[SOLVED] Radeon 7 vs rtx 2080 in May 2019

[EatMyPizza]

I am trying to decide between these two cards, and at the launch of the Radeon 7, it looked like the RTX 2080 was the winner, however I've seen some newer reviews done in April on youtube and it seems that new drivers have helped the Radeon 7 a lot, and it's pretty much right on par with the 2080, if not better, outside of ray tracing of course.

I live in Canada, and the Radeon 7 cards are generally cheaper. The absolute cheapest 2080, is about the same as what I can get the Radeon 7 for though. I also like the 16gb of ram, (8gb seems kind of pathetic on a card as expensive as the 2080) only thing I don't like about the Radeon 7 is the ugly as shit red lights on it.

Is there any more recent reviews on the Radeon 7? Like I said I found a few, but they are hard to come by. People pretty much reviewed it on launch and forgot about it.

I would be pairing either card with a 9900k and a BenQ EX3501R monitor.

 

[Eximo]

That is typical of AMD cards, they tend to age better. But it could also be argued that they don't do their best at the first driver release. So Nvidia, get what you pay for immediately, or slowly wait for improvements from AMD. The argument works the other way as well, free additional performance over time.

All the reviews I looked at was very benchmark/game specific which card came out on top. And testing conditions could easily skew the results. For example I think Tom's is still using an i7-7700k as their test rig, whereas others are using X99 with high end Intel chips to eliminate bottlenecks, so don't take them at face value.

Reviews after the card has been out a while don't make most media outlets money, so not much point in doing them. Usually have to wait for something of significance to be released for them to be reviewed again. And only mid-range cards have been released by Nvidia lately, which won't typically get compared to high end cards like the Radeon VII (I keep wanting to abreviate that as R7, but that would just be doubly confusing)

When the RX 3000 series cards come out you should see more recent reviews in bulk. (Why they can't just stick with a numbering scheme for more than a minute is beyond me, always have to make their numbers bigger than the competition, can't have their own voice...)

Personally, I would pick the 2080 for the overclocking headroom. My understanding with the Radeon VII is that it suffers the same problems as Vega 56 and 64, the chip heats up and then you are done increasing the clock speed. You can get a small boost out of the memory though. RTX cards with GPU boost 4.0 will get up there in clock speeds, but with a little fiddling you can force that speed out of it.

The very basics, if doing 4K, the Radeon is a little better. If doing 1440p or 1080p than the RTX is better. Not sure about 3440x1440 though. Should be closer to 1440p in terms of bandwidth I would think.

Memory rant (and now I learned the shorthand for strikethrough, tildes)

The real problem with 16GB of memory is when it will be used. For the average gamer, that answer is far far in the future, and by then that GPU will be quite obsolete. Also expensive memory and is a big reason the Radeon VII isn't as competitive as it could be.

AMD has a habit of putting large amounts of memory in the cards prematurely for gamers because they are catering, and designing, their GPUs to the enterprise first. That is why you have 8GB R9-390 so long ago when high end GTX cards were 4GB and 6GB.

So while it is good in some use cases, pretty much a waste for now.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I cant agree more. I would go for the 2080, but if you do workstation tasks, the 16gb AMD card may help you.

 

[EatMyPizza]

That is typical of AMD cards, they tend to age better. But it could also be argued that they don't do their best at the first driver release. So Nvidia, get what you pay for immediately, or slowly wait for improvements from AMD. The argument works the other way as well, free additional performance over time.

All the reviews I looked at was very benchmark/game specific which card came out on top. And testing conditions could easily skew the results. For example I think Tom's is still using an i7-7700k as their test rig, whereas others are using X99 with high end Intel chips to eliminate bottlenecks, so don't take them at face value.

Reviews after the card has been out a while don't make most media outlets money, so not much point in doing them. Usually have to wait for something of significance to be released for them to be reviewed again. And only mid-range cards have been released by Nvidia lately, which won't typically get compared to high end cards like the Radeon VII (I keep wanting to abreviate that as R7, but that would just be doubly confusing)

When the RX 3000 series cards come out you should see more recent reviews in bulk. (Why they can't just stick with a numbering scheme for more than a minute is beyond me, always have to make their numbers bigger than the competition, can't have their own voice...)

Personally, I would pick the 2080 for the overclocking headroom. My understanding with the Radeon VII is that it suffers the same problems as Vega 56 and 64, the chip heats up and then you are done increasing the clock speed. You can get a small boost out of the memory though. RTX cards with GPU boost 4.0 will get up there in clock speeds, but with a little fiddling you can force that speed out of it.

The very basics, if doing 4K, the Radeon is a little better. If doing 1440p or 1080p than the RTX is better. Not sure about 3440x1440 though. Should be closer to 1440p in terms of bandwidth I would think.

Memory rant (and now I learned the shorthand for strikethrough, tildes)

The real problem with 16GB of memory is when it will be used. For the average gamer, that answer is far far in the future, and by then that GPU will be quite obsolete. Also expensive memory and is a big reason the Radeon VII isn't as competitive as it could be.

AMD has a habit of putting large amounts of memory in the cards prematurely for gamers because they are catering, and designing, their GPUs to the enterprise first. That is why you have 8GB R9-390 so long ago when high end GTX cards were 4GB and 6GB.

So while it is good in some use cases, pretty much a waste for now.

So do you think it's worth the price premium? or just get the cheapest 2080 i can find. The absolute cheapest 2080 I can get, would be the same price as the Radeon 7. That model is the Msi Ventus. Any of the higher end 2080 models are an extra $100-$200 here.

 

[Eximo]

Well, if cost is your biggest deciding factor I think you have made your decision.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Also don't forget you get 2 games worth about $100 as well in the AMD Radeon, and we know the NAVI release won't be until Q3 which means July to September 2019.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Sounds like the radeon 7 is the better option to me.

 

[King_V]

It does to me. It will likely be louder, as the Radeon VII is less power efficient and thus generates more heat and uses more electricity.

BUT, if, for the games you play, it outperforms the 2080, AND you want those two particular games that are included with the Radeon VII, and you have good cooling/airflow in your case, and a beefy powers supply, then the Radeon VII is the way to go.

 

[Dreamevil55]

I'd go for the RTX 2080, and Ventus is a good card. The difference between it's expensive counterparts, just coolers. Depends on your need though. For gaming, obviously the RTX because that 16GB of HBM2 will only come in handy in some workstation tasks, as AMD's GCN requires much more memory bandwidth to perform at Nvidia's levels. Radeon VII will probably pull ahead in the future due to AMD's steady and slow driver fixes. The 2080 is also power efficient. Ultimately it is upto you, as they are both similar cards. My reasoning for 2080 is that when you are gonna pay top dollars, you would want stability. Nvidia provides that on high end.

 

[EatMyPizza]

I'd go for the RTX 2080, and Ventus is a good card. The difference between it's expensive counterparts, just coolers. Depends on your need though. For gaming, obviously the RTX because that 16GB of HBM2 will only come in handy in some workstation tasks, as AMD's GCN requires much more memory bandwidth to perform at Nvidia's levels. Radeon VII will probably pull ahead in the future due to AMD's steady and slow driver fixes. The 2080 is also power efficient. Ultimately it is upto you, as they are both similar cards. My reasoning for 2080 is that when you are gonna pay top dollars, you would want stability. Nvidia provides that on high end.

That makes sense. I pretty much have it narrowed downt to the MSI Ventus RTX 2080, or the Saphire Radeon 7. One thing I didn't mention either is that my monitor is Freesync and not Gsync, and while Gysnc compatibility mode does work, it also causes a glitch sometimes where I have to turn my monitor off and on in the middle of the game to fix it.

So if price is equal going with the cheapest 2080, and im not concerned with power draw, it's basically a matter of, do I want the card that is ugly as living shit and will look like crap in my case (Radeon 7), or the card that doesn't work properly with my monitor's adaptable refresh technology. lol

 

[NightHawkRMX]

When you are gaming you will be looking at your monitor and notice the async difference and not the ugliness of the card in your case.

 

[Dreamevil55]

Well, you can't go wrong with either of the cards, Both are great, on par with each other. Just different in power draw. As for your adaptive sync issues, well, I suppose Radeon VII is the way to go for you. It's not that ugly lol. We'd be having a different conversation if it was RTX 2080 Ti.

 

[EatMyPizza]

Well, you can't go wrong with either of the cards, Both are great, on par with each other. Just different in power draw. As for your adaptive sync issues, well, I suppose Radeon VII is the way to go for you. It's not that ugly lol. We'd be having a different conversation if it was RTX 2080 Ti.

Thanks, I just ordered the new GOLD edition of the Radeon 7 right from the AMD site. At least this one looks kind of cool. I like the red. The bonus games are nice.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Yup the 50th-anniversary edition looks pretty cool. You don't get many color choices even from AIB partners with this card. Had to laugh when I saw AMD showcasing the Radeon 7 on their website and they had 5 cards from different manufacturers with the same looks.