Radeon VII Video Card Review @ [H]

[FrgMstr]

It took us a bit longer to get it done this time around, but as always, a full review with nothing but real gameplay data for you to base your opinions on. AMD Radeon VII Video Card Review.

 

[ecuador]

Very nice review. Forgiven for the delay
Only one thing: Black Ops 4 using 16GB of memory on the Radeon would not make it faster, but utilizing more memory should make *some* difference in what/how it renders (unless it is a bug of course), so it is worth a bit of investigation. I mean, aren't you curious?

 

[Imhotep]

Thank you, as always great review. RE2 justifies the 16 Gb of VRAM.

 

[velusip]

Nice to see performance as advertised for a change. Especially the dynamic clock rate and power efficiency.

 

[Krenum]

Interesting, the Chill feature has it as 66c, that's pretty cool!

It was worth the wait, most comprehensive and honest review of the Radeon VII Yet. Thank you [H].

 

[Imhotep]

Yes, what a stark contrast from what is being thrown around by the hatred driven children in some of these forums...

 

[Revdarian]

Under Radeon chill testing, the wattage graphic says MHz in the units for max, min and average instead of watts.

Thanks a lot for the article! Was waiting for it.

 

[SeymourGore]

Yar, Chill feature made all the difference for me. Probably order tonight.

 

[Jim Kim]

I am Jack's excite.

 

[Libast]

Radeon VII with 8GB at a cheaper price would be sticking nails into nvidia's butt.

All hail new cards to bring older card prices down though!

/RX480 still

 

[Derangel]

Radeon VII with 8GB at a cheaper price would be sticking nails into nvidia's butt.

All hail new cards to bring older card prices down though!

/RX480 still

Hard to say. It would have half the memory bandwidth and with Vega heavily relying on memory bandwidth I question how well an 8GB VII would do.

 

[piscian18]

The radeon VII seems like a such difficult card to review out of context. Even building around it seems so situational from sound tolerence to gaming preference. Looking forward to seeing how the market shapes up when these become readily available.

 

[STEvil]

Hard to say. It would have half the memory bandwidth and with Vega heavily relying on memory bandwidth I question how well an 8GB VII would do.

I think if they could have pushed the HBM2 to ~1300 stock then the extra bandwidth of 4 stacks would have been offset.

Or 3 stacks (12gb) at 1200 might have been enough maybe, but that assumes there's not something finicky about the Vega memory controller and using odd numbers of stacks.

Realistically I think they're doing 16gb because of the number of units they're expecting to sell and the pricepoint match up vs what they may have in stock.

EDIT

I would like to see someone cut the shroud by the Radeon logo to allow air to pass through the fins there properly and do a thermal comparison.

EDIT 2

Anyone know of any Crypto numbers for it vs Vega56/64/FE?

EDIT 3

You say dont be worried about the low clock spikes. As a VegaFE user, I AM WORRIED.

 

[Imhotep]

She does mid 89 in ETH vs 44 on V64, V56 with the same power draw of 160 Watts...

 

[STEvil]

She does mid 89 in ETH vs 44 on V64, V56 with the same power draw of 160 Watts...

 

[maxius]

She does mid 89 in ETH vs 44 on V64, V56 with the same power draw of 160 Watts...

View attachment 141991

miners should be shot confirmed dead then shot again hands off me gpus

 

[M76]

miners should be shot confirmed dead then shot again hands off me gpus

On a more important note: hands off me power grid!

 

[primetime]

She does mid 89 in ETH vs 44 on V64, V56 with the same power draw of 160 Watts...

View attachment 141991

So how is it getting almost double the mine performance? Should have been more like 30% at most? You make it sound like crypto could take off again from a power usage

 

[IdiotInCharge]

So how is it getting almost double the mine performance? Should have been more like 30% at most? You make it sound like crypto could take off again from a power usage

Bandwidth was doubled over the Vega 64, and for some workloads, that was the limiter, AFAIK. There's also double the memory available for some workloads too.

 

[Maddness]

Great review as always. Thanks Brent and Kyle. Very fair i thought in the end. It's a shame there wasn't better drivers for you guys to test out some of the features. But that comes down to AMD. It is really good to see them competing in the high end again. Certainly gives us consumers more choices in what we want to buy.

 

[Snowdog]

Thank you, as always great review. RE2 justifies the 16 Gb of VRAM.

Not really. Allocating the memory isn't the same as actually needing it, or even using it. You could probably put a 24GB card in there and it would just allocate the whole thing...

 

[Dr. Righteous]

Being that this card just hit the market I think that more mature drivers will close the performance gap.

Personally since I don't have much time for gaming and I'm stuck at 1080p at the moment the lower end cards will work fine for me.

 

[T4rd]

Not really. Allocating the memory isn't the same as actually needing it, or even using it. You could probably put a 24GB card in there and it would just allocate the whole thing...

Yeah, can't see the [H] review at work right now, but from what I've seen on Digital Foundry's tech analysis on RE2, it only really uses up to about 7.5GB even at 4K. The engine on that game is awesome though, because it runs great at 1080 maxed out and nearly maxed at 1440p on my 1060 and my son's 570 with 6GB and 8GBs respectively.

 

[Imhotep]

It needs to have 16 Gb to utilize 4096 bit memory pipe. Had it been released by nvidia it would not be an issue. Had it come out with 8Gb you would be bitching that it is not enough. Lets just stop right here.

 

[exlink]

It's a decent card...if it was $599.

From a gaming perspective, I wouldn't pay the current $699 asking price or even the $649 mentioned in the review. If you do a decent amount of productivity work that would require a GPU like this then the value proposition for you may be more appealing. Overall, the enthusiast GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia this generation are overpriced.

 

[Snowdog]

It needs to have 16 Gb to utilize 4096 bit memory pipe. Had it been released by nvidia it would not be an issue. Had it come out with 8Gb you would be bitching that it is not enough. Lets just stop right here.

HBM 2 has 2GB,4GB and 8GB stacks that are pin compatible. So with the same interface/bandwidth you could have 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB cards.

Right now this is essentially just a rushed, rebranded Radeon Instinct card, but if no other AMD next gen part shows up soon, I expect AMD will eventually have cheaper 8GB Vega 7 cards using 2GB HBM stacks.

 

[Captindecisive]

A much more refreshing look at the card than the majority of the other reviews. Good stuff guys, thanks!

 

[legcramp]

It's a decent card...if it was $599.

From a gaming perspective, I wouldn't pay the current $699 asking price or even the $649 mentioned in the review. If you do a decent amount of productivity work that would require a GPU like this then the value proposition for you may be more appealing. Overall, the enthusiast GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia this generation are overpriced.

Agreed, and honestly the 2080 Ti should be $599.99 and everything else even cheaper.

 

[STEvil]

HBM 2 has 2GB,4GB and 8GB stacks that are pin compatible. So with the same interface/bandwidth you could have 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB cards.

Right now this is essentially just a rushed, rebranded Radeon Instinct card, but if no other AMD next gen part shows up soon, I expect AMD will eventually have cheaper 8GB Vega 7 cards using 2GB HBM stacks.

You forgot using 3 stacks instead of 4. Wouldnt be 4096bit but could be doable unless there is a hardware issue in vega against it.

 

[Stoly]

You forgot using 3 stacks instead of 4. Wouldnt be 4096bit but could be doable unless there is a hardware issue in vega against it.

I think 2 production lines could offset the savings of having 3 stacks instead of 4. Apparently Vega VII is quite expensive to build. AMD may not afford having a cheaper model.

 

[Snowdog]

You forgot using 3 stacks instead of 4. Wouldnt be 4096bit but could be doable unless there is a hardware issue in vega against it.

I didn't forget. Just addressing the claim that it "needed" 16GB to get the full interface.

 

[STEvil]

I didn't forget. Just addressing the claim that it "needed" 16GB to get the full interface.

my bad, glossed over that.

Also

I think 2 production lines could offset the savings of having 3 stacks instead of 4. Apparently Vega VII is quite expensive to build. AMD may not afford having a cheaper model.

See post #14.

 

[vegeta535]

Not really. Allocating the memory isn't the same as actually needing it, or even using it. You could probably put a 24GB card in there and it would just allocate the whole thing...

You could actually store the entire game on 24GB vram. Ain't RE2 total size like 22GB? I agree people go retarded over ram usage.