AMD announces Radeon VII graphics: Zen 2 on track

[HEXUS]

CES keynote offers insight into 2019.

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[Tabbykatze]

The Radeon VII is disappointing, RTX2080 at £700 was not a good start. If they undercut they would get a lot more mindshare but now it's going to be down to whether it can be a strong contender to the performance and fidelity of the RTX2080. If it doesn't outright beat it then it is a lost cause to me. I was expecting Navi but to put this GPU as part of their keynote was a bad idea.

This is Vega 1 all over again.

[chj]

The Radeon VII is disappointing, RTX2080 at £700 was not a good start. If they undercut they would get a lot more mindshare but now it's going to be down to whether it can be a strong contender to the performance and fidelity of the RTX2080. If it doesn't outright beat it then it is a lost cause to me. I was expecting Navi but to put this GPU as part of their keynote was a bad idea.

This is Vega 1 all over again.

I agree but considering there wasn't any expectation for a GPU any time soon this is better than nothing. Still though, same price point without the extra features like ray tracing... why buy it?

Zen 2 is shaping up nicely though and i'm pleased they're still headed for mid 2019 release. I just hope they market it enough.

[Tabbykatze]

I agree but considering there wasn't any expectation for a GPU any time soon this is better than nothing. Still though, same price point without the extra features like ray tracing... why buy it?

Zen 2 is shaping up nicely though and i'm pleased they're still headed for mid 2019 release. I just hope they market it enough.

Absolutely on Zen 2, matching/beating IPC or having higher IPC at lower clock while drawing 30% less power than a 9900k is amazing.

My biggest concern is that Vega 2 is the big thing. HBM is amazing but expensive, no headline competitive features and will be fighting specialised hardware trying to use a level playing field.

My only hope is this was a detractor and Navi is just round the corner and it'll be "boom, you guys thought this was it?"

Vega was a great system but badly focused and too expensive. Vega 2 has to do more than expected to justify its price tag and the bad mindtaste of the Vega launch...

[Hoonigan]

So, the Radeon VII is looking to cost very much the same as an RTX 2080 while offering similar performance. That, on it's own, is alright. But the RTX 2080 also offers the entire Ray Tracing thing as, essentially, a free bonus.

Sure, the 16GB, 1TB/s, HBM2 memory is an awesome but is it going to make much difference?

This, compounded with NVIDIAs acceptance of the FreeSync standard, does not bode well for AMD.

Fingers crossed they're holding their cards close to their chest and have something along the lines of a Radeon IX (Nine) in the pipeline. However, price will be absolutely key there.

[spacein_vader]

So, the Radeon VII is looking to cost very much the same as an RTX 2080 while offering similar performance. That, on it's own, is alright. But the RTX 2080 also offers the entire Ray Tracing thing as, essentially, a free bonus.

Sure, the 16GB, 1TB/s, HBM2 memory is an awesome but is it going to make much difference?

This, compounded with NVIDIAs acceptance of the FreeSync standard, does not bode well for AMD.

Fingers crossed they're holding their cards close to their chest and have something along the lines of a Radeon IX (Nine) in the pipeline. However, price will be absolutely key there.

That said, faster memory is a benefit in every game, RTX only on the few that have it enabled.

[Hoonigan]

That said, faster memory is a benefit in every game, RTX only on the few that have it enabled.

We'll have to wait a few weeks to see actual benchmarks, but I imagine the memory won't make up for a lack of actual GPU power. Definitely keep an eye on 4K performance compared to the 2080 though.

[jimbouk]

Raytracing vs better Vulkan performance. Given that raytracing is still in tech demo territory and barely playable with the most expensive kit I don't think it's a daft thing to ignore.

[tag75]

lets see what happens , looking good tho

[Csikasz]

I'm looking forward to the Zen2 and the Intel counterpart in their time to retire the 3770K @5ghz, but the Radeon VII just a big yaaawn. It could be good if it wont be more expensive than the same level NVidia but not for me unfortunately

[flearider]

look you turn on rtx you half your frame rate .. so no point going there that's why NVidia are releasing the 3080 this yr ..amd are already producing this card ..so no biggy to them to tweak it as a game card .. win win .. as long as zen 2 and navi are up to par alls good ..
never mind NVidia losing it's ceo this yr and probably having to pay out a lot in fines ..

[Hoonigan]

look you turn on rtx you half your frame rate

This is true. For one game. The only data point we have so far. We haven't seen anything, really, of what these cards are actually capable of, including what effect DLSS will have on framerates with and without RTX enabled.

Don't write them off just yet.

[stevie lee]

Does DirectX ray tracing need the RTX cores to work ? if not, then will the lack of RTX specific cores actually matter?

just add both RTX and DXR support in games. especially as the DXR is part of the DirectX the games run in anyhow.


unless ive missed some info on why that wont work.

[DevDrake]

Wow 16GB HBM is really impressive hardwarewise.
Lets see what benchmark will say, until then its just somewhat interesting for me, yet is good for the market to have competition there, even if currently it is similar to two old boxers that already got $ for the fight and playing safe to cut the doctor bills at the end.
I hope for a great punch.

[Hoonigan]

Does DirectX ray tracing need the RTX cores to work ? if not, then will the lack of RTX specific cores actually matter?

just add both RTX and DXR support in games. especially as the DXR is part of the DirectX the games run in anyhow.


unless ive missed some info on why that wont work.

My understanding is that, with the way that current GPUs work, that they could do Ray Tracing, but it wouldn't be anywhere near "real time". The RT cores in the RTX series of cards accelerates things considerably, while allowing the conventional cores to do what they would normally with some post-rasterization done to apply the lighting from the DXR.

Though, I would love for someone to go in-depth and properly explain it better than me, or even correct me entirely.

[Iota]

I was expecting Navi

It's far too early for that to be appearing isn't it? VII is kind of a stop gap much like the RX590, I would imagine this launch is more about market share while they're working on Navi. Ryzen 3000 is looking pretty solid from what little we've seen though, so it isn't all bad.