- Hey guys this is Austin.
It has been a while since AMD launched
some new high-end graphics cards
but RX Vega is here
almost.
Here I have both of the new cards.
The RX Vega 64 as well as 56,
which comes in slightly less cool packaging.
So big shout out to AMD for sending these out
a little bit early.
So the 64 will be launching on August 14th
whereas the 56 will be coming out on August 28th.
Unfortunately, I can't tell you how Vega performs today
but what I can do is show you
what comes in this super cool press box.
At least I hope it's super cool.
Woah, okay. That's kind of cool.
What?
What is this?
Radeon RX Vega.
Yo, that is pretty cool.
It's like the full 3D logo in this glass.
Is this the actual Vega die?
Yo, you can even see the HBM2 memory.
So, that is actually one of the advantages,
at least in theory,
over the RX 10 series,
is that it has a lot of very fast memory
that is directly on-chip.
This might be one of the coolest things
I've ever gotten in a press box.
I love to take a look at chips like this.
Especially, you very rarely actually get to see
what a GPU looks like without being inside a whole card.
Alright, let's see what we got.
Ooh,
comes in a surprisingly nice-looking metal chassis.
Wow, that's,
that's real metal there.
You know what? I've actually seen pictures of this
and it looked kind of decent
but in person this is actually
a really nice-looking reference design.
I mean, I still think
that the 1080 and 1080Ti reference design
is super cool-looking but that's-
it's also really heavy.
(laughs)
I'm just realizing that.
Before we get too far into Vega 64,
we gotta take a look at our
slightly less cool unboxing of 56.
So essentially,
this is going to be the lower-end version of the same GPU.
So just like there's the GTX 1080 and 1070,
this is going to be the more affordable version.
And it's also in a slightly less cool-looking
cooler- although is that the Team Rocket logo?
Ken, that's the Team Rocket logo, right?
- Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again!
- You know what? Sometimes, when I'm doing an unboxing,
I'm just really surprised.
And you know what? Congratulations AMD.
- [Ken] Nerd.
- So to start with, we have the Radeon RX Vega 56,
so like I said, this is going to be the cheaper model,
that comes in at $400.
And it really is aimed at the GTX 1070,
you know at least when those prices
finally come back down to Earth anyway.
We've also got the new Radeon flagship, the RX Vega 64.
Now this is going to come in at $500,
at least for the base model.
And it is going to be aimed at the GTX 1080.
There are actually three different designs
of RX Vega right now though.
So, all the 56 cards should come in this
sort of black, fairly basic-looking cooler.
Now, of course this is a reference design
and there will be different versions at some point.
Once you step up to the limited edition,
what you're getting here is
a much much nicer-looking card.
At least in my opinion.
So, in pictures I feel like it really doesn't do it justice
but having that full metal shroud
actually does look really nice.
Both of these cards are powered by
a pair of 8 pin PCIe power connectors.
And not only do they have the GPU Tach,
which should light up
depending on how much load the GPU is under
but they have the Dual BIOS switch
as well three DisplayPort and a single HDMI port.
There is also a liquid cooled version of RX Vega 64
but that's actually where
things start to get fairly confusing.
Even though it seems like there are just
three versions of these cards,
the pricing gets very very complicated.
While Vega 56 at $400 and Vega 64 for $500
seem to be fairly reasonably priced,
the big issue is that the cryptomining market,
while it is declining,
is still causing major problems for GPUs.
Not only are most mid to high-end cards
for both AMD and Nvidia nearly impossible
to get your hands on right now
but the ones that you can find are usually marked up.
And to be fair, things are getting better
but there are a lot of cards
that you cannot get for MSRP right now.
To counter, AMD are offering what are known as Radeon packs.
So for $100 more you can get a couple free games
like Prey and Wolfenstein
as well as discounts on PC hardware.
However, those discounts are very specific.
For example, you can save $100 on
a Ryzen 7 and motherboard combo
or $200 on a Samsung FreeSync display.
If you're building a very specific high-end system,
this can make sense.
But for most people, it's just not a good deal.
Confusing things even farther,
is that if you wanna pick up Vega 64 Liquid,
you have to get it inside a pack,
which means it's going to run you $700.
I get that AMD are trying to make gamers happy
by offering them a specific bundle
that cryptominers probably
aren't going to be interested in.
But unless you are a very specific person,
they really don't make a lot of sense.
I feel like this is a big experiment
and AMD has hinted that
they're open to changing the pricing on these bundles
depending on how well things sell.
I can't say anything today about how well Vega performs
but I can say that AMD could really use a big win right now.
The GTX 10 series has been hugely successful,
not only because they're incredibly powerful
but they're also very power efficient.
That is a dangerous combo.
So, what do you guys think about AMD Vega
and how they've handled the launch?
Let me know in the comments below
and I will catch you in the next one.