AMD VEGA confirmed for 2017 H1

[akarypid]

Why is everyone so upset at this timeline? Was AMD previously claiming Vega would launch sooner, or is it just that people were hoping for sooner and are disappointed?

I'm not into spending all that much for GPUs, so I couldn't really be bothered, but for what it's worth I'm guessing this all has to do with Zen.

Most likely, GlobalFoundries will be the deciding factor for whether Vega is launched in Q1 or Q2 or later... It is essential that GF optimise their process for Zen, because that's where the money is.

If AMD/GF succeed in Zen it will be huge. Even if Vega came out tomorrow and was super-fast, grabbing 100% market share from the 1070/1080, it would still be peanuts compared to the money Zen can make in comparison.

If Zen is a success and yields are good, Vega will come out as soon as enough Zen chips have been manufactured to saturate Zen demand.

If Zen is a failure, there will probably no longer be an AMD around and Vega will be released by whomever buys RTG.

 

[triss]

Why is everyone so upset at this timeline? Was AMD previously claiming Vega would launch sooner, or is it just that people were hoping for sooner and are disappointed?

I'm not into spending all that much for GPUs, so I couldn't really be bothered, but for what it's worth I'm guessing this all has to do with Zen.

Most likely, GlobalFoundries will be the deciding factor for whether Vega is launched in Q1 or Q2 or later... It is essential that GF optimise their process for Zen, because that's where the money is.

If AMD/GF succeed in Zen it will be huge. Even if Vega came out tomorrow and was super-fast, grabbing 100% market share from the 1070/1080, it would still be peanuts compared to the money Zen can make in comparison.

If Zen is a success and yields are good, Vega will come out as soon as enough Zen chips have been manufactured to saturate Zen demand.

If Zen is a failure, there will probably no longer be an AMD around and Vega will be released by whomever buys RTG.

I think people are disapointed as they were looking forward to AMD having a current Gen top tier gpu to compete with.
Quite a few 390x/fury owners out there looking for a bit more power and atm only way to get that is to jump ship to Nvidia

 

[akarypid]

I think people are disapointed as they were looking forward to AMD having a current Gen top tier gpu to compete with.
Quite a few 390x/fury owners out there looking for a bit more power and atm only way to get that is to jump ship to Nvidia

...and that's like changing you religion right?

Well, anyone who is such a big fan of AMD really must give them a pass on how late Vega is, because if Zen flunks... there'll probably never be another AMD graphics card at all!

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Hopefully its able to compete with whatever the high end nvidia offering at the time is

It won't, as they aren't competing with Nvidia anymore, they have moved into the VR market, they said this months ago.

 

[theforce]

The 390 wasn't part of the of the Fury line of cards, so why shouldn't AMD just release a, let's say a 3500 shader 490 until Vega is ready. I would guess that Nvidia's GF1070 far outsells it's bigger brother. If AMD can release a part that competes with the 1070 in performance and price they would be set

 

[Gerard]

It won't, as they aren't competing with Nvidia anymore, they have moved into the VR market, they said this months ago.

They said that about polaris, they've said absolutely nothing about what vega is going to be aimed at.

 

[TNA]

Ooooh Vega

I am expecting good things from Vega. Don't know why people are selling it short. Why look at Polaris as an indicator so much? Was not build for desktop primarily, was for laptops. Not only that, Vega is a new architecture and will have HBM 2.

I fully expected small vega to contend with 1080 at least and big vega to beat Titan Pascal. If not it will be fail IMO. I mean by the time Vega is out, Volta will be not to far off which will mean 1170 that will likely be not to far off from Titan P performance. So yeah, big vega better beat Titan Pascal and I fully expect it to do so.

 

[Panos]

What I do not get, if AMD is planning to release Vega next year, especially since 1H means for them June, why they stopped producing Fury cards completely?

 

[N19h7m4r3]

What I do not get, if AMD is planning to release Vega next year, especially since 1H means for them June, why they stopped producing Fury cards completely?

HBM is probably just too expensive, and too much hassle.

It's a shame really, the cards are good still. Especially with recent price adjustments.

 

[Twirlywoos]

Wish they got rid of the fisher price cooler as well.

I know it looks so crap. Nvidia's reference coolers look very stylish and perform okay too in comparison.

 

[Gerard]

What I do not get, if AMD is planning to release Vega next year, especially since 1H means for them June, why they stopped producing Fury cards completely?

Dunno, with the exception of the fury duo its pretty hard to get anything else from that line. Only cards in quantity are their lower end cards, 380/480 etc.

 

[Dave2150]

What I do not get, if AMD is planning to release Vega next year, especially since 1H means for them June, why they stopped producing Fury cards completely?

Because anyone with a brain knows 'high' end cards with only 4GB of VRAM are completely worthless in August of 2016.

 

[akarypid]

Because anyone with a brain knows 'high' end cards with only 4GB of VRAM are completely worthless in August of 2016.

What about all us people with half a brain, you insensitive clod?

 

[NirK]

Agreed, but it's a slow recovery, roles were reversed years back but Nv managed it and look where they are now.

Whether AMD can do it as quick remains to be seen.

Down side to it for everyone in that performance bracket is performance advancement has reduced/cost increased due to lack of competition imo.

I think this is exactly the problem, graphics cards success are based around when they can release the performance, the slowness of AMD, is the problem... by the time the release Vega, anything up to 12 months from now, Nvidia will easily have some Pascal update or Volta cards... AMD behind again. If nvidia released the 970 now for example, it would not be impressive, but when they released it about 2 years ago it was. So unless the Vega is extremely good, then it does not look very good for AMD.

 

[Panos]

Because anyone with a brain knows 'high' end cards with only 4GB of VRAM are completely worthless in August of 2016.

Up to two weeks ago, hadn't see a game using more than 4GB at 2560x1440 with everything at max.
Only XCOM 2 came close at 3960MB.......

 

[TNA]

Up to two weeks ago, hadn't see a game using more than 4GB at 2560x1440 with everything at max.
Only XCOM 2 came close at 3960MB.......

This is true. Only like 4 games have I ever seen go over 4GB and that is me on 4K. It is not a big deal, just use Very High instead of Ultra textures or something, problem solved...

That said, going forward you really do want to get yourself an 8GB card, even more so if you are the type who keeps the card longer than 2 years.

 

[DarrenM343]

I think this is exactly the problem, graphics cards success are based around when they can release the performance, the slowness of AMD, is the problem... by the time the release Vega, anything up to 12 months from now, Nvidia will easily have some Pascal update or Volta cards... AMD behind again. If nvidia released the 970 now for example, it would not be impressive, but when they released it about 2 years ago it was. So unless the Vega is extremely good, then it does not look very good for AMD.

It could be that AMD are planning a bigger jump in performance. I don't think it was that long ago Nvidia did a similar thing, ie, seemed a bit behind, slow to get product out then suddenly they were ahead and have been since. Not sure AMD have the resources though and have wondered if they are behind with their GPU's because they're focusing on CPU's and Intel for now. Pure speculation....

 

[Doom112]

It could be that AMD are planning a bigger jump in performance. I don't think it was that long ago Nvidia did a similar thing, ie, seemed a bit behind, slow to get product out then suddenly they were ahead and have been since. Not sure AMD have the resources though and have wondered if they are behind with their GPU's because they're focusing on CPU's and Intel for now. Pure speculation....

There is no hidden story or conspiracy theory behind. It AMD simply lack of resources and cannot match Nvidia at this point as simple as that ,which is the reason why they hired Chinese works and shifted their whole VEGA production in china.

A good example is that Polaris 11 requires same amount of watt ,which is required for GTX 1070 on laptop and GTX 1070 is 3X faster then that card.


AMD has given up on high end because they know that they have to beat Nvidia not only with the performance but more importantly with efficiency as well ,which is the key point of success for OEM and laptops market.

Just beating Nvidia on raw performance ,however taking 2X amount of power is ultra fail product in terms of overall quality.

For example RX 480 custom models take same amount of power as GTX 1080 takes.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/msi_rx_480_and_gtx_1060_gaming_x_review/1

 

[NirK]

It could be that AMD are planning a bigger jump in performance. I don't think it was that long ago Nvidia did a similar thing, ie, seemed a bit behind, slow to get product out then suddenly they were ahead and have been since. Not sure AMD have the resources though and have wondered if they are behind with their GPU's because they're focusing on CPU's and Intel for now. Pure speculation....

I am not hopeful to be honest, I think AMD are just behind. But could be wrong, although I have not seen anything to prove this.

 

[Panos]

@Doom112 is not all Doom and gloom....

AMD has a lot on it's basket atm. October has to supply SONY & MS with new powerful PS4 and XBone chips. If the orders on those items are high and production capacity with it's suppliers hits the limit of course and there are going to be delays to other products.

They do not grow potatoes, but designing chips which others manufacture.