AMD cut pricing of the Radeon RX Vega 56 in select markets to preempt the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, and help the market digest inventory. The card can be had for as little as €269 (including VAT) for an MSI RX Vega 56 Air Boost, which is a close-to-reference product. The GTX 1660 Ti reportedly has a starting price of $279.99 (excluding taxes). This development is significant given that the GTX 1660 Ti is rumored to perform on-par with the GTX 1070, which the RX Vega 56 outperforms. The RX Vega series is still very much a part of AMD's product stack, and AMD continues to release new game optimizations for the card. NVIDIA is expected to launch the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti within February. Although based on the "Turing" architecture, it lacks real-time raytracing and AI acceleration features, yet retains the increased IPC of CUDA cores from the new generation.

Blackmagic Design today announced the Blackmagic eGPU Pro, an external graphics processor featuring the blazingly fast AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics processor. Designed to accelerate pro creative software such as DaVinci Resolve, 3D games and VR, the Blackmagic eGPU Pro delivers nearly twice the performance of the original Blackmagic eGPU model and up to 22x faster performance than the built-in graphics on a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro features a built-in AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, a new DisplayPort for connecting 5K displays, HDMI 2.0, 85W of charging power and four USB 3.1 connections. Designed in collaboration with Apple, the integrated design brings cutting-edge workstation-class graphics processing and computational acceleration to customers working in professional video, playing 3D games or using the latest virtual reality software.

AMD today rolled out the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin. Version 18.7.1 drivers come with optimization for "Earthfall," with up to 28 percent more performance measured on Radeon RX Vega 56 and up to 28 percent more performance to be had on the RX 580 8 GB, at 1440; and up to 27 percent higher performance measured at 1080p, on the RX 560 4 GB.

The drivers also address a number of bugs, including random crash noticed in "Fortnite Season 5," when rendering throwing stars. Flickering noticed on "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" has been fixed. The drivers also fix a bug of not all compatible display modes appearing in Windows; slower than expected performance in Corel Draw, and black screen noticed during boot on displays connected via DisplayPort. A bug with memory clocks remaining high (i.e. not spooling down at lower power states), when changing resolutions or refresh-rates, has also been fixed.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.7.1

The change-log follows.

ASRock rolled out its first Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards under its Phantom Gaming series. These cards stick to AMD reference board design, and aren't much to talk about. The ASRock RX Vega 56 Phantom Gaming X sticks to reference clock speeds of 1156-1471 MHz core and 800 MHz memory; while the RX Vega 64 ticks at 1247-1546 MHz core, and 945 MHz memory. Both cards draw power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors; display outputs include three DisplayPorts and an HDMI. The cards could be launched at close-to-stock prices owing to a slump in demand from crypto-currency miners.Many Thanks to ne6togadno for the tip.

After the AMD event, we got a chance to go hands on with the PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 56 Nano, the most compact desktop graphics card based on the "Vega10" silicon. This product is so special that it got an exclusive unveiling by AMD as a "one more thing." The card's PCB itself it slightly under 5 mm longer than that of the original R9 Nano, but the cooler adds another centimeter to its length. We can only imagine what SFF enthusiasts can do with this card under a specially-design full-coverage water-block.

It's also revealed that the card draws power from a combination of a 6-pin + 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The cooling solution consists of a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink. A single 80 mm spinner ventilates this heatsink, and a plastic shroud covers it all up. Given that this card has specific "RX Vega 56" SKU marking and not an off-beat "RX Vega Nano" branding, we think this card will be as fast as a stock RX Vega 56, out of the box. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4 and a HDMI 2.0. The MSRP for this card is set at USD $449.

AMD today unveiled the Radeon RX Vega 56 Nano, the spiritual successor to the disruptive high-end SFF graphics card, the Radeon R9 Nano. Unlike the R9 Nano, the RX Vega 56 Nano is an AIB (add-in board) partner effort, specifically by PowerColor. The card itself is a good inch longer than the R9 Nano. Also, unlike its predecessor, it doesn't feature all stream processors physically present on the silicon. The card is cooled by a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink, ventilated by a single fan. The card is expected to be priced at USD $449.

Update: We went hands-on with this card.

Acer is preparing one of the first few premium gaming notebooks to pack a combination of AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8-core processor and Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics. Unlike the Intel+NVIDIA original, this Predator Helios variant makes use of desktop-on-mobile processors, as do most desktop-replacement notebooks and portable workstations. The variant benefits from the low TDP and high energy efficiency of the Ryzen 7 2700, and runs it at its stock speeds. This is no small feat, because the Intel+NVIDIA option of the notebook packs a Core i9-8950HK (6-core/12-thread) "Coffee Lake" processor with 45W rated TDP.

The Radeon RX Vega 56 is the other surprising component choice here, considering that the notebook's 17.3-inch display only has Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, which can be hauled by an RX 580, even at higher refresh-rate, and FreeSync thrown in. The Intel+NVIDIA model's GPU option is the GeForce GTX 1070 (which is slower than the RX Vega 56). Other components include 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory, 256 GB NVMe SSD storage, 1 TB of HDD storage, and Killer Doubleshot Pro networking.

Last month, the attendees at the AMD Ryzen 2000 series launch event in Munich spotted a miniature AMD graphics card. At the time, we thought it was PowerColor's rendition of the highly anticipated Radeon RX Vega Nano. However, the latest press release from the graphics card manufacturer stated otherwise. Apparently, the prototype that was on display in Munich was actually the RX Vega 56 Nano Edition. Unfortunately, PowerColor didn't reveal any technical information about the graphics card that we didn't know already. And so, we're back to the waiting game for a proper RX Vega Nano release.

EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing EK-FC Radeon Vega Strix water blocks that are compatible with the ASUS ROG Strix RX VEGA64. This kind of efficient cooling will allow your high-end graphics card to reach higher boost clocks, thus providing more performance during gaming or other GPU intense tasks.

This water block directly cools the GPU, HBM2 memory, and VRM (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC Radeon Vega Strix water block features a central inlet split-flow cooling engine design for best possible cooling performance, which also works flawlessly with reversed water flow without adversely affecting the cooling performance. This kind of efficient cooling will allow your high-end graphics card to reach higher boost clocks, thus providing more performance during gaming or other GPU intense tasks. Moreover, such design offers great hydraulic performance allowing this product to be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium PC liquid cooling gear manufacturer is expanding its RGB portfolio by presenting a Full Cover water block for AMD Radeon Vega architecture based high-end graphics cards. Customers will be able to transform their graphics card into a beautiful, bright single slot card while the water cooling block will allow the GPU to reach higher frequencies, thus providing more performance during gaming or other demanding tasks.

EK-FC Radeon Vega RGB
This water block directly cools the GPU, HBM2 memory, and VRM (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC Radeon Vega water block features a central inlet split-flow cooling engine design for best possible cooling performance, which also works flawlessly with reversed water flow without adversely affecting the cooling performance. This kind of efficient cooling will allow your high-end graphics card to reach higher boost clocks, thus providing more performance during gaming or other GPU intense tasks. Moreover, such design offers great hydraulic performance allowing this product to be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.

Sapphire over the weekend officially launched its cost-effective custom-design Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card, the Pulse Radeon Vega 56 (model: 11276-02), which began appearing on European e-tailers late-January. The card combines a custom-design short-length PCB that's roughly the length of AMD's reference R9 Fury board; with a beefy custom-design cooling solution that features two large aluminium fin-stacks, ventilated by a pair of 100 mm double ball-bearing fans.

The card offers out of the box clock speeds of 1208 MHz core, 1512 MHz boost, and 800 MHz (1.60 GHz HBM2 effective) memory, against AMD reference clock speeds of 1138 MHz core and 1474 MHz boost. At its given clock, the memory bandwidth on offer is 409.6 GB/s. The "Vega 10" silicon is configured with 3,584 stream processors, 192 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The card draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors, display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI 2.0. Sapphire intended for this SKU to ideally occupy a close-to-reference price-point, a notch below its Nitro+ series, however in the wake of the crypto-currency wave, market-forces will decide its retail price.

Sapphire's Pulse line of graphics cards focuses on providing aspiring gamers with the best bang for their buck. There are currently eight different models ranging from the Radeon RX 550 all the way up to the Radeon RX 580. According to German retailer Alternate.de, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX Vega 56 is the latest newborn in the Pulse family even though it isn't officially listed on Sapphire's website at the moment. The card sports a plastic shroud painted in matte black with some red accents. The Pulse Radeon RX Vega 56 occupies three PCIe slots and measures 28.2 cm x 12.5 cm, but that's mainly because of the monstrous heatsink that extends far beyond the graphic card's short PCB. Judging by the design, this model probably utilizes a similar cooling solution, consisting of 4 heatpipes and two 95 mm Dual-X cooling fans, like its RX 580 Pulse sibling. The backplate boasts a simple, yet beautiful design with red lines simulating a human pulse.

Despite the branding difference, the Pulse RX Vega 56 shares the same memory specification as the higher-end Nitro+ RX Vega 56 model. Each has 8GB of onboard HBM2 memory running at 800 MHz across a 2048-bit wide memory interface. However, the Pulse RX Vega 56 comes with a 1512 MHz boost clock, 60 MHz slower than the Nitro+ RX Vega 56. They also differ in PCIe power connectors and display outputs. The Pulse model depends on two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, while the Nitro+ model requires three of them. And lastly, the Pulse model has three Display Port 1.4 ports and a single HDMI 2.0b, while the Nitro+ model has two of each. Alternate.de lists the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX Vega 56 with a €789 price tag.

MSI rolled out the Radeon RX Vega 56 Air Boost and Air Boost OC graphics cards. The two are based on the same board design as the RX Vega 64 Air Boost series the company launched last week. The quasi-custom design card combines an AMD reference-design PCB with a custom-design lateral-flow cooler by MSI that's similar in design to AMD's cost-effective reference cooler. Adding to its effectiveness is the heavily perforated rear I/O bracket.

The base model sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 1156 MHz core and 1471 MHz boost; while the OC variant ships with 1181 MHz core and 1520 MHz boost. Both cards leave the HBM2 memory clock untouched at 800 MHz. The cards draw power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors; display outputs include an HDMI 2.0, and three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors. The base variant sells at USD $399, with the OC variant going for $439.

BIOSTAR officially releases its AMD Radeon powerful value packed graphics cards based on the RX Vega architecture - the BIOSTAR Radeon RX Vega Series: BIOSTAR Radeon RX Vega 56 (VAVAL5VM88) and top-end BIOSTAR Radeon RX Vega 64 models which is available in air-cooled edition (VAVAT5VM88) and liquid-cooled edition (VAVAX5VM88). The BIOSTAR Radeon RX Vega graphics cards are great for 4K gaming and one of best graphics cards on the market for crypto mining.

4K Gaming Performance
The BIOSTAR Radeon RX Vega Series graphics cards are AMD Radeon's most powerful graphics to date with smooth 4K graphics for gaming with optimization for DirectX 12 and Vulkan game titles. It also supports Radeon FreeSync Technology that eliminates image tearing giving you smooth and fluid gameplay. The BIOSTAR Radeon RX Vega Series also features AMD XConnect which supports external GPU enclosures that transforms notebooks and mini PCs into high-performance gaming machines. Virtual Super Resolution offers superb gaming graphics that rivals up to 4K.

The EK Fluid Gaming lineup is finally supporting AMD Radeon RX Vega based graphics cards! EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer is releasing a new kit, the A240R and the EK-AC Radeon Vega aluminum based full cover water block! The EK-AC Radeon Vega full cover water block brings a pure and minimalistic design for liquid cooling enthusiasts and the same can be said for the EK Fluid Gaming A240R kit. The kit is equipped with an EK-Supremacy AX CPU water block, an evolution of the renowned high-end EKWB water block that brings excellent performance and an attractive appearance! It's a universal water block that suits all modern CPU sockets on the market, both Intel and AMD.

The included EK-AluStream SE radiator offer high-class cooling performance for its thickness of 28mm. Dense aluminum fins combined with a slim profile provide a huge cooling surface, while the radiator remains highly compatible with most cases on the market. AluStream SE radiators are optimized for maximum heat dissipation across the entire operational range of the included high-static pressure EK-Vardar fans which deliver exceptional performance at both low and high RPM operation.

GIGABYTE has a custom-design Radeon RX Vega series after all, with the company announcing the RX Vega 64 WindForce 2X and RX Vega 56 WindForce 2X graphics cards. These cards combine a 100% custom-design PCB by GIGABYTE, with a large WindForce 2X cooling-solution that the company is debuting with these cards. The cooler features a split aluminium fin-stack heatsink to which heat drawn by 8 mm-thick copper heat-pipes is fed; ventilated by a pair of large 100 mm fans, which stay off when the GPU is idling. The heat-pipes make direct contact with the GPU and HBM2 stacks, while a base-plate conveys heat drawn from the VRM MOSFETs.

The back-plate has a copper center-plate and a flat heat-pipe of its own, drawing heat from the PCB via non-electrically-conductive thermal pads. The two fans blow air onto the heatsink, but one fan spins clockwise to do this, while the other spins counter-clockwise. The custom-design PCB features a 13-phase VRM, and draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Both cards come with factory-overclocked speeds, with the engine-clock boosting up to 1560 MHz, while the memory clock is left untouched. The card features an unusual display connector loadout, including three each of DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 ports, all located on the rear panel. The company didn't reveal pricing.

TUL Corporation, a leading and innovative manufacturer of AMD graphic cards since 1997, has launched a new PowerColor Red Devil RX VEGA 64 and Red Devil RX VEGA 56 and opened up a new generation of the graphics cards market. The VEGA series are for the extreme gamers looking for the highest resolutions, highest framerates in maximum video setting.

The PowerColor RX VEGA graphics are designed to deliver exhilarating performance in the latest DirectX 12 and Vulkan game titles. With a dedicated High-Bandwidth Cache, the VEGA utilizes HBM2, the latest in graphic memory technology, to provide incredible levels of power efficiency and memory performance. The Next-Gen Pixel Engine found in the Vega GPU is designed to boost shading performance more efficiently to bring the latest VR and extreme resolution games to life.

PowerColor teased its first Radeon RX Vega series graphics card, under its flagship Red Devil branding. The company could use this common board design for both RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 SKUs. It combines a custom-design, triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution, with a semi-custom design PCB. The cooler is an upscale of the company's RX 580 Red Devil, with a massive 2.5-slot thick aluminum fin-stack heatsink, which draws heat from the "Vega 10" GPU and a base-plate conveying heat from the VRM MOSFETs surrounding it, ventilated by a trio of 100 mm fans.

PowerColor's PCB for this card is a variation of AMD's reference "Vega 10" board, in that it's slightly taller towards the front. The company went with two each of DisplayPort and HDMI connectors, instead of the standard three DP + one HDMI layout. The VRM is the same 12-phase setup from the reference-design PCB, with PowerColor sticking to International Rectifier IR6894 and IR6211DirectFETs, and IR3598 phase-doublers, while customizing the chokes. The PCB is enlarged height-wise to give easy access to the BIOS switch. Two inverted 8-pin PCIe power inputs are located toward the end. Given how heavily this board is based on the reference PCB, it remains to be seen if fan idle-power off is featured. PowerColor is expected to launch the RX Vega 64 Red Devil and RX Vega 56 Red Devil before Holiday.

XFX is known for its audacious graphics card designs. The company even adds uniqueness to the design of its retail boxes, with the signature X-shaped cartons. It looks like the company is finally getting its design mojo back, with a boldly-styled custom-design Radeon RX Vega series graphics card, which it teased in three pictures released to social media. The design of this card involves a tall aluminium fin-stack cooler, which consists of two dense fin-stacks, to which heat drawn from the GPU is fed by a series of copper heat pipes, along their ends.

These fin-stacks are ventilated by large (100-120 mm) fans. The gap between these fans cuts out to the shape of an "X" with the PCIe power connectors being located bang in the middle. From the looks of it, XFX's custom-design PCB for the RX Vega is just 3/5 the length of the card, taking advantage of AMD's compact multi-chip module approach for the "Vega 10" silicon, about the length of the reference R9 Fury PCB. Carbon fiber finish, and a glowing XFX logo on top finishes off the design. XFX and other AMD add-in board (AIB) partners could launch custom-design RX Vega series graphics cards before Holiday 2017. XFX could use this board design for both RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56.

Ahead of its October 26 launch, someone with access to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti sample put it through "Ashes of the Singularity" (AotS) benchmark, with its scores even getting posted on its online database. Paired with an Intel Core i9-7900X based high-end machine, and running the benchmark's DirectX 11 API version, the card scored 6,200 points in the "Extreme" (1440p) preset.

This score spaces it significantly apart from the GTX 1070, which typically scores around 5,400 points in this test, and the GTX 1080, which puts out around 7,000 points. The GTX 1070 Ti manages to keep frame-rates of AotS consistently above 60 frames per second. Much like the Radeon RX Vega 56 it's designed to compete with, the GTX 1070 Ti will find its comfort-zone with the 1440p resolution, even though it will be capable of playable (≥30 fps) frame-rates at 4K Ultra HD.

It looks like NVIDIA's next performance-segment graphics card, the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, could be launched sooner than expected. A report by NordicHardware, pins its launch date at October 26, 2017; ahead of the "early-November" date which was doing rounds earlier. It's also entirely possible that the card will be launched on October 26, and reviews of the card being posted, but market-availability beginning in November.

Based on the 16 nm "GP106" silicon, the GTX 1070 Ti is being designed to be almost as fast as the GTX 1080. It features 2,432 CUDA cores, 152 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory. The card is expected to perform (and be priced) within 12 percent of the GTX 1080. Its main competitor from the AMD stable is the Radeon RX Vega 56.

Still reeling under supply issues and overpricing, AMD's Radeon RX Vega line of graphics cards may finally be available in custom-design products from the company's AIB (add-in board) partners by mid-October, according to a Hardware.fr report. ASUS was the first to announce custom-design RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 graphics cards under its ROG Strix series, back in August. The cards were, however, nowhere to be found in the markets.

AIB partners will begin announcing their custom-design RX Vega series products in the coming weeks, with retail availability slated for mid-October. Radeon RX Vega 64 is currently available in three AMD-reference design SKUs, the standard reference-design, the premium "silver" air-cooled reference-design, which features a brushed aluminium cooler shroud and LED ornaments; and a more premium AIO liquid-cooled variant with higher clocks. The RX Vega 56 is available in vanilla standard reference-design.

BIOSTAR recently released the RADEON RX VEGA 56, which is a must-have for miners with the ability to crank out crazy hash rates for mining, while gamers can expect high performance graphics processor power with the same graphics card. Combined with the BIOSTAR RACING B350 series, which continues to be popular amongst gamers with its price-performance and gaming features, these make up for a great solution for mining during the day and gaming at night.

The Vega 56 has hash rate/power draw ratio that puts it in a class by its own, surpassing that of the RX 580, which was previously the graphics card of choice for mining. With the hype surrounding its mining capabilities, lets not forget that Vega 56 is a top-of-the-line graphics card that includes 56 compute units, 21/10.5 TFLOPS with 8GB of 2048-bit High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2) for performance gaming that gives you the best graphics possible.

NVIDIA is readying a new GeForce GTX 1070 refresh graphics card, according to well-placed sources. Positioned between the current GTX 1070 and the GTX 1080 11 Gbps in performance, the refreshed GTX 1070 could at least displace the current GTX 1070 from its price-point, if not replace it. NVIDIA could carve the new chip out of the latest stepping of the GP104 silicon, and give it more CUDA cores, likely 2,048 (on par with GTX 1070 Mobile), if not higher. It could also get faster memory, likely 9 Gbps GDDR5 or even 10 Gbps GDDR5X. Its core and GPU Boost clock speeds could even be dialed up a little.

NVIDIA's objective here appears to be convincingly outperforming AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, at a lower power-draw. There's a 20 percent performance gap between the current desktop GTX 1070 and GTX 1080, and the new GTX 1070 refresh could find a price-performance equation somewhere in the middle. As NVIDIA's product-stack currently stands, the GTX 1080, which was refreshed with faster 11 Gbps GDDR5X memory, has a wider performance gap with the GTX 1070, creating room for a GTX 1070 refresh SKU somewhere in the middle, which could perform within the 90th percentile of the original GTX 1080 with 10 Gbps memory. What NVIDIA could name the SKU is anybody's guess. Historically, NVIDIA has updated SKU specifications without changing the name. The GTX 1080 and GTX 1060 6 GB were refreshed with faster memory, by simply prominently mentioning the memory clock below the SKU branding, there's also the remote possibility of the GTX 1070 Ti branding to combat the "grandeur" of AMD's RX Vega branding. NVIDIA could have the new GeForce GTX 1070 refresh SKU out in time for Holiday.

TechPowerUp today posted a quick update to GPU-Z in the wake of some controversy surrounding the reported shader counts of some Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics cards by version 2.3.0, which we released earlier this week. The new TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.4.0 comprehensively updates stream processor count detection of AMD Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards, which means the stream processor and TMU counts of the RX Vega 56 graphics cards, including those that have been flashed with RX Vega 64 video BIOS, should be correctly displayed. In addition, v2.4.0 corrects OpenCL detection on Radeon graphics cards running on certain older drivers.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.4.0

The change-log follows.