In the high-end AMD left NVIDIA free field for fifteen months during which we had to settle for the rumor of the Vega's astonishing architecture. An architecture that has also faced several problems probably due to the decision to use HBM2 memory, as fast as it is young and expensive. But after so much to think a bald courier came to our door with a rather heavy package. Inside, wrapped in AMD's red insignia, an opaque black matte box with sleeves for the sleek, sleek cases that also contain some stickers and a non-functioning GPU die Vega as a reminder. But our attention flies quickly into the center of the special casket, which completely opens up the cardboard cover, where a massive transparent holo-cube stands out with the three-dimensional logo of the Vega cards in the middle. And it is a delicate and easy-to-spend item as a quality nerd furniture, although what we are concerned about is hiding on the last item, a long, discreetly heavy case. Raised the cover we are faced with the massive Radeon RX Vega 64 which is available from yesterday in a stand-alone version of 499 euros and in a particular 599 euro bundle.
THE ARSENAL OF RADEON RX VEGA 64
Before going to the numbers it is good to keep in mind that we compare a reference with a MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X that is faster than the Founders Edition. In addition, the Radeon RX Vega 64 has just come out and the software ecosystem is likely to fail to fully exploit it. It does not surprise us that the Tach Indicator, a strip of LED located on the video card queue that shows the load of the GPU, reveals how some games put the hardware harder than others. The card, however, has its charm, monolithic and obscure, armored in satin-finish aluminum, packed in two slots and all geared up by the classic Radeon livery holes. Architecture is the fifth-generation GCN, stream processors 4069 and 14-nanometer transistors are 12.5 billion. Connectivity includes an HDMI port and three DisplayPorts, all on the same line. At the second slot occupied by the board, there are the slots for the passage of the air that is leaked at the back of the blower design. On the back, however, there is an ax support at the fan and GPU, while at the top left there are two tiny switches, maybe a bit too small, which can turn off the LED's LED lighting or change the LED Color from red to blue.
FIRE TO DUST
If the GeForce GTX 1080 is satisfied with a good 500W power supply, the Radeon RX Vega 64 pushes itself above 600W with its typical 295W consumption and, at least according to the information on the card box, it's good to make sure Which comes with 750. Sincerity seems to be an overwhelming number, even with overclocking rather than pushing, but the fact that AMD exaggerates with requests does not surprise us because under stress the consumption exceeds abundantly the 300W, with all that Which results in overheating. The card, equipped with air blower cooling, immediately warms up even in idle, and in Overwatch, a lightweight but able to take advantage of the GPU's bone, the fan becomes extremely noisy and the temperatures quickly touch up to eighty degrees The 70 of the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X. But before going to talk about games and optimization we start from the Passmark 3DMark test that is particularly interesting. Apparently GPU's ability to calculate reaches 7442 points against the 7634 of a GTX 1080 custom that, according to the findings, is lower than the Radeon RX Vega 64 in vector calculation and particle management. Among the games where Vega is best for her, there are The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 101FPS media without active hairworks against 103 of the MSI GeForce GTX Gaming X, and Ashes of the Singularity that by some problem in 1080p where The NVIDIA card wins nearly five percentage points, but sees the Vega recover, also thanks to HBM2 memory, once passed to 1440p!
Moreover, we are talking about a board designed for the QHD and no doubt capable of running at over 60 frames per second most of the games in circulation, as evidenced by over 70 frames per second of The Witcher 3 and nearly 130 of DOOM. And the new AMD flagship does not hurt even 4K by pushing DOOM at 69fps thanks to the Vulkan libraries and overthrowing the situation with Ashes of the Singularity that in Ultra HD runs better on Vega than on GeForce. Overwatch, however, in 4K drops to 58 frames per second against the rather stable GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X, but AMD hardware has proven to have more than one problem with the Blizzard title. Not surprisingly, in 1080p it stops at 150 frames against the GeForce's 179 which brings one of the most lucrative victories. On the other hand, Radeon's Deus Ex benchmark: Mankind Divided and Doom are in favor of 1080p, with maximum settings at 185 frames per second, compared to the 177 of the NVIDIA card. The script, in essence, is what we are used to for a while, with the DirectX 12 and the Vulcan that see the top Radeon and the DirectX 11 favoring NVIDIA cards. But power is not lacking, as well as no appreciable performance in the mining though certainly not glorious as rumored by some rumors, and this means that greater optimization should provide margins of sensible improvement. It will instead require a hardware review to lower the consumption that is undoubtedly excessive, and in the case of Radeon RX Vega 64 air cooled, it has important temperatures. The price, moreover, is that of the GeForce GTX 1080, which despite the fact that it still holds a bench, and is far more balanced and silent, although it should be said that any major enhancements in the new AMD cards could pose the question of consumption. Additionally, to make the whole thing more appealing, there are the Radeon Packages with the Black that, dedicated to the Radeon RX Vega 64, includes two games, including Prey and Wolfenstein II, plus a $ 100 discount on purchasing a Ryzen processor 7, from 1700X necessarily accompanied by one of the motherboard-related bidding, and $ 200 discount on a 34-inch FreeSync Ultrawide (3440x1440) monitor.