AMD fans have been chomping at the bit for more information on when the firm's upcoming Radeon RX Vega graphics cards will be available, and now the wait is nearly over. AMD today revealed much more information on the specs and pricing of its various Vega models, as well as a launch date of August 14.
Built on their namesake architecture, these new Vega cards will come in a total of 3 flavors out of the gate, all of which represent a significant step up over their predecessors built on the Polaris architecture. The entry that will garner most attention is the Radeon RX Vega 64, an air-cooled card that packs 64 compute units, 4096 stream processors, and 8GB of VRAM for $499. A liquid-cooled version of the RX Vega 64 will also be available for $599. On the lower end of things, an RX Vega 56 with 56 compute units, 3584 stream processors, and 8GB of VRAM will also be available for $399.
In terms of performance, AMD says the RX Vega 64 comes in at around 12.7 TFLOPS of power in its air-cooled version, and 13.7 TFLOPS if liquid cooled. Meanwhile, the RX Vega 56 comes in at around 10.5 TFLOPS. Combined with the new Vega architecture, the cards offer a significant boost when compared to AMD's recent GPUs. You can get a look at how things stack up in the chart below (via PC Gamer):
Venturing outside of AMD's confines, it's clear the company is hoping to go head-to-head with NVIDIA's own GTX 1080 cards with the RX Vega 64. And while we'll have to wait for third-party benchmarks to see just how that stacks up in practice, the RX Vega 64 certainly looks like it has the muscle to compete. And ultimately, bringing that sort of competition to the best graphics cards on the market is only a good thing.
Lastly, in addition to selling the cards by themselves, AMD will be offering up special Radeon Packs that will include $200 discount on the 34-inch Samsung CF791 curved ultrawide FreeSync monitor, along with a $100 discount on select Ryzen 7 1800X processor and 370X motherboard combos. The company is also throwing in two new games, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Prey, with each pack in select regions. The packs will be offered up in three versions, each featuring one of the new cards:
- Radeon Red Pack – Featuring the Radeon RX Vega 56, an air-cooled card priced at $499 SEP.
- Radeon Black Pack – Featuring the Radeon RX Vega 64, an air-cooled card priced at $599 SEP.
- Radeon Aqua Pack – Featuring the Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition, the most powerful of the Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, priced at $699 SEP.
The new Vega details come on the heels of AMD's announcement of some new Threadripper CPUs, which are also set to arrive in August. If you have your eye on Vega only, however, you can look forward to getting your hands on the new cards starting August 14.
