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AMD RX Vega GPUs released along with a new AMDGPU-PRO Driver

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The brand new line of AMD GPUs are upon us, with the release of AMD RX Vega along with a new AMDGPU-PRO Driver.

To enable Vega to play nicely on Linux, you either need the PRO driver with it's limited distribution support, or a custom kernel with the AMD DC patches, which Vega requires. I really don't think that's a good state, since Mesa is generally better supported than the PRO driver now and getting a custom Kernel isn't exactly user friendly. Hopefully it won't be too long before the patches AMD needs get accepted, so we don't have to mess around with any of that nonsense.

Vega currently comes in three flavours:
  • Radeon RX Vega 64 (liquid cooled): 8GB HBM2 VRAM, clock speed of 1406MHz (boost 1677Mhz) TDP 345 watts
  • Radeon RX Vega 64 (air cooled): 8GB HBM2 VRAM, clock speed of 1247MHz (boost 1546MHz), TDP 295 watts
  • Radeon RX Vega 56: 8GB HBM2 VRAM, clock speed of 1156MHz (boost 1471MHz), TDP 210 watts


I should note, that only Vega 64 is available to buy now as the Radeon RX Vega 56 doesn't launch until August 28th, but the embargo has lifted on all of it today.

We don't have any benchmarks, since we have no AMD contacts. However, Phoronix has a few since AMD sent him hardware. Seems like they perform pretty well in most cases, but their Vulkan performance was a little underwhelming.

Will you be getting one? I'm still totally unsure who I will be going with next, but the performance does seem enticing. Luckily my 980ti will likely last until the generation after this. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: AMD, Drivers, Hardware
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Ehvis Aug 15, 2017
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I've had a look at the various reviews. I think most of the disappointed for Windows comes from the expectation that these two cards would be better than the GTX1070 and 1080, while in practice they average just below. The difference is small, so not really that important. I haven't seen an actual retail price though, so that will be interesting.

Linux performance was looking really good. Vulkan was lagging behind a bit, but RADV is still improving quickly.

De power drain is somewhat worrying though. The RX 64 appears to average around 100 W higher during gaming than a 1080. For me that would be about 20 Euro per year on electricity. Also, I'm not so sure I could get the heat out of my case in the current setup.

I don't expect to be in the market for this generation. But things are looking good for the next one. Especially if power usage can be reduced.
Shmerl Aug 15, 2017
Quoting: TT_ZXWell a GTX 1070 is over $400 NZ (about $284 US) cheaper here at the moment, so I won't be getting a Vega 64 any time soon. It gulps considerably more power too and consequently runs hotter. I look forward to the day when AMD can compete with NVIDIA on these fronts so I get kick NVIDIA to the curb.

GTX 1070 should be compared to Vega 56, not Vega 64. And there comparison makes more sense.
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