AMD Vega MegaThread! FAQ and Resources

[Justin Millard]

Have you seen pictures of RX Vega Liquid cooled Edition? It's like having thermonuclear power plant in your PC. This thing will put out some serious heat :-( With all marketing hype around it, I was really hoping AMD can come out with something very powerful performance wise and energy efficient or at least cheap compered to GTX 1080. It doesn't look good.
http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/radeon-rx-vega-photos-from-amd-la-event.html

I think undervolting and better results from manufacturing are where they are getting these gains.
http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2990-vega-frontier-edition-undervolt-benchmarks-improve-performance

8GB HBM vs 16GB HBM probably helps a bit too, especially with cost.
Add a few percentage points from better drivers and I can see where they are making a few gains.
Nothing earth shatteringly ground breaking, but its competition for the 1070 and 1080 range.

 

[norimacek]

Top VEGA model needs liquid cooling to compete with air cooled GTX 1080 and AMD wants 700$ for it on top of that? I don't get it. I can buy GTX 1080 today for 650 $, why would I pay 50 $ premium for less power efficient card? This is plain awful. AMD just gave NVidia an excuse to charge 900+ $ for their nexgen Volta flagship. And we probably won't see Volta anytime soon. NVidia will be under no pressure to release it. They are the undisputed kings now. Sad day for consumers, monopolies are no good, we all saw Intel's 10 years story ;-(

 

[Justin Millard]

Yeah Vega 64 doesn't appeal to me. Might be nice for a few enthusiasts wanting to test out some of the newer features and how they improve in DX12 and Vulkan over time, but that's not me.
The TDP takes it out of the equation for me due to Australian summertime.

However Vega 56 is very interesting. Looks like it sits in between 1070 and 1080, with decent performance per watt at a noticeable cheaper price than 1070. If AMD can focus on that it can win over a lot of fans this year, but again emphasis on this year.

I can stick with my current card and see what a Volta version of 1060 offers me next year.
But hopefully AMD can sell a few to those in need of an upgrade or new system.

 

[renz496]

I reckon we are thinking similarly about this. I'm working off the assumption that Nvidia won't bring anything new out until February when they really start to dominate again. Nvidia definitely are a powerful force.
I tried to fight them and ended up signing up as an NFAN. That's how darn persuasive they are
But best of luck to AMD with offering competition.

personally i did not expect Volta until Q2 2018. but yes it can happen much earlier than that. to be honest i'm not surprise if consumer volta design already being finalized by nvidia right now. nvidia already sending out working V100 to researchers. and that is the biggest volta of all which i think the most challenging for nvidia to make it even work.

Also good to see you still hanging around these forums, Renz! You're one of my favourites to chat with. You're a top bloke and that's a badge of honour coming from an Aussie!

well thanks.

However Vega 56 is very interesting. Looks like it sits in between 1070 and 1080, with decent performance per watt at a noticeable cheaper price than 1070. If AMD can focus on that it can win over a lot of fans this year, but again emphasis on this year.

indeed. Vega 56 could end up being the card most people will look at. just like how it was with nvidia x70 line up.

 

[renz496]

Top VEGA model needs liquid cooling to compete with air cooled GTX 1080 and AMD wants 700$ for it on top of that? I don't get it. I can buy GTX 1080 today for 650 $, why would I pay 50 $ premium for less power efficient card? This is plain awful. AMD just gave NVidia an excuse to charge 900+ $ for their nexgen Volta flagship. And we probably won't see Volta anytime soon. NVidia will be under no pressure to release it. They are the undisputed kings now. Sad day for consumers, monopolies are no good, we all saw Intel's 10 years story ;-(

maybe AMD did that on purpose? because cost wise those Vega must be more expensive to manufacture than nvidia 1080ti. if they can convince nvidia to price their stuff higher then they can also push their price a bit higher and get better profit margin (for future product). well AMD have very limited budget for R&D so when things that they already planned did not go as they expected it hurts even more. even with Ryzen AMD was more successful in that venture because intel shift their focus on heavily on mobile after Sandy (they even go as far send Paul Otellini for retirement for that). AMD probably hoping for nvidia to take advantage of their current position to increase their high end price further after all those nvidia Founder edition scheme and the titan price increase from 1k to 1.2k. people will complain about this but it will give AMD the breathing room they need to catch up to nvidia (just how they did with intel). but when nvidia priced their 1080ti at $700 and drop 1080 price by $100 even without AMD presence that shows that nvidia will not going to let AMD have it easy.

 

[-Fran-]

So AMD had their hand forced and will basically give Vega away for chump change... The fellas at nVidia must be laughing hard walking to the bank.

And given pricing, they just confirmed what everyone saw with the Pro version of Vega: it will be a bit above the 1080 but no-where close to the 1080ti/Titan-XP.

Also, evil marketing slides are evil.

Cheers!

EDIT: Typos.

 

[Gaidax]

One thing I don't understand... why... why blower cooler on reference card with frikkin' 300w TDP?????

Didn't they learn anything from 290X reference fiasco?

I understand they probably don't want to piss their partners too much and give them some room for maneuver with coolers, but really, blower simply does not work with frikkin' 300w TDP cards, they could have at least slapped some basic 2 fan cooler instead and save themselves the mockery of reviews incoming for air reference model.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

One thing I don't understand... why... why blower cooler on reference card with frikkin' 300w TDP?????

Didn't they learn anything from 290X reference fiasco?

I understand they probably don't want to piss their partners too much and give them some room for maneuver with coolers, but really, blower simply does not work with frikkin' 300w TDP cards, they could have at least slapped some basic 2 fan cooler instead and save themselves the mockery of reviews incoming for air reference model.

Obviously you need the liquid cooled version.

 

[jankerson]

Saw one of the videos made today, they crippled the GTX 1080 by tuning it down so the VEGA would beat it by like 1 FPS.

And they didn't think people would notice.... REALLY....????

 

[Martell1977]

Saw one of the videos made today, they crippled the GTX 1080 by tuning it down so the VEGA would beat it by like 1 FPS.

And they didn't think people would notice.... REALLY....????

Who's that? A reputable website or reviewer wouldn't be releasing anything yet as the NDA apparently hasn't been lifted and RX Vega is not otherwise available.

Note: From the article here on Tom's, I got the impression that Water Vega beats the 1080, but not the 1080ti and not close enough to the 1080ti to be mistaken for it's competition.

 

[JamesSneed]

The NDA inst over, not until August the 14th, so any reviews right now are very suspect. Honestly just set a reminder for August 14th and forget about Vega reviews until then.

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

Honestly just set a reminder for August 14th and forget about Vega reviews until then.

Yep, pretty much. So the countdown to 2017/08/14 starts... *click* now.

 

[jankerson]

Saw one of the videos made today, they crippled the GTX 1080 by tuning it down so the VEGA would beat it by like 1 FPS.

And they didn't think people would notice.... REALLY....????

Who's that? A reputable website or reviewer wouldn't be releasing anything yet as the NDA apparently hasn't been lifted and RX Vega is not otherwise available.

Note: From the article here on Tom's, I got the impression that Water Vega beats the 1080, but not the 1080ti and not close enough to the 1080ti to be mistaken for it's competition.

I don't think there are many reputable reviewers left on YT personally.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-el24LSyaE"][/video]

 

[norimacek]

If I were at Sapphire Tech I'd be very, very worried right now. Gamers can't get their hands on Sapphires midrange cards for nowhere close to reasonable prices if at all and now they have to implement efficient and quiet air cooling solution on TDP 295W VEGA? Good luck with overclocking reference design... OC power consumption 330W+ at 45-50 dB noise levels under load? They're probably seriously considering working also for the green side right now.

 

[JamesSneed]

If I were at Sapphire Tech I'd be very, very worried right now. Gamers can't get their hands on Sapphires midrange cards for nowhere close to reasonable prices if at all and now they have to implement efficient and quiet air cooling solution on TDP 295W VEGA? Good luck with overclocking reference design... OC power consumption 330W+ at 45-50 dB noise levels under load? They're probably seriously considering working also for the green side right now.

Yeah its not looking great for Vega. Only small hope I see is they have some significant things disabled in the drivers which are supposed to get updated on release day. Hopefully those things are holding the cards back a good deal otherwise Vega is going to flop.

 

[jankerson]

If I were at Sapphire Tech I'd be very, very worried right now. Gamers can't get their hands on Sapphires midrange cards for nowhere close to reasonable prices if at all and now they have to implement efficient and quiet air cooling solution on TDP 295W VEGA? Good luck with overclocking reference design... OC power consumption 330W+ at 45-50 dB noise levels under load? They're probably seriously considering working also for the green side right now.

Yeah its not looking great for Vega. Only small hope I see is they have some significant things disabled in the drivers which are supposed to get updated on release day. Hopefully those things are holding the cards back a good deal otherwise Vega is going to flop.

I just don't see it happening, the scores even from AMD have been way too low for it to be competitive against the GTX 1080 realistically that is.

The GTX 1080 cards they have been comparing to must have been crippled and down clocked massively.

All I can say is my GTX 1080 is not even close to that slow..... Out of the box...

And OCed I get over 25K 3dmark Fire Strike Graphic score so I wish them good luck....

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/13108884

 

[renz496]

If I were at Sapphire Tech I'd be very, very worried right now. Gamers can't get their hands on Sapphires midrange cards for nowhere close to reasonable prices if at all and now they have to implement efficient and quiet air cooling solution on TDP 295W VEGA? Good luck with overclocking reference design... OC power consumption 330W+ at 45-50 dB noise levels under load? They're probably seriously considering working also for the green side right now.

gamer or not the most important thing is they able to sell the card without having to give discount. sure they did not profit from the retailer mark up but the profit margin still better than have to giving discount just so they can move the initial inventory. but the long term effect might not be pretty. if the bubble burst then the market will be flooded with used card. maybe they just hope miner will move to other algo and keep their existing card instead of flooding them on used market. manufacturer did show their concern with all this mining craze:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_oHQPWRWnQ&t=687s

btw Sapphire can't simply go to nvidia and said they want to sell nvidia stuff. some of nvidia partner will not going to like that.

 

[renz496]

If I were at Sapphire Tech I'd be very, very worried right now. Gamers can't get their hands on Sapphires midrange cards for nowhere close to reasonable prices if at all and now they have to implement efficient and quiet air cooling solution on TDP 295W VEGA? Good luck with overclocking reference design... OC power consumption 330W+ at 45-50 dB noise levels under load? They're probably seriously considering working also for the green side right now.

Yeah its not looking great for Vega. Only small hope I see is they have some significant things disabled in the drivers which are supposed to get updated on release day. Hopefully those things are holding the cards back a good deal otherwise Vega is going to flop.

those thing might help AMD card but probably not in a way that people expected.

 

[norimacek]

If I were at Sapphire Tech I'd be very, very worried right now. Gamers can't get their hands on Sapphires midrange cards for nowhere close to reasonable prices if at all and now they have to implement efficient and quiet air cooling solution on TDP 295W VEGA? Good luck with overclocking reference design... OC power consumption 330W+ at 45-50 dB noise levels under load? They're probably seriously considering working also for the green side right now.

gamer or not the most important thing is they able to sell the card without having to give discount. sure they did not profit from the retailer mark up but the profit margin still better than have to giving discount just so they can move the initial inventory. but the long term effect might not be pretty. if the bubble burst then the market will be flooded with used card. maybe they just hope miner will move to other algo and keep their existing card instead of flooding them on used market. manufacturer did show their concern with all this mining craze:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_oHQPWRWnQ&t=687s

btw Sapphire can't simply go to nvidia and said they want to sell nvidia stuff. some of nvidia partner will not going to like that.

CEO of Sapphire Tech was seriously concerned about miner companies and individuals, buying all their inventory. It's not just about profit margins, they might even go up (I don't know who is profiting from higher prices, AMD says no, no doubt retailers do, but I don't know about AMD partners), but about consumers forgetting Sapphire brand, because they don't have NVidia cards to offer instead (like Asus, Gigabyte etc. have), if mining craze persist for long time.

 

[JamesSneed]

If I were at Sapphire Tech I'd be very, very worried right now. Gamers can't get their hands on Sapphires midrange cards for nowhere close to reasonable prices if at all and now they have to implement efficient and quiet air cooling solution on TDP 295W VEGA? Good luck with overclocking reference design... OC power consumption 330W+ at 45-50 dB noise levels under load? They're probably seriously considering working also for the green side right now.

gamer or not the most important thing is they able to sell the card without having to give discount. sure they did not profit from the retailer mark up but the profit margin still better than have to giving discount just so they can move the initial inventory. but the long term effect might not be pretty. if the bubble burst then the market will be flooded with used card. maybe they just hope miner will move to other algo and keep their existing card instead of flooding them on used market. manufacturer did show their concern with all this mining craze:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_oHQPWRWnQ&t=687s

btw Sapphire can't simply go to nvidia and said they want to sell nvidia stuff. some of nvidia partner will not going to like that.

CEO of Sapphire Tech was seriously concerned about miner companies and individuals, buying all their inventory. It's not just about profit margins, they might even go up (I don't know who is profiting from higher prices, AMD says no, no doubt retailers do, but I don't know about AMD partners), but about consumers forgetting Sapphire brand, because they don't have NVidia cards to offer instead (like Asus, Gigabyte etc. have), if mining craze persist for long time.

Pretty valid point. The mining craze wont last forever so It would certainly suck to loose all brand recognition then have to renter the consumer market.

 

[renz496]

with Vega onwards AMD will focus less on multi GPU:

https://www.techpowerup.com/235699/amd-giving-up-on-crossfire-with-rx-vega

 

[Martell1977]

Sapphire is known as one of the highest quality GPU's. Miners don't care about the brand, they just want the cards. Since nVidia cards are partially taking part in the mining craze, though to a less degree, all companies are making great profits.

I just hope that Vega doesn't get swallowed up as polaris has, but I'm sure AMD and it's board partners would be Ok with it. As long as some consumers are able to get some of the cards. AMD GPU revenues should be strong either way.

 

[jaymc]

"As you can see, the Radeon RX Vega 56 is quite the potent monster at $399... where it not only trades blows with the GeForce GTX 1070, but slaps it around considerably. It looks like we can expect the RX Vega 56 to be a huge 32% faster than the GTX 1070 in BF1 at 1440p."

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/58635/amd-radeon-rx-vega-56-leaked-benchmarks-gtx-1070-killer/index.html

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

"As you can see, the Radeon RX Vega 56 is quite the potent monster at $399... where it not only trades blows with the GeForce GTX 1070, but slaps it around considerably. It looks like we can expect the RX Vega 56 to be a huge 32% faster than the GTX 1070 in BF1 at 1440p."

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/58635/amd-radeon-rx-vega-56-leaked-benchmarks-gtx-1070-killer/index.html

Somebody's benchmarks are wrong.. but at least it's not not terrible.

http://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/2652-battlefield-1-graphics-card-benchmark-dx11-vs-dx12

 

[jaymc]

How much is the "EVGA SuperClocked" cards clock speed increased it from standard clocked 1070 ?

Looks to be too big of a discrepancy though..

Also I suppose bare in mind that this is a reference card... the saphire version of the RX Vega 56 will be even faster..

So this card is starting to look very attractive an with a better perf/watt as well... ie not a space heater !