AMD Radeon VII Unboxing and Teardown Video @ [H]

I honestly love the look that both AMD and Nvidia have for their reference cards now. They both have a very industrial look with clean lines. Nvidia's FE cooler is actually fairly decent, too (night and day compared to the blowers they used to stick on), so I hope AMD's new cooler performs at least as well. I actually don't even know if you can get a non-reference Radeon VII at launch. The only pictures I've seen are all reference cards, even from the AIBs. If that's the case, that cooler better perform well.
 
I honestly love the look that both AMD and Nvidia have for their reference cards now. They both have a very industrial look with clean lines. Nvidia's FE cooler is actually fairly decent, too (night and day compared to the blowers they used to stick on), so I hope AMD's new cooler performs at least as well. I actually don't even know if you can get a non-reference Radeon VII at launch. The only pictures I've seen are all reference cards, even from the AIBs. If that's the case, that cooler better perform well.

no non reference cards at launch and may not happen at all since it's a one off card. there will be AIB reference cards with the brand stickers on the center of the fans though since AMD will only be selling their own reference cards on their website. should hopefully keep prices in check on the retail side. it's basically going to come down to customer service/warranty on what AIB you want to go with.
 
Rumor has it that PowerColor will release its own design off the Radeon VII. I own a liquid cooled 64 and a Custom PowerColor 64. The PowerColor heatsink is so massive that the card stays as cool as the liquid cooled even with the bios flashed to Liquid cooled.
The VRM's are a few degrees cooler on the powercolor not to mention that the power color has a 11 phase power design as oppose to sapphire;s 7 phase. Something to consider for longevity or water loop if you are going to go that route.
 
Rumor has it that PowerColor will release its own design off the Radeon VII. I own a liquid cooled 64 and a Custom PowerColor 64. The PowerColor heatsink is so massive that the card stays as cool as the liquid cooled even with the bios flashed to Liquid cooled.
The VRM's are a few degrees cooler on the powercolor not to mention that the power color has a 11 phase power design as oppose to sapphire;s 7 phase. Something to consider for longevity or water loop if you are going to go that route.
Links?
 
Awesome fucking video. Beautiful card. Can't wait to see dat review. Kyle has the perfect voice for these videos. This is how you do an unboxing video. Honestly I wouldn't have minded if you took another 20 minutes to just show off the card and its components. Do you guys get to keep all the stuff that comes in reviewers' kits? That graphics card stand would be great for when the card gets too old and I wanna retire it from active duty. Love the encased GPU die with HBM2 stacks.

Gawd damn that's a clean card. I don't know what it is, but GDDR6 just doesn't get me going like HBM does. By now HBM2 has to be noticeably cheaper to produce than before, right? Although complexity goes up cuz you got the interposer and the whole GPU+stacks assembly, which might increase costs. The fuck do I know about manufacturing though. I just wonder which is cheaper to make, HBM2 or GDDR6. Wonder which of those Navi will be using.

I'll certainly be interested to see Radeon VII's power usage. AIB cards should be interesting, no doubt there will be some with closed-loop liquid coolers. Surprised AMD didn't go that way by default this time around.

Anyways, thanks again [H]. Shit like this is why [H] has been my home page for nearly 20 freakin' years.
 
I wonder how good are those fans, i think they could be bigger for the size of the hole, but maybe their shape is the ideal size for the card.
Would like to see some tests with another fans hahaha!
That would be an original content!
I expect this card to be quite silent even under heavy load, can't wait for the review, overclocking capabilities and if there is any surprise on specific scenarios.
I think AMD was purposedly under selling the performance of this card trying to revert the past mistakes.
 
The GDDR6 is cheaper, but by how much is a question I've been asking as well. If its $200 per card difference, I can see why most are still on GDDR6. If it's $50, then all of the higher performance cards should be on the faster option (if that is in fact HBM2). Not sure it's possible to build support for both Vram types into the GPU silicon, so that might be a factor into why GDDR6 is still prevalent. Need some contacts with AMD/nVidia engineers to find out. Inquiring minds want to know!
 
I wonder how good are those fans, i think they could be bigger for the size of the hole, but maybe their shape is the ideal size for the card.
Would like to see some tests with another fans hahaha!
That would be an original content!
I expect this card to be quite silent even under heavy load, can't wait for the review, overclocking capabilities and if there is any surprise on specific scenarios.
I think AMD was purposedly under selling the performance of this card trying to revert the past mistakes.

looking at the heatsink it's probably a compromise to have the raised fins around the fans to help cool the card
 
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Rumor has it that PowerColor will release its own design off the Radeon VII. I own a liquid cooled 64 and a Custom PowerColor 64. The PowerColor heatsink is so massive that the card stays as cool as the liquid cooled even with the bios flashed to Liquid cooled.
The VRM's are a few degrees cooler on the powercolor not to mention that the power color has a 11 phase power design as oppose to sapphire;s 7 phase. Something to consider for longevity or water loop if you are going to go that route.
A PowerColor representative on Reddit stated that the company is not planning to launch any custom-design Radeon VII in the immediate future. "We did clarify to the media, that at this moment we will only carry AMD reference design and at the moment we do not have custom model planned in the immediate future," they said. PowerColor didn't completely shut off the possibility of a "Red Devil" branded Radeon VII. "Obviously there's quite of you guys out there wanting our Red Devil series on the Vega VII and we will always consider the option. Just not at this point," the statement read.
 
That's a nice looking piece of hardware, all business. With a water block, it'd be just a single slot width card since no DVI connector (apologies if other AMD cards have been like this, I haven't really kept up with the line).

This is the most excited I've been for an AMD card in quite a while.
 
I'm still not sold on it just yet. I think power draw & Heat are going to be a major issue with this card. Hope I'm wrong but historically its not looking good.
 
What have you used for TIM and did you manage to get the before/after temperatures?
Card runs the same temps using Prolimatech PK-1.

Test fitting..

IMG_20190204_103011.jpg

Not as flat as everyone thinks. Which is likely the reason for the graphite sheet TIM.

IMG_20190204_103918.jpg IMG_20190204_105202.jpg IMG_20190204_105213.jpg

All back together, working perfectly.

IMG_20190204_125347.jpg
 
Love the minimalist approach by AMD on it. Out of curiosity, how likely are we to see [H] numbers on launch day? Will it be similar to some previous sets where you release a brief set initially with an in-depth look a bit later? Either way, excited to see it
 
Love the minimalist approach by AMD on it. Out of curiosity, how likely are we to see [H] numbers on launch day? Will it be similar to some previous sets where you release a brief set initially with an in-depth look a bit later? Either way, excited to see it
Full 1440p review. Hopefully we will get some 4K numbers in as well. Our card was shipped to the wrong state. Cost us a few days.
 
That's at least 0.1 maybe 0.2mm or more variation, very interesting. I would have expected less for such a critical application.
Interesting to see a VRM or two missing, maybe they used less power than expected for initial design. Wonder if any OC ramifications..

I'd give my left ball for that review kit though.
 
Definitely a nice, clean looking card. Just need to see how it performs now.
 
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That is unfortunate. I'm most interested in the 4K results with that 16 gb HBM2 @ 1TB/s.

I can understand that price people are throwing around about the cost of manufacturing this card which is highly unlikely in the first place, but HBM2 likely is a fairly small fraction of the overall cost. AMD built a premium card here, I bet that cooler costs more than the HBM. The VRMs appear to be premium. If it's anywhere close to the 2080 the price is well justified and the better deal for this package especially if the compute numbers are as good as said. Bring on the reviews!

HBM is not cheap whatsoever at all, it is estimated that the 16GB of HBM2 in the Radeon VII runs 350 bucks...

Even if it is cheaper than that, I highly doubt the cooler costs more...
 
That's at least 0.1 maybe 0.2mm or more variation, very interesting. I would have expected less for such a critical application.
Interesting to see a VRM or two missing, maybe they used less power than expected for initial design. Wonder if any OC ramifications..

I'd give my left ball for that review kit though.

extra vrm's may be from them using the same PCB as the MI60 which runs 32GB of vram.
 
extra vrm's may be from them using the same PCB as the MI60 which runs 32GB of vram.
Definitely not the same pcb. The instinct cards have fingers on the top for a IF bridge. There were some other physical differences I noticed when they first announced, but ifI have to go back and look again.
 
Definitely not the same pcb. The instinct cards have fingers on the top for a IF bridge. There were some other physical differences I noticed when they first announced, but ifI have to go back and look again.

yeah you're right, just went and looked and the vrm layout is completely different due to the bridge connector at the top. then thought wait maybe it's a recycled vega 64 PCB..even though it looks similar in layout there's some slight differences. so i have no idea at this point.
 
I'm getting tired of reviewers being NDA's till actual launch day.
We should of been hearing everything for the last week.
 
Will we be getting any VR comparisons with the RTX and Vega VII cards? I have not seen a VR performance analysis for a while here and I always find them interesting. It would be nice to see if Vega 7 has made gains in this area compared to AMD's relatively poor showing with previous gen products.
 
yeah you're right, just went and looked and the vrm layout is completely different due to the bridge connector at the top. then thought wait maybe it's a recycled vega 64 PCB..even though it looks similar in layout there's some slight differences. so i have no idea at this point.

The PCB, seemingly made just for this card, makes me doubt the rumors of limited quantity. Not like you can't make small quantities, but with 7nm capacity opened up by mobile order cancellations, I'm more inclined towards them selling as many as people want to buy, even after mid range Navi launches .
 
I'm getting tired of reviewers being NDA's till actual launch day.
We should of been hearing everything for the last week.

usually comes down to marketing.. either the product ends up being really good and your competition immediately puts out information that they have something better coming out.. or it doesn't meet expectations and you still get the same result.. so it's lose lose no matter what you do by allowing the NDA to expire before launch.
 
usually comes down to marketing.. either the product ends up being really good and your competition immediately puts out information that they have something better coming out.. or it doesn't meet expectations and you still get the same result.. so it's lose lose no matter what you do by allowing the NDA to expire before launch.
I disagree. Having a few days lead time to validate if you want to buy something is how it always worked. This buy first and pray crap. Not happening. Won't preorder anything that isn't validated.
 
The fact is that the unboxing thing got to be big because YouTubers looking for hits made it that way. From a company perspective, you get nearly twice the free coverage you would have otherwise, and the first round of that coverage is non-critical. How would a company not want that? Just facts of the matter, like it or not. It is NOT going away.
 
So, I thought about this a little more and I don't think the lack of flatness is a reason for the graphite sheet. My experience working with this type of material is that it is not very compressible even compared to other thermal pads. Thus, it would be a worse solution than paste because it can't fill the gap as effectively. HOWEVER, I have seen this material being used more and more in standalone applications with limited maintenance opportunity (my employer delivers racks of equipment to government customers often on outdoor ranges) and my experience with graphite pads is that they have a longer lifetime than most pastes and are also much easier to consistently install especially when orientation is a problem.

So, I am going with the ability to uniformly apply the pads or even automate the application rather than having a man in the loop doing that assembly. My EVGA 980ti ran on the hot side and when I removed the cooler and compared it to my friends (both putting accelero III coolers on) I noticed that the amount of paste was quite different with mine having probably HALF of what was on his die.
The sheet TIM material that was on the stock application was very compressible. If you watch the video, you can see where it flowed the sheet under pressure. That said, I might be totally wrong.
 
HBM is not cheap whatsoever at all, it is estimated that the 16GB of HBM2 in the Radeon VII runs 350 bucks...

Even if it is cheaper than that, I highly doubt the cooler costs more...

That's quite the word play there. First you pick a sky high number out of thin air and then use it as a comparison? Is there any credible source stating that 16GB of HBM2 runs 350 bucks? There is no chance it costs anywhere near that. Simple economics supports that, because nobody would use it at that price.
I can do the same. 16GB of HBM2 might cost 100-150 bucks. I bet the cooler costs that much.
 
HBM is not cheap whatsoever at all, it is estimated that the 16GB of HBM2 in the Radeon VII runs 350 bucks...

Even if it is cheaper than that, I highly doubt the cooler costs more...

That's quite the word play there. First you pick a sky high number out of thin air and then use it as a comparison? Is there any credible source stating that 16GB of HBM2 runs 350 bucks? There is no chance it costs anywhere near that. Simple economics supports that, because nobody would use it at that price.
I can do the same. 16GB of HBM2 might cost 100-150 bucks. I bet the cooler costs that much.
You two, take your bickering elsewhere.
 
That is unfortunate. I'm most interested in the 4K results with that 16 gb HBM2 @ 1TB/s.

I can understand that price people are throwing around about the cost of manufacturing this card which is highly unlikely in the first place, but HBM2 likely is a fairly small fraction of the overall cost. AMD built a premium card here, I bet that cooler costs more than the HBM. The VRMs appear to be premium. If it's anywhere close to the 2080 the price is well justified and the better deal for this package especially if the compute numbers are as good as said. Bring on the reviews!

According to the Anandtech review, the Radeon VII sometimes wins, sometimes loses to the RTX 2080 @ 4k. It's just a few percent either way. The RTX 2080 tends to win at 1080 and 1440.
 
Well I wouldn't go that far haha.

I know, but its fancy and my Zotac 1080ti is meh. I spend as much time looking at my tempered glass rig with rgb then i do the monitor. Besides its not like the masters of orion 4x game i play is struggling at 2560x1440...
 
Too bad the [H] review will be late.
Which in turn means that i will delay my purchasing decision.
Which in turn risks it being sold out.
It's already sold out everywhere as far as I can tell. Newegg, Amazon and AMD.com are all wiped out already...
 
The Radeon VII is a great card. But make no mistake its a rebranded mi50 card. AMD don't want to sell a bunch of these cards for 700$. While AMD state they will have enough to meet the demand of the gamers. It's really kinda of a gift from AMD to those in the know. It's hard to say what kind of driver support we will see. I mean they are going to Navi here soon enough and that well is different than "Gcn"

At least it somewhat puts pressure on Nvidia, if they have enough cards to sell.

I will look to buy one just to see if I can get one for 700$

So yes its a compute card re-purposed as a gaming card, much like Vega 64 was. But hey 1 TB/s mem bandwidth bro come at me, I can do both.
 
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