Where the funk is Vega? (Why they re-release Polaris, that's already outdated)

Doesn't the VEGA architecture have a caching system? It's even in their die shot. It's like Optane but for VEGA chip and it works with any storage, preferably an SSD though. We also have something already similar too with current AMD drivers, Shader Cache, but this is something more expanded.

Its worth noting that I have seen quite a few 4k benchmarks now eat 9-10GB of VRAM <

how many times must it be repeated though? that's the VRAM requested by the GPU and not what it is actually using isn't it? so if they cut the BS straight on the GPU and just request the space they use things should look a lot different. plenty of games now have been caught asking for, say, 6gb vram when they use 3-4 max.

anyway, i agree it's gonna be interesting to see how vega fairs. devs can maybe look to 8gb as a vram norm soon enough since with AMD things can only go 4 or 8 gb. and Nvidia will either be around 4 or past 8 which at least for the latter side of the scale means devs can expect ultra settings to have at least that much of leeway. standards, akin to steps, in the PC gaming space would be amazing and very efficient. it would bring some of the console gravy without the digestive issues.

Yes I know 8GB should be plenty with how AMD's system does things. Still however I want to see direct comparison benchmarks with like a 11GB card before I'm 100% sold on it. Atm all we have seen is some crappy Deus Ex footage..

oh absolutely. first of all, seeing is believing. and we can't believe any shit corporations say. plus, i still want to see if raja is talking secret sauce or they actually have the improvements that we can derive from their claims. they can even be right about their improvements and 8gb just not be enough for x game that comes out later in the year..

the thing that least worries me is VRAM amount. i'm hoping they can have vega 11 on gddr5x cut the price immensely and net near 1080 performance. the 580 is 250-330€ so the vega11 will be at least around 400. they cannot dip the price below the 580. but they can up performance for the bracket. blowing the perf/price ratio way past what Nvidia's current level is and maybe even what it wil be post-vega-price-cuts. but for that vega10 needs to be closer to 1080ti than 1080 and i'm still not believing that will happen until i see it. it's likely extrapolating the fury x data but anything is possible in the tech world.

Where the funk is Half Life 3? This whole technology thing moving too fast for me... I'm still thinking in terms of the 290 and 280X... I remember the Fury being huge... Past that, got some catching up to do.

But in all seriousness, they are a company. And just like any company, they could care less

3dcenter did a short article on what we know about the Vega architecture, with source links and everything.
http://www.3dcenter.org/news/was-sind-die-bekannten-architektur-verbesserungen-von-amds-vega

It's in German but translate pretty well to English.

It mentions the theoretical geometry throughput, it had me intrigued back in January when the Vega preview slides surfaced. An increase from 4 triangles for Fiji to 11 in Vega seems staggering. 2.75 polygons per engine is huge. So I also think it is some theoretical best case scenario. Still it is intriguing, say an increase from 4 to 6 would still be very nice.

I agree with them that to catch up to Nvidia they need both a good uArch improvement and clock speed improvement. Will they deliver? Well see. I also agree that AMD are hype masters and always say things like "most incredible improvement eevaaar" only to get people disappointed when the actual improvement in games is rather modest. GCN5 looks so far as a big improvement, but as I said we'll see.

That was something that really interested me. The possibility of maybe storing the OS on a rapid GPU SSD.

i just read this on an article about the vega mark benchmark leak:

you know, not only that but this leak could be about 687F:C1 being the little vega, as in, the 1070 competitor (since 687F:C2 is "big vega air" and 687F:C3 is "WC bige vega". PLUS, it could be this result is of an underclocked card able to run with tape all over it's air holes like in the doom demo, not saying it is taped on the time of the result, just that is running at the speeds where it could be. which would mean, that a normal retail speeds with a decent cooling, the little vega could compete with the 1080 performance at the 1070 price point and no Nvidia price cut would match that like what happened with intel. this is all speculation but if i'm right there will be a lot of salt, and would justify nvidia feeding us volta news and perhapes erly launch to crush amd then.<

what do you guys think?

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It's an interesting marketing decision because I do remember the CES 2017 where the VEGA rig running DOOM 4k was in fact so air flow stricken. If what I think they're selling is this:

"Look even at the worse case scenario, our card was still able to compete with a 1080, then imagine this card with a better cooler and case airflow".

Then is an very interesting way of marketing. That's if you look at it at face value, to me that's just purposely sandbagging is it not? I mean, that is of course if you're expecting/hoping the card would be clocked higher.

Could be, could be. If AMD can't take the performance crown, they have to compete on price. 1080 perf at 1070 pricing sounds okay to me.

We'll see in less than two months now :slight_smile:

The CES Doom demo... I've​ been thinking (mistake I know :wink:
Well the card was an engineering sample. Complete with USB debug port. That it could run Doom at 2160p at ok framerate is kinda impressive no? Sure it is late AF, still I don't think it will be a bad card. I just want an significant upgrade to over-clocked Hawaii.

Totally guessing here but I agree. AMD will come in with great pricing to performance. I am hoping the top card will be > 1080 and on the heels of a TI so people with lots of money can have a AMD option even though we all game to 1080p :slight_smile: according to steam.

i'm at 1440p and just got a 580. it's ok, but not able to drive the 144Hz my monitor is capable of. i'd like an AMD's 1070 for 100€-150€ more than the 280€ i paid for the 580, if the difference is worth it.

the *sync monitor split is so effective at keeping people in their respective camps that i don't think there's even a need for AMD and Nvidia to compete in the top performance tier. no one will change camps anyway. as long as AMD can take the price crown at similar performance, plenty of people will buy their products and at least keep them afloat.

The top end Vega card doesnt have to beat the 1080Ti or Titan XP2 in gaming.
As long as its price is right.
The top end Vega card might be interesting for productivity,
with its rumored compute performance.

I wouldn't be surprising if it's yet another case of good-in-gaming-great-in-productivity just like the Ryzen. It would come full circle with the eco system they're trying to cultivate. The gaming audience, and content creators, two birds with one stone at a competitive price.

Well it is all speculation and guesswork until AMD actually releases something :slight_smile: Buuut we'll probably have to wait to the end of June for that. I have a 4K screen, dual Hawaii actually works pretty well for gaming on it. It would be nice if AMD could put out an affordable card that can do that by itself at less than half the power. That would probably be enough for me. If I haven't bough a 1080Ti already...

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Around Vega launch or there after you can expect a $100 drop on the 1070/80/Ti line of cards. NVIDIA has been holding off price drops probably just for Vega. So the 1080Ti might end up being cheaper then the top line Vega card, and perform better, which will hurt AMD.

PS. The 1080Ti is $1379AUD here in Australia, no way in hell am I paying that. I will drop maybe $800aud on a Vega, THAT better be its pricepoint or no sale!

Well there is this, AMD removed it of cause. It sounds about right to be honest, I could have made this up myself because its what we expect, we all knew 3 cards would come out and it be foolish to think they be all the same perf levels.

I of cause would love a NOVA one, but will it work in my ITX case that has 250mm GPU clearance? I mean HBM2 is meant to allow smaller cards, so we will see how it goes. I won't be buying local, AU stores tend to get unrealistic with GPU launches, often doubling the price to suck at early adopters..

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Oh boy, (checks wallet, :cry: )

Lets hope they have a 8gb version at 1600mhz clock also. Ideally I would like to get a 1080ti competitor. (which cost $1500aud here btw)

Memory stacks don't affect core clock, so that is a given it will be 1600+ for the top end watercooled card.