ASUS' Custom RX Vega Product Pages Surface After 4 Months - Details Still Scant

[Raevenlord]

Four months of silence after what can only be classified as a premature announcement, ASUS has finally put up the product pages for their custom RX Vega 56 and 64 graphics cards, marketed under the Strix branding. Yield and packaging issues, as well as differing chip characteristics between different AMD packaging partners, have greatly affected TTM on RX Vega's custom designs, which were sorely needed so as to improve on some of the reference cards' shortcomings. Sadly, the product pages are just that - product pages - and lack the holy trinity of graphics cards important information - clock speeds, pricing, and availability.





Tech specs are in the same ballpark as ASUS' other Strix offerings: there's ASUS' Aura Sync RGB LED support for aesthetics, a 2.5" cooler which ASUS boasts of enabling a 40% increase in dissipation area - bringing about a 30% increase in cooling capabilities and an up to 300% reduction in operating noise. ASUS' MaxContact technology is being marketed as leveraging the best precision machining tools in the industry, increasing evenness of the copper contact plate and therefore increasing contact area for improved heat transfer - by up to 2x as much. The power delivery is being quoted as 12+1 design, which should ensure Vega's typical power hunger should be fully fed. The dual fans are also IP5X certified when it comes to dust resistance, for improved reliability and lifespan.



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[zo0lykas]

Sad, so now need wait maybe gigabyte release with waterblock from factory, to safe money and time.

 

[RejZoR]

4 months after RX Vega launch and there is still literally nothing. How they expect any sales when most people are waiting for aftermarket ones because the blowers literally suck. One would expect these cards being released in 2 weeks to max 1 month after reference launch, not this 4 months delay with nothing really known for actual release. A bit absurd.

 

[Boosnie]

Sad, so now need wait maybe gigabyte release with waterblock from factory, to safe money and time.

MAGA

 

[QinX]

That MaxContact picture is hilarious.
You can see the bad photoshop since the GPU die goes through the blue line xD

 

[dj-electric]

RX VEGA has to be the biggest head-ache to GPU makers in forever.
What a frikin' mess of a product launch.

 

[Boosnie]

That MaxContact picture is hilarious.
You can see the bad photoshop since the GPU die goes through the blue line xD

Look more carefully buddy.
You are misjudging AF.

EDIT: The plate in blue is rising 1 mm over the base plate with screws, hence the different reflection.

 

[Vya Domus]

RX VEGA has to be the biggest head-ache to GPU makers in forever.

Nah , they just don't don't care that much about it.

 

[deu]

Long story short: I like AMD and in many ways they are the hero we need (compared to nvidia) But their Vega launch have be a catastrophe of proportions. Them not being able to get communication up and running with partners and their decision of first allowing this to happen now will destroy their fan-base (or at least whats left of the hope for their GFX's) VEGA will better power calibration and aftermarketcoolers from start combined with even more focus on drivers could have resulted in a different market. Vega has been made obsolete before it even came out by AMD. Unless that was their plan that is frighteningly bad launch from AMD. (And again I want to root for AMD...)

 

[iO]

Sadly, the product pages are just that - product pages - and lack the holy trinity of graphics cards important information - clock speeds, pricing, and availability.

1590Mhz, super cheap 699€ MSRP, starting next week.

 

[Hood]

Long story short: I like AMD and in many ways they are the hero we need (compared to nvidia) But their Vega launch have be a catastrophe of proportions. Them not being able to get communication up and running with partners and their decision of first allowing this to happen now will destroy their fan-base (or at least whats left of the hope for their GFX's) VEGA will better power calibration and aftermarketcoolers from start combined with even more focus on drivers could have resulted in a different market. Vega has been made obsolete before it even came out by AMD. Unless that was their plan that is frighteningly bad launch from AMD. (And again I want to root for AMD...)

Do you really still think any of this was "Them not being able to get communication up and running with partners" ? Their customers were the ones cut out of the loop, not their partners - I'd guess the partners all knew they wouldn't be getting any GPUs once the news of severe shortages hit, 4 months ago. They just played along with the AMD BS generator to appease their long-suffering customer base. "sigh" - another victim who doesn't even realize he's been had.

 

[T1beriu]

The ASUS RX Vega page was up and running since October! I kept checking it to see if updates pop up.

What is with you guys and the fake news written lately, mostly very old news recycled and packaged as brand new info or worse?!

You guys wrote:

1. that Intel's Core-S has more PCI lanes than Ryzen,
2. That AM4, after a year, finally has some CPUs that make us of it's video out ports,
3. that you just found out that AMD is using AM4 until 2020,
4. that Raven Ridge is discovered to have mXFR,
5. that Vega Mobile made a sudden, unexpected turn and dropped HBM2 in favor of DDR4.

and the list is endless.

 

[Gasaraki]

4 months after RX Vega launch and there is still literally nothing. How they expect any sales when most people are waiting for aftermarket ones because the blowers literally suck. One would expect these cards being released in 2 weeks to max 1 month after reference launch, not this 4 months delay with nothing really known for actual release. A bit absurd.

None of which is the 3rd party manufacturer's fault. Vega is a shit show. The different height between the HBM2 memory and core that varies between different manufacturers of the Vega GPU and different power requirements and different clocks is not making it easy for ANY 3rd party to make Vega cards. That is why it's not even worth it for them to come out with Vega 56 versions.

The 1070Ti was available from 3rd party brands on the first day of release.

 

[Vayra86]

4 months after RX Vega launch and there is still literally nothing. How they expect any sales when most people are waiting for aftermarket ones because the blowers literally suck. One would expect these cards being released in 2 weeks to max 1 month after reference launch, not this 4 months delay with nothing really known for actual release. A bit absurd.

Have said it many times: AMD really doesn't want Vega to sell like hotcakes, because HBM2 is still expensive, the margins cannot be good on these products, and it all goes back to the old eternal AMD story of 'revenue but no profit'.

Company culture... hard to change.

 

[iO]

Have said it many times: AMD really doesn't want Vega to sell like hotcakes, because HBM2 is still expensive, the margins cannot be good on these products, and it all goes back to the old eternal AMD story of 'revenue but no profit'.

Company culture... hard to change.

And again, not the HBM is the problem but Apple as most Vega dies were reserved for the iMac Pro. Not a coincidence that most custom cards will launch around the same time as the iMac..

 

[RejZoR]

Have said it many times: AMD really doesn't want Vega to sell like hotcakes, because HBM2 is still expensive, the margins cannot be good on these products, and it all goes back to the old eternal AMD story of 'revenue but no profit'.

Company culture... hard to change.

And why wouldn't they want that? I mean, if margins are low, then you need to compensate that with MASSIVE volumes. If you don't even bother with that, then what's the entire point of even producing ANYTHING? You have to make profit somehow and stacking small margins in large numbers can also create large income. There is demand, but supply is garbage, especially when it comes to better aftermarket coolers which anyone half serious wants over the crappy blowers which all of them suck but for those who need blower because of tiny case or something.

 

[Midland Dog]

That MaxContact picture is hilarious.
You can see the bad photoshop since the GPU die goes through the blue line xD

and it has the wrong die, looks like GP104

 

[Vayra86]

And why wouldn't they want that? I mean, if margins are low, then you need to compensate that with MASSIVE volumes. If you don't even bother with that, then what's the entire point of even producing ANYTHING? You have to make profit somehow and stacking small margins in large numbers can also create large income. There is demand, but supply is garbage, especially when it comes to better aftermarket coolers which anyone half serious wants over the crappy blowers which all of them suck but for those who need blower because of tiny case or something.

Massive volumes of HBM2 based cards, in a marketplace where the price of memory chips has been exploding the past year? Supply is garbage because freeing up manufacturing capacity is too expensive, not because somehow HBM2 is like a rare element only found on the peak of Mt. Everest in 20mg quantities.

The supply issue is simply a different beast: buying production capacity is too expensive for such a low-volume product. Because even ifVega would sell like hotcakes, in the larger scale of things its just a sliver of the market.

Its a simple business case, its about money, thus about margin on the product itself, which is too low, which is a consequence of it performing below expectations, which in turn makes it retarded for AMD to invest in producing it in the current marketplace. They've had more than enough time to crank out a large quantity of product by now and this is also the reason the AIBs are not keen on it. They need to put a team on a product that will never sell reliably. Remember: it was smoke and mirrors around Vega from the day it was announced, until after its release, with the weird pricing structure that actually didn't count for anyone as a shining example.

And again, not the HBM is the problem but Apple as most Vega dies were reserved for the iMac Pro. Not a coincidence that most custom cards will launch around the same time as the iMac..

Alright. Let's see if the 'Apple problem' (just another example of smoke and mirrors, the Apple deal didn't fall out of the sky yesterday and can be planned for) ever goes away then. Because around time of release there was no such Apple problem, it was an 'HBM2 supply problem' because apparently, these chips really do grow in tiny quantities on Mt Everest. I also heard that AMD had every intention of delaying its release because they had to get their production in order. Boy, this is getting weirder by the minute, isn't it?

You'll understand my skepticism

 

[Hood]

The ASUS RX Vega page was up and running since October! I kept checking it to see if updates pop up.

What is with you guys and the fake news written lately, mostly very old news recycled and packaged as brand new info or worse?!

You guys wrote:

1. that Intel's Core-S has more PCI lanes than Ryzen,
2. That AM4, after a year, finally has some CPUs that make us of it's video out ports,
3. that you just found out that AMD is using AM4 until 2020,
4. that Raven Ridge is discovered to have mXFR,
5. that Vega Mobile made a sudden, unexpected turn and dropped HBM2 in favor of DDR4.

and the list is endless.

Yes, there's a disturbing trend here, not quite fake news, but slanted or headlined in such a way to generate clicks and volatile posts. Plus, misleading by omitting information. TPU is still my favorite hardware site; their literary sins pale in comparison to most other sites. If that's what it takes to make money doing this, I tend to forgive them. But I believe only what's confirmed from several (reputable) sources. Pay attention to who wrote an article, you'll see a pattern.