Technical Issues Affecting Custom AMD Vega Card Production

[kcarbotte]

We’re hearing from sources that AMD’s AIB partners have found several issues with Vega chips that prevent them from creating custom cards for now.

Technical Issues Affecting Custom AMD Vega Card Production : Read more

 

[JackNaylorPE]

This is bad .... in not so distant times, nVidia took the top 2 tiers and AMD had the rest ... then it was top 3 ... this round it's top 4. Now AIB partners, most notably MSI who typically had the best AMD offerings ... is walking away from Vega. AMD needs to fix this right away.

 

[TheTechGen]

hearing from sources what sources?

 

[JackNaylorPE]

hearing from sources what sources?

They quoted them in the article:

XFX and Sapphire confirmed that they both have custom boards in the works, but they could not say when they might be ready. PowerColor said that it will have its own custom cards, with mass production scheduled for the beginning of November, but it hasn't yet received the DRAM it needs. (VisionTek didn’t immediately reply to our queries about their future offerings.)

AMD also has partnerships with Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI to build Radeon graphics cards, but these three companies don’t have exclusive deals with AMD. As such, they aren’t driven by necessity and have the luxury of choosing which components to support. We spoke with all three companies, and their responses indicated that their support for the Vega architecture is less definitive than AMD’s exclusive partners.

Asus confirmed that those cards are still coming, although the release date has been pushed back from September to early October.

Although a Gigabyte rep said it’s likely that the company would be producing a custom Vega card, they would not or could not confirm with 100% certainty that it will.

MSI’s response surprised us. The company traditionally offers re-engineered graphics cards with custom PCB designs for all high-end GPU platforms, but it appears to be skipping the Vega lineup. A company representative told us that MSI “won’t be making a custom card anytime soon,” but could offer no additional information.

Sources tell us that there is too much variance in the quality of the chips AMD is providing.

Obviously, that last statement was crafted to protect their sources as any journalist would. On top of the HBM problem, this makes it very expensive for board partners to make money.

 

[Casecutter]

Ah, The second tier AIB throwing shade like this article. AMD is fulfilling the contract for Apple iMac as that is releasing end of this year. Just like why the Tonga XT never showed, and 380X was not brought in until late. AMD is working to supply the corporate custom clients first, it provides for a known ROI and year end bottom line.

 

[cryoburner]

The difference in package design between the different factories doesn't seem like that much of an issue. All AMD has to do is make an agreement with a given card manufacturer that they will receive one design or another. Then they don't have to worry much about making their coolers work well with both formats.

 

[darthbonehead8]

Gigabyte and MSI have realised they can't just re purpose the Pascal cooler which is why Sapphire, XFX and Powercolor (AMD only AIBs) are all onboard, Asus is lifting their game after the fiasco with their Hawaii cards (They reused the Kepler coolers and it sucked).

I mean there's nothing stopping them from bringing out a model with the same clock speeds as the reference card is there?

 

[bit_user]

I mean there's nothing stopping them from bringing out a model with the same clock speeds as the reference card is there?

Then why bother with all the added costs? If it runs at the same clocks, then they won't be able to sell it for (much) more, so it's not worth the effort. Doubly-so, if Vega poses added challenges and issues.

I just wonder whether the production lines making the reference boards have the capacity to scale up, or if this could become a bottleneck for getting Vega cards to market in time for the holidays.

 

[darthbonehead8]

I mean there's nothing stopping them from bringing out a model with the same clock speeds as the reference card is there?

Then why bother with all the added costs? If it runs at the same clocks, then they won't be able to sell it for (much) more, so it's not worth the effort. Doubly-so, if Vega poses added challenges and issues.

I just wonder whether the production lines making the reference boards have the capacity to scale up, or if this could become a bottleneck for getting Vega cards to market in time for the holidays.

The majority of AMD AIB cards are at reference clocks anyway, considering AMD has stated RX Vega runs at 1247/945 base so anything over that is considered an overclock right?

I'm sure the marketing teams can whirl up some "30% Overclock" figure to slap on the box while the card is at the same clock speeds as reference.

Most people just want a different cooler for Vega, overclocking your GPU doesn't matter that much outside of benchmark, especially not the little 20-50Mhz bumps that board partners give them.

 

[hapkiman]

Ryzen was a long overdue feather in AMDs hat. But Vega.....a big big disappointment and as it seems poorly designed as well. Hopefully they get it done better with their Navi line in 2 years.

 

[gc9]

What does this sentence mean?
"PowerColor said that it will have its own custom cards, ... but it hasn't yet received the DRAM it needs."

I thought AMD's product included VEGA and the HBM memory as a unit preassembled on the interposer.

If Powercolor is waiting on DRAM...

Does that mean that they are waiting on HBM chips, and the board manufacturers are so dissatisfied with the quality of the interposer/HBM/VEGA assembly that they are going to try to assemble it themselves?

Or does it mean that they are waiting on interposer assemblies, and they heard the assemblies are delayed because a shortage of HBM DRAM?

Or does it mean that they are waiting on "better" interposer assemblies, because the memory installed on the interposer assemblies they've received isn't working well enough in their product designs?

 

[alithegreat]

When it's AMD, i really love HIS digital cards, wonder what they are up to?.
I have a his r9270x IceQxTurbo sth very silent and cool even with overclock.

 

[Wisecracker]

The good news is AMD Vega 64/56 seems to be well stocked at this moment (though you may only purchase a single card in a combo deal).

The bad news is AMD Vega 64/56 is roughly $700/$500, and instead of forwarding my payroll taxes to Uncle Sugar, I snagged this Radeon RX Vega 56 Wolfenstein II / PREY combo deal for $500 (good news for me except for that tax thing).

The THG hand-wringing over Vega is kinda cute. When the hysteria ends, things shake-out, inventories and the market equalizes (including that mining bunch, updating drivers, etc), I suspect the Radeon Vega 56 will settle in around $370 to $380 before fancy rebates and game 'bundling'

That should cut a good $100+ off the GTX 1080, -70 & -60 for the nVidia fans ... and bring the AMD Polaris RX 580/70 prices back down to earth, too.

 

[bit_user]

instead of forwarding my payroll taxes to Uncle Sugar, I snagged this Radeon RX Vega 56 Wolfenstein II / PREY combo deal for $500 (good news for me except for that tax thing).

Um... feel free not to answer this, but are you saying you judged it wiser to commit tax evasion than simply carry some balance on a credit card?

I try like heck not to carry a credit card balance. But, there are times I've done it, when I needed/wanted something badly enough to justify the interest. As long as you have a plan to pay it off, credit's not a bad thing.

BTW, as much as I grumble about spending > $500 on graphics cards, it pales in comparison to some car parts I've bought without much reservation. Some things are just relative.

 

[Embra]

Gigabyte WILL release Custom Radeon RX Vega 64 Cards:

http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/gigabyte_will_release_custom_radeon_rx_vega_64_cards.html

 

[Wisecracker]

instead of forwarding my payroll taxes to Uncle Sugar, I snagged this Radeon RX Vega 56 Wolfenstein II / PREY combo deal for $500 (good news for me except for that tax thing).

Um... feel free not to answer this, but are you saying you judged it wiser to commit tax evasion than simply carry some balance on a credit card?

I try like heck not to carry a credit card balance. But, there are times I've done it, when I needed/wanted something badly enough to justify the interest. As long as you have a plan to pay it off, credit's not a bad thing.

BTW, as much as I grumble about spending > $500 on graphics cards, it pales in comparison to some car parts I've bought without much reservation. Some things are just relative.

1) I prepay my state and Federal taxes though I am under no legal obligation to do so; and
2) Over the last 3 years I've likely pushed $100K through my 'plastic magic' and paid $7.37 in total interest (with no annual fees, mind you) with $00.00 interest paid thus far in calendar year 2017.

Thank you for your concern and needless hyperbole.

 

[bit_user]

1) I prepay my state and Federal taxes though I am under no legal obligation to do so; and
2) Over the last 3 years I've likely pushed $100K through my 'plastic magic' and paid $7.37 in total interest (with no annual fees, mind you) with $00.00 interest paid thus far in calendar year 2017.

Thank you for your concern and needless hyperbole.

Hey, good for you.

...speaking of needless, let's not forget who went into needless detail about his finances, but without adequate detail that we'd know exactly what you were on about. If you'd just said "instead of pre-paying this quarter's taxes...", then it would've been clear you were still paying them. Or just leave your taxes out of it and say "it would've fit next quarter's budget better...".

...but any discussion of your finances is basically inviting commentary. So, I apologize for nothing.