Thursday, June 22nd 2017
Radeon RX Vega Needs a "Damn Lot of Power:" AIB Partner Rep
AMD is dragging its feet with the launch of its next performance/enthusiast segment graphics card based on the cutting-edge "Vega 10" silicon, the Radeon RX Vega. The last we heard, the company is announcing the product late-July/early-August, along the sidelines of SIGGRAPH 2017. The company already put out specifications of the first consumer product based on this silicon, the Radeon Pro Vega Frontier Edition; and according to listings by online retailers, its power figures aren't looking good. The air-cooled version has its TDP rated at 300W, and the faster liquid-cooled variant 375W. This is way above the 275W TDP of the TITAN Xp, NVIDIA's fastest client-segment graphics card.
An MSI company representative posting on Dutch tech-forums confirmed our worst fears, that the RX Vega will have a very high power draw. "Specs van Vega RX gezien. Tering wat power heeft die nodig. Wij zijn er aan bezig, dat is een start dus launch komt dichterbij," said the representative who goes by "The Source" on Dutch tech forums Tweakers.net. As a gentleman scholar in Google Translate, and citing VideoCardz which cited a native Dutch speaker; the MSI rep's statement translates as "I've seen the specs of Vega RX. It needs a damn lot of power. We're working on it, which is a start so launch is coming closer."
Sources:
VideoCardz, Tweakers.net (forums)
An MSI company representative posting on Dutch tech-forums confirmed our worst fears, that the RX Vega will have a very high power draw. "Specs van Vega RX gezien. Tering wat power heeft die nodig. Wij zijn er aan bezig, dat is een start dus launch komt dichterbij," said the representative who goes by "The Source" on Dutch tech forums Tweakers.net. As a gentleman scholar in Google Translate, and citing VideoCardz which cited a native Dutch speaker; the MSI rep's statement translates as "I've seen the specs of Vega RX. It needs a damn lot of power. We're working on it, which is a start so launch is coming closer."
95 Comments on Radeon RX Vega Needs a "Damn Lot of Power:" AIB Partner Rep
Every 1080Ti has a a TDP adjustment limit of 330-350-384W if you doesnt use the stock FE. Why are we panicking over "RX Vega gonna use a lot of power" again?
We're talking about graphics cards that will make our eyes bleed rainbow. Of course they need shit ton a power to do that.
All of the very high end cards eat power. 980Ti, 1080Ti, Fury X. It is foolish to think that any of the 2 companies will put a graphics card on the table that does flawless buttery smooth 4K gaming with like ~150W power consumption.
In 2017/2018 it just no gonna happen.
P.S: and we all saw the MSI 1080TI lighting card with 3x8pin power connection meaning the card can draw up to 525W of power. I cant see why would a 300W TDP card be an issue on the current market.
Its going to interesting to see how AIB partners try to dissipate that 300+W on the non pro(or whatever) non-reference cards.
Even if they cut the efficiency gap in half, a Vega clocked to "compete" with GP102 will still easily pass 300W TDP.
You only care if you have at least couple of dozens working full load in some sort of super Computer. That is where it matters.
But for us mostly single gpu users, it wont matter if ist 250 or 300 or 350 W. For waht, for disipated heat? For extra power costs ?
What is the Advantage of 250W versus 350W ?
You are not going to hold your VEGA in 100% full load 24/7, and even if you did, the difference from 250W to 350W is 2.4 KWh per day which translates in 0.72 EUR per day. Which is 21EUR per month, if you Keep it in FULL load that is, which as a gamer only you will never.
Chances are you are getting more Performance for those 21 EUR per month in a full load Scenario. So if you had the couple of hundert euros to pay for the Card, you sure as hell wont mind paying a bit much for power usage.
That beeing said, im waiting for the DUAL GPU Version of this, and im going to get me two of them for 4 GPUs in total, see then how much the powerdraw is in full load.
I personaly wont mind at all if the DUAL VEGA Card would have 4x8pin power plugs. I can easily accomodate 8x8pin power plugs from my two ANTEC High current pros 1300W.
So bring it on AMD, i'm waiting.
I would never go under 1KW PSU because I want to be far away from power limitation.
Now you can find cheap quality 1KW PSU and they don't need to be big.
There is a models with very small PSU case as EVGA 1000 GX.
mATX motherboard + Intel 6-10 cores.
This only could be problem for guys who thought 700W is enough for everything and keep Intel X chipset and now is time for GPU upgrade.
Even than 750W should be enough but fan will work like crazy.
Also, by the same partner:
Another comment (Bits&Chips relying on unnamed sources) on aggressive price/perf to expect from Vega (and Navi being the game changer in enterprise):
twitter.com/BitsAndChipsEng/status/877972194755837952
So, while AMD definitely won't beat nVidia in perf/watt, let alone as badly as back in Fermi times, great performance/$ is expected.
And then there is undervolting for environment friendly users.
Required PSU.