AMD Redefines the Enthusiast Gaming Experience with Radeon RX Vega

[btarunr]

AMD today formally launched the Radeon RX Vega family of GPUs, engineered to be the cornerstone of the world's most advanced and exciting PC gaming platforms. Designed with forward-looking technologies that punch well above their weight, Radeon RX Vega graphics cards mark AMD's return to the enthusiast-class gaming segment and a continuation of the company's calculated strategy to democratize leading technologies, giving more gamers access than ever before.

There are three variants of Radeon RX Vega: Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition, engineered with 64 compute units to be the most powerful Radeon ever built; the Radeon RX Vega 64 with air cooling, and the Radeon RX Vega 56, available starting at just $399 USD SEP. For a limited time in select regions, AMD and its industry partners are offering Radeon RX Vega purchasers an unprecedented assembly of gamer "must-haves" in new Radeon Packs, including deep discounts on select Ryzen multi-threaded CPUs and motherboards combos as well as select Samsung displays with Radeon FreeSync displays, and two extraordinary AAA game titles - all the ingredients necessary for the best possible PC gaming experience in one of the biggest industry collaborations ever seen.



"The enthusiast gaming experience is defined by high resolutions and a tear-free, buttery smooth 60 frames per second, something that only approximately 600,000 gamers are capable of enjoying today. But there are 4 million more gamers who aspire to enjoy that same enthusiast gaming experience without breaking the bank, and with Radeon RX Vega graphics cards we're working to give them that. The combination of a Radeon RX Vega graphics card, a beautiful FreeSync display, and a high-performance Ryzen CPU and motherboard is everything a gamer needs to enjoy the best possible gaming experience, and with our Radeon Packs, we're delivering all three at a tremendous value. The groundbreaking new features in the 'Vega' architecture, including the High Bandwith Cache Controller, Rapid Packed Math, Next-Generation Compute Units, and Refined Geometry Engine, will ensure that gamers get even more out of their investments as new games take full advantage of them in the weeks and months to come," said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD.

Radeon RX Vega: The most advanced consumer graphics cards in the world
Radeon RX Vega graphics cards are built on the "Vega" GPU architecture, a direct response to the evolving complexity and visual demands of today's games. To meet these needs the "Vega" GPU architecture puts pioneering graphics technologies previously reserved for high-end graphics products into the hands of enthusiast gamers everywhere. Bleeding-edge capabilities like Rapid Packed Math, the High Bandwidth Cache Controller and new Geometry and Pixel Engines will help push the performance envelope while gaming in low-level APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan, giving developers more flexibility in designing the most intricate and beautiful virtual worlds in today's and tomorrow's games.

• Architected for better enthusiast-class gaming - The Radeon RX Vega represents the most sophisticated GPU architecture ever designed for enthusiast-class gaming. It features next-gen compute units enabling native processing of multiple data-type operations in each clock cycle, and supporting variable data types making for a versatile architecture across workloads, an enhanced geometry engine enabling incredible efficiency in processing complex geometry while delivering more than 200% of the throughput-per-clock over previous Radeon GPU architectures, an optimized pixel engine that improves performance through a "fetch once, shade once" approach, and the world's most advanced GPU memory architecture consisting of a High Bandwidth Cache composed of 8GB of leading-edge HBM2 memory, doubling the bandwidth-per-pin over the previous generation HBM technology, and delivering 60% more memory bandwidth over GDDR5. Together these advances result in the Radeon RX Vega's phenomenal computational muscle: up to 13.7 TFLOPS of peak performance to power through even the most demanding games and VR applications.
• Exceptional premium design - Radeon RX Vega gaming cards have been impeccably designed with state-of-the-art, premium styling. Select models feature a satin-brushed aluminum shroud, an anodized aluminum backplate, customizable GPU tach meter and iconic LED illumination, and controls for dual vBIOS. Air-cooled versions boast the latest isothermic vapor chamber for maximum heat displacement while the liquid-cooled version features a next-generation cooling design incorporating a high-efficiency pump, zero-bend radius tubing and a Nidec Gentle Typhoon fan for quiet operation.
• Leading display technologies - PC gamers expect variable refresh rate to be a standard feature for monitors, and they don't expect to pay an extra 'feature tax' to get it. Radeon RX Vega graphics cards support Radeon FreeSync technology, a true leap forward for PC gaming enabling smooth, vibrant HDR gaming4, 10-bit display support and low-framerate compensation. There are more than 200 FreeSync displays available today, almost seven times more than costlier competing technology. Radeon RX Vega graphics cards support HDMI 4K60 and DisplayPort 1.45, enabling high-resolution and high-refresh displays powering experiences such as Radeon FreeSync with high-refresh, Ultra HD, ultrawide, and single-cable 5K resolutions.
• Unmatched capabilities and control with Radeon Software - Radeon Software compliments the sophisticated hardware of the Radeon RX Vega graphics card, enabling the ultimate in performance, features and stability to ensure an exceptional out-of-box experience that will keep getting better. New Radeon Software features launched last week also benefit Radeon RX Vega users. Radeon WattMan now enables memory underclocking for more engine headroom, fine-grained power state controls for increased performance or power savings, and auto-overclock and auto-power save features that allow WattMan to automatically adjust GPU power states to your preference.6 The best capture, stream and sharing software in Radeon ReLive is now even better with options for higher bitrate recording at 100 mbps, camera transparency for increased HUD visibility, refined notifications and enhanced audio controls. And the AMD LiquidVR 360 plugin for VR Video Playback is the first GPU-accelerated end-to-end solution for HEVC 4K x 4K VR video playback7. Designed for 360 stereoscopic videos, the plugin supports ambisonic audio and is accelerated by the GPU to enable 65% higher frame rates8, no dropped frames9, and improve power consumption by 15% during playback.

Radeon Packs: Everything you need for the best experience
A great PC gaming experience comes down to more than just graphics. Serious gamers know that to achieve high resolutions and a buttery smooth 60 frames per second, there are two must-have elements: a beautiful adaptive refresh display for smooth, stutter-free gaming and heightened immersion, a multi-threaded processor to deliver astounding performance on a motherboard that supports these next-generation components. Built around the new Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, Radeon Packs are designed to put all of those technologies at gamers' fingertips, allowing them to make these upgrades much more cost-effectively than were they to buy each component alone to drive silky 60+ frame-per-second 4K gaming in more than 100 popular titles.

Radeon Packs include a $200 discount on the 34" Samsung CF791 curved ultrawide FreeSync monitor, and a $100 discount on select Ryzen 7 1800X processor and 370X motherboard combos -- $300 in combined hardware savings. To power the new setup, there are three options for Radeon RX Vega:

• Radeon Red Pack - Featuring the Radeon RX Vega 56, an air-cooled card priced at $499 SEP.
• Radeon Black Pack - Featuring the Radeon RX Vega 64, an air-cooled card priced at $599 SEP.
• Radeon Aqua Pack - Featuring the Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition, the most powerful of the Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, priced at $699 SEP.

Along with the Radeon RX Vega graphics card, the discount on the Samsung monitor with Radeon FreeSync and Ryzen CPU+motherboard, each Radeon Pack also includes, in select regions, two highly anticipated games in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Prey for free, an estimated $120 value.

For gamers who already have the ideal setup and just want to get their hands on a groundbreaking Radeon RX Vega graphics card, AMD is also offering the Radeon RX Vega 56 on its own, the world's most powerful graphics card under SEP $400, and the Radeon RX Vega 64 air-cooled card priced at SEP $499.

1. Discrete AMD Radeon and FirePro GPUs based on the Graphics Core Next architecture consist of multiple discrete execution engines known as a Compute Unit ("CU"). Each CU contains 64 shaders ("Stream Processors") working together. GD-78
2. Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled has 13.7 TeraFLOPS of performance while the previous most powerful Radeon graphics card was the Radeon R9 Fury X at 8.6 TeraFLOPS.
3. Based on internal AMD market estimates.
4. HDR content requires that the system be configured with a fully HDR-ready content chain, including: graphics card, monitor/TV, graphics driver and application. Video content must be graded in HDR and viewed with an HDR-ready player. Windowed mode content requires operating system support. GD-96
5. As of June 2017. Product is based on the DisplayPort 1.4 Specification published February 23, 2016, and has passed VESA's compliance testing process (excluding HDR) in June 2017. GD-123
6. Overclocking AMD processors, including without limitation, altering clock frequencies / multipliers or memory timing / voltage, to operate beyond their stock specifications will void any applicable AMD product warranty, even when such overclocking is enabled via AMD hardware and/or software. This may also void warranties offered by the system manufacturer or retailer. Users assume all risks and liabilities that may arise out of overclocking AMD processors, including, without limitation, failure of or damage to hardware, reduced system performance and/or data loss, corruption or vulnerability. GD-106
7.AMD LiquidVR available on Radeon VR Ready Premium Products, which are select Radeon GPUs that meet or exceed the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive recommended specifications for video cards/GPUs. Other hardware (including CPU) and system requirements recommended by Oculus Rift or HTC Vive should also be met in order to operate the applicable HMDs as intended. As VR technology, HMDs and other VR hardware and software evolve and/or become available, these criteria may change without notice. PC/System manufacturers may vary configurations, yielding different VR results/performance. Check with your PC or system manufacturer to confirm VR capabilities. GD-102
8. Testing done by AMD Performance Labs as of July 17, 2017 using Intel i7 5960X CPU (3.0 GHz), 16GB DDR4-2666 Mhz MHz memory with Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.7.2 and Windows 10 (64bit). PC manufacturers may vary configurations yielding different results. When running the game Alien: Covenant In Utero at 3840x3840 (4K by 4K), the Radeon RX 580 (8GB) system with AMD LiquidVR 360 SDK ON saw an average of 90 frames per second and the system with AMD LiquidVR 360 SDK OFF saw an average of 54.5 frames per second. This results in a 65% increase in frames per second with AMD LiquidVR 360 SDK ON. All times an average of 3 test runs. Results are estimates and may vary. Performance may vary based on use of latest drivers. RS-166
9. Testing done by AMD Performance Labs as of July 17, 2017 using Intel i7 5960X CPU (3.0 GHz), 16GB DDR4-2666 Mhz MHz memory with Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.7.2 and Windows 10 (64bit). PC manufacturers may vary configurations yielding different results. When running the game Alien: Covenant In Utero at 3840x3840 (4K by 4K), the Radeon RX 580 (8GB) system with AMD LiquidVR 360 SDK ON saw an average of 0 frames dropped and the system with AMD LiquidVR 360 SDK OFF saw an average of 179 frames dropped. All times an average of 3 test runs. Results are estimates and may vary. Performance may vary based on use of latest drivers. RS-166
10. Testing done by AMD Performance Labs as of July 15, 2017 using an Intel i7 5960X CPU (3.0 GHz), 16GB DDR4-2666 with Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.7.2 Mhz and Windows 10 (64bit). PC manufacturers may vary configurations yielding different results. When running the game Alien: Covenant In Utero at 3840x3840 (4K by 4K), the Radeon RX 580 (8GB) system with AMD LiquidVR 360 SDK ON saw an average of 153W and the system with AMD LiquidVR 360 SDK OFF saw an average of 179W. This results in an 15% decrease in power consumption with AMD LiquidVR 360 SDK. All times an average of 3 test runs. Results are estimates and may vary. Performance may vary based on use of latest drivers. RS-163
11. Testing by AMD performance labs, July 10, 2017 on a test system using an Intel Core i7 7700K, 16GB DDR4, Radeon RX Vega 64 air cooled, driver 17.30-170711n. PC manufacturers may vary configurations yielding different results. A wide array (including AAA, Indie, e-sports games) of over 100 games were tested at 3840x2160 resolution at different settings & APIs to average over 60fps. All testing was an average of three test runs. Results may vary based on driver version used. VG-19
12. Games and availability may differ by region. Please check your local etail outlet for more details.
Radeon Packs and Radeon RX Vega graphics cards are expected to be available starting August 14th.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[dinmaster]

good pricing, need real performance information to place it, but around 1080gtx its a meh

 

[cadaveca]

Ugh, prices are great, performance is perfectly fine, but it really sucks that they have the "Limited Edition", and it's limited, and that the WC one is only available in a package deal. AMD kind of missed the boat on that IMHO, but lets give them some time to get them in stores and see how it all pans out. Retail launches usually lead to cards being available here in Canada about 6-8 weeks after, meaning that these limited edition cards are likely never going to be something I could buy, even though I have already purposely saved money up to buy whatever the top-dog Vega, and I don't want that ugly black reference card.

 

[Totally]

Ugh, prices are great, performance is perfectly fine, but it really sucks that they have the "Limited Edition", and it's limited, and that the WC one is only available in a package deal. AMD kind of missed the boat on that IMHO, but lets give them some time to get them in stores and see how it all pans out. Retail launches usually lead to cards being available here in Canada about 6-8 weeks after, meaning that these limited edition cards are likely never going to be something I could buy, even though I have already purposely saved money up to buy whatever the top-dog Vega, and I don't want that ugly black reference card.

Feeling the same, in the same boat. Realized this scenario playing out yesterday, and felt a bit cheated. Going to wait and see what non-reference cards the AIB partners release and hope one of them makes an equally compelling card as the LE.

Side note, I think it is a missed opportunity on AMD's part to not have the LEDS on the LE card RGB.

 

[RejZoR]

I frankly don't care about limited editions. I have a black case without any windows. I just want performance. Besides, I won't be buying a reference model anyway. So, it doesn't really matter.

Btw, if Limited Editions will sell well, there is very high chance aftermarket vendors will create a blower style aftermarket cooled design that looks similar to Limited Edition. We know GTX 1080 came in Aero and Turbo versions which were blower types...

 

[Prima.Vera]

Hmmmm, if the performance of the top card is less than an 1080, then those prices really don't make any sense. Remember, this is only a paper lunch, while the 1070 and 1080 cards can be found anywhere, even discounted.
When can we expect some reviews?

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

bring on the intel fanbois!!!!

60% more bandwidth over GDDR5? wait wasnt all the conjecture saying HBM2 is a big fail and is actually slower than gddr5??

I doubt skeptics will have much fodder to argue with here.

 

[cadaveca]

I frankly don't care about limited editions. I have a black case without any windows. I just want performance. Besides, I won't be buying a reference model anyway. So, it doesn't really matter.

Btw, if Limited Editions will sell well, there is very high chance aftermarket vendors will create a blower style aftermarket cooled design that looks similar to Limited Edition. We know GTX 1080 came in Aero and Turbo versions which were blower types...

Sure. Blower cards are great for case temps, and that's all, really. but when you read the PR, it almost seems like they are punishing people for having already bought Ryzen, or using Intel:

For gamers who already have the ideal setup and just want to get their hands on a groundbreaking Radeon RX Vega graphics card, AMD is also offering the Radeon RX Vega 56 on its own, the world's most powerful graphics card under SEP $400, and the Radeon RX Vega 64 air-cooled card priced at SEP $499.

That says, to me, here, you already got a system, have this inferior card, the Vega 56, or a card with a plastic cooler and no lights, and no watercooling.

Now, I understand that hey, maybe rewarding people that will buy a full system is great, but with this so soon after the Ryzen launch, not making these other cards available to those users that bought Ryzen seems like slap in the face. In the least they could have offered some thing to those users as well.

bring on the intel fanbois!!!!

Meh. The prices are good, so there is truly little to complain about.

 

[RejZoR]

Maybe proof of ownership of existing Ryzen users. Provide serial number of the Ryzen CPU/motherboard and you become eligible for buying the Limite Edition/AiO stuff. To at least mitigate the issues of already going with Ryzen which makes the packs irrelevant to those users.

I'm still gonna wait for full reviews because quite frankly I don't exactly have an idea how each card performs against what I have now. No point in getting something for 500€ and gaining just few frames. AMD is pushing the "smooth gaming" thing a lot which is nice, but not having FreeSync monitor and being at 1080p 144Hz I kinda value high framerates at "lower" resolutions. Like I've said months ago, it might as well turn out that I'll go with GTX 1080 or even stay with GTX 980 till next generation. Though curiosity might kill my wallet anyway and I'll grab the Vega 64... We'll see.

 

[Solaris17]

This is great, wifesd machine needs to be updated and with my recent platform jump to x299 it will be cool to play with a cheaper AMD offering based on current stuff. I'll buy in fuck it.

 

[the54thvoid]

NDA for reviews? They've announced the damn card so when can we read the reviews? Come on @W1zzard, do you have one or an ETA?

 

[Assimilator]

bring on the intel fanbois!!!!

60% more bandwidth over GDDR5? wait wasnt all the conjecture saying HBM2 is a big fail and is actually slower than gddr5??

I doubt skeptics will have much fodder to argue with here.

1. Would you mind linking to a source claiming that HBM2 is slower than GDDR5? Because simple math would show this is impossible given the current speeds of those memories.
2. GDDR5X exceeds HBM1's bandwidth (512GB/s) when overclocked to 1500+ MHz, as reviews of the GTX 1080 Ti have shown.
3. HBM2 as implemented on Vega is faster but narrower than HBM1 (HBM1 = 4096-bit @ 500MHz, HBM2 = 2048-bit @ 945MHz) which means Vega actually has less memory bandwidth than Fiji (483.8GB/s vs Fiji's 512GB/s), and, in fact, slightly less memory bandwidth than GTX 1080 Ti at stock clocks (484.4GB/s).
4. AMD's GCN graphics cards are not bandwidth-starved, they're ROP-starved. HBM1 was a necessity for Fiji in order to keep its core fed because the GPU had to access memory far more often due to the fewer ROPs; that wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that Fiji was also constrained by its meagre 4GB of memory. Vega, being a GCN part, likely shares this limitation, but given that AMD has chosen to go with a memory solution of double the capacity that effectively gives less bandwidth than Fiji, it would seem that memory capacity is a more limiting factor for GCN than bandwidth.
5. Bandwidth, like FLOPS and MHz, is just another number that at the end of the day means nothing in isolation. I can build a "graphics card" that has one trillion GB/s memory bandwidth and does nothing more, does that make it better than Vega?

tl;dr if you anger-wank over memory bandwidth you're just another fanboy.

 

[R00kie]

Goddamn paper launches...

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

1. Would you mind linking to a source claiming that HBM2 is slower than GDDR5? Because simple math would show this is impossible given the current speeds of those memories.
2. GDDR5X exceeds HBM1's bandwidth (512GB/s) when overclocked to 1500+ MHz, as reviews of the GTX 1080 Ti have shown.
3. HBM2 as implemented on Vega is faster but narrower than HBM1 (HBM1 = 4096-bit @ 500MHz, HBM2 = 2048-bit @ 945MHz) which means Vega actually has less memory bandwidth than Fiji (483.8GB/s vs Fiji's 512GB/s), and, in fact, slightly less memory bandwidth than GTX 1080 Ti at stock clocks (484.4GB/s).
4. AMD's GCN graphics cards are not bandwidth-starved, they're ROP-starved. HBM1 was a necessity for Fiji in order to keep its core fed because the GPU had to access memory far more often due to the fewer ROPs; that wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that Fiji was also constrained by its meagre 4GB of memory. Vega, being a GCN part, likely shares this limitation, but given that AMD has chosen to go with a memory solution of double the capacity that effectively gives less bandwidth than Fiji, it would seem that memory capacity is a more limiting factor for GCN than bandwidth.
5. Bandwidth, like FLOPS and MHz, is just another number that at the end of the day means nothing in isolation. I can build a "graphics card" that has one trillion GB/s memory bandwidth and does nothing more, does that make it better than Vega?

tl;dr if you anger-wank over memory bandwidth you're just another fanboy.

Being sarcastic has its limits, having said that, I can say that was in reference to a forum post or two. The facts were promptly taken out to be wined and dined at intels expense.

 

[the54thvoid]

Is it really the case you cannot buy the water cooled edition on it's own? Having looked at the slides but not reading the small print because, yes, I CBA, is it:

$699 for the Water cooled version and you have to then also purchase (with a discount) a monitor or mobo/cpu bundle at added cost?

So you cannot buy the best version without a bundle? That makes no sense except for Samsung paying AMD money to tout their monitors with the end result being the consumer suffers if they dont want a new monitor or cannot afford one on top of the card. Or is it $699 for the whole bundle, which would be sweet indeed.

Bad enough Nvidia dont sell the Titan Xp with a water cooled option out of the box. Please AMD, don't start restricting what the consumer can buy with tie ins.

 

[LogitechFan]

Liquid version is as fast as 1080 FE, a year later, twice the tdp and $200 more... Surely, it's destined to succeed.

 

[EarthDog]

bring on the intel fanbois!!!!

60% more bandwidth over GDDR5? wait wasnt all the conjecture saying HBM2 is a big fail and is actually slower than gddr5??

I doubt skeptics will have much fodder to argue with here.

realists, were saying it doesnt matter until you get to 4k.... a resolution less than 1% of people on steam say they use.

Is a firehose really that awesome when a garden hose performs just fine for 99% of people?

Not trying to hate, bandwidth and hbm2 are great when needed.

 

[Prima.Vera]

I know you guys are going to hate me, but by the time those cards become available on the market, nVidia would have already launched the Volta series, putting those into the middle/low class.
Again...

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I know you guys are going to hate me, but by the time those cards become available on the market, nVidia would have already launched the Volta series, putting those into the middle/low class.
Again...

Hey now! #nopissingontheparadeforanotherweek

realists, were saying it doesnt matter until you get to 4k.... a resolution less than 1% of people on steam say they use.

Is a firehose really that awesome when a garden hose performs just fine for 99% of people?

Not trying to hate, bandwidth and hbm2 are great when needed.

Who are we to say who needs a firehouse or not? The problem is now that its been introduced, who can say no? Great things used to come in garden hoses, now we have a choice.

 

[EarthDog]

We are not saying it. The benchmarks did.

I can say no... a 1080ti does pretty darn well at 4k without.