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Although cards from AMD's new Polaris line up have yet to even hit store shelves, AMD is already looking to the future. Its next-generation graphics cards, currently codenamed Vega, have just hit a new milestone, according to senior VP and chief architect at AMD, Raja Koduri, but he did warn we won't see the cards for some time.
In Shanghai this week…In Vega mode!
— Raja Koduri (@GFXChipTweeter) June 22, 2016
While Polaris cards like the upcoming RX 480 are seemingly designed to help lower the entry level costs for virtual reality and to make high-end, gaming hardware much more affordable for consumers, Vega is more traditional. Sporting the hard-to-get-hold-of high bandwidth memory two (HBM2), Vega could potentially steal back the performance crown from Nvidia.
Design team is thrilled with your response. Celebrated a milestone with the team. Long way to go before you see it pic.twitter.com/duQVBBGict
— Raja Koduri (@GFXChipTweeter) June 23, 2016
Specifications other than the use of HBM2 are almost non existent, though we have seen some speculation that it could feature 4,096 graphics core next stream processors, though that is very much unconfirmed.
Incredibly proud of our gpu design team here in shanghai that delivered polaris family and next Vega pic.twitter.com/ejvFJW1DoY
— Raja Koduri (@GFXChipTweeter) June 23, 2016
What we do know though, thanks to Koduri, is that Vega's development is progressing well. In a series of tweets he praised the team behind its design, though did warn that it would be a “long way to go before you see,” their efforts in a real product.
Considering the expected release for the design is sometime in 2017, it will need to be powerful, as by then we'll be looking at Nvidia having a GTX 1080Ti and probably this generation's Titan too.
We may get our first look at Vega at CES 2017, so although it's still a “long way,” off, we might at least get an idea of what Vega is like within the next six months.
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KitGuru Says: How do you guys feel about AMD targeting mid-range with the RX series and holding off on Vega? Do you think that was a smart move?
I think it was a very smart move for sure. They will hopefully sell a lot of the RX cards now & then maybe gain back some market share. I do presume that Nvidia is also thinking about releasing a lower spec card like a GTX 1060 to compete at that price point & performance I guess time will tell. I am also looking forward to Vega & the 1080 Ti cards to see what they bring to the table for price & performance.
It was a smart move. Most people still game at 1080p. NV will answer soon enough but I imagine AMD is gona get some good sales from this.
People excited for vega can just buy a 1080 now. Probably cost about the same heh. The HBM2 is overrated and won’t matter for a few more years I bet. Would it REALLY make that big a difference if the 1080gtx used it?
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The problem is is this generation, I doubt Nvidia will be able to compete in the midrange. From volume shipping numbers, you can tell AMD is getting good yields on this, and from an architectural point of view, GloFoSamsung 14nm vs TSMC 16nm yields about another 13% transistor density. AMD has priced aggressively, with an architecture designed for small die, with good yields. I can’t see how a cutdown Pascal card can really compete there tbh.
Honestly, even a 480 will do for 2k gaming at around or close to 60 FPS (certainly above 40 FPS).
The early benchmarks (if you can call them that) are highly unreliable. They are way before NDA, also with outdated drivers (this bit I cannot stress enough because we’ve seen that AMD has a track record of improving performance with newer drivers – granted that had a lot to do with untapped potential of GCN in the first place and it’s lower efficiency in DX11… however, Polaris has been said to allegedly change that with new hardware such as primitive discard accelerator).
And of course, there’s DX12 (for which most new games will come pre-coded to begin with) and where AMD offers really good performance.
Also, DX12 offers the ability to pair up different GPU’s (say both Nvidia and AMD) resulting in increased performance.
More to the point, Crossfire is not the same under DX12, because that API handles things very differently.
And let’s not forget something else… you can essentially get 2x 480 GPU’s for MUCH LESS the price of a single 1080, and probably enjoy continued driver support.
But, for the time being I think a 480 alone will do definitely for 1080p and probably for 2k for some time (even way past Vega actually arrives).
One also should keep in mind that syntethic benchmarks are NOT indicative of real world performance, and they don’t test utilize the new GPU hardware properly.
With Pascal being an essentially modified Maxwell, it will certainly be interesting to see with what Nvidia comes out for the mid-range.
I won’t be waiting for it because it will likely take months to get to the consumer, and 480 is only days away from being launched that was already DEMO-ed by AMD and providing high performance in 2k under some DX12 games – that alone shows that AMD most likely created a very compelling product this time around where they can place high performance in the hands of people who do not want to shell out the money for the top-end cards.
And in all seriousness, would you really see a difference between 2k and 4k?
Unless we are talking about some unprecedented level of scrutiny and detail and possibly holography, I very much doubt so it will matter for most games.
Furthermore, why would anyone want to push a game to Ultra settings when ‘High’ provides practically much higher performance for a much lower hardware requirement and miniscule to no visual impact?
Really, the visual differences between the two modes are really nothing more than bragging rights in most cases that won’t make an actual difference.
480 looks like the right card at the right time. It’ll sell. A lot. Nvidia will have to rush the GTX 1060 or risk losing market share big time, because this is the sweetspot for price/performance as we have seen historically. It reminds me greatly of the 4870 which was also basically the right card at the right time.
HBM2 with a powerful core makes difference at 4K for sure
Anyone who is going to “upgrade” has to already have a low end graphics card. I wonder how many people will find enough of an improvement with the RX 480,470, or the 460 to bother to upgrade. Any previous card bought over the last two years that cost over $300 is not a good candidate for an upgrade (or perhaps it should be called a “sidegrade”). New system builders on a very tight budget may be interested, but frankly the graphics card is only a third or less of the cost of a decent gaming computer. There will be a market, but a huge market? I donno. Depends on the benchmarks and the initial prices of the cards I suppose.
We MAY get a first look at CES 2017? Vega is supposed to be RELEASED in Q4 2016 according to AMD’s own roadmap (late October – early November). They delivered Polaris on time and will most likely deliver Vega on time as well.
That rumor was long ago dis-proven. Even AMD is now saying the beginning of 2017 if only due to the HBM2 memory not being ready for volume production until then.
Well the 480 probably won’t do 60+fps at 1080p without any dips, it will dip for sure. I mean a 1070 or so is still needed for even 1080p.. if you want to play demanding games anyways. This is why 4k gaming is still a while off, minimum & average fps is very important.
I reckon 1080Ti will be a really solid 1440p card for high refresh screens.