Radeon VII

[bru]

Well I see AMD snatching defeat from the jaws of victory again.

Why on earth couldn't they just delay a week or so and get the drivers to work, sending out cards to reviewers with drivers that crash and break things all the time if you tinker with any of the settings is just a completely avoidable situation and a totally stupid thing to do.

Yes we all know that eventually they will get it right and the card will be a reasonable performer in the end, but don't they realise that first impressions count and day one reviews will be with the card for its lifetime.

From what I've read and watched so far.

Far too noisy.
Drivers not ready at all.
Well made card, but with poor GPU/package contact
Stupid warranty void sticker on the backplate screws.
Inconsistent performance, sometimes only just faster than the 2070, other times faster than the 2080.
Too expensive.

Kinda glad I'm not in the market for one, as if I had of gone for these initial release samples, I get the feeling I would be sending it back unopened, after looking at the reviews.

 

[Gerard]

Well made card, but with poor GPU/package contact
Stupid warranty void sticker on the backplate screws.

The contact is fine going by most reviews, 1 site had differing results but that's to be expected. As for the warranty sticker, commonplace on a lot of cards these days, though in some regions (like the U.S.) it's not enforceable at all.

 

[Harlequin]

Thankfully Nvidia are rebadging the GTX 1060 as a GTX 1660 to keep everyone happy!

 

[pmc25]

This makes it worse.

No it doesn't.

The nodes aren't even remotely comparable. TSMC 12nm that NVIDIA are using is a fully bespoke (built specifically for them) super high power very minor optical shrink loosely based on their 16nmFF node.

TSMC 7nmFF that they're using is a low power node, and different iteration of the primary mobile chip node.

The former is far more suitable in performance terms for big GPUs, and Vega wasn't even designed for 7nmFF. It was designed for 14nmFF GloFo / Samsung.

It'll be comparable once their cards are both on 7nmFF EUV next year. Though, by that time, AMD might be on Samsung (heavily rumoured that NAVI will be Samsung 7nmFF EUV) and NVIDIA on TSMC 7nmFF EUV (which again would be likely to be a high[er] power option than Samsung).

 

[Gerard]

Node sizes do my nut as there's no standard, one companies 7nm is equivalent to another companies larger size. Isn't the tsmc 7nm equivalent to 10 nm of one of the other foundries?

 

[JediFragger]

Thankfully Nvidia are rebadging the GTX 1060 as a GTX 1660 to keep everyone happy!

Which will still keep up with the 7 once heavily overclocked and in a nVidia favoured game.

 

[Rroff]

No it doesn't.

The nodes aren't even remotely comparable. TSMC 12nm that NVIDIA are using is a fully bespoke (built specifically for them) super high power very minor optical shrink loosely based on their 16nmFF node.

TSMC 7nmFF that they're using is a low power node, and different iteration of the primary mobile chip node.

The former is far more suitable in performance terms for big GPUs, and Vega wasn't even designed for 7nmFF. It was designed for 14nmFF GloFo / Samsung.

It'll be comparable once their cards are both on 7nmFF EUV next year. Though, by that time, AMD might be on Samsung (heavily rumoured that NAVI will be Samsung 7nmFF EUV) and NVIDIA on TSMC 7nmFF EUV (which again would be likely to be a high[er] power option than Samsung).

TSMC 7nm HPC process is sufficient for big GPUs - the bigger "issue" is the design isn't optimised for 7nm as I mentioned before.

 

[carrot1401]

Thinking out loud (ber dum tish) for a second myself. We can all agree that the noise levels are deal breakers for SOME people. It's sounding like the card was made to be dual slot.

My question is; why don't companies like AMD/Nvidia make a triple/quad slot cooler to be compatible with their cards? Sell it for I dunno, £30-£50 and people get (I assume)

• Quieter noise
• More overclocking potential
• Less heat

Now I know that they're now normally dual slot due to shuttle cases, and that giving people the freedom to change cooler is a warranty concern, so why not just make a load at the factory? Am I missing something here?

Anyway, 1080 owner with 2 freesync monitors here (G-Sync doesn't work on one, not tried on the other) and was tempted, but as I'm not too concered by the games I'm back to where I was; happy with my 1080. Even if I have to turn a few settings down to get Forza Horizon 4 to hit 60fps at 4k....

 

[Bloot]

Noise levels are not a problem once you set a custom profile, that's what some videos state at least. The problem seems to be the auto profile, which ramps up the fans quickly.

 

[Minstadave]

Noise levels are not a problem once you set a custom profile, that's what some videos state at least. The problem seems to be the auto profile, which ramps up the fans quickly.

Which begs the question, why would AMD let them out the door in such a poor state if a simple profile fix is all that's needed?

 

[chroniclard]

Looks like a decent card that is $200 too expensive. Barely beats a 1080 at times, never mind a 2080.

 

[Bloot]

Which begs the question, why would AMD let them out the door in such a poor state if a simple profile fix is all that's needed?

Yeah totally agree, AMD said a fix is coming though.

 

[4K8KW10]

Looks like a decent card that is $200 too expensive. Barely beats a 1080 at times, never mind a 2080.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Radeon_VII/11.html

 

[RavenXXX2]

 

[chroniclard]

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Radeon_VII/11.html

Other reviews results vary, looked decidedly less powerful on others.

 

[4K8KW10]

Other reviews results vary, looked decidedly less powerful on others.

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_radeon_vii_16_gb_review,11.html

 

[vapor matt]

So the card has potentially some over clocking headroom, let’s hope it’s not just silicon lottery and most wont make it.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Looks a decent card but priced at a level many AMD customers would sneer at.

In my opinion, the price is a little inflated but not too far off where it should be considering its performance to others around it.

Not sure why cherry picking is going on above though, can do that for almost any card as long as it isn't a stinker.

 

[Martini1991]

I love picking cherries in the morning

 

[chroniclard]

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_radeon_vii_16_gb_review,11.html

Yeah, check out some of the others, barely beats a 1080 at times. Sort the drivers and get a 3rd party quiet version, drop the price, would be a world beater.