AMD Vega reliability?

[IgnorantBastrd]

I've been looking to upgrading my system and I wanted to go with an all AMD build.  The new Ryzen processors are awesome but I know AMD's gpu market is less than desirable.  If I can get a decent enough deal on a Vega 56, I might go ahead and grab one.  My big question is this:  How reliable has AMD (specifically Vega) been with regards to drivers/performance on release for gaming? I've only ever known Nvidia and they always tend to have drivers out ahead of big game launches to avoid issues.  I know Vega is less of a gaming card and more of a workstation card, but people are still using them for gaming and I want to know AMD has supported them over the last year or so.  Also, I know the 1070ti is in the same price range with better performance, but I also know that Freesync monitors are cheaper than G-sync and it may be worth it just based off that.

[Shimejii]

Vega has never been worth the cost. They arent bad cards, but the price they cost versus what they produce just isnt there. You can EASILY get a 1080 right now for 300-370$ used, 1080ti for 450-550. 1070 200-260, and 1070ti for 250-315. Been seeing these prices consistently over the past 2 weeks since RTX launch.

[NelizMastr]

4 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Vega has never been worth the cost. They arent bad cards, but the price they cost versus what they produce just isnt there. You can EASILY get a 1080 right now for 300-370$ used, 1080ti for 450-550. 1070 200-260, and 1070ti for 250-315. Been seeing these prices consistently over the past 2 weeks since RTX launch.

Those prices are an exception, not a rule. 

[Sakkura]

AMD doesn't update drivers quite as often as Nvidia, but they've ramped it up a little. More importantly, AMD doesn't seem to be introducing as many bugs with their driver updates as Nvidia. So I wouldn't worry about that aspect of it.

 

3 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Vega has never been worth the cost. They arent bad cards, but the price they cost versus what they produce just isnt there. You can EASILY get a 1080 right now for 300-370$ used, 1080ti for 450-550. 1070 200-260, and 1070ti for 250-315. Been seeing these prices consistently over the past 2 weeks since RTX launch.

Of course you can get cards cheaper used, but that's not a fair comparison to retail cards.

 

Vega cards, when they're around MSRP, are worth the cost. Even more so if you also factor in a Freesync monitor.

[Shimejii]

Just now, NelizMastr said:

Those prices are an exception, not a rule. 

Ive been seeing them enough in that range. Been seeing TONS of 1070's selling for 200-230, So its begining to become the price now adayas.

[Shimejii]

3 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

AMD doesn't update drivers quite as often as Nvidia, but they've ramped it up a little. More importantly, AMD doesn't seem to be introducing as many bugs with their driver updates as Nvidia. So I wouldn't worry about that aspect of it.

 

Of course you can get cards cheaper used, but that's not a fair comparison to retail cards.

 

Vega cards, when they're around MSRP, are worth the cost. Even more so if you also factor in a Freesync monitor.

No they were never worth the MSRP. Vega 56 was $400 but quickly went up to around 450-500$ and Vega 64 was 500 but went up to 550-600. Thats really not worth it when you compare the cards to what the 1070ti, and 1080 are selling and performed overall, for even at retail for discounted prices. You can get a Retail 1080 for 450-480 right now, Or even cheaper if you go to a store with open box.

 

I honestly HOPED Vega would be more of a splash when it launched, but it was simply a dud. It just simply failed to do what it was meant to do.

[Streetguru]

12 minutes ago, IgnorantBastrd said:

 

Vega 56 is perfectly fine as are AMD's driver updates

 

but probably just grab an RX 600 upcoming card, should be cheap/effective and fine for 1080p 144hz gaming

[IgnorantBastrd]

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

Vega 56 is perfectly fine as are AMD's driver updates

 

but probably just grab an RX 600 upcoming card, should be cheap/effective and fine for 1080p 144hz gaming

Thanks for mentioning that!  I did see there were rumors for new cards to be launched by the end of this year, but seeing as how AMD has been off with their release dates I kinda dismissed them.  If they really are going to release the RX 600 cards then I would be willing to wait, but so far as I can tell there's nothing but speculation as to their release and nothing regarding the specs aside from they're gonna be based off the Vega architecture.  If AMD were really going to release them by the end of the year I feel like there would have been something official by now.

[Shimejii]

1 minute ago, IgnorantBastrd said:

Thanks for mentioning that!  I did see there were rumors for new cards to be launched by the end of this year, but seeing as how AMD has been off with their release dates I kinda dismissed them.  If they really are going to release the RX 600 cards then I would be willing to wait, but so far as I can tell there's nothing but speculation as to their release and nothing regarding the specs aside from they're gonna be based off the Vega architecture.  If AMD were really going to release them by the end of the year I feel like there would have been something official by now.

are you anywhere near tustin CA?

[IgnorantBastrd]

4 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

are you anywhere near tustin CA?

No Im near Sac.

[Sakkura]

15 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

No they were never worth the MSRP. Vega 56 was $400 but quickly went up to around 450-500$ and Vega 64 was 500 but went up to 550-600. Thats really not worth it when you compare the cards to what the 1070ti, and 1080 are selling and performed overall, for even at retail for discounted prices. You can get a Retail 1080 for 450-480 right now, Or even cheaper if you go to a store with open box.

 

I honestly HOPED Vega would be more of a splash when it launched, but it was simply a dud. It just simply failed to do what it was meant to do.

At $400, Vega 56 was worth its price vs. the slower GTX 1070. At $500, Vega 64 was worth its price vs. the slightly faster (but more expensive) GTX 1080.

 

That they shot up above MSRP is irrelevant to that. And now they've dropped back to reasonable pricing, at or below MSRP, which makes them a valid option at times. Especially once you account for the hundred(s) of dollars you can save with Freesync vs. Gsync.

[Shimejii]

8 minutes ago, IgnorantBastrd said:

No Im near Sac.

Welp that shoves Microcenter open box deals then. They have a 1080 for 360$ open box, but its the blower style.

 

8 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

At $400, Vega 56 was worth its price vs. the slower GTX 1070. At $500, Vega 64 was worth its price vs. the faster (but more expensive) GTX 1080.

 

That they shot up above MSRP is irrelevant to that. And now they've dropped back to reasonable pricing, at or below MSRP, which makes them a valid option at times. Especially once you account for the hundred(s) of dollars you can save with Freesync vs. Gsync.

Vega was almost never at MSRP for most of the beginning life span, maybe the first few hundred cards. For much of their life they have been above MSRP, performed worse then similar priced hardware, and have awful coolers for the amount of power they contain. 

 

A custom cooler on a 1070/1070ti Should compete, or match with Vega 56 (no custom bios) in most titles.Vega 56 is the only somewhat decent value if you can find a price thats good. Vega 64 is honestly the WORST of the two, and has no redeemable value because the 1080 is a better card, and can be had for much cheaper through multiple sources.

 

Honestly gysnc monitors at a1440p can be had for around 250-350$ nowadays. That argument has been dying for the past year. I still dont like the fact that gysync modules cost a ton more, and think nvidia could easily improve on that, but they wont because they are making enough money from it.

[F7GOS]

For what its worth, I sold my GTX 1080 and bought a Vega 64 and would do it again in a heartbeat. 

 

New, the Vega cost me £410 delivered, the GTX 1080 sold for £390 so for £20 it was certiainly worth the upgrade since I have a freesync monitor.

No issues with the drivers so far but the Strix 64 I had did need some tweaking out the box.

 

All depends on the cost locally though although I do find the "open" nature of the Vega card and how tweakable it is great fun. it feels a lot more like an enthusiast product than my 1080 was. 

 

 

[GamerDude]

I'm an AMD fanboy and logic doesn't to factor into my thinking, yes, I have the RTX 2080 Ti and a GTX 1080, and just a VEGA 64. Now, the RTX 2080 Ti can do 3440x1440 at max setting and great framerate, but my main monitor's a Freesync one. While the RTX 2080 Ti can easily max games at that res, my VEGA 64 does struggle with some....and because I'm such a fanboy, I'd decided to get another VEGA 64 for CrossFire. Below is a pic of both my Palit RTX 2080 Ti and the PowerColor VEGA 64 RED Devil....

 

AMD driver support is pretty good, and I've experienced no issue with their driver causing a crash or anything bad to that extend. Certainly some games don't support CrossFire, all DX12 games, but that's okay for me, should I play a game that doesn't support Crossfire, I'd simply disable CrossFire and play on. Below is a pic of the Red Devil and a stock VEGA 64 in CrossFire mode, I'm using an old X79 mobo (Asus Rampage IV Extreme) which does 2x PCIE x16 3.0 for full bandwidth for both cards, and no, I don't go for all those fancy schmancy RGB......