Now that Vega cards are more available, are they a viable contender?

[twelveoclockglock]

Good afternoon all,

 

The title pretty much says it all. Vega cards are finally accessible to consumers after being pretty much absent from the market since their inception. But with newer offerings from Nvidia and the 10 series falling in price, do they present a good value? 

 

I've been on team green for a while, and I very much enjoy the outstanding driver support and easy management with GFE. But AMD has FreeSync on their side, making them much more friendly on the wallet. 

 

What do you folks think? Is it time to switch camps, or are the Vega cards an aging racehorse? 

[kampfer5191]

they are bad cards at all. i was planning on getting a vega64 but i found a good deal on a slightly used 1080ti. freesync monitors are pretty cheap and paired with a vega card i hear they look amazing. you can't go wrong with any card that is on the market right now.

i ran a gtx760 for 2 yrs and switched to a r9 390x when it came out. i loved the way it performed for the 3yrs i used it, it just got pretty hot when i had to start oc it to keep up with some newer gpu heavy games, that's when i started swaying between the vega64 and a 10 series card. i don't have a gsync or freesync monitor so it didn't matter what i got.

the vega cards are great for 1440p with a high frequency monitor, i'm pretty sure the vega64 can do a 4k at playable framerates. for me i love amd, but they are lacking a bit in the highend market, if they would've announced the new highend cards after the rtx announcement i would've waited, but i wanted a large performance boost over the 390x for not a wallet breaking price. at the time a new 1080ti was $800, the vega64 was ~$690ish, and i picked my used for $550. 

 

i guess in short, yeah vega cards are good cards for what they offer

[Guest]

Vega cards aren’t that great, but if you look on the low to mid range of their lineup. They are currently better than Nvidia, GPUs like the RX 570 or RX 580 are able to beat nvidia GPUs at that price.

[dizmo]

They're great cards if you're looking to use them with FreeSync. Otherwise you might as well get something from Nvidia.

[Taf the Ghost]

16 minutes ago, twelveoclockglock said:

Good afternoon all,

 

The title pretty much says it all. Vega cards are finally accessible to consumers after being pretty much absent from the market since their inception. But with newer offerings from Nvidia and the 10 series falling in price, do they present a good value? 

 

I've been on team green for a while, and I very much enjoy the outstanding driver support and easy management with GFE. But AMD has FreeSync on their side, making them much more friendly on the wallet. 

 

What do you folks think? Is it time to switch camps, or are the Vega cards an aging racehorse? 

RX Vega have always been fine cards. The issue has always been their Price vs Performance. The HBM2 memory costs more than an entry-level GPU. It made the product functionally unprofitable at the MSRP that performance dictated. If you are going that route, just don't get a reference Blower-style and be sure to use AMD Chill since most games you'll be beyond the frame rate of your monitor.

[GamerDude]

10 minutes ago, kampfer5191 said:

they aren't bad cards at all. i was planning on getting a vega64 but i found a good deal on a slightly used 1080ti. freesync monitors are pretty cheap and paired with a vega card i hear they look amazing. you can't go wrong with any card that is on the market right now.

Fixed that for ya! Yep, the RX VEGA line seems to be dropping to more sane levels, though in my neck of the woods, they're still rather pricey compared to other parts of the world. I do like Freesync, and Since I have a pair of VEGA 64's, I'd gotten a Samsung C49HG90DME with Freesync 2 and 144Hz refresh rate. 

 

For someone looking for a good 1080P Freesync gaming experience, the RX 580/590 would be very good alternatives to nVidia's equivalent.....cheaper since 1080P Gsync monitors tend to be much fewer in models available, and more expensive.

[DrMacintosh]

Great for FreeSync and are decently priced now. I'd buy one if I had to cash tbh. 

[Taf the Ghost]

6 minutes ago, GamerDude said:

Fixed that for ya! Yep, the RX VEGA line seems to be dropping to more sane levels, though in my neck of the woods, they're still rather pricey compared to other parts of the world. I do like Freesync, and Since I have a pair of VEGA 64's, I'd gotten a Samsung C49HG90DME with Freesync 2 and 144Hz refresh rate. 

 

For someone looking for a good 1080P Freesync gaming experience, the RX 580/590 would be very good alternatives to nVidia's equivalent.....cheaper since 1080P Gsync monitors tend to be much fewer in models available, and more expensive.

You can land a solid 75 Hz/1080p FreeSync monitor for around 150USD to match with a RX570 for around 150USD as well. That'll handle practically everything but dead recent AAA Titles at 75 Hz. Lower those to Med/High to make it back fully into the range. (Though that's as much a CPU as a GPU issue on the recent stuff.)  After moving to the Adaptive Sync, I have no desire to move back.

[twelveoclockglock]

Thanks for you input everyone. 

 

Taf the Ghost, you mentioned

2 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

If you are going that route, just don't get a reference Blower-style 

Are thermals an issue with these? One model I had my eye on was a reference blower card, which appealed to me since I'm planning a build in a rack-mount chassis which probably won't have the best airflow.

[xg32]

hard to resist the vega 56 with the games

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814930006&Description=vega 56&cm_re=vega_56-_-14-930-006-_-Product

 

basically a 1070+, though a 1070 comes close in price.

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487259&Description=gtx 1070&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&ignorebbr=1&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

 

If keeping nvidia in check is your thing, then don't buy the 1060-1080 cards, as thats exactly what they want you to do.

 

i'm seeing people get Vega over the 1070-1080, advantage free sync.

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202326&Description=vega 64&cm_re=vega_64-_-14-202-326-_-Product

 

though nvidia still has control 1080 ti+, but that's why the 1080 ti is all out.

 

i also noticed in recent benchmarks by hardware unboxed that the amd drivers are getting better and better compared to nvidia's 10 series cards.

 

 

[twelveoclockglock]

8 minutes ago, xg32 said:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202326&Description=vega 64&cm_re=vega_64-_-14-202-326-_-Product

This is the card I'd been looking at. I'm not sure it'll fit in the chassis I want to use, but the price is right.

[Turtle Rig]

I rather have a 2060 RTX then a Vegas.  If money is a issue or if you have freesync then go team red.  The 570 is good choice but RX 580 is better for you if you have the funds, if not the 570 it is.

[xg32]

5 minutes ago, twelveoclockglock said:

This is the card I'd been looking at. I'm not sure it'll fit in the chassis I want to use, but the price is right.

i hope it does, it's a great card if you undervolt it, iirc they shipped it at an inefficient power draw, then the temps will also be fine.

[Humbug]

4 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

I rather have a 2060 RTX then a Vegas.  If money is a issue or if you have freesync then go team red.  The 570 is good choice but RX 580 is better for you if you have the funds, if not the 570 it is.

No such thing as RTX 2060 and there will not be.

 

In terms of performance Vega 64= RTX 2070.

[Turtle Rig]

Oh sorry

1 minute ago, Humbug said:

No such thing as RTX 2060 and there will not be.

 

In terms of performance Vega 64= RTX 2070.

Oh sorry my bad its GTX.  Wow if Vega is a good ammount cheaper then the 2070 then go for it.  Best bang for the buck.  good luck

[Humbug]

8 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

Oh sorry

Oh sorry my bad its GTX.  Wow if Vega is a good ammount cheaper then the 2070 then go for it.  Best bang for the buck.  good luck

The justification for buying Vega over an Nvidia GPU would be the combined cost of AMD GPU + freesync monitor compared to a Nvidia + G sync monitor.

 

I would recommend pairing Vega with below

https://www.amazon.com/Nixeus-27-Inch-FreeSync-Certified-Range/dp/B071G6PGP7

[Taf the Ghost]

11 hours ago, twelveoclockglock said:

Thanks for you input everyone. 

 

Taf the Ghost, you mentioned

Are thermals an issue with these? One model I had my eye on was a reference blower card, which appealed to me since I'm planning a build in a rack-mount chassis which probably won't have the best airflow.

Thermals are about the same, it's really just the Reference Card is quite loud. If you're rack mounting and will be away from the sound, reference should be fine.

 

I ended up only FreeSync for a combination of non-gaming reasons, as AMD is just a lot cheaper when you're running a bunch of monitors. (And AMD's driver just works better for handling it.) Had a monitor's backlight mostly die on me, so went to replace it. It's hard not to get a model with FreeSync these days (credit to AMD for that), so I simply bought a 1080p/75 Hz FreeSync monitor. For an upgrade that cost me functionally nothing (since I needed a monitor anyway and, seriously, don't cheap out on your monitors, your eyes will appreciate it), I've rarely ever been as impressed by what a fairly subtle technological change can do. It's not HDD -> SSD speed improvements level, but for anyone building a Gaming System that isn't dropping 2k or more, it's extremely difficult to not recommend the AMD GPU + FreeSync Monitor combo. 

 

This is mostly because humans notice the Stuttering more than the Smoothness in general, but it's a very real effect and moving away from it you notice it very quickly. It's also why Vega 56 + 144 Hz FreeSync monitor was a really easy recommendation, when you could actually buy a Vega 56 for less than a 1080 Ti. Obviously, it was a pretty wild 18 months for those cards. Looking forward to what Navi will bring, as FreeSync will have taken over most of the monitor market within the next 2 years. This will eventually make AMD the standard recommendation in the mainstream gaming space, at which point Nvidia will just patch in Adaptive Sync to all of their GPUs anyway.