a shame about the extreme power consumption and the fact that AMD still has no answer to the 1080 Ti.

But I would be much more interested in a Vega 56 review. That card looks like a way better option, especially with the lower power consumption.

 

[envy14tpe]

Disappointing? what. I'm impressed. Sits near a 1080. Keep that in mind when thinking that FreeSync sells for around $200 less than Gsync. So pair that with this GPU and you have awesome 1440p gaming.

 

[SaltyVincent]

This was an excellent review. The Conclusion section really nailed down everything this card has to offer, and where it sits in the market.

 

[10tacle]

Disappointing? what. I'm impressed. Sits near a 1080.

The GTX 1080 has been out for 15 months now, that's why. If AMD had this GPU at $50 less then it would be an uncontested better value (something AMD has a historic record on both in GPUs and CPUs). At the same price point however to a comparable year and three month old GPU, there's nothing to brag about - especially when looking at power use comparisons. But I will agree that if you include the cost of a G-Sync monitor vs. a FreeSync monitor, at face value the RX 64 is the better value than the GTX 1080.

 

[redgarl]

It`s not a bad GPU, however I would not buy one. I am having an EVGA 1080 FTW that I am living to hate (2 RMAs in 10 months), however even if I wanted to switch to Vega, might not be a good idea. It will not change anything.

However two Vega 56 in CF might be extremely interesting. i did that with two 290x 2 years ago and it might be still the best combo out there.

 

[blppt]

IIRC, both AMD and Nvidia are moving away from CF/SLI support, so you'd have to count on game devs supporting DX12 mgpu (not holding my breath on that one for the near future).

 

[cknobman]

I game at 4k now (just bought 1080ti last week) and it appears for the time being the 1080ti is the way to go.

I do see promise in the potential of this new AMD architecture moving forward.
As DX12 becomes the norm and more devs take advantage of async then we will see more performance improvements with the new AMD architecture.

If AMD can get power consumption under control then I may move back in a year or two.

Its a shame too because I just built a Ryzen 7 rig and felt a little sad combining it with an Nvidia gfx card.

 

[AgentLozen]

I'm glad that AMD has a video card for enthusiasts who run 144hz monitors @ 1440p. The RX 580 and Fury X weren't well suited for that. I'm also happy to see that Vega64 can go toe to toe with the GTX 1080. Vega64 and a Freesync monitor are a great value proposition.

That's where the positives end. I'm upset with the lack of progress since Fury X like everyone else. There was a point where Fury X was evenly matched with nVidia's best cards during the Maxwell generation. Nvidia then released their Pascal generation and a whole year went by before a proper response from AMD came around. If Vega64 launched in 2016, this would be totally different story.

Fury X championed High Bandwidth Memory. It showed that equipping a video card with HBM could raise performance, cut power consumption, and cut physical card size. How did HBM2 manifest? Higher memory density? Is that all?

Vega64's performance improvement isn't fantastic, it gulps down gratuitous amounts of power, and it's huge compared to Fury X. It benefits from a new generation of High Bandwidth memory (HBM2) and a 14nm die shrink. How much more performance does it receive? 23% in 1440p. Those are Intel numbers!

Today's article is a celebration of how good Fury X really was. It still holds up well today with only 4GB of video memory. It even beat the GTX 1070 is several benchmarks. Why didn't AMD take the Fury X, shrink it to 14nm, apply architecture improvements from Polaris 10, and release it in 2016? That thing would be way better than Vega64.

edit: Reworded some things slightly. Added a silly quip. 23% comes from averaging the differences between Fury X and Vega64.

 

[zippyzion]

Well, that was interesting. Despite its flaws I think a Vega/Ryzen build is in my future. I haven't been inclined to give NVidia any of my money for a few years now, since a malfunction with an FX 5900 destroyed my gaming rig... long story. I've been buying ATI/AMD cards since then and haven't felt let down by any of them.

Let us not forget how AMD approaches graphics cards and drivers. This is base performance and baring any driver hiccups it will only get better. On top of that this testing covers the air cooled version. We should see better performance on the water cooled version that would land it between the 1080 and the Ti.

Also, I'd really like to see what low end and midrange Vega GPUs can do. I'm interested to see what the differences are with the 56, as well as the upcoming Raven Ridge APU. If they can deliver RX 560 (or even just 550) performance on an APU, AMD will have a big time winner there.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

WoW, meticulous and detailed review. Good job ! nice to see rx64 toe to toe with 1080.
1 interesting question : when GoFlow's same 14nm process is used in ryzen, the lower core count models like the 1500X and 1900X have the highest base clocks. so in comparison, shouldn't that be the case with RX56? but its the other way around...

 

[Rob1C]

Pros
? Vega is new
? Half empty PCB has space for another GPU

Cons
? Vega is too little (or priced a bit high)
? Mediocrity powered by hype

Verdict
Needs Manufacturers to factory OC and apply some shiny spinners or nice WC Option, otherwise one year old alternatives can be purchased today with better clocks at a slightly lower cost.

If it were $100 less or 20% better it would be great, otherwise it pales compared to all the other wonderful News of the past couple of months. It's no Threadripper nor a rip off it's just too little too late in a Market of spoiled and thrifty consumers.

AMD should have continued their recent record of Home Runs on the first hit, this one's a walk.

 

[Sammy10]

Very disappointed! People seem to forget how long ago the 1080 have been on the market! I will keep my 980 ti and wait for Volta. Thank but no thanks AMD!

 

[Guest]

nVidia doesn't even have to release Volta this year...

 

[artk2246]

Vega 64 isn't necessarily bad, just all around meh for the hype and time involved, Vega 56 however seems to have quite a bit of potential, even though its not as efficient. Anand has both the 64 and 56 reviewed if you guys are interested.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11717/the-amd-radeon-rx-vega-64-and-56-review

 

[Mngereso]

I was rooting for AMD, this is kind of a disappointment. After a year and few months of Pascal GPU's being out, this is their response, just matching Nvidias year old offering? And consuming more power while doing it? Lol.
Gotta give them credit though, they know how to hype a product.
I'm gonna wait for Nvidia GPU prices to drop and snag me a 1070, hopefully end month and at around 360$ then wait and see what they have in store for us with Volta in 2018.

 

[zippyzion]

I agree with ARTK2246. Vega 64 isn't bad, but Vega 56 is impressive in it's segment. Also, here is a link for PCWorld's coverage and it includes the 56, as well as the liquid cooled variant.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3215123/components-graphics/amd-radeon-rx-vega-review-vega-56-vega-64-and-liquid-cooled-vega-64-tested.html

 

[Aspiring techie]

Volta is going to butcher Vega

 

[difuid]

To be frank I was hoping for a lot better electric power efficiency. Currently Vega Rx gives me the feeling that it is just a jury rigged overclocked edition of the workstation line.

 

[madmatt30]

Its been said already BUT the Vega 56 looks the lot better proposition for a lot of highish end builders , its a 1070 ass whipper plain & simple.

Just try & buy one on release day though , the Keep it clean please miners will have had them all again.

 

[Fluffy_Hedgehog]

can you look into wattman and undervolting while overclocking? i already saw two reviews - one very well prepared one from gamesr nexus - that lowered power consumption significantly compared to standard overclocking and got better clock stability and temperatures (also less noise) on a vega56 gpu. the 64 should be at least as well suited to profit from such a step.

also overclocking the memory seemed to yield very good results but that could be due to vega56 being underclocked in that respect compared to 64.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Its been said already BUT the Vega 56 looks the lot better proposition for a lot of highish end builders , its a 1070 ass whipper plain & simple.

Just try & buy one on release day though , the ------ miners will have had them all again.

^ as of now, with the stock power consumption, mining with rx56 isnt a good idea. but with undervolting? dunno and cant say...

 

[hannibal]

Much better than I expected! I am really pleased about this card! Veri nice indeed!
I was expecting it lose much bigger in DX11 titles. Really expecting this one to shine in the future.

 

[cmsvmylo]

You should add a 3440x1440 resolution for 21:9 monitors.