AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 and 56 Reviews [*UPDATED* Aug 28]

[Glo.]

You're assuming that either of those is what's holding Vega back, which we have no proof of.

Also, that Civ 6 graph is a clear example of driver overhead. It got nothing to do with GPU performance.

Adored have tested Vega Liquid Cooled version vs GTX 1080 Ti from MSI, and Vega FE was faster in this game.

 

[krumme]

Well wtf did just happen. It seems i ordered fermi 2 ultra burn edition aka vega 64. lol

I needed a blower style card to play bf1 4k 60fps at high and same for Wolfenstein 2 on my free synch monitor, and for some reason the price of this card was 10% below lowest 1080.
I dont know why price was such, perhaps its an error? hmm. Should come in 6 days.
I will surely undervolt a bit, and take a slight perf hit, and let temp get to 90c to keep noise down and less throtle, but still it can handle 4k at high settings in the games i care for. I am pretty sure this extra hot fermi will get very close to 1080ti blowers in Wolfenstein at 4k.
Bad margins for AMD with a huge die and hbm2, and a crappy perhaps even meaningless card from a business perspective, but i couldnt care less as a gamer. I want perf/cost and works fine in 2 years. Lets see if the price was real or a bug

 

[Ancalagon44]

I wonder what AMD will do from here. They really screwed up Vega if you ask me. Sure, drivers will probably improve it, maybe it will eventually gain +20% performance, by the time everyone has already bought 1070s, 1080s, 1080Tis or Volta series GPUs.

If we are lucky, they will release a refined version of Vega. Remember when they released the 2900XT? A few months later, they released the 3870, which was a die shrunk and drastically improved 2900XT. Maybe the same will happen here?

Incidentally, the time of the 2900XT was the last time I bought an Nvidia card, because the 8800GTS was just so much better than the 2900XT. I think it might be the same for a lot of people. I want to support AMD, but if Vega can't even mine well, then it really is no use to me.

 

[Tweak155]

Have there been Vega 56 preorders? Can't seem to find any yesterday, only found 64's. I know the 56 release is supposed to be 2 weeks later, is that also true for the pre-orders?

 

[zinfamous]

Have there been Vega 56 preorders? Can't seem to find any yesterday, only found 64's. I know the 56 release is supposed to be 2 weeks later, is that also true for the pre-orders?

Not sure, but these things put out Bugatti-level heat with the horsepower of a Dodge Charger. I'd wait for the AIB cards with superior coolers. Now, I'm going SFF, so a blower would theoretically be best for me, but I'm starting to think a Tri-X would still be better. Even if the 56 is far more efficient than the 64, it is going to reach those same power levels if you ever hope to OC it.

 

[Crumpet]

AdoredTV review with the low power profile has brought back a little bit of faith for me.

But UK prices need to change.

 

[dark zero]

AMD is just giving up the gaming scene... Is very possible that the next generation nVIDIA will use their Xavier chip to beat AMD Jaguar one...

 

[Tweak155]

Not sure, but these things put out Bugatti-level heat with the horsepower of a Dodge Charger. I'd wait for the AIB cards with superior coolers. Now, I'm going SFF, so a blower would theoretically be best for me, but I'm starting to think a Tri-X would still be better. Even if the 56 is far more efficient than the 64, it is going to reach those same power levels if you ever hope to OC it.

I don't think I'll even pre-order, just wondering why I couldn't find any right now. I too will wait and see how the AIB versions pan out, I am not in major need to upgrade luckily, this 970 still does what I need it to do. But I do plan on spoiling myself with another monitor soon, so want to do both... FreeSync I think will be in my future which is my main interest.

 

[Bouowmx]

Honestly if Navi slips at all (like Vega did) there has to be some chance of there being 3050's up there as well Although I suppose the consoles mean that AMD are at least likely to push out a decent new mid range chip like the 470/80.

The thing is, slides from this year's AMD Financial analyst day do not say there is any direct Polaris replacement in the near future; AMD intends to use Polaris in 2018 (as the Rebrandeon RX 680 lol ). Vega 11 might be one, sliding in between Radeon RX 580 and Vega 56, or single-die Navi, if the Navi base die happens to be Vega shranked, 4096 cores.

 

[Mopetar]

AdoredTV review with the low power profile has brought back a little bit of faith for me.

The Adored review just highlights how much of a bottleneck this card must have, because you can only get an extra 10% performance in some cases for an extra 200 watts, even though the clocks are increasing by more than that amount. This almost seems like an anti-Zen in terms of balance.

 

[Face2Face]

Gamer's Nexus was able to confirm that VEGA 56 has a hard BIOS limit of 300w. Just increasing the power limit to +50% effectively get's you there. I wonder is AIB variants will ship with a higher limit?

 

[nathanddrews]

Updated first post with AdoredTV YouTube.

 

[PeterScott]

It's pretty clear that Zen has been the priority, but something that is being overlooked is that both Polaris and Vega have made significant improvements in memory bandwidth efficiency. Vega does have significantly improved absolute performance vs Fiji despite having less bandwidth available. That likely bodes well for the upcoming Zen/Vega APUs, which is where the bulk of the market is, particularly in mobile.

Improved Memory Bandwidth efficiency? That's a bit of a stretch. It may have improved a bit, or it could be that Fiji just had more than necessary.

Either way it isn't very good vs the competition. Vega has ~ 480 GB/s of memory bandwidth and it struggles against the GTX 1080 which has about 350 GB/s.

Raven Ridge will be a very nice part with a CPU section that is competitive with Intel, and an APU better than Intels iGP, but that is about it. Don't expect Raven Ridge to challenge event he lowest end NVidia mobile dGPU.

Getting your hopes up on something big happening in the Vega part of the Raven Ridge APU, is just setting up for another Vega disappointment.

 

[Bouowmx]

What is going on? https://www.overclock3d.net/news/gpu_displays/amd_s_rx_64_launch_pricing_was_only_for_early_sales/1

450 GBP for AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Air Black (stand-alone) is only an introductory offer, which may be closed in the future, leaving only the 550-GBP Vega 64 Air Black packs available.

Although this info is coming from the same person (Overclockers UK Gibbo) that claimed very high Vega mining performance.

 

[Mercennarius]

Still don't understand why there i so much negativity torwards AMD and Vega here. The only other company making competitive gaming GPUs just released a new set of cards going toe to toe and in some cases beating Nvidia's best offerings all at equal or lower pricing. Not to mention technologies in someway more advanced than what's available in an Nvidia GPU (HMB, better DX12/Vulkan support). Sure it's not significantly faster, sure Nvidia will come out with better performing GPUs in less than a year. But at least we have a viable option to compare with the 1080s/1070s now, and one that works with freesync monitors (cheaper than g sync), and ones that will probably age better if you use the last few generations as reference for longevity. As a consumer this should be a positive release even if it didn't demolish Nvidias current offerings.

Also, energy efficiency has never really been a big concern at the top end of gaming GPUs until the last couple years. Not sure why people really care that much as the vast majority who want to spend $500 on a GPU already have PSUs plenty capable for Vega 64. Unless your mining, power consumption should rank pretty low when comparing top of the line GPUs...it historically has. As someone who still owns a Hawaii GPU...which is known as being a power hungry GPU, I could careless about it's energy usage and the extra 10 cents a year it costs me...i'm just happy that 4 years after release it's still performing great.

 

[krumme]

Gamer's Nexus was able to confirm that VEGA 56 has a hard BIOS limit of 300w. Just increasing the power limit to +50% effectively get's you there. I wonder is AIB variants will ship with a higher limit?

Probably. But as Vega have the best vrm setup seen on a card to date, you probably want that too
I see far more perspective in undervolting the card as Gamers Nexus did. From 1.2mv to 1.03 -1.09mv. You can use it to gain perf 12.5% in games for a meager 30watts more or perhaps undervolt more and let power take a huge, huge nose dive.
I will try the latter on my rx64 - the rx 56 seem more sound out the gate.

btw. interesting to see if driver updates changes mining results. If they do to the far better; All this is irrelevant as we will end in a polaris situation.

 

[Qwertilot]

The suspicion has to be that it won't be that relevant anyway - they'll keep the good dies for Apple and some of the compute/workstation stuff and simply not make many of the gaming cards. More or less the only rational move at this point anyway.

 

[PeterScott]

Still don't understand why there i so much negativity torwards AMD and Vega here. The only other company making competitive gaming GPUs just released a new set of cards going toe to toe and in some cases beating Nvidia's best offerings all at equal or lower pricing.

GTX 1080ti is NVidia's best offering. Vega comes nowhere near it.

MSRP for GTX 1080 is $499, and GTX 1070 is $349. This is better pricing than AMDs.

AMD only looks better when comparing it's MSRP to NVidias mining inflated street pricing.

It also looks like there were only a token amount of cards at AMD's MSRP, and most are selling for $599, making Vega a worst deal at street pricing as well.

Mostly the negativity is because Vega is VERY late to the field, and was hyped more than Ryzen, leading many to expect a Ryzen type breakthrough when all that arrived was an expensive, second tier competitor that has VERY poor perf/watt.

 

[Mercennarius]

GTX 1080ti is NVidia's best offering. Vega comes nowhere near it.

MSRP for GTX 1080 is $499, and GTX 1070 is $349. This is better pricing than AMDs.

AMD only looks better when comparing it's MSRP to NVidias mining inflated street pricing.

It also looks like there were only a token amount of cards at AMD's MSRP, and most are selling for $599, making Vega a worst deal at street pricing as well.

Mostly the negativity is because Vega is VERY late to the field, and was hyped more than Ryzen, leading many to expect a Ryzen type breakthrough when all that arrived was an expensive, second tier competitor that has VERY poor perf/watt.

Give it a couple months after the initial demand slows down and supply catches up and you should see pricing at MSRP levels (or better). Last year I bought a RX 480 for $150 new after instant rebate...less than 6 months after launch. Also I can't seem to find a single 1070 for sale under $400 online.

Asus is rumored to be working on releasing a Vega 64x2 which would make it the most powerful graphics card ever released, trouncing the 1080 Ti.

 

[MBrown]

Everyone is just bandwagoning on the hate. The cards work regardless if they came out over a year late or if they are power hungry. AMD is not going to close up shop next week. The world is not not going to end. Everyone just need to calm down and relax. If someone wants an all AMD system, fine. They will be able to play games at 1070 or 1080 levels and good for them. Case closed.

 

[tamz_msc]

Give it a couple months after the initial demand slows down and supply catches up and you should see pricing at MSRP levels (or better). Last year I bought a RX 480 for $150 new after instant rebate...less than 6 months after launch. Also I can't seem to find a single 1070 for sale under $400 online.

Asus is rumored to be working on releasing a Vega 64x2 which would make it the most powerful graphics card ever released, trouncing the 1080 Ti.

Nobody will buy a card that exists for the sake of existing, especially a dual-GPU card in this day and age. Asus did these designs in the past too, like the Mars and Ares. Nobody is interested in a 3.5 slot 700W TDP card.

 

[Malogeek]

Case closed.

Review sites, social media and community forums for tech wouldn't exist if products were taken as they were and accepted without any consideration.

 

[MBrown]

Review sites, social media and community forums for tech wouldn't exist if products were taken as they were and accepted without any consideration.

They were late to the game, They use too much power. However the performance is on par with the 1080 and 1070. The hate is going WAY overboard. Lets slap their wrists and move on. There are more important things in life to worry about. I too need to move on.

 

[Mercennarius]

Nobody will buy a card that exists for the sake of existing, especially a dual-GPU card in this day and age. Asus did these designs in the past too, like the Mars and Ares. Nobody is interested in a 3.5 slot 700W TDP card.

Guess you never followed how successful the 295x2 was? They were always sold out, performed incredibly well, and 4 years later STILL sell for $600-$700+ used.

 

[EXCellR8]

actually planned on buying a 295x2 but it wouldn't have fit in my choice case... it's a truly massive card but I could have scoffed one around $400 several months back from a local CL seller. DEF should have bought it anyway. could have easily doubled my money when the mining thing hit, though I have trouble parting with great hardware.

i think I might just get a damn Vega because I got FSync and I didn't realize how far behind the RX 480 is in comparison to the 1070/1080. not buying right now though, that's for damn sure.