AMD VEGA confirmed for 2017 H1

eiamhere69 · 28 Mar 2017 at 08:40

nashathedog said:
I can't see Nvidia doing that so soon after the 1080ti release, Maybe if Volta's delayed till late 2018 early 2019 they'll do something like that 6 months from now but to sell all the Nvidlings an 11gb 1080ti today and then sell slower 12gb cards is as stupid a move as selling 4gb Vega's after 8 gb Polaris's, Hmmm, maybe it is true.

Not sure if I've mis-read what you said, if I have, I apologise .

The refresh is not a 12GB card, it is 12GB/sec - faster ram.

1080 and 1060 with faster ram (more bandwidth) it's Nvidias product, so it must improve performance

Baboonanza · 28 Mar 2017 at 09:40

Gregster said:
This!

AMD can't afford to release a card that has the power but not the drivers to compete. The 7970 was a great card but due to poor drivers, it suffered in the bench threads and lost out on sales.

While they've definitely upped their game on drivers since the 7970 release there is a so much new tech in Vega that I think it's inevitable that the drivers will need further work.

Curlyriff · 28 Mar 2017 at 10:04

Baboonanza said:
While they've definitely upped their game on drivers since the 7970 release there is a so much new tech in Vega that I think it's inevitable that the drivers will need further work.

This, as much as we would love it all to work on day one. There is just too much going on, changes etc that I cannot see it being smooth. I feel it will take a few months just like Ryzen is and then it will show true colours and then in a year when we get refresh of things from AMD we will take stock again to compare to that of their competitors and then we can know if Ryzen/Vega have really worked out for them.

Not to mention it sounds like we will need to wait for devs to work with the hardware to get the best out of them also and to see how that works out for the performance overall.

BigBANGtheory · 28 Mar 2017 at 10:29

I'm all for future proofing features but I do expect day one blazing performance in vanilla form with no 'special optimizations' and all the smoke and mirrors stripped back to the basic hardware and drivers on todays games.

opethdisciple · 28 Mar 2017 at 10:37

Only issue with an April launch for Vega is, where does this leave the 480 500 series refresh?

Same time? Something like a 570, 580, 590 launch. 570 & 580 being 480 and a faster version refresh and the 590 being Vega?

Dunno..... something doesn't make sense here.

To differentiate Vega they'd have to call it either RX Vega / Fury rather than a number or call it 680 series or something...

Unless what is going to launch along side Prey will be the Polaris refresh and we will wait a bit longer for Vega.

Seanspeed · 28 Mar 2017 at 10:49

Besty said:
there is no point in AMD releasing a card and having it reviewed against a bunch of games in which it's simply slower than a 1080, it happened with almost every AMD release of recent memory. where AMD have a superior hardware product and rush release without the software.

like i say i suspect the vega card is quicker than a 1080 but it needs
software otherwise it will be a repeat of the 7970 and fury X launches i.e a great product but initial reviews are good but not great.

this time i think AMD are saying that if the software is not ready, no launch.

AMD have not said this anywhere.

And I still dont get what you're talking about. There's plenty of software available that is in AMD's favor already.

Baboonanza said:
While they've definitely upped their game on drivers since the 7970 release there is a so much new tech in Vega that I think it's inevitable that the drivers will need further work.

We'll have to see just how much of a change Vega is. The change from the existing compute units to these 'next gen' compute units seems like it's probably the biggest change. But it's not clear whether this is going to have a significant impact for gaming or whether they were built primarily as an upgrade for other purposes. Async compute is definitely being used by more games, but whether they're tapping out the potential of GCN's capabilities here is not known(to us at least), but I'd be really surprised if it was because it's still a fairly new technique that major developers really only started taking seriously with the new console generation about three and a half years ago. And the general lack of DX12/Vulkan titles really pushing things forward just yet would also indicate that on PC especially, it has not at all seen the full scope of possible improvements here, particularly with a majority of users(on Nvidia cards) not really able to properly benefit from them.

I highly doubt Vega is going to be a complete ground-up difference compared to GCN, though. Some Vega features are reportedly already included in the PS4 Pro's Polaris-based GPU indicating there's a level of compatibility between them that isn't going to mean existing AMD-favored software will suddenly not do just as well(relative to Nvidia). Pretty confident AMD will release Vega when it's actually ready and when they feel there is sufficient stock. Right now, especially with Nvidia's 1080Ti and the price drop to the 1080, there's *major* incentive to get Vega out ASAP.

Rroff · 28 Mar 2017 at 10:54

nashathedog said:
I can't see Nvidia doing that so soon after the 1080ti release, Maybe if Volta's delayed till late 2018 early 2019 they'll do something like that 6 months from now but to sell all the Nvidlings an 11gb 1080ti today and then sell slower 12gb cards is as stupid a move as selling 4gb Vega's after 8 gb Polaris's, Hmmm, maybe it is true.

Not like anything has stopped them screwing over their customers before - that is the memory module bandwidth not amount - incase of any confusion doubt we'd see mid range with 12GB of VRAM even on a refresh.

orbitalwalsh · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:01

opethdisciple said:
Only issue with an April launch for Vega is, where does this leave the 480 500 series refresh?

Same time? Something like a 570, 580, 590 launch. 570 & 580 being 480 and a faster version refresh and the 590 being Vega?

Dunno..... something doesn't make sense here.

To differentiate Vega they'd have to call it either RX Vega / Fury rather than a number or call it 680 series or something...

Unless what is going to launch along side Prey will be the Polaris refresh and we will wait a bit longer for Vega.

Seems AMD changes their minds, was Vega for April but now its silent. RX 580/70s leave for shipping end of this week and next week. Seems the marketshare is more favourable for them in this segment. Everyone want Vega ... but im guessing if the leaked benchmarks of the 580 are true hitting 1070 levels then would get people more rallied up for Vega is guess...
Hopefully if the Embargo for RX 500 is 13th, not to long a wait to find out

opethdisciple · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:04

Maybe what I'll end up doing is waiting for the Polaris refresh and then bag a 1070 when prices drop some more.

nashathedog · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:12

eiamhere69 said:
Not sure if I've mis-read what you said, if I have, I apologise .

The refresh is not a 12GB card, it is 12GB/sec - faster ram.

1080 and 1060 with faster ram (more bandwidth) it's Nvidias product, so it must improve performance

You read it right, I got it wrong, Thanks for clarifying it.

Rroff said:
Not like anything has stopped them screwing over their customers before - that is the memory module bandwidth not amount - incase of any confusion doubt we'd see mid range with 12GB of VRAM even on a refresh.

As above, I read it wrong, It's a talent.

SiDeards73 · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:23

orbitalwalsh said:
Seems AMD changes their minds, was Vega for April but now its silent. RX 580/70s leave for shipping end of this week and next week. Seems the marketshare is more favourable for them in this segment. Everyone want Vega ... but im guessing if the leaked benchmarks of the 580 are true hitting 1070 levels then would get people more rallied up for Vega is guess...
Hopefully if the Embargo for RX 500 is 13th, not to long a wait to find out

Only been skimming this thread, where are the leaked 580 benchmarks? would love to see them, if the 580 is indeed as fast as the 1070, it could bode well for full Vega being a bit of a good card

humbug · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:26

SiDeards73 said:
Only been skimming this thread, where are the leaked 580 benchmarks? would love to see them, if the 580 is indeed as fast as the 1070, it could bode well for full Vega being a bit of a good card

yeah me too.

Ian Evey · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:27

tommybhoy said:
7970 on 'poor drivers' only lost out@stock clocks.

A stock 800Mhz 7950 oc'ed to 1200Mhz a few months in was faster than an oc'ed 680, it was a champ.

I bought my 670 over the 7970 mainly because of the bf3 performance, Was faster than the 7970 never mind the 7950 in july 2012 in most games tbh.

humbug · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:37

AMD made the mistake of clocking the 79## very conservatively, in reviews they didn't look much good but in reality because 'for example' the 7950 was clocked at 800Mhz it could achieve a massive 50% overclock, the GTX 670/80 couldn't deal with that even while AMD drivers were pap.

Curlyriff · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:38

BigBANGtheory said:
I'm all for future proofing features but I do expect day one blazing performance in vanilla form with no 'special optimizations' and all the smoke and mirrors stripped back to the basic hardware and drivers on todays games.

I don't think it will be personally. As in that it will have drivers etc in vanilla form but things take time to optimise and feedback from the thousands and thousands of different system setups that these wont have been tested on because that is just not feasible.

It will require Devs, AMD, Microsoft and others to optimise because it's a new Architecture and thus it is done differently.

To suggest otherwise is missing the fundamental point of releasing new architecture with new features, new abilities to utilise the latest API's, the latest CPU's and systems generally.

Besty · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:39

I will speculate Dawn Of War 3, Prey and Dirt 4 will make mighty good benchmarking tools for Vega. Once you add in Hitman, Tomb Raider, Doom and AOTS you pretty much have a full suite of DX12/Vulcan titles to run a review against.

Seanspeed · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:45

SiDeards73 said:
Only been skimming this thread, where are the leaked 580 benchmarks? would love to see them, if the 580 is indeed as fast as the 1070, it could bode well for full Vega being a bit of a good card

It wont be, come on guys. That is a ridiculous stretch.

Use a bit of common sense. The 480 isn't even as powerful as a 390X in most games. Now you think a refresh is suddenly going to leapfrog it and put all the way at a 1070?

humbug · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:47

The only thing i'm aware of is that the RX 580 is a 1350Mhz ? RX480?

SiDeards73 · 28 Mar 2017 at 11:58

Besty said:
I will speculate Dawn Of War 3, Prey and Dirt 4 will make mighty good benchmarking tools for Vega. Once you add in Hitman, Tomb Raider, Doom and AOTS you pretty much have a full suite of DX12/Vulcan titles to run a review against.

Add in The Division, its DX12 port was pretty damn good.

TNA · 28 Mar 2017 at 12:07

Seanspeed said:
It wont be, come on guys. That is a ridiculous stretch.

Use a bit of common sense. The 480 isn't even as powerful as a 390X in most games. Now you think a refresh is suddenly going to leapfrog it and put all the way at a 1070?

+1

Unless the 580 is small Vega or something. If it is a clock bumped Polaris like rumoured, it won't come close to the 1070.