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MSI marketing director: AMD RX Vega "needs a damn lot of power"

by Mark Tyson on 23 June 2017, 11:12

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD), MSI

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qadix7

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While AMD has revealed details of a couple of Vega GPU based products, like the professional-targeted Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, and the Radeon Instinct MI25 GPU accelerator card, we are still waiting patiently for a consumer hardware launch.

The official launch event for those enthusiasts and gamers anxious to hear more about the AMD Radeon RX Vega graphics cards is officially set for SIGGRAPH 2017 in LA, which kicks off at the end of July. Hopefully there won't be much of a delay between announcement and availability - but then we might have to contend with the cryptocurrency miner demand which could sap the market dry…

Power concerns?

The Radeon Vega Frontier Edition's TDP wasn't listed by AMD when it was launched last month. Various sources reckon it will be between 250W and 300W with its twin 8-pin power connectors. Last week a b2b retailer detailed the air cooled version of the Frontier Edition as having a TDP rated at 300W, while the liquid-cooled variant has its TDP rated as high as 375W. That's not so shocking, as the Nvidia Titan Xp has a rated TDP of 275W, and the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is said by the same source to have some significant performance advantages. Remember yesterday the Radeon Instinct MI25 is also said to offer "superior performance per watt" compared to the best Nvidia GPU accelerators available.

Yesterday the feelings of an MSI marketing director towards AMD RX Vega raised some concerns. As VideoCardz reports, the MSI exec wrote on Tweakers forums the following (translated from Dutch):

I've seen the specs of Vega RX. It needs a damn lot of power. We're working on it, which is a start so launch is coming closer :)


So admittedly, the AMD RX Vega cards might be heavy on the power consumption compared with many modern consumer cards from MSI. Nevertheless it sounds like there will be some interesting third party cooling solutions available from launch as MSI is "working on it". Of course other AiB partners will likely be adding their own special sauce too.



HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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For goodness sake why do all the websites reporting this report only half the conversation on that forum??

MSI person
Specs Vega RX seen. Discounting what power is needed.
We are working on it, that's a start so launch gets closer

forum member
That aint a positive sign.

reply by MSI person
Depends what kind of performance you sure get back :)

https://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_message/51654713#51654713
Don't forget the follow up comment (google translate)

The Source
Specs Vega RX seen. Discounting what power is needed.
We are working on it, that's a start so launch gets closer:)

laurens91
that is not a good omen.

The Source
Depends what kind of performance you sure get back :)
Doesn't Nvidia rate the Titan Xp at 250W TDP not the 275W stated in the article.

Either way the Vega RX is almost certainly going to draw more power, at least going on the 8+8 versus 6+8 for the Titan Xp, I'm more interested in what performance you get for that extra power though.

EDIT: Looks like OCUK have pre-order listing for the Air Cooled (£1199.99) and Liquid Cooled (£1799.99) versions.
300W isn't huge for an MSI GPU

Going by the 50W delta between the MSI model and the 250W reference card

Corky34
Doesn't Nvidia rate the Titan Xp at 250W TDP not the 275W stated in the article.

Either way the Vega RX is almost certainly going to draw more power, at least going on the 8+8 versus 6+8 for the Titan Xp, I'm more interested in what performance you get for that extra power though.

EDIT: Looks like OCUK have pre-order listing for the Air Cooled (£1199.99) and Liquid Cooled (£1799.99) versions.

Frontier edition is a fancy professional version, like an Nvidia quadro
I thought the professional versions from AMD normally used the Pro nomenclature, I'm not saying it's not BTW.

Maybe I'm just getting confused with this article as the table lists the specs for the frontier edition, blonde moment probably. :)