Intel officially delays 10nm. AMD officially begins 7nm production this year. That will matter to CPU performance and AMD vs Intel competitiveness next year.

I pasted the author's obligatory politically correct quote that Intel 10nm is probably equal to AMD 7nm. Fact is, they always write words that soften the blow on Intel -- but have zero evidence that what they write is true. Until evidence is presented by third party CPU tests, AMD 7nm is probably (not certain) better than Intel 10nm -- if only because the node is 30 percent smaller.

Thus, according to stock market pundits, AMD CPU technology has caught Intel CPU technology -- i.e. AMD is "competitive" in the markets that count for earnings ("competitive" means it wins some and loses some).

Competition is good

Some stories on this new release speculate that the MECH 2 naming stems from the (now cancelled) Nvidia GPP (described earlier in this thread).

Regarding the competition:


Nothing much solid, much speculation. Don't even know the actual GPU designations (will they be GTX1180 or GTX2080 or ??), for example.

However, the release dates seem to have been semi-verified. So, new Nvidia graphics cards likely coming out this Summer.

AMD will be officially speaking about the near future of AMD products at the Computex Press Conference in 19 days.

In the past, I've read about "market manipulation" by a handful of the biggest players in Bitcoin. Now, the Law is taking notice.

No different than what I noted in the stock market when I was a player there.

Anyhow, this may send Bitcoin and Ethereum prices down faster and make GPUs cheap quicker.

P.S. The cheapest RX Vega 64 8GB custom card is selling for $600 today with free Far Cry 5. Its probably worth $550 list -- so price not awful. There's a similarly almost reasonably priced RX580 4GB at about $260.

Previously, I had to download a separate graphics driver for our Ryzen 5 2400G APU.

As noted here over a year ago (and repeated every so often), high core count CPUs are the future. Games will be written to take advantage. Boost frequency on one or two cores won't matter much. Base frequency will rule. So, if buying a gaming system that has to last a few years, consider base frequency and core count in CPUs (however, GPUs will no doubt be the main gaming factor for a while).

Also, its rumored CPUs are headed to 3nm in the near future. For many years, I've figured 3nm is the limit. I'm probably wrong (not the first time ) -- if its going to get done this easily.

This near-future, could cost AMD my business in the here-and-now. I really should wait for AMD's next release of GPUs and CPUs to update -- as they will be 7nm and nominally a big boost over 12-14nm and even 10nm. We'll see.

A special version of RX Vega 56 has made it into an 8core/16thread Ryzen CPU notebook gaming PC:



In other communications, AMD RX Vega is said to use about half the normal power when the voltage is set down a bit -- at very little change in FPS. I have no direct knowledge of that. However, my RX480 works that way -- I cut the voltage and I can run it faster (not slower). Maybe (or maybe not) they've done something along those lines with RX Vega 56 in the notebook PC.

Moreover, Ryzen has good base clocks at low power settings. This notebook seems worth considering -- if the price is right.

Brings back fond memories to a Geeky-Geezer. The original 8086 was 1 core/1 thread (vs 6c/12t), 16bit (vs 64), and 4.7MHz (vs 4.7 -5.0 GHz). The new 8086 CPUs beat the old by a factor of many thousands.

But, it was the best we had for desktops at the time -- those very, very few Engineers who could program and who used desktops at NASA in 1978. The room-filling computers computed faster -- but had long turn around time -- a specialist had to write the FORTRAN code for the Engineer (I was one of a tiny handful who wrote my own code -- there were no "Apps"). Often, one could do one's engineering calculations faster overall on a slower desktop that wasn't being shared with the rest of the Research Center. Now high-end desktops are 1000s of times faster than our Supercomputer was at the time -- millions of dollars cheaper -- fit on a desk -- and easier and more fun to use Cell phones are getting there

Pictorial describing Ryzen naming convention:

I personally ordered a PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 64 AXRX VEGA 64 8GBHBM2-2D2H/OC 8GB 2048-Bit HBM2 late yesterday for a $590 sale-price (the sale-price included a free game currently selling for $60 on Steam). This morning, the price jumped back up to $700+ at Newegg and Amazon, so it was a good sale price.

Since this is a high end custom card, I assume its fair price (not influenced by Cryptocurrency mining) would be in the $550 to $600 range. So, I don't feel bad about the price being overly high.

This RX Vega 64 is, on paper, tied for the fastest RX Vega 64 being sold. Based on Vega 64 test reports, its FPS will only be a few percent less than an Nvidia GTX 1080Ti selling for $750 (cheapest I found).

I've also ordered a new ASUS ROG Strix X470-F Gaming AM4 motherboard. Not Gigabyte this time because the ASUS has better location and cooling for the M.2. SSD.

Last year, I had planned to get the GPU and MB a few weeks after each became available. However, cryptocurrency mining pushed up the GPU price (and, not on sale, its still up there). Also, the X470 was recently released.

Just a FWIW post.

Not sure if you're referencing cherry picked Vega benchmarks, the two cards don't even come close. The GTX1080ti is at least 25% faster and draws much less power.

Very recently (?), China seems now to extol cryptocurrency mining.

Since China is a center for cryptocurrency mining, this might give mining a boost (I'm guessing).

That boost may delay the fall in GPU prices somewhat -- as more folks get into mining (because the Chinese Government supports it explicitly).

Glad I ordered my card on-sale yesterday (as noted, it was in the last 8 hours of the sale). I did not expect the non-sale price to be such a big price jump overnight. Maybe the Chinese President's recent comments had an effect on the size of the jump ???.

EDIT: Hmmm, another Powercolor RX Vega 64 $20 price increase since my post above. Now the price on that RX Vega 64 (noted above) has gone to from $590 to $700 to $720 in just the last few hours. Made me triple-check -- yup, I'm getting it for $590 (price still includes a free $60 game gift card). BTW, they've also added $5 for shipping -- so $725 now (I got free shipping).

EDIT2: Its shipped.

For those who use cost effective laptops for gaming:



These leaked tests are for development items. The final release may be faster.

Article

Report expects 7nm products to be described. Those are due early next year (based on industry guesses).

Got my PowerColor Red Devil RX VEGA 64. Tested it at stock settings with Firestrike Ultra (4K) and standard Time Spy (2K monitor setting).

80+ percent faster than my stock, Reference RX480 8GB. That's a very satisfactory improvement by my standards.

Runs at 260 W during bench marking. Runs at 8 W for normal desktop stuff. Doesn't get very hot during benchmarks.

My card's performance in the benchmarks is equivalent to on-line GTX 1080 results. The GTX 1080 Ti on-line results are about 25 percent faster than my results with my PC (as Paradaz suggested). My Vega card ran at base frequency (not boost frequency) during test.

I'm happy getting it for $590 (now $725 -- too much). But, folks with no urgent need should wait for the new Nvidia models and the AMD 7nm GPUs rumored for 2019. Being me, I'll buy a 7nm when it arrives next year -- if the price is right.

Newegg currently has a couple RX Vega 64s for sale at $580 (different from the one I got for $590). Those prices are slightly high for a year-old custom card. But, they are not way out of line (in my non-expert opinion).

So, maybe prices are coming down more than rising. Hopefully, the one I bought for $590 will be well under $550 in a couple months (or less). We'll see.

Commercial 7nm coming out first was always the plan. I'm heartened because the first 7nm parts are apparently "on schedule". Thus, as of now, gamers can still expect 7nm parts next year. The rumor is that those 2019 7nm gaming cards will be inexpensive per FPS (assuming mining is not an issue).

I note this because Elder Scrolls and Fallout games are my favorites lately (I got started gaming with Flight Simulators -- XPlane 11 lately).

I get as much fun modding games and installing other gamers' mods as I do actually playing -- and both of those Todd Howard games were designed to lend themselves to modding.

The relevance here: I have Fallout 4 so heavily modded with large textures and added 3D features that it runs real slow at times. So, for me, FO4 was the "acid test" of my new RX Vega 64 card. I played about 5 hours of FO4 yesterday. RX Vega passed. At 2K (1440p) and stock GPU clocks, it got my 15FPS to 20FPS game sections to solidly over 30FPS.

I assume this means the "next big thing" from Nvidia will be a 10nm or less part -- maybe late this year or next year aimed at "stealing AMD's 7nm thunder".

Competition is good