AMD will launch its first Radeon Vega GPUs soon, and the tech community has learned some details based on rumors about the upcoming cards. Vega-based GPUs might release in May costing approximately $600.
The latest speculation round comes just weeks after AMD presented its new Vega graphics architecture at CES 2017, where the company gave a preliminary view of the inner parts and performance of its latest technology.
Rumors suggest the first Vega cards will launch during a time window close to NVIDIA’s release of the GTX 1080 Ti. The two GPUs will probably face each other in the market, but Vega reportedly can outperform Pascal’s processing power.
AMD Radeon Vega rumored specs
The core architecture of the upcoming Vega GPUs will feature AMD’s Next Compute Engine (NCU) design, with 4096 stream processors arranged in 64 compute units.
AMD introduced High Bandwidth Memory (HMB) as a memory standard with the Radeon R9 Fury X, and now it is fully jumping aboard the HMB2 ship by adopting the technology for its upcoming cards.
HMB2 will allow future AMD GPUs to have up to 16 GB of memory, although the card that debuts Vega architecture in the market will only feature 8 GB. Still, a significant improvement over the 4 GB cap on previous-gen high-end cards.
Furthermore, the new Vega GPUs will reportedly clock at base speeds of 1500 MHz or more, with added performance advantage over NVIDIA cards thanks to its enhanced geometry pipeline and pixel engine for heavy workloads and games.
The concept behind HMB2 memory will allow AMD to expand capacity and improve performance standards continuously over time, according to the company.
AMD Radeon Vega 10 and 11 will be the first to launch
All the specifications mentioned before will come in a single package known, for now, as the Vega 10. AMD’s first Vega-based flagship GPU will be a high-end offering expected to debut from mid to late May this year.
An even more powerful card, the Vega 11, will also make an appearance this year at a later date. Tech outlets and experts suggest the graphics unit could hit the shelves as soon as Q2 2017.
AMD Radeon Vega expected price
While no official benchmark tests are available for the Vega 10, early previews last year showed a first version of the new AMD GPU running Doom in 4K at 60fps with Ultra settings.
AMD has given no information regarding price on the new Vega cards, but the company historically has priced its products to compete with NVIDIA’s challengers.
The latest contender, the GTX 1080 Ti, is expected to debut before the launch of the Vega 10. Conservative estimates place the GTX 1080 Ti around the $700 mark and worst-case scenarios have it at $1,200.
Accordingly, AMD’s Vega 10 should match or beat the GTX 1080 Ti in price, although the company may have a very small window to decrease costs if it turns out NVIDIA’s card ends up costing less than expected.
Source: WCCFTech
