This is what I have been saying for a long time. The top end Vega needs to be at least matching the Titan PX when it comes out or it will be a failure IMO.
Can anyone explain how new architecture + HBM2 + 14nm + extra time to develop = 1070 performance? Just does not compute.
It was not that long ago that top end AMD (Fury X) and NVIDIA (Titan X) were like not hugely apart in performance. How did AMD suddenly go from that to it will be surprising if they are able to beat a 1070/80?
AMD have had an extra year to develop Vega so it needs to be beating Titan XP and bringing that tier of performance to Fury X price range at the least.
It is because they do not necessarily have to develop the largest possible die for any architecture generation. That Vega is coming a year later doesn't mean much if they simply decided not to aim for a performance target that necessitates a very big die (relatively speaking).
Not that I think they will aim as mediocrely as they did with Polaris. They clearly abandoned the development of a larger Polaris die, perhaps quite early before skipping 20nm (power?) or after (economic viability bumping up against Vega roadmap?). But it's worth noting that just because they have had an extra year (in terms of Vega vs what will be older/outgoing Pascal), it does not mean it must therefore beat Titan XP.