AMD’s 7nm ‘Vega 20’ GPU to arrive in Q1 2019

Vega 20 is set to be AMD’s first GPU fabricated under the firm’s new 7 nanometer silicon fabrication process, sporting double the bus-width of its predecessor. Unfortunately, it looks as though the new graphics cards likely won’t make it in time for the Holidays as previously thought, with sources indicating an early 2019 release.

AMD’s upcoming Vega 20 GPU was supposedly spotted in a Final Fantasy XV benchmark last week, hidden under its device ID – 66AF:C1.  Believed to house up to 32GB of HBM2 memory across a 4096-bit memory interface, the score was a bump higher than the firm’s previous Radeon RX Vega line, however it fared noticeably weaker than the Vega Frontier Edition.

As well as being bogged down by the game’s heavy favour towards Nvidia cards, these numbers are thought to be the work of “early engineering samples that are far from completion,” according to sources speaking with GamerNexus. Given the tentative nature of development and the unofficial status of the benchmarks, it’s best to take them with a pinch of salt.

Despite many expecting the Instinct-branded range to drop this year, the same sources stated that the product would actually launch during the end of Q1 2019 instead. It’s uncertain what has caused the shift in release window, however comments from CEO Lisa Su during AMD's Q3-2018 earnings call suggest it could be an effort to boost yield to match higher demand in the enterprise market.

KitGuru Says: AMD has a clear market strategy for its enterprise and server markets. Only time will tell how these cards fare against competition, however as long as it isn’t held back by a Windows 10 update, it’ll surely do just fine.

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