KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
Almost four months ago to the day, AMD launched its flagship consumer graphics card: RX Vega 64. Now, after what has felt like an age, we can present our first review of an aftermarket Vega 64 card – the Sapphire Nitro+ Limited Edition model. Measuring 31cm long, and 5.4cm thick, it is nothing short of a monster. It even requires THREE 8-pin PCIe power connectors to function and comes with a support bracket to prevent GPU sag. Could this be the aftermarket card we were all hoping for when Vega 64 first launched?
With pricing still uncertain, however, we will have to see what performance boost – if any – the Sapphire RX Vega 64 Nitro+ Limited Edition can bring when compared to AMD's reference design. After all, the latter card is actually very hard to come by, and we've only found it listed online as out-of-stock.
Nvidia's GTX 1080 cards are now cheaper than ever, too, with some models starting for as little as £499.99 – and from our initial testing, we know that a GTX 1080 is the faster card. With that in mind, Sapphire definitely has its work cut-out for its Nitro+ Limited Edition card.
| GPU | AMD RX Vega64 Liquid |
AMD RX Vega64 Air |
AMD RX Vega56 | Nvidia GTX 1070 | Nvidia GTX 1080 | Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti |
| GPU Name | Vega 10 | Vega 10 | Vega 10 | GP104 | GP104 | GP102 |
| GPU Cores | 4096 | 4096 | 3584 | 1920 | 2560 | 3584 |
| Base Clock | 1406MHz | 1247MHz | 1156MHz | 1506 MHz | 1607 MHz | 1480 MHz |
| GPU Boost Clock | 1677MHz (Avg) 1750MHz (Max) | 1546MHz (Avg) 1630MHz (Max) | 1471MHz (Avg) 1590MHz (Max) | 1683 MHz | 1733 MHz | 1582 MHz |
| Total Video Memory | 8GB HBM2 | 8GB HBM2 | 8GB HBM2 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5X | 11GB GDDR5X |
| Texture Units | 256 | 256 | 256 | 120 | 160 | 224 |
| Texture fill rate | 429.3 GT/s | 395.8 GT/s | 330.0 GT/s | 180.7 GT/s | 257.1 GT/s | 331.5 GT/s |
| Memory Bit Rate |
1.89 Gbps effective | 1.89 Gbps effective | 1.60 Gbps effective | 8 Gbps effective | 10 Gbps effective | 11 Gbps effective |
| Memory Bandwidth | 484 GB/s | 484 GB/s | 410 GB/s | 256.3 GB/s | 320 GB/s | 484 GB/s |
| Bus Width | 2048-bit | 2048-bit | 2048-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 352-bit |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 88 |
| Manufacturing Process | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 16nm | 16nm | 16nm |
| TDP | 345 W | 295 W | 210 W | 150 W | 180 W | 250 W |
| Power Connector(s) | 2x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin | 2x 8-pin | 1x 8-pin | 1x 8-pin | 1x 6-pin + 1×8-pin |
| Launch MSRP | $699 (Radeon Aqua Pack) | $499 | $399 | $449 (FE) | $699 (FE) | $699 |
| Pricing (Dec 2017) |
Approx £670+ | Approx £540+ | Approx. £530+ | Approx. £380 | Approx. £499 | Approx. £680 |
Seems like a no brainer to skip the early vegas cards and stick to a 1080GTX if you want performance for the money. The 1080TI absolutely runs the vegas architecture in its current form into the ground, but at the extra cost, the 1080GTX looks like the best thing going.
…better than GTX1080?
TL;DR Nope!
Not sure why latest driver’s weren’t utilised? I’m pretty sure UK has internet! 😉
i can’t see the ” better performance ” of gtx 1080.-
It really depends on the game and card settings
A 1070 can beat a Vega 56 sometimes
Undervolt, oc and raise its power limit and within like 5 minutes it trades blows with the 1080 and Vega 64
Throw that same card into gta and it gets floored
The Vega cards are a really weird series overall
Also this is crimson not adrenalin
Still considering getting a VEGA, looks to me the better future proof card. But I’m thinking the PowerColor Red Devil instead of the Sapphire one, looks better and that cooler also seems to cool things down more.. waiting for the reviews.
I would say the same thing amd likes prolonging cards, eg the hd 7000 series still getting updates
I would say let them refine vega first before diving in though
Even with the latest Adrenalin drivers this card’s performance is inconcistent, where sometimes its even slower than the reference card. It seems to be the same kind of issues that plagued Powercolor Red Devil at the beginning, and they fixed it with the driver later on.
ahahhahahahahahah, good one!
Unless they review it before they came out!
Sadly miners will pick all of them!
Faster than a 1080 on every other site.
I would stay away from powercolor. I kid you not comparing the powercolor to a sapphire is like comparing a kit car of a lambo to a real lambo.
the weird thing is vega looks better than nvidia in gta5.(its like the amd driver has its own sort of msaa happening with out the game being told to do so.) also it is a smoother game to play on vega. nvidia cards have weird rubber banding that happens when driving fast in some area’s.