Vega 56 long term

[m1cr0l]

After much consideration, I will most likely be getting an Asus strix vega 56. Where I am, the strix card costs the same as a higher end gtx 1660ti and a low end rtx 2060. 

 

How viable will this card be in 3/4 years time? I will unlikely be playing the latest AAA titles but just sticking to simulators.

Furthermore, assuming I get one of those cards with the VRM problem, how will the longevity of the card be affected? I will be capping my fps at 75 so I assume I will not close to the 100°C VRM temps the strix is known for right? 

[Fasauceome]

10 hours ago, m1cr0l said:

How viable will this card be in 3/4 years time?

Well unless someone who can see the future shows up, we can't know. If I had to guess, the Vega 56 would be better than the RTX 2060 if ray tracing can later be done on the V56 or doesn't become popular. 

[maartendc]

1 hour ago, m1cr0l said:

After much consideration, I will most likely be getting an Asus strix vega 56. Where I am, the strix card costs the same as a higher end gtx 1660ti and a low end rtx 2060. 

 

How viable will this card be in 3/4 years time? I will unlikely be playing the latest AAA titles but just sticking to simulators.

Furthermore, assuming I get one of those cards with the VRM problem, how will the longevity of the card be affected? I will be capping my fps at 75 so I assume I will not close to the 100°C VRM temps the strix is known for right? 

Apparently  the VRM problem has been solved with Strix cards (that is what someone posted here recently, I'd say do your own research).

 

I would say the Vega 56 will hold up better than the RTX 2060 / 1660Ti because it has 8GB Vram versus 6GB. Also AMD cards tend to age better.

 

Go for Vega 56.

 

In 3/4 years time: This is now a mid-range card. In 3/4 years time it will likely not be very good anymore. You probably WILL be able to play most games in 3/4 years time, if you really crank down everything to low settings. It all depends on the settings.

[m1cr0l]

2 hours ago, fasauceome said:

Well unless someone who can see the future shows up, we can't know. If I had to guess, the Vega 56 would be better than the RTX 2060 if ray tracing can't be done on the V56 or doesn't become popular. 

True, thanks for you input

[trevb0t]

What is the use case? 1080p 75hz gaming?

It is currently doing very well at 1080p gaming. I'd expect the 1080p ULTRA status to last into next year's titles.

 

But it's hard to say. I've heard that a big benefit of the Vega 56 is its undervolt/overclockability, which may not actually be as achievable with the strix setup. (As I've heard the cooling solution faces some issues.)

 

I think personally that the extra VRAM will be a big longevity factor vs the 2060, and next year if you have to go from ULTRA to HIGH/VERY HIGH settings on some titles, that probably won't hurt you.

 

[m1cr0l]

55 minutes ago, maartendc said:

Apparently  the VRM problem has been solved with Strix cards (that is what someone posted here recently, I'd say do your own research).

 

I would say the Vega 56 will hold up better than the RTX 2060 / 1660Ti because it has 8GB Vram versus 6GB. Also AMD cards tend to age better.

 

Go for Vega 56.

 

In 3/4 years time: This is now a mid-range card. In 3/4 years time it will likely not be very good anymore. You probably WILL be able to play most games in 3/4 years time, if you really crank down everything to low settings. It all depends on the settings.

Considering how my r9 380 is holding up, I will say the vega 56 will probably do fairly well down the road. Regarding the VRM, I did tons of research on the topic already and read whatever forums/ reviews on the card I could find. It seems like the problem is still there and it all depends on luck for how severe the problem is. This is the only thing holding me back from buying the vega 56 right now. 

The rtx 2060 with its new cores seems to be better catered for upcoming features which may be implemented in games. However seeing my gaming tendencies, it is unlikely any games I play in the foreseeable future will have such features implemented. 

 

The question still stands as to whether or not I will get the vega 56 or rtx 2060. Temperature is my main concern due to the tropical climate where I live and ambient temps are pretty high. 

[Tristerin]

@m1cr0l said what I was going to - My R9 Fury's in my rigs still scream.

 

I expect those Furies to have another year in them singularly for sure, probably 2 until VRAM realllly becomes a problem, and when I replace 1 of them (Ill then Crossfire the two I have as they scale better than 2x 980 ti's)

[m1cr0l]

1 minute ago, trevb0t said:

What is the use case? 1080p 75hz gaming?

It is currently doing very well at 1080p gaming. I'd expect the 1080p ULTRA status to last into next year's titles.

 

But it's hard to say. I've heard that a big benefit of the Vega 56 is its undervolt/overclockability, which may not actually be as achievable with the strix setup. (As I've heard the cooling solution faces some issues.)

 

I think personally that the extra VRAM will be a big longevity factor vs the 2060, and next year if you have to go from ULTRA to HIGH/VERY HIGH settings on some titles, that probably won't hurt you.

 

Currently, it's 1080p 75hz, and I may upgrade to an ultra wide 1080p monitor further down the road and that's about it. If I do get the vega 56, it is unlikely I will overclock since the stock clocks should be more than enough for my use case. I will undervolt it to reduce temperature though. 

When I play games, I don't really have a tendency to max out the graphics settings, I do appreciate good graphics and tend to keep the settings one notch down from the max. 

[trevb0t]

Just now, m1cr0l said:

Currently, it's 1080p 75hz, and I may upgrade to an ultra wide 1080p monitor further down the road and that's about it. If I do get the vega 56, it is unlikely I will overclock since the stock clocks should be more than enough for my use case. I will undervolt it to reduce temperature though. 

When I play games, I don't really have a tendency to max out the graphics settings, I do appreciate good graphics and tend to keep the settings one notch down from the max. 

This seems like a good candidate for you.

You mentioned the STRIX cooled unit. Can I ask what you're paying for that?

[m1cr0l]

1 minute ago, trevb0t said:

This seems like a good candidate for you.

You mentioned the STRIX cooled unit. Can I ask what you're paying for that?

When directly converted to usd, it is 350usd. I could probably get it lower with a little bit of bargaining. Seeing as others are managing to buy vega 56s at 300usd, this price seems fairly reasonable considering the prices of other cards where I live.

 

For reference, 

Msi gtx 1660 ti gaming x - 358usd

Asus vega 56 strix - 350usd

Msi rtx 2060 gaming z - 439usd

 

These are the listed prices for these cards. 

[m1cr0l]

10 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

@m1cr0l said what I was going to - My R9 Fury's in my rigs still scream.

 

I expect those Furies to have another year in them singularly for sure, probably 2 until VRAM realllly becomes a problem, and when I replace 1 of them (Ill then Crossfire the two I have as they scale better than 2x 980 ti's)

That's good to hear, my r9 380  unfortunately can't deliver what I want in the games I play. While I can lower the settings all the way and probably get good fps, I like my games looking good and running well hence why I'm upgrading now. 

[trevb0t]

2 minutes ago, m1cr0l said:

When directly converted to usd, it is 350usd. I could probably get it lower with a little bit of bargaining. Seeing as others are managing to buy vega 56s at 300usd, this price seems fairly reasonable considering the prices of other cards where I live.

 

For reference, 

Msi gtx 1660 ti gaming x - 358usd

Asus vega 56 strix - 350usd

Msi rtx 2060 gaming z - 439usd

 

These are the listed prices for these cards. 

I see. I just ask because the talk of the town is that that cooler has issues in the Vega series, but often the Sapphire models are around the same price and do much better. Just a heads up. The Vega 64 is also very nicely priced usually comparable to the 2060, with performance closer to the 2070.

[m1cr0l]

2 minutes ago, trevb0t said:

I see. I just ask because the talk of the town is that that cooler has issues in the Vega series, but often the Sapphire models are around the same price and do much better. Just a heads up. The Vega 64 is also very nicely priced usually comparable to the 2060, with performance closer to the 2070.

Yep, I'm aware of that. I just hope that if I do get the strix vega 56 the vrm issue will not be so severe. I looked high and low for either the Sapphire / powercolor varient of the Vega 56 but none of the shops had them. The used market is no better as people are asking close to the price of a new strix vega 56 for a used sapphire/powercolor model. 

[trevb0t]

Just now, m1cr0l said:

Yep, I'm aware of that. I just hope that if I do get the strix vega 56 the vrm issue will not be so severe. I looked high and low for either the Sapphire / powercolor varient of the Vega 56 but none of the shops had them. The used market is no better as people are asking close to the price of a new strix vega 56 for a used sapphire/powercolor model. 

I see. It's hard to gauge international markets that don't have sourcing like pcpartpicker. 

I think honestly that worst case, the unit runs a little hot and a little loud under load.

[m1cr0l]

Just now, trevb0t said:

I see. It's hard to gauge international markets that don't have sourcing like pcpartpicker. 

I think honestly that worst case, the unit runs a little hot and a little loud under load.

Yep, temps and noise especially are of a high priority for me. The rtx fairs better in these two department especially since I'm going for the higher end model with better cooling and 0 rpm fan mode. However the look and size of the strix cooler just keep bringing me back to the strix

[Quadriplegic]

43 minutes ago, m1cr0l said:

Yep, I'm aware of that. I just hope that if I do get the strix vega 56 the vrm issue will not be so severe. I looked high and low for either the Sapphire / powercolor varient of the Vega 56 but none of the shops had them. The used market is no better as people are asking close to the price of a new strix vega 56 for a used sapphire/powercolor model. 

Well, even if the card has cooling issues you can replace thermal pads and re-paste the card, that should be able to take care of most issues

[BuckGup]

You can also power tables mod the card if you ever feel like getting 2070-2080 performance out of it

[m1cr0l]

6 hours ago, Quadriplegic said:

Well, even if the card has cooling issues you can replace thermal pads and re-paste the card, that should be able to take care of most issues

I'm aware of that but I don't want to risk a warranty void, maybe I'll do it after a period of time and I can confirm the gpu is in working order. Maybe I'll practice disassembling my r9 380 first hahaha

[m1cr0l]

6 hours ago, BuckGup said:

You can also power tables mod the card if you ever feel like getting 2070-2080 performance out of it

In the future maybe but I think the stock performance will be good enough for my needs right now

[Quadriplegic]

4 hours ago, m1cr0l said:

I'm aware of that but I don't want to risk a warranty void, maybe I'll do it after a period of time and I can confirm the gpu is in working order. Maybe I'll practice disassembling my r9 380 first hahaha

Well, in theory you should have the right to clean and maintain your hardware. Changing thermal paste and pads on video card shouldn't void the warranty, as it is part of maintenance