AMD have spoilt us.
Every year, I can be sure that they’ll have a graphics card ready to rival Nvidia’s
latest.
This has kept prices low and progress swift, year after year.
But things have been a little different for the last few generations.
This year has seen the launch of their 500 and Vega series.
On paper this looks great: new low, mid and high-end products!
Full house!
What more could we ask for.
But the 500 series is little more than an overclocked 400.
I don’t understand AMD’s obsession with performance at any cost.
The Polaris architecture has the potential to be beautifully efficient but they insist
on overclocking it to within an inch of its life.
Well I know why.
They’re trying to close the gap in performance between Polaris and Nvidia’s 1050 and 1060
series.
You could argue that benchmarks are all that matter and that it’s imperative that they
match Nvidia’s if they want buyers to consider the 500 series.
But I disagree.
If what everybody says about MINDSHARE is true, you know, where people favour the Nvidia
just for its brand, then clearly, performance isn’t the only thing that matters.
In fact, it would be better for them to distance themselves from direct comparisons with Nvidia
by selling their products at a different price.
Embrace Polarises power efficiency, accept the cards run best when slightly slower and
lower the price to give people like myself a good reason to recommend them to buyers.
The blame here doesn’t lie solely with AMD, but also with third party retailers who try
to extract as much value out of each product as they can.
They seem to think that owners of a Radeon 560 want a dual-fan, foot-long card that requires
extra power connectors for the extra 10% performance it brings about.
No!
They don’t.
Stop it!
Leave it as the low-powered gaming card that it was intended to be.
And then there’s Vega.
Just before its launch I made a video detailing all of the information we knew about it.
I’m really proud of this video since it shows a unique perspective that I don’t
think anybody else has done.
The video will only get more valuable with time, as the internet gets flooded with post-launch
stories and information.
Check it out if you want a refresher on the story leading up to its launch, as it is one
of the more interesting tales.
Now that it’s been out for a while, I think it’s safe to say that Vega was… underwhelming.
Disappointing.
It deserves this award.
I wouldn’t say it’s a failure, just a case of too little, too late.
Its performance was below what was expected of a GPU of its size and sadly, its power
efficiency wasn’t competitive with Nvidia’s products either.
For the right price it would be good, but they didn’t even get that right, despite
the promising bundle deals they shouted about before launch.
There was talk of some exciting features that may be activated in a future driver release
or whatever, but I think AMD’s silence on the matter says all that needs to be said.
You know what Vega and Polaris have in common?
They’re both 18 months late.
Think about it.
Had Polaris come out at the start of 2015 instead it would have been pitted against
the Geforce 970: a card with almost the exact same performance and power consumption.
It would have been an excellent alternative and directly comparable in almost every way!
And no, don’t tell me it’s comparable to the 980 because even the 580, with double
the RAM, years of driver optimisations and aggressive overclocking performs behind it
in pretty much every benchmark.
And Vega 18 months earlier would have released a few months before the Geforce 1070 and 80.
Its power consumption could be excused had it been first to market and I think it would
be remembered as being a worthy competitor rather than something that got our hopes up
then broke our hearts.
But of course, the reality is that these two architectures DIDN’T release 18 months earlier.
Nvidia undoubtedly has the advantage and has done for some time.
They offer better performance despite their cards having smaller and more efficient die-sizes.
And beyond the Geforce 1080, Nvidia remains uncontested and can charge what they want
for the privilege, as can be seen from the new $3,000 Volta card.
All the while, poor AMD has to make do with fierce competition and insulting new gaming
rivals like the 1070 TI and 5 GB 1060.
Like, why, Nvidia?
Why?
But this is what happens when one company gets the upper hand.
Whatever the reason is for Nvidia delaying mainstream Volta cards, whether it’s that
they aren’t ready to be launched, or they want to milk profits from Pascal first, AMD
should see it as a blessing.
Vega and Polaris struggle enough against Pascal.
Imagine how they’d fare against Volta!
Poor Vega.
AMD will want Volta to come out as late as it can, and for its prices to remain as high
and as unobtainable as possible!
I don’t see AMD rivalling Nvidia any time soon, short of a miracle.
The current-gen 1080 TI has no rival.
Let alone Volta, terrifyingly looming just around the next corner.
This lack of competition sees prices creeping up, and with it some scary trends starting
happening.
When people consider a Geforce 1080 midrange you know there’s something wrong.
I firmly stick to the belief that the 580 and 1060 are midrange, the 1080 and Vega as
high-end and the 1080 TI+ as a super premium luxury.
But while it’s all been a bit depressing for us consumers, AMD’s probably quite happy
right now, thanks to Cryptocurrency.
It’s a bit of a dirty word since miners have continually bought up GPU stocks, which
have pushed prices up for the rest of us.
But AMD must be loving this!
Their cards perform very well at this and sell for well beyond the original $200 asking
price as a result.
Once again I’ve seen AMD fanboys somehow try to explain how this is bad for AMD.
Something to do with reduced marketshare, or retailers gobbling up the profits, or how
it results in burned out secondhand cards that hurt AMD’s reputation and increase
Nvidia’s ‘MINDSHARE’.
But once again I think that’s rubbish!
As far as I’m concerned, if they can shift whatever they can produce and at prices well
beyond the original asking price then AMD are laughing right now!
So what if their cards are being used for mining?
With the money they make from these sales they could easily pump it back into their
GPU division if they wanted to.
See it as an investment into Navi.
Even if their gaming marketshare goes down as a result, so what?!
They’re selling out, at inflated prices!
They even had that huge Vega deal with Apple recently.
I suspect 2017 has left AMD in a much stronger position than they were in at the start of
it, and if they aren’t then they’re doing something horribly, horribly wrong.
I like to end on a positive.
I have personally never had a problem with AMD’s drivers or software, but even still
it’s clear that they have come on in leaps and bounds.
Most recently with the new Adrenalin software.
What an excellent move from AMD, it’s something that will make AMD products all the more appealing
to own.
And I have friends who own Vega who are very happy with the card.
Who find enjoyment in tinkering with it, undervolting and overclocking to make it so much better
than it initially was upon release.
And while I consider them rivals to Nvidia’s 1070 and 1080, there are some games where
they punch well beyond their weight.
Most notably, the likes of Doom and Wolfenstein, where they contest even the almighty 1080
TI.
Much like finewine, it’s better to see these as welcome bonuses when they happen, rather
than to be disappointed if they don’t.
And please, AMD, use Vega to make mobile gaming great again.
There’s so much potential to pair Vega up with Ryzen and to have affordable AMD gaming
rigs for everybody, which I hope to see a lot more of in 2018.
This year has seen AMD’s CPU and GPU divisions trade places.
I’d rather they both did well but if I had to choose, I think what’s happened has been
for the best for AMD and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next year.