Review AMD Radeon VII 16GB HBM2: Vega at 7nm

Vega’s arrival was the first attempt by AMD Radeon Technology Group to return to the selected group of high-performance graphics cards. When it was introduced, however, its main version (Vega 64) fought only for the NVIDIA GTX 1080, which had the GTX 1080Ti at the forefront of performance for consumer graphics cards. In 2019, AMD unveiled the second version of its VEGA architecture, Radeon VII (Vega II), the first consumer GPU to be manufactured in a 7nm process with 16GB of HBM2 memory, during its keynote speech at CES to address the high segment again.

The step from a 14nm to a 7nm manufacturing process mainly leads to a reduction in DIE area, and in this case we went from 495mm2 to 331mm2 so that AMD people could place 2 groups of HBM2 memories on the same substrate. With this expansion, the card was equipped with more memory and the available bandwidth was doubled, reaching a maximum of 1 TB/s thanks to a 4096-bit interface from the 4 stacks of HBM2 memory.

Another advantage of working with a smaller manufacturing process is that you can work with better frequencies than before, with consistent management of consumption and temperature. For those who have AMD 64 temperature sensors integrated, the number of sensors doubles compared to the first generation of its VEGA chip, which is why it now allows you to manage better frequencies, voltages and consumption in general, resulting in more consistent performance and a more durable product.

With these 64 sensors, the Vega 2 GPU can better control the TJunction temperature and control throttling and fan speed. This controls maximum performance based on the temperature of the GPU, avoiding throttling when it is not necessary and providing more information to users as they control and protect their cards from excessive temperature rise.

Thus, when working with the TJunction, the frequency and thus the power remain high despite the higher GPU temperature.

Let’s review the specifications of this new AMD graphics card, which tries to slightly improve the balance of high performance, and that, unlike its proposals in desktop processors, this new graphics card comes at a price similar to that of its competitors.

After taking a look at the main features, it’s time to take a look at the technical specifications and compare them with the closest relative (Radeon RX Vega 64) and the competition.

GPU model	RADEON VII	RADEON RX VEGA 64	NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti FE	NVIDIA RTX 2080 FE	NVIDIA GTX 1080Ti
Fabrication process	7 nm	14 nm	12 nm	12 nm	16nm
Codename	Vega 20	Vega 10	Turing	Turing	Pascal
GPU Core	Vega20	Vega10	TU102-300	TU104-400	GP102
CUDA Cores	3840	4096	4352	2944	3584
Texture Units	240	256	272	184	224
Tensor Cores			544	368
ROPs	64	64	64	64	88
Core / Boost Clock	1400 MHz / 1750 MHz	1274 MHz / 1546 MHz	1350 MHz / 1635 MHz	1515 MHz / 1800 MHz	1481 MHz / 1582 MHz
Memory Clock	2 Gbps	1.89 Gbps	14 Gbps	14 Gbps	11 Gbps
Memory	16 GB HBM2	8 GB HBM2	11 GB GDDR6	8 GB GDDR6	11 GB GDDR5X
Memory Bus	4096-bit	2048-bit	352-bit	256-bit	352-bit
Power Connectors	2x 8 pin	2x 8 pin	2x 8 pin	1x 8 pin + 1x 6 pin	1x 8 pin + 1x 6 pin
TDP	300 W	295w	260 W	225 W	250w
Price	MSRP: $ 699	MSRP: $ 499	MSRP: $ 1199	MSRP FE: $ 799 MSRP “NO FE”: $ 699	MSRP: $ 699

As you could see, there are differences between one Vega and another, it wasn’t just a die shrink job to change from 14nm to 7nm in this new generation. Slightly faster memories were used, and unlike Vega10, this one has fewer stream processors and arithmetic units (60 vs. 64), but achieves higher performance thanks to the frequency difference and bandwidth in the memories of double.

Let’s take a look at this new graphics card and the packaging from which this sample comes. A large box with the AMD logo indicating the name RADEON VII.

Since it is a press sample, it is supplied with a small detail. An acrylic base, with a GPU DIE as a gift. It has RGB lighting (it wasn’t) and serves as a display base for the card. This is what the card looks like, which is placed on the display base while the light is on. Pretty enough, but it won’t take long there because the card needs to be installed in the PC.

This is what the AMD Radeon VII looks like with 3 upper fans on an aluminum heat sink that covers the entire circuit board. To protect the card, there is a polished aluminum case in silver color, quite elegant, unlike the cover design that had the old RX Vega 64/56, which was made of black plastic.

On the back there is a rear panel, also made of aluminium, with some cut-outs to facilitate ventilation of the SMD components behind the GPU and the VRM controller area. On the side there is a RADEON logo that glows red, this exposed part of the heat sink that shows the copper base, and at the end there are 2 power connectors with 8 pins. For closing, there is a red square with the R for Radeon at the end next to the power connectors, which lights up when the card is running. Just like the AMD Vega Frontier Edition.

The length of the card is 26,5 cm, or 10,4″. This is common for high-end cards. The video outputs of this AMD Radeon VII are: 3x DisplayPort 1.3 and 1x HDMI 2.0.

Test Platform
Processor	– Intel Core I7 8086K
Motherboard	– ASUS ROG Maximus X Apex
Refrigeration	– EK-XLC Predator 240
Memoirs	– G.Skill TridentZ 3200MHz 2x8GB
Graphics card	– AMD Radeon VEGA VII 16GB HBM2
Power supply	– Corsair RM1000X
Storage	– SAMSUNG 960PRO 512GB SSD M.2
Monitor	– ASUS MG28UQ

 

• Windows 10 Pro x64 operating system.
• The tests were carried out in an environment with a temperature of approximately 25ºC.
• The platform was used without a cabinet.
• The drivers used for Radeon graphics cards were: ” Software-Adrenalin-2019-Edition-Press-Jan22″
• The resolutions of the synthetic tests are predetermined by each of the benchmarks.
• The resolutions of the actual tests are 1920 × 1080 and 3820 × 2160

Synthetic tests.

 

 

 

 

 

Real Tests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overclocking

This section at least in what will be the launch, we must wait until the controllers reach a certain maturity, for now the only means to overclocking that supports the video card is through the Radeon suite by Radeon WattMan, without However the changes in the frequencies from here, does not change the final performance positively, simply or the results are maintained.

 

Temperature.

 

Conclusion

AMD has made a big technological leap with this first 7nm GPU, although like any new technology we will always encounter one or two problems, with the drivers being one of AMD Radeon’s main problems. Instabilities in some games, as well as limiting overclocking are the main problems for which the AMD Radeon VII suffers in this version, in addition to CrossFire, but the latter usually tends to require more sophisticated drivers, but this should be fixed with an update of the drivers and good in AMD Radeon, the maturity of the controller is essential to achieve the greatest potential of their graphics cards.

The temperature of the video card is one of the aspects that surprised us the most, values of 60 º for a video card with a TDP of 300W are quite low, similar characteristics were those with RX VEGA 64 and 56, where the temperature, but the improvements that AMD has brought to the cooling system, apart from the traditional closed system by blowers, and well, without forgetting the change in the manufacturing process. If you will be surprised to see this model in custom designs from graphics card manufacturers, it is very likely to generate a negative point, considering that this factor is not present in the competition, gives the users more purchase options, considering that today the large percentage of users by visual buys this functionality.

If we make the purchase against the direct competitor NVIDIA RTX 2080, the bottom line tends to be green, due to the technologies that NVIDIA includes in this RTX series. The price for both graphics cards is the same, although the price for NVIDIA is likely to be somewhat high, since the models you find are usually custom versions, while the price of $699 dollars is compared to the reference model, but won’t be a problem considering what improvements you pay for in the custom version. If we get into performance as such, we have the AMD Radeon VII under the RTX 2080, albeit slightly under the RTX 2080, although after a number of improvements that should make the Radeon controller work, we can easily change this scenario.

As goals AMD Radeon VII is a bet that can promise, but not short-term, it leaves us with taste too little, the little maturation of technology, the limitation in the adaptation of the design on the part of manufacturers, the equality of price ahead of its direct competitor that in the event that it gives us more performance and that we face a model that already has a TDP of 300W tells us immediately that it consumes more. We believe that many aspects should have been considered in advance, such as the use of HBM2 memory instead of GDDR6, which obviously increases the price of what the 7nm technology is already more expensive, which creates a very complicated scenario for this Radeon model, apart from the low availability, all these factors already indicate that we will be on the verge of a launch like the one that took place with AMD Radeon RX Vega, which at least in Chile went far beyond what it should have been, and after all the disaster that mining has caused.