AMD's Ryzen CPUs (Ryzen/TR/Epyc) & Vega/Polaris/Navi GPUs

Except that GL702ZC and Helios 500 have great screens if you ask me (with FreeSync included)... as for battery life... that much is expected from systems that lack an IGP... but then again they weren't designed for massive portability... more like mobile workstations which you can transport from one plug to the other with relative ease.
In regards to mediocre cooling... GL702ZC falls in that category yes, but not Helios 500.

Most of the woes you describe are contained to laptops using only APU's (still)... and even then, I think the Acer Nitro 5 with 2500u and RX 560x did fairly ok in most areas (price, screen quality and battery life and performance to name a few) - but that one is a bit different as it comes with a dGPU for gaming, so its expected the cooling might be better.

Being cheaper doesn't automatically mean 'bad'.
I bought expensive products that were completely unreliable and failed fairly quickly in comparison to some very cheap stuff that's available (which people originally thought would by contrast fail).
AMD is usually cheaper... but existing hardware actually offers comparable performance to Intel/NV for LOWER cost.
Nothing wrong with that.
My point was that OEM's still overpriced the hardware too high in various instances.

 

It is possible my information is incorrect but I have heard the screen on the GL702ZC, while not terrible, was worse than Intel/Nvidia laptops with similar hardware. Seeing as you own one, you definitely would have a better idea than me on that.

I think we are in agreement on pretty much everything else. I also agree AMD systems are overpriced by OEMs. I was in the market for a laptop recently and was very interested in a 2500u/2700u but it seemed everything was priced higher than it should be. I also agree that cheap doesn't mean bad. I am just talking that from the perspective of the common consumer, cheap does equate to bad.

 

I saw what notebooks look like when ODMs actually take desktop processors and put it in the notebook. That usually doesn't look like normal mobile-based thinner and lighter than a robocop notebooks with. Originally built by Intel to be mobile.
There is no point to increase the product shelf of your supply if existing shelf is already fulfilling needs. What would 2200G do? Better iGPU for higher overall temperature and power draw? What for? TDP 65W
While Zen2 on 7nm looks different.

 

Tnx for the clarification.
I can also sympathize with the woes about 2500u/2700u pricing... not to mention availability.
2700u laptops with a dGPU are near impossible to find in UK.
Thus far, I only found Acer Nitro 5 with 2500u and RX 560x combo for £700.
If you ask me, that's not a bad price, but considering that machine has an ultra low power APU inside it, it shouldn't be priced as much... £500-£600 (maybe) seems like a decent price for it.

I returned my GL702ZC back to LaptopsDirect due to too many failures and their (and Asus) lack of willingness to give me a new replacement when I requested it.
Asus botched that first batch and I was the unfortunate recipient who also had to go through ridiculously bad and unhelpful customer service.

Screen-wise, I think the reviews mentioned that the GL702ZC has an above average 1080p screen yes, but to me the viewing angles, contrast, and picture quality seemed to be pretty high.
I wouldn't be surprised if Asus implemented a lower quality screen in GL702ZC case... they certainly cut some corners with the cooling.

What is it with OEM's using lower quality stuff when it comes to AMD and then charging high prices?
Mind you, various laptops (today) that have an Intel 6c/12th and GTX 1060 in them cost similar or more than the GL702ZC starting price in 2017 (depending on where you look).

 

2200G would offer high CPU clocks and much better iGP performance for example (certainly better than 2500u/2700u) if it wasn't TDP limited like the ultra low power parts.
But it would also add more variety to laptops with AMD options.

As for Zen 2 looking different... its a different design on a better manuf. process... of course it will be a lot better.
The problem is that some OEM's apparently still don't want to use it even its better than Intel in every respect (which right now we have reason to think it will be).

 

If OEMs would not limit the TDP on the 2500u/2700u, the IGPs could perform just as well as their desktop counterparts. I have an E585 with the 2700u/Vega 10 and I consistently score around 3000 in Firestrike graphics and around 800 in Time Spy. The 2400g, with the same 2400Mhz RAM that the 2700u is limited to, scores 3200 and 1000. That is with the Vega 11, too. The extra CU should get it those numbers.

The problem is that many OEMs are limiting the TDP instead of allowing it to run at 25W even when the thermals allow it.

 

Thank you.
This is the main crutch that's been plaguing 2700u for example.
The OEM's would limit that part to 15W which effectively chokes the APU to the point where it performs as 2500u or worse... even when the thermals allow it.
2500u is a 25W TDP part but could scale higher to achieve its full potential... the 2700u would likely scale to about 35W if both CPU and iGP were used at the same time at their designated boost clocks... and that's fine... trouble is... its difficult to know which laptops have TDP limited 2500u/2700u and which ones don't... and whether the ones that don't are actually available in any given area to purchase (many won't be).

Also, where did you buy your laptop with 2700u that is not TDP limited?
Country and laptop model if you could share that info.

 

I cannot confirm the TDP for sure, HWInfo only shows it going up to around 13W, but the scores I get in benchmarks would lead me to believe the 2700u is reaching its full potential. The laptop is a Thinkpad E585 (Type KV).

 

Not sure if that's the case if HWInfo shows the APU going up to 13W... that would mean they limited this part.
There could be more performance room for it if it wasn't limited.
Did you install latest BIOS by any chance?

Btw the Acer Nitro 5 with 2700u doesn't seem to have a TDP limit on it.

 

AMD Amends Wafer supply agreement with GlobalFoundries: 7nm Freed, 12nm+ Targets set through 2021

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1391...th-globalfoudries-set-to-buy-wafers-till-2021

"The big news with the latest WSA update is that it allows AMD to contract any foundry to produce chips at 7 nm and thinner nodes without any one-time payments or royalties to GlobalFoundries. GlonbalFoundries, of course, announced last year that they were getting out of the race for cutting-edge manufacturing nodes, including 7nm, potentially putting AMD in a long-term bind as their high-end products require competitive manufacturing processes. As a result there has been a big question in how AMD and GlobalFoundries would resolve this dispute, and the latest WSA revision finally supplies the answer."

Breaking up with GlobalFoundries really is costly.
So, according to this, it is likely that AMD will continue with I/O production for Zen 2 and Zen 3 (likely) at GlobalFoundries until 2021.

I know that Lisa Su originally said that the I/O is 'not scalable', but I think this might have just been a way to save face from a marketing point of view because as the time, they hadn't had this kind of deal with GlobalFoundries and they HAD to order some new stuff from them so they can eventually fully transition to TSMC and have access to other fabs (which was one of the stipulations for breaking away from GF in the first place - AMD could break away if they would pay royalties for a while and had to keep ordering some stuff from GF until a certain time frame).

This would also explain why they decided to release 3xxx series mobile parts at 12nm using Ryzen+ (and not Zen 2)... so basically, the 'last things' that will be coming from GF will be 12nm mobility APU's for this year (or at least until Zen 2 mobile is released) along with I/O for Zen 2 and Zen 3.

Otherwise, I do think that AMD can release Zen 2 mobile simultaneously with rest of the parts given that 7nm TSMC won't be saturated.
After all, most of the laptop CPU's are basically desktop ones with lowered frequencies... but technically, even a 65W TDP APU with 8c/16th and Navi iGP with say a Navi dGPU (at around 65-80W) would be an excellent idea for a laptop... just beef up the cooling so it can handle that properly (I mean, if OEM's are nuts enough to stuff double the power hardware from Intel/NV into laptops, then they certainly could pull this off).

 

I do have the latest BIOS and drivers installed. I believe HWInfo is just reporting the TDP for the CPU and not the GPU. The scores I get in benchmarks for the Vega 10 are pretty much right in-line where they should be considering what the desktop Vega 11 scores with 2400MHz RAM. I will say I do believe a slight performance increase might be possible due to the clock speeds. HWInfo reports the maximum clock speed at 971MHz and HWMonitor/GPU-Z show 1050MHz. Both of those numbers are below the 1300MHz that AMD gives as the clock speed for the Vega 10 on their website.

My scores in Cinebench are a little lower than the Nitro 5, 640 and 140 compared to 660 and 150. Notebookcheck reports the 2700u in the Nitro 5 running at 2.9GHz on average whereas mine runs at 2.8GHz, which explains the slight difference.

My Vega 10 is already performing better than any I have seen thus far, though. The previous high I saw for Firestrike Graphics score was 2700 and I can get over 3000 consistently. It is the same fro 3dMark11. The highest graphics score I have seen for that was around 3000 and I score over 4000.

 

971 MhZ is well below 1300MhZ that Vega 10 should be clocking up to on 2700u/
It is highly likely its TDP limited in that case and basically clocks are 30%-ish below where they should be... so effectively, the OEM in your case seems to have shaved off about 15-20% of performance from the GPU.... that's not exactly a small amount - and it looks as if this is the main reason the Vega 10 underperforms even when compared to Vega 8 in 2500u.

But, your performance would jump upward if you use dual-channel RAM.

 

I am running with dual channel RAM but I think HWInfo is incorrect for the clock speeds, at least based on what I have seen from the desktop integrated graphics performance. I believe the 1050MHz reported by GPU-Z and HWMonitor are probably correct. It can be probably be safely assumed the Vega 11 in the 2400G is not being throttled and the Firestrike graphics score for that like 3200 so, without throttling, the Vega 10 should score around 3000.

I could see the clock speed being slightly throttled but given the scores, I can't see it being by that much.

 

250 MhZ difference can be quite a bit on an iGP.
As such, I still maintain its TDP limited... Lenovo was already demonstrated to have TDP limited the APU anyway.

 

AMD Reports 23% Revenue Growth and Strong 2019 Outlook, Stock Jumps
by Paul Alcorn January 29, 2019 at 4:45 PM
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-earnings-4q-2018-ryzen-epyc,38523.html

"AMD appears to have largely sidestepped the pitfalls that its larger competitors, namely Intel and Nvidia, have suffered at the hands of the slowing China economy and the trade war.

Despite falling short on revenue projections, AMD still managed to meet earnings projections of 8% per share, all while predicting a stronger-than-expected 2019 in its guidance.

That news sent investors to the "buy" button in after-hours trading, where AMD's stock rose ~10%. The company also announced that it had restructured its Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA) with Global Foundries to more favorable terms.

AMD's full-year 2018 revenue weighed in at $6.475 billion, which represents a 23% year-over-year (YoY) increase.

Spoiler: More...

AMD paired that stellar growth story with something much more amenable to investors: profit. AMD's 2018 results represent the company's highest profitability since 2011. That was accompanied by a significant reduction to the company's debt load.

AMD's fourth quarter 2018 results, which increased 6% YoY to $1.42 billion, was a key contributor to its 2018 success. Much of those gains came on the back of explosive 50% YoY growth of its Ryzen product line, with unit shipments of its desktop processors now making up 80% of its client compute sales.

AMD CEO Lisa Su said the company expects Ryzen sales to improve by 30% next year along with a 50% increase in notebook sales, with the latter addressing a key pain point in the largest segment of the PC market.

AMD also doubled its EPYC sales over the previous quarter, particularly to cloud compute bastions like Amazon, Azure and AWS, as it climbed to record revenue growth in its data center business. The improved EPYC sales, paired with the growth of Ryzen, contributed to a richer mix of products with high average selling prices.

AMD CEO Lisa Su remarked that the company had gained desktop PC market share in the fourth quarter of 2018 but didn't elaborate with a specific figure. Su also stated that the company had achieved its goal to claim "mid-single-digit" data center share in 2018.

The global GPU oversupply impacted AMD's quarterly earnings, and the company expects the shortages to persist through the second quarter of 2019. The oversupply comes as a side effect of the collapse of the blockchain (i.e., cryptocurrency mining) market, which AMD reported made a 'negligible' impact on its revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018. The company also isn't projecting any meaningful blockchain-derived revenue in the near future.

Nvidia is suffering at the hands of the oversupply, it recently slashed $500 million from its Q4 revenue guidance, but that company is more subject to the whims of the graphics market because GPUs are its primary revenue generator. AMD's diversified portfolio of both CPUs and GPUs has insulated it from such sharp drops, and it also noted that its 7nm Radeon Instinct GPUs are already enjoying brisk uptake.

Su also announced that the company had restructured its Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA) with Global Foundries. In exchange for lower pricing, the WSA compels AMD to buy a certain number of wafers from Global Foundries each year, or face penalties. Those penalties also apply if the company purchases wafers from another foundry.

Global Foundries' sudden exit from 7nm production earlier this year threw the relationship into question, as AMD had no choice but to source 7nm wafers from TSMC for its third-gen Ryzen and 7nm Radeon Instinct GPUs.

The new seventh amendment to the agreement guarantees that AMD will continue to purchase a pre-determined number of wafers from Global Foundries until 2021, but the agreement now only applies to 12nm and larger nodes. Meanwhile, AMD is free to source 7nm wafers from TSMC without penalty."

Watch CNBC's full interview with AMD CEO Lisa Su on Q4 earnings results
CNBC Television
Published on Jan 30, 2019 (09:48 duration)
Advanced Micro Devices President and CEO Lisa Su joins CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" team to talk about the company's fourth-quarter earnings and its guidance for the rest of the year.


AMD CEO responds to concerns that its 2019 outlook is too ambitious
CNBC Television
Published on Jan 30, 2019 (05:19 duration)
Advanced Micro Devices CEO and president Lisa Su joins CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" team to talk about the company's fourth-quarter earnings and its guidance for the rest of the year.


AMD Reports 23% Revenue Growth and Strong 2019 Outlook, Stock Jumps
Submitted 1 day ago by Standardorder
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/alctj1/amd_reports_23_revenue_growth_and_strong_2019/

AMD CEO Talks Datacenter Share Gains As EPYC's 2X Uplift Per Socket Drives Revenue
by Brandon Hill — Wednesday, January 30, 2019
https://hothardware.com/news/amd-lisa-su-q4-7nm-strength-epyc-double-performance

 

I am going to checking using uProf this weekend. I just haven't had time to do so yet.

 

Actually I have something to say about 2500u/2700u.
I have HP envy x360 (15") with 2500u. It is set by default to 25W cTDP (CPU-Z is always showing 15W).
You can check if laptop is set to 15/25W by comparing CB15 multi score.
I can tell you even more... there is a way to rise TDP limit up! I tried it @35W TDP.

Somewhere in this topic someone was saying that iGPU VEGA in 2500u/2700u is power limited and it is not reaching max clock... and it is true. But.. when you rise TDP....

There is another thing about this CPUs... if manufacturer update AGESA to 1.1.x iGPU is working a lot better (>=1024mb vram and higher power priority).

 

I wouldn't stress too much over it because in the end, if the machine performs well (or to your liking), then you might as well use it as is.
If its TDP limited as I suspect it likely is, then you would not be able to do anything about it... unless someone unlocked the BIOS for your laptop and modified the TDP limit manually from 15W to 25W (or if you have the expertise and willingness to do it).
Alternatively, you could ask Lenovo to do it (remove the TDP limit), but they will probably say something inane such as: 'the cooling would not be able to handle it'.

 

So... how would one go about raising the TDP limit?

 

Raising the TDP apparently can be done. I do plan on trying with my E585 this weekend. The thermal headroom is there, I have to push mine to go just barely above 80C.

 

Nice.
Just be careful.
Also, I'd suggest a potential repaste if you increase the TDP limit.

 

Knock Knock. Who's there? Phantom. Phantom who? ASRock Radeon VII Phantom Gaming!
Submitted 2 hours ago by JAElcoslan
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/alpa4o/knock_knock_whos_there_phantom_phantom_who_asrock/


Looks like Der8auer got his hands on a Radeon 7
Submitted 2 hours ago by TarpCPH
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/alpi8x/looks_like_der8auer_got_his_hands_on_a_radeon_7/

Spoiler: ...

Wanz chan # 389 Namba DIY just before the festival! This time AMD, ASUS, MSI gather! @ 57:00 Reveal...

Spoiler: ...

 

Resident Evil 2 On Just An APU, Can It 1080P?
WccftechTV
Published on Jan 27, 2019
I've gone through our entire suite to test the PC performance of Resident Evil 2, now it's time to see if the Ryzen 5 2400G APU can tackle running the game at 1080P without the help of a dedicated graphics card!
https://wccftech.com/resident-evil-2-remake-pc-performance-explored/


I AM SSJ 2 days ago
"nah i think 30 fps is more than enough for this game ..i hv the same apu adnd i bumped everything up to high and got 30 to 35 fps which i think is enough..."

WccftechTV 2 days ago
"That's honestly where I would play it at with this APU, get as much visual quality as you can since it plays so smooth anyway and doesn't really rely on twitch movements."

Marcelo Tezza 3 days ago
"I would not target 60 on the APU, very playable at 30hz actually."

WccftechTV 2 days ago
"I would agree that 30 should be a good target, but still pretty impressive how well this game scales that you can get even more out of so little hardware."

 

Already done. The temps were going up to around 85C with stock paste so I put in some MX-4 and now it is tough for me to push it past 80C. I am going to start pretty slow. It looks like the TDP default limits are 22W for STAPM and 25W for both the long-term and short-term power limits. With 10C to play around with, I can't imagine that I cannot go to at least 30W across the board.

 

Try going to 25W first and see how it turns out.
Also, for thermal paste, I'd personally use GC Gelid Extreme.

 

I've always had good results with MX-4, and I had some left in the tube from last month when I built my friend a desktop.

Regardless, I just went ahead and tried the method. It works. I set everything to 30W and then ran Cinebench. My score rose from ~640 to ~670 and the clock speed stayed at 3.1GHz as opposed to the 2.9GHz before changing the TDP. The temps did not go past 85C with 10 consecutive runs of Cinebench and processor speed never went below 3.0GHz during the runs.

 

Good work.
Keeping it at 30W should work better.
Have you tested the iGP yet?

As for the thermal paste... I tried the MX-4 before, but it wasn't really good for me.
GC Gelid Extreme on the other hand worked great.

 

I have not had a chance to test the graphics performance yet. I hope to have some time to do so tonight. I have been using MX-4 pretty much since it came out. I guess I could branch out and try something new.

 

Up to you if you want to give it a go with a different thermal paste, but I think that GC gelid Extreme has been demonstrated to be a better thermal compound:


Although, thermal paste application also matters as usual. What I tend to do is just apply a smaller blob in the middle of the die and spread it through the entire die area (but that's just me).

 

I guess I can give it a shot. I have also heard great things about Kryonaut so I might get a tube of that, too.

 

It seems none of the extra power is going to the IGP. My graphics scores in 3dMark11, Fire Strike, Tim Spy, and Sky Diver all remain pretty consistent at 4300, 3000, 800, and 9000, respectively. The physics score did go up around 8% on average but the overall score barely changed.

I have the limits set to 30W for STAPM, 35W for short-term power limit, and 30W long-term power limit with the temperature limit set at 95C, what AMD says the APU is rated for. Even with the temperature limit set at 95C,I have not seen it go past 89C when spamming Cinebench 7+ times in a row. I do not experience any throttling when doing so, either. It scores 670-690 in every run.

Given that last part, I can likely increase the TDP a little further, which I am going to do later this evening when I get home and have the GC Extreme paste to try out. I feel more than comfortable doing so considering how cool the chassis is. Even when it is running above 85C, the chassis remains cool to the touch for the most part. The only spot that gets a little hot is right under the vent on the bottom but even that spot doesn't feel too hot, under 45C for sure. Lenovo also did a great job with the fan behavior on this model. It is completely off and silent under normal operation. Under full load in a relatively quiet room you have to be within 2-3 feet to hear it. Turn on the television and you have to actually get with 6-12 inches to hear it.

 

It's quite dissapointing... and i'm not sure why your graphics score isn't any better.
I didn't check 3dmark but in superposition benchmark i have way better results and a lot higher GPU core clock after rise cTDP from 25W to 35W.
I'll try with 3d mark tonight and let you know.

 

OK i have some data:

HP envy x360, R5 2500u, 8GB 2400MHz (2x4), Vega8@1100MHz 256MB, AGESA 1.0.0.0 - thank you HP :/, Ryzen Balanced power plan

3dmark Sky Diver
25W (stock) -> 35W
graphics: 7788 -> 8045 (+3,29%)
physics: 7190 -> 7337 (+2,04%)

Temp was high 70 / low 80 @35W

I'm a little bit confused after drivers update to 19.1.1... physics score (which shoulden't change - it's CPU intensive test) @35W go down from 7881 to 7337... strange...

 

Budget AMD Mini-ITX Build, Perfect for 1080p Gaming!
Hardware Unboxed
Published on Feb 3, 2019

Spoiler: Check Build Now:

$100 RX 570 anyone? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MCDNQX2
AMD Ryzen 5 2600: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B41WS48
Asrock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FVVNDFX
G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB [F4-3000C15D-16GRK]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013BWBG1K
Fractal Core 500: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WB7WXI
Corsair CX450M: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B72VXE6
Team Group T-Force Delta R 500GB: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F243F3X

 

Keep in mind that beyond GC gelid Extreme, you might start seeing diminishing returns in terms of cooling performance vs the price.
However, if the Kryonaut is better performing and costs the same or lower than GC... by all means.

 

Is it possible that there might be different/separate power values for CPU and iGP.
Although, now that you increased the TDP, the cpu should be able to maintain its advertised clocks under load at all times, and under gaming.. which could improve overall gaming performance (inside actual games).

Try looking whether there is a separate TDP value for the iGP and increasing that - though I can't be sure if there is.

 

AMD Radeon VII Unboxed, 'Yeah... We've Got One!'
Hardware Unboxed
Published on Feb 4, 2019

Spoiler: More unboxings...

AMD's new weapon is here
Bitwit
Published on Feb 4, 2019
Unboxing the AMD Radeon VII

AMD Radeon VII Unboxing and Teardown
HardOCP TV
Published on Feb 4, 2019
We show you the new Radeon VII video card, then take it all apart to show you what lurks beneath that sexy exterior.

AMD Radeon VII UNBOXING - will it DETHRONE NVIDIA RTX?
KitGuruTech
Published on Feb 4, 2019
Read more/pics here: http://bit.ly/KitGuruUnboxesAMDRadeonVII
Today Deputy Editor In Chief Dominic unboxes the AMD Radeon VII. If you want cold hard figures you will need to wait a little longer however as AMD have us still under their NDA. We will however be following up on this soon with much more detail. Are AMD onto a winner? Will Nvidia need to worry about whether their RTX 2080 has been outperformed? We will let you know soon!

AMD RADEON VII UNBOXING! *Reviewer's Kit*
Joker Productions
Published on Feb 4, 2019
Unboxing video for the AMD Radeon VII graphics card. This is a reviewer's kit which you cannot purchase and was provided to me by AMD for purposes of making a review. I am not required to do an unboxing video, but some people do enjoy seeing the reviewer kits and I tend to enjoy sharing that experience with people.

AMD Radeon VII Unboxed And Ready To Rock
HotHardware
Published on Feb 4, 2019
We take a look at AMD's new Radeon VII graphics card and unbox it ahead of the benchmark launch embargo. Here's what to expect from AMD's next gen 7nm Vega before its official launch...

AMD's Radeon VII Unboxing & Overview
BPS Customs
Published on Feb 4, 2019


There may be more unboxings out there, please post them!

 

AMD talks Radeon VII and the future of FreeSync | The Full Nerd special edition
PCWorld
Published on Feb 4, 2019
Join The Full Nerd gang as they talk about the latest PC hardware topics. In today's show we are joined by Scott Herkelman, VP & GM of Radeon Gaming at AMD. He's here to talk about Radeon VII, how FreeSync vs Gsync is like VHS vs Betamax, and tell us about his try at pro gaming!

The Radeon VII - In An ALL AMD PC Build!
HardwareCanucks
Published on Feb 4, 2019
Without really realizing it, we set out to build our first all-AMD PC gaming & productivity build of 2019. It was originally for a triple monitor setup video but this Radeon VII (or is it Radeon 7?) gaming PC morphed into something amazing!

Spoiler: Click to See Video

 

Very excited to see the Radeon VII reviews start rolling in this week.

 

AMD Radeon VII Tear-Down & Graphite Thermal Pad
Gamers Nexus
Published on Feb 4, 2019
We take apart AMD's new Radeon VII video card, featuring Vega architecture, and look at the PCB, cooling solution, and assembly process.
Article: https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/34...

Spoiler: Details...

Vega mounting pressure & die height variance video from V56: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_OgK...

The AMD Radeon VII video card somewhat interestingly uses a Hitachi HM03 graphite thermal pad, as opposed to normal paste, which is something we can look at in future testing. The PCB will receive separate analysis, but requires some voltage measurements in order to determine the exact VRM locations. As for benchmarks for AMD Radeon VII (and the review), those will have to wait. The product launches on the 7th, which is likely around when follow-up content will post, including tests vs. the RTX 2080 / GTX 1080 Ti.

 

Bad News About the Radeon 7..


Crashing with drivers provided from AMD, problems with stability and overclocking reported from nuermous outlets, high power consumption, hot, loud, and best of all NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE. Paper launch.

 

I don't think it's more of a paper launch than the 2080ti. They had them for sale, they sold out, now people wait for more stock. Just like the 2080ti...

 

According to HWU video retailers said they got far less cards than even the RTX 2080 Ti.

 

Sadly I can't watch the video now but I'll take your word for it.

 

Radeon VII Priced 739€ in the EU, France and Spain Only Have Dozens of Cards Techpowerup.com | Yesterday, 18:06

Hot on the heels of our earlier report of there being just 100 Radeon VII graphics cards in stock to sell in the UK, we're hearing from French tech publication Cowcotland of an even worse situation in the Old Continent. Apparently, there are only 20 cards allocated to France and Spain, each. The price Cowcotland reports for the card is 739€ (including VAT), although paucity of cards could allow retailers to price the card just about anything, if there is demand for them. AMD has not given retailers in Europe inventory replenishment dates. Factories in China are down for the Lunar New Year holiday there, and depending on demand, another production run could be underway only by mid-thru-Late February, with fresh stocks reaching Europe only a month after.

 

More crashes, freezing at desktop, black screen restarts, temps can't be accurately measured as it seems AMD is using a 'range' of temps. Drivers will likely fix the issue, but a few lucky consumers will have these cards today or over the next couple days and they're not going to be happy with that experience.

 

Too busy right now, haven't had much time to pay attention to the launch reviews, but my first thoughts are, thank goodness AMD is shipping a competitor to high end Nvidia GPU's, a step up in performance, and the usual driver / availability problems are always an issue at launch, no different this time than any other.

It's a tough market out there right now for both Nvidia and AMD, lots of product shy buyers, long stung on pricing for both brands over the last 1+years and no real upgrade from Nvidia this time except for 1 sku and a sack of magic beans that refuse to sprout.

Progress is measured in continuous small movements forward, and this is another one from AMD.

I'm glad AMD made the shipping date and didn't have to delay for weeks like Nvidia did with the RTX 2080ti. Hopefully the Radeon Vega VII won't start dying like a flock of RTX 2080ti's.

Update: Surprisingly, Linus's review product testing coverage seems widest with productivity results as well as gaming, and I agree with his synthetic benchmark comments, as well as his conclusion - and the proposed "Gaming" optimized 7nm Vega design which would have been more competitive, but the memory reduction would have reduced bandwidth and therefore overall performance, so I think we should be happy AMD pony'd up for the for 16GB, even at the cost premium.

Given what's available, and none of the RTX features are worth spit, I'd still say the Radeon Vega VII is a good alternative to the RTX 2080 and completely avoids the RTX baggage owners have to deal with

I've only had time to watch / skim through 2 reviews (HU, LTT), more later.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Radeon_VII/35.html

I really liked the techpowerup review for its thoroughness. Good mix of games and analysis. I'm also entertained by the consistency with which all the video reviewers are kind of cynically grumpy about this and other recent CPU/GPU launches. The tone feels a lot like the complaints people make about new games coming 50% finished, with the other 50% being paid dlc and microtransactions. Just tired of eye rolling news.

Aside from the obvious concerns that reviewers are covering, I'd hope to see more attention to the range of results. It's been true with most recent launches, but you can really see how inconsistent game development optimization for amd is vs nvidia architecture with hardware that's this powerful. So one of my takeaways was how tight the spread on 1080ti vs 2080 is vs the spread on vii vs either. The review linked above puts the RTX 2080 14% above the Radeon VII at 1440p on average, but that doesn't at do justice to how wide the standard deviation is.

 

That's the largest gaming difference on average I've seen in the 2 reviews I've had time to see, HU shows 4% compared to the 2080 and 2% compared to the 1080ti @ 1440p:


As with all things software, compatibility and optimization will vary depending on the tools, and there is a wide range of performance improvement the Radeon Vega VII is showing in productivity tools vs the 2080ti/2080 with the Radeon Vega VII way outperforming even the 2080ti in some tools, you'll want to explore what tools you use vs performance.

Given the large time savings maybe even switch to those tools that give such a wide advantage to the Radeon Vega VII - saving hours in processing per week is likely worth it for many, and giving up 2%-4% in games on average isn't going to be noticed.

As much as they joke about the need for 16GB memory, there are enough things even now that are well above 8GB requirements, just below 12GB, so AMD wouldn't have wanted to pick that, 16GB has the future usage and current usage covered (LTT review):

 

The numbers are all over the places once you get through a few reviews. That's actually one of the main complaints - that reviewers struggled to even get things working well enough to generate consistent reviews. HU in particular notes in their video that they had to limit their test, and express frustration over that. At this rate it may take a major driver update and another round of fresh reviews to get decent data. Sounds like several made the request for updates and just hadn't received them by the time of review.

At least for now, once you get deeper in with more samples across all reviewers you start to see a pattern of the Radeon VII being ahead in some and behind in most. But again, by big swings. So it'll compete with the 2080ti in one example (e.g. Strange Brigade with dx12 and async computer) and lose to the 2070 in another.