another asus strix vega64 review?

[letho]

http://yujihw.com/review/asus-rog-strix-rx-vega64-oc-edition-8gb-hbm2

after evga and whole x299 lineup vrm disaster, asus has joined the union by its asus strix vega 64 too!
for god sake, i should represent it:
what is this new tech from asus about??

 

[eidairaman1]

The way you write is horrible and makes no sense whatsoever. To me it sounds like a trolling thread that needs to be taken out to pasture and shot dead.

Please add clarity to this topic.

 

[letho]

The way you write is horrible and makes no sense whatsoever. To me it sounds like a trolling thread that needs to be taken out to pasture and shot dead.

Please add clarity to this topic.

what are you talking about

 

[cadaveca]

what are you talking about

You said something that might be bad for AMD, and he balked at it. No worries, continue on.

It would be nice, however, to say that you got a VGA with quite hot VRMs, and maybe no thermal interface material. However, there does seem to be some pad there in your one pic, even if it is slightly misplaced. Sure, those FETs aren't properly covered, but oh well.

Anyway, you'd need to know what components are under there, since many are just fine up to 125 C or so, as well.

 

[letho]

You said something that might be bad for AMD, and he balked at it. No worries, continue on.

It would be nice, however, to say that you got a VGA with quite hot VRMs, and maybe no thermal interface material. However, there does seem to be some pad there in your one pic, even if it is slightly misplaced. Sure, those FETs aren't properly covered, but oh well.

Anyway, you'd need to know what components are under there, since many are just fine up to 125 C or so, as well.

finally someone's eng that i can read and understand thx dude.

thats is not bad for amd but asus, since this is a asus non reference card.
that quiet hot vrm on that area is also found by guru3d initial review that has been removed.
this chinese site review further reveals the reason behind that >100c vrm temp from guru3d, meaning it should not be a outlier.

the main problem, from my understanding to this chinese review, is that the strix vega64 cooler is not well custom made for strix vega64 pcb. and there is no excuse for asus letting that single mosfet being exposed on air, its is a design fault.

agreed. ir3555 is top tier mosfet. and twelve ir3555 for handling strix vega having 330w~390w power limit max (gpu only) is a piece of cake. but, still, in current standard, 2017, i dont and wont satisfied with this mistake.

mosfet can easily handle 125c or even 150c (shut down point), but all the optimized efficiency and current output are gone, these are negative related to vrm temp. it wont blow up, but why should us buy something superior like that but having worse performance, not to mention the lifespan of it under >100c.

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Does not surprise me, their quality control on R9 Fury Strix was a disaster too...

 

[R00kie]

Looks like a rush job, seems that they're re-using heatsinks from other cards.

 

[letho]

Looks like a rush job, seems that they're re-using heatsinks from other cards.

exactly.
strix vega64 pcb is even higher than 1080ti strix pcb. therefore the current strix vega64 cooler is quiet small compared to its strix vega 64 pcb. looks like a woman bra now...

 

[P4-630]

Hmmm... Do I see that right? You are pointing that thermometer on the CPU fan frame and it reads 113°C ?

 

[Vya Domus]

113C is kind of excessive considering they do have a heatsink and direct airflow over them.

People keep throwing their cash at these "top of the line custom PCB cards" because they are convinced they are way better. So no wonder they don't bother to actually make properly built cards , it's not the first time and most definitely wont be the last.

 

[EarthDog]

Normally, many are better. Some are simply better gpu coolers using the stock pcb and vrms, however. This isnt the case.

Looks like the thermometer is pointing at the partially covered MOSFET there. It not being fully covered is an oversight.

I wouldnt use this as an opportunity to hate on 3rd party cards, however. Clearly in this case the hardware is leaps and bounds better than stock, however the heatsink implementation was sloppy for this card.

 

[Athlon2K15]

Clearly in this case the hardware is leaps and bounds better than stock, however the heatsink implementation was sloppy for this card.

Even that isn't true, Jay reviewed this card on his channel the other day and it was worse than the stock Limited edition card.

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Even that isn't true, Jay reviewed this card on his channel the other day and it was worse than the stock Limited edition card.

Allegedly due to silicon lottery...
Anyway high end AMD Asus cards are kinda crappy since the R9 Fury Strix (actually have one, and the pcb quality control is atrocious, i had two high side caps literally fall from the pcb + they used a thermal pad to cool the Fiji core and the HBM which was only partially covered)...

 

[EarthDog]

Even that isn't true, Jay reviewed this card on his channel the other day and it was worse than the stock Limited edition card.

How so? 12 phase 60A IR FETs are worse than reference 6 phase doubled? Not sure if the asus is doubled though...

It would be quite rare to see this happen, regardless.

 

[Vya Domus]

A far as I know the reference board has 12 true phases. AMD always made very good reference boards and AIBs can't really improve much on that. So the only place where they can really shine is in cooling performance but as seen even that isn't always the case.

 

[EarthDog]

Its doubled. I just looked it up.

The IR35217 voltage controller seems to be a new design for RX Vega. It feeds its six PWM phase signals into six IR 3598 phase doublers on the back side of the PCB. These six chips now drive twelve power phases, each made up of an IR6894 and IR6211.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Radeon_RX_Vega_64/7.html

Often times phase count may not change much at all, however the internals are better. You just need to pay attention to what card has what. At worst, an aftermarmet card has better cooling...outside of anomalous borked implementations.

 

[Vya Domus]

Source ? If they are in fact doubled that's still more than enough.

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Vega FE pcb analysis:

 

[EarthDog]

Source ? If they are in fact doubled that's still more than enough.

edited my post...

TPU was the source.

Source ? If they are in fact doubled that's still more than enough.

While true, more than enough isnt our talking point here. Room for improvement can be had with a true 12 phase and better power bits as the asus seems to be from my cursory look.

BZ's vid also said there are lower capacity, lower temp power bits on it too.


Am i missing something?

 

[W1zzard]

with a true 12 phase

which controller do you plan on using with 12-phases? afaik none exists that can support that many without doublers

 

[EarthDog]

That is also a great point I am just reading up on...

Thank you for the clarification. It felt like I was missing something!

EDIT: A 3563B is 8 phase.. two of those in a hybrid mode or doubled wouldn't be better? Or am I really swimming out of my lane here?

Part of the point though remains with different and better power bits used, mostly, on aftermarket cards. I'll have to get dirty with the card and its bits to really see what is shaking.

 

[letho]

Hmmm... Do I see that right? You are pointing that thermometer on the CPU fan frame and it reads 113°C ?

i forwarded your question and the ans from that site to me is that:
"yes and no"
"that frame cant be 113c for sure. its just a mistake made by stuttering/without freesync support when the guy one hand held the smart phone and another hand held the thermometer. "

btw, that guru3d review is respawned.
however guru3d states that "The VRM area is properly padded"
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_radeon_rog_rx_vega_64_strix_8gb_review,10.html

interesting

 

[R00kie]

The VRM area is properly padded"

Pad or no pad, the heatsink still doesnt cover the whole thing, and you can even see it in their pictures as well.

 

[letho]

Pad or no pad, the heatsink still doesnt cover the whole thing, and you can even see it in their pictures as well.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/asus-radeon-rog-rx-vega-64-strix-8gb-review,4.html
""The cooling solution is impressive overall, it uses six heat-pipes that pass through a heatsink, with thermal paste tied to the all-copper yet nickel plated block. That's as good as it gets really, and sure, that shows in the great cooling performance. All critical compoents have been thermally padded.

When we flip the PCB it around you can also see that the critical components are covered with a full contact plate (padding underneith as well). The DrMOS integrated power stages have padding and thus is cooled as well as most ICs."""

 

[R00kie]

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/asus-radeon-rog-rx-vega-64-strix-8gb-review,4.html
""The cooling solution is impressive overall, it uses six heat-pipes that pass through a heatsink, with thermal paste tied to the all-copper yet nickel plated block. That's as good as it gets really, and sure, that shows in the great cooling performance. All critical compoents have been thermally padded.

When we flip the PCB it around you can also see that the critical components are covered with a full contact plate (padding underneith as well). The DrMOS integrated power stages have padding and thus is cooled as well as most ICs."""

“Directly at the top we can see at M1/M2/M3 that the GPU and the VRM area gets hot at up-to roughly 104 Degrees C. ”
Doesnt really help, does it?