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We first measure system-wide power draw from the wall while the card is sat idling at the Windows 10 desktop for 5 minutes. Gaming power draw is recorded by running the Deus Ex benchmark at 4K. As a maximum stress test, Fire Strike Ultra Stress Test is run 5 consecutive times and the cards' power draws are recorded.
Power efficiency is clearly not a strength for AMD's Vega GPUs. The RX Vega56 operating in its ‘Turbo' power mode (which prioritises performance above all else) pulls more power than the vastly superior GTX 1080 Ti. Nvidia's efficient GTX 1070 FE uses around 150W (38%) less power when gaming at 4K though it also offers generally lower performance.
We strongly recommend playing around with the power profiles to see what best fits your requirements. ‘Turbo' modes seems to be burning energy in order to extract small slithers of additional performance.
If… this Vega56 could be had not (as now) this blower edition, could be bought in the market without the profiteering inflicted on it… And this is the biggest, if there were 1440p monitors with FreeSync and those weren’t marked-up well beyond the mainstream 1440p. Only then might this have viable appeal.
At this time plunking down the “overage” to move into such upgrade levels of hardware is not a move many should be looking toward. 1440p feels almost past its’ prime or seems bowled-over by a more robust infusion of 4K. So you you’ll be ahead to hold and wait, entry 4K is not that far off with close to a similar cash out-lay of such inflated hardware.
I wish reviewers would stop benching GTA5. It’s ancient and no longer graphically demanding but most importantly, it doesn’t seem to be optimized at all for AMD cards.
As for the power profiles, if the 56 is anything like the 64, the ‘balanced’ mode should only effect performance by 5% but reduce power consumption by 10-30W.
People127s
Office66s
But GTA5 is a really popular game still, and prospective buyers want to see how the card performs on a game they play.
And @LukeHill are you going to reduce the rating of this card after it was revealed that AMD’s introductory price was nowhere near the actual price, thus making the 56 not so much of a great deal for price/performance?
I’m an AMD fan and plan on buying a Vega 56 Monday (Aug 28) if possible. I still play it so it matters to me. I am aware GTAV does significantly worse on AMD though, which is exactly why it won’t deter me from purchasing Vega.