AMD has been on a roll recently releasing new hardware and software products alike, but nothing has been as eagerly anticipated as RX Vega- their upcoming Radeon GPU flagship for gamers and PC enthusiasts alike. Today we are happy to be able to share some photographs we took of the retail RX Vega card ourselves, which in turn also provides some useful information to digest while we all await more.After the break, we have more pictures and information from other sources so be sure to read further.

The Radeon RX Vega pictured above has a similar aluminum cooler shroud as the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition except in a brushed silver finish. The Radeon logo and other LEDs on the card also seem to shine red here to go with the Radeon color scheme. The cooling solution is similar to reference air-cooled VGAs from AMD with a two-slot blower cooler design and what should be an aluminum or copper heatsink underneath the shroud. The reference RX Vega sports three full-size DisplayPort and one full-size HDMI connectors all in the same row allowing airflow exit holes above and making this a potential one-slot card if paired with a single-slot cooling solution such as a water block on an AIO or as part of a custom watercooling loop. Powering the card are two 8-pin PCIe power connectors which add credence to the previous rumors about a 300+ W TDP on the card.We see the "tachometer" style indicator LEDs on the back which provide a visual estimate of the GPU activity. Dip switches on the back indicate you will be able to change the LED color, at least between a choice of red and blue. There is also a metal backplate with the same color finish as the shroud, and this extends the length of the card with cutouts around and over the core to allow air to escape. There is also a dual BIOS switch by the side of the PCB which is very handy when overclocking, and indicates that perhaps we will see a silent and overclocking mode on the card. AMD has always been impressive with their reference PCB design and this appears to be no exception. Note that the PCB appears to be ~10-12" long based on quick visual estimates, meaning any space reduction from HBM as we had with the Radeon Fury series does not transfer over here.Also present alongside was the RX Vega Watercooled Edition, which sports a similar shroud as the Limited Edition except with an AIO cooling solution instead. Two sleeved coolant tubes exit the top of the shroud and end in a single 120 mm radiator and fan similar to the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Liquid-Cooled card. If things have carried over further, we expect to see a Cooler Master full cover water block with pump and reservoir mounted over the PCB and a high-speed Nidec-Serve Gentle Typhoon-inspired Cooler Master fan on the radiator. The cooler appears to be the only differentiating factor among the two editions we saw.Radeon RX Vega appears to have an RX Vega 64 moniker, if Videocardz.com is right. We do not know for sure what the number refers to, but suggestions from others point to the number of texture mapping units in which case there may be other SKUs with higher or lower TMUs denoted by said number. The VGA card pictured above is the same as what we got our hands on and is supposedly the RX Vega 64 Limited Edition, which the rest of the card appears identical to the non-limited, regular, edition of RX Vega that, as per Videocardz.com, should resemble the reference RX 400/500 series with a plastic shroud and black color scheme instead.

Pictured also is the GPU inside an Alienware system that houses the upcoming Threadripper HEDT platform from AMD, with what appears to be an Asetek CLC on a custom TR4 socket mounting bracket. This leads us to believe that many third-party cooling solutions will simply re-use existing AM4 coolers, and this agrees with our previous report on the same. Time will tell if this ends up compromising Threadripper CPU cooling or not.

Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly, is pictured what is being referred to by AMD themselves as a "Radeon Holocube" which has Radeon Vega printed on it and also has a mention of it being "enabled by Radeon Software". It appears to be a display with a screen at least on one side, so perhaps it connects to a system and acts as a GPU status monitor? Your guess is as good as mine here, but needless to say it is intriguing and we will bring you more information as we get it.