AMD has taken advantage of CES 2019 to present its new GPUs. The Radeon VII with the second generation of Vega and for the first time with the architecture of 7nm is now official. This new model competes directly with the RTX 2080 of NVIDIA and allows to comfortably play video games in 4K with ultra configurations and 60 fps. In the AMD event, we have also seen an advance of the AMD Ryzen 3000 Series processors and collaborations with Google for its Project Stream.
AMD indicates that the second generation of Vega offers 29% more average performance with the same power as the previous ones. Compared, for example, with the Radeon RX Vega 64, AMD indicates that games like ‘Battlefield V’ improve 35% in performance or ‘Fortnite’ by 25%. Designed for video games and content creation in mind, the new graphics card ensures from AMD that it provides twice the memory of its predecessor. On average, the Radeon VII has a 29% improvement in video games and 36% in content creation applications compared to the Radeon RX Vega 64.
Below is a comparison chart with the Radeon RX Vega 64:
| RADEON VII | RADEON RX VEGA 64 | |
|---|---|---|
| FLOPS | 13.8 | 12.7 |
| STREAM PROCESSORS | 3840 | 4096 |
| CLOCK FREQUENCIES (NORMAL / BOOST) | – / 1800 Mhz | 1247/1546 Mhz |
| GDDR5 MEMORY | 16 GB | 8 GB |
| BANDWIDTH | 1 TB / s | 484 GB / s |
| TDP | 300 W | 295 W |
| ARCHITECTURE | 7 nm (TSMC) | 14 nm (GloFo) |
| PRICE | $ 699 | $ 599 |
The Radeon VII has a slightly reduced AMD Vega 20 GPU version. It has 60 CUs against the 64 CUs of the Radeon RX Vega, although in compensation, its clock frequency is much higher, as is its memory and bandwidth. The result of these changes is an improvement of the average 29% we have indicated in video games. This extra 29% should be enough for the Radeon VII to match the NVIDIA RTX 2080 for the consumer market. Such a GPU seems to require three fans to dissipate heat. The Radeon VII that we have seen in the AMD event shows us this triple fan design. It also has two eight-pin PCIe ports.
Video game licenses when buying a Radeon VII
The Radeon VII competes with NVIDIA also in video games. As NVIDIA announced this week that they would offer packages with ‘Anthem’ and ‘Battlefield V,’ AMD will do the same with Radeon VII. The GPU will be sold in a package with three games: ‘ Resident Evil 2’, ‘Devil May Cry 5′ and The Division 2’. Likewise, some PCs with the GPU may also bring one of the installed video games. The first one to have so is the Alienware Area-51 Threadripper.
AMD wants to position its Radeon GPUs as an alternative to consider against NVIDIA graphics. Reaching the power and efficiency of NVIDIA has been complicated, but now it seems that they have finally achieved it at a competitive price. One final touch to convince customers is perhaps to offer this type of package with titles of great video games. The Radeon VII comes with a price of $699, as we have seen, a price similar to the NVIDIA RTX 2080, but arrives a few months later. It will be available for purchase starting next February 7.
A look at AMD Ryzen 3000 Series
During the AMD event, the AMD Ryzen 3000 Series, upcoming processors of the Zen 2 architecture in 7nm of the brand, have also been shown. Arriving in summer, Anandtech has had access to them for more details. The design of this new processor shows us that the northbridge comes out of the DIE silicon to improve efficiency, allowing the CPU to improve its frequency and temperatures! It also seems that the northbridge is manufactured in 14 nm while the CPU does have a 7nm architecture.
In benchmarks to check its performance, the Ryzen 3000 would be getting a score of 2023 in Cinebench R15. This is an improvement of 15% compared to the 1754 points achieved by the Ryzen 7 2700X. As a last detail, reports speculate that this processor could even exceed the frequency of 5.0 GHz, but we will have to wait until summer to learn more official data.
Google cloud games will use AMD Radeon graphics.
As announced by AMD at their event, they have reached an agreement for Google’s Project Stream to use their GPUs. This Google service will allow anyone to play 1080p and 60fps from Chrome. The video game console brought on the cloud end to play direct streaming games, with Google being responsible for putting the hardware to achieve the necessary power.
The two companies have not given many details on how the AMD graphics will be implemented in Project Stream. Everything indicates that Google servers will be equipped with AMD GPUs to run video games and transmit them to users’ devices. The market for video games in the cloud is still taking off, but NVIDIA and AMD will try to take positions on time through these contracts.
