AMD RX Vega 56 Nano now official

[Redaktion]

AMD unveiled the RX Vega 56 Nano during a Computex 2018 special press event, but instead a reference edition — as it usually happens — they unveiled a variant made by PowerColor. This video card features 8 GB HBM2 memory, 3584 stream processors, and the same clock speeds as the reference edition: 1156 MHz (base) and 1471 MHz (maximum).  

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-RX-Vega-56-Nano-now-official.308036.0.html

[GTRagnarok]

Unfortunately, it's hard to get excited about AMD GPUs these days. Hoping they can eventually shake up the GPU space like they did the CPU space.

[Maurice Fortin]

not sure about that other person who commented.

AMD has had quite the "break out" the last 2 years or so from RX 400, RX 500, Vega, and the various Ryzen chips and motherboards to back it all up.

Are they "the best" nope, but then again most people fanboy style that think Intel or Ngreedia are the best and AMD offers no competition at all have their blinders on IMO.

this being said, Vega 56 Nano from powercolor while "that is cool" will likely be very overpriced from the get go (just like all current Nv 10 series and AMD RX 500/Vega currently are as well) not 100% AMD or Nv fault, but rather the etailers/vendors whatever you prefer to call them, they get the $120 card in their hands and they jump the price up to $180, or they get an RX 570 4 or 8gb and price it identically to the RX 580 models (even though by default is at least $50 less expensive a model)

I know business is business and all that crud, but they seriously need to price things as they should be priced, they make $$ from the sale, the more sold, the more $$, overprice them and yeh you might make more at the end of the year but likely you sell nowhere close to the same amount A and B it "hurts" reputation of companies like AMD that get constant flack from people when often enough it is the AIB pulling stupid move (ASUS, MSI etc) by not properly testing them, or using a poorly designed cooler considering the heatload etc.

Anyways, if this Vega 56 Nano is "close" to a default Vega 56 full size model (as far as clock speeds, the cooler can keep up, they really took the time to optimize the voltages etc) and they priced as they should be (not gouged as they all seem to be over the last ~8 months or so) then it might be a worthy contender, however, I quite honestly hope AMD releases some "new" models sooner rather than later

Vegas are priced too high for the "average gamer" needing very good 1080p and 1200p level performance in the around 150w-180w range (max) power consumption level.

Vega chews a bit too much power (until YOU tweak the voltages) are priced a bit too high for comfort (especially now in the area of $200+ more than should be) RX 580/570 are almost a bit too potent for the "average" gamer, whereas RX 560 or 550 class are held back by a cruddy narrow memory bus (not to mention the cost of RX 560 currently add another $80 and the RX 570 is WAY more powerful, but at the same time almost overkill because it requires that much more constant wattage even if you are not using it and so pushed out a good chunk of extra heat for nothing (if not using it)

something with a full 256 bit memory bus at least 1280+ shaders 128 TMU 32 rop etc (basically an up classed Radeon HD 7870 from many years back) (RX 560 is too lean, and RX 570 is too "loaded" there is definitely a more middle ground approach that the 560 does not address and the 470/570 are a bit too much.

maybe something along the line of 1536 shader 32 ROP and 96 TMU on 256 bit memory bus instead of 128 bit.

Kind of the way 7870 was better at some things then a default clocked 7950 (such as antialiasing because of the fact it had equal amount of rops 7950 had so technically had a "better balance of power" available considering amount of shaders etc that it did not have to power that 7950 did)

anyways, I personally believe there is absolutely room for a "modernized" 7870 (which they have not replaced as of yet, many above and many below, but none that have got the exact same "perfect mix" especially now because of die shrinks etc from 28nm down to 14nm very soon to 12 or even 7nm they absolutely have "room to maneuver"

RX 470 was almost sport on, but they did not tune the voltages as best as they should have (ran into breaking pci-e power limits which is never good) the RX 570 was more spot on but of course they upped the clocks so wattages were well above the sweet spot the 7870 nailed on the nose (of course fanboys will be like "but the 660s were better" yep, maybe, but they were NOT the same "sweet spot" very balanced approached in regards to what it COULD DO,, what is was CAPABLE OF.

TDP of 7870 was 175w, you really had to overclock it to actually meet up with this number, whereas the RX 470 and 570 on the other hand rated at 120w (bs on that because of not properly voltage tuning right from the factory) for the RX 470 the RX 570 is rated for this "same number" in some places whereas in other places is rated for 150w and yet can surpass 200+w (one again issue was/is not properly tuned voltages from the factory)

In other words, the 7870 was very conservatively rated for the 175w mark whereas the 470 and 570 rated for 120w or 150w very easily match if not outright smoke this rating (using it at stock clocks) so was absolutely not conservatively rated, rather a "if just the right drivers are used in just the right system" LOL

ANYWAYS

They (AMD) need to push out a "new" 7870 call it RX 565 or 568 or something like that (or even a Vega using some of the possible specs I have listed that is, use a chunk more shader than the 7870 had (die shrinks can be awesome if they actually go to the drawing board) give it a chunk more ROP and TMU than the 560 has with a wider bus but not quite as many as the 570 has, so to maybe do a ~3/4 of the way to an RX 570 (instead of the "at best" with a solid overclock maybe 1/2, would be nice to be 3/4 mark "stock") so basically cannot keep up directly with an RX 570 (unless clock it up that clock difference, just like the 7870 COULD keep up with most 7950s with an overclock, but the 7950s overclocked demolish a 7870, same rule applies in this example) and the 560 would not be able to keep up with the 565 or 568 either (wider bus, more shader-rop-tmu count)

7870 was kind of a "frankenstein" but it worked out VERY well because of this, in many (but not all cases) it could compete directly with a 7950, whereas a 560 absolutely cannot keep up with a 570, but there is a pretty good price jump (current pricing) seems there is some "wiggle room" so that the 560 (custom versions) currently ~$180, 570s selling for ~$280, that leaves the $200-$220 range "untouched"  at least as far as Radeons are concerned, for as much as I hate Nv with a passion, at least they have "fleshed out" their cards a chunk for the 10 series

from 1050-1050Ti-1050Ti 4gb etc etc. for Radeons the only "different one" is them (AMD) pulling a stupid move and allowing AIB to sell a 896 shader model at the same price as the 1024 shader version, well then they should also give an even more "full fat" version that uses a wider bus, more shaders etc, because there is a pretty distinct chunk of difference shader-rop-tmu between RX 570 and 560

(claimed was "exactly half" yet real world given performance and power usage is absolutely a different story as is the current BS greed pricing)

2048/1024(or 896), 128/64(or 56), 32/16

price difference in the current range of $80 or more (when it should be max difference of about $50) official pricing was $110-$120 for 560 4gb $169-$199 for 4 or 8gb 570 (instead is now $145-$199 for 560 and $239-$289 for the 570s..either way there is a "gap" in the ~$25 at least between these 2 marks, hell make it "only" as a 4gb model priced at $195 PERIOD, clocked faster more shader etc than 560 has, but leaves enough "gap" between it and 570.

anyways am done rattling on now :D

good on powercolor, not so good on AMD not coming out/up with SOMETHING between RX and Vega series, Vega is almost chewing up too much power for nothing (and costing a good chunk too much for the "average" gamer that does not need to power multiple screens or crank their game full out belching heat like a volcano) RX 580/570 are currently overpriced and very hard to come by, whereas the 560s are absolutely overpriced for what they are (in regards to the gpu that they are) so there is an absolute middle ground that AMD established many years ago with 4870, and 5870, and 6870, and 7870, then they "dropped the ball" and basically "ditched the concept"

I thought they learned from Bulldozer and ended up fixing such to get Ryzen (from Kaveri focus on get the most performance for the minimum power required) now they need to do the exact same thing for Radeons once again, get that damn mojo back ^.^.