During Computex, AMD finally revealed more details about their Vega GPUs. Set to arrive later this year, the new graphics cards will utilise the upcoming Vega 10 GPU. The chips are based on the new Vega architecture which is supposed to be a significant improvement over Polaris GCN 4. So far, we have the relatively expensive Radeon Pro Vega Frontier Edition. However, reports suggest that consumer Vega will be a lot cheaper.
At $999, the new Radeon Pro Frontier Edition is undoubtedly a premium card. However, consumer Vega will be offering a much better price to performance ratio. As the Frontier Edition uses full Vega 10, Vega 10 will have to cost below $999. AMD’s competition, the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti comes in at $699 while the older GTX 1080 comes in at $549. As these cards are the main competition, Vega will have to priced better than their Nvidia counterparts. The ways to this goal are to either offer more performance at the same price point or just be a lot cheaper. Since AMD is aiming to shed the budget cloak, it is likely the first option.
Vega Will Have ‘Terrific Price/Performance”
The other comparison is against AMD’s old cards. So far, we know there are two models based on the Apple iMac Pro reveal. We have the full Vega 10 with 4096 stream processors and the cut-down model with 3584 stream processors. This is the same amount as in the old Fiji chips. However, AMD is clocked the GPUs much higher and the architecture has been drastically revamped. Even if AMD launches at the same price, the price/performance will be a lot better due to improved performance.
After such a long wait and hype, AMD has to deliver well on Vega. From all of the demos we have seen and the performance leaks, AMD looks to be quite competitive so far. Performance is expected at or beyond GTX 1080 levels. Hopefully, this means the cards will be priced like the GTX 1080 Ti at the $550 flagship point but perform closer to the GTX 1080 Ti. The cut-down model will likely fit in between the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 in a similar manner. I for one can’t wait to finally see Vega reach the market.
It will be nice to see this hit the market. I am looking forward to finally being able to use my 2560×1440 144hz FREESYNC monitor, unless the damn mining f**kheads buy up all the gpu’s before anyone else!!!
I already sold my 480’s for a profit. I should be able to get the Vega card and a NVME drive either 512 or 1GB depending on if I buy a refurbished one or a new one.
I’m thinking about doing the same. I’ve got 2 of the 8GB Powercolor Red Devil 480’s. I’m just worried because I’ll need to use an old HD 7950 while I wait for Vega.
Its sort of brutal but so was the wait for Ryzen but so far has been worth it. So I keep reminding myself that it was worth it once and will be again especially with an NVME involved in the upgrade. Thank you amd and crypto currency! I am now debating selling my 32gb 2666 ram and upgrading to a higher OC speed since the latest rev of agesa and bios for my gigabyte motherboard supports ram up to 4100 (if i remember correctly).
Sounds like a great plan.
I’m trying to find the boxes for these cards so I can sell them. I can make around an 80% profit if I sell them now.