Rog Strix Rx Vega64 Oc Edition

TechRadar Verdict

The Asus variant of the RX Vega 64 hits all the right notes, even if there are a few incorrect ones

Pros

+
Excellent operation
+
Faster than the reference model

Cons

-
Draws more power and runs hotter than the competition

Of all the rivalries in gaming, the one that stands out the most is the ongoing AMD (Formerly ATI) vs NVIDIA (opens in new tab) battle. With each generation of GPU's, the ii companies take locked horns on price and performance, with AMD usually walking away with the most economical options, whereas Nvidia have kept the performance crown. With Vega (opens in new tab), AMD is all fix to challenge Nvidia once more for the throne, does it succeed?

The Vega Line of GPUs

After a lull in the enthusiast segment, AMD'due south RX Vega 56 and Vega 64 (opens in new tab) take aim squarely at the GTX 1070 and 1080 from the green team. These are based on the visitor's proprietary Vega architecture and are based on a 14nm FinFET procedure. These also use the adjacent generation of AMD'due south GCN architecture, also known as Adjacent-Generation Compute Unit of measurement and feature 8GB of HBM2 memory.

Spec Sheet

Stream processors: 4,096
Texture units: 256
ROP units: 64
Base clock: i,247MHz
Boost clock: ane,546MHz
Video retention: 8GB HBM2
Retentiveness clock: ane,890MHz
Class factor: Dual-slot
Power connectors: 2 x 8-pivot
Ports: 2X DisplayPort 1.4, 2xHDMI two.0, 1xDVI-D

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 review (opens in new tab)

Asus Strix Gaming Radeon RX Vega 64 OC

In comparing, Asus has upped the base GPU clock to 1298MHz while the boost clock is set at 1590MHz, that is 44Mhz college than the reference air cooled model. Speaking of cooling, the company has likewise outfitted the GPU with a powerful three fan cooling solution that tin can operate in complete silence until it hits a temperature threshold. Information technology's also IP5X dust resistant which is a nice bear upon.

The Strix variant besides comes with a RGB light array over the cooling solution, with a pulsing cherry ROG logo at the back and low-cal strips on the front of the heatsink. They can likewise be synced to compatible Aura Sync hardware. The number of ports at the back are also generous, with ii HDMI and ii DisplayPorts flanked on the summit by a DVI port which is missing from the reference model.

Test setup

CPU: AMD Ryzen seven 1700 processor

Memory: Geil EVO Ten DDR4 16GB Kit AMD Edition

Motherboard: Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero

Chassis: Cooler Master Masterbox v Mid-belfry example

PSU: Libation Master MasterWatt Lite 700W

Storage: Western Digital Blue 250GB SSD

Functioning

3D Marker Burn down Strike

Right! Then at present that we have got that out of the way, it's time to head to the benchmarks. We started our tests with the 3DMark Burn Strike Extreme and the Vega 64 was on point here delivering a score of 19008 in Fire Strike and 10700 in Fire Strike Extreme. The Ultra preset understandably taxed it far more returning scores of 5500. This is slower than the GTX 1080Ti just faster than the GTX 1080, as such the RX Vega slots comfortably in between the ii.

Gears of War 4 (opens in new tab)

In Gears of War four, the Strix Vega 64 OC was overkill at 1080p with all settings at Ultra and vertical sync off, recording boilerplate framerates of 108 fps with a low of 64 fps. At 2160p, the performance was more honest with the Vega registering a framerate average of 42 and a depression of 30.

Ascension of Tomb Raider (opens in new tab)

Rise of the Tomb Raider has a benchmarking tool built in with the game, which nosotros used for the tests. All settings were tuned to the highest with Straight X 12 enabled. At 1080p, the Strix Vega 64 OC absolutely aces the game, recording an average frame rate of 125 with a low of 97! At 4k, things are once again more honest, with the average frame rate hovering around the 45 to 47 marker with a depression of 35.

Hitman (opens in new tab)

In Hitman, things were a bit unlike. At 1080p with all settings to max, the Strix Vega 64 outputted frame rates of shut to 144 with a low of 119. At 4k, the menu notwithstanding held its ain by giving us a steady 65 frames on average with a low of 49.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (opens in new tab)

With the settings at max, the Strix Vega 64 OC could deliver framerates close to 120 on average at 1080p, while dipping downwardly to 87 at its lowest. At 4k, these came down to 46 on average and 26 at lowest.

Battlefield ane (opens in new tab)

The Strix Vega 64 OC had piddling trouble with Battlefield 1, delivering 155 fps on average at 1080p. At 4k, the game yet rolled along smoothly at 69 average frames and a low of 47.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

We could become the Witcher 3 running at an average of 120 frames at 1080p, with 4K performance frame rates dipped to the 48 to 55 range with a low of 24 fps.

Feverish temperatures and more power

In the week that nosotros used the GPU, our temperatures reached a maximum of 89 degrees when under load, with temperatures idling around the 43 to 45 mark. The card is also a power guzzler, requiring upwardly to 440 watts when under full stress. We also ran into a problem with frequent restarts but that was solved by connecting two split cables with 8 pivot connectors in place of the usual one cable with two eight pin plugs, so that'southward something to keep in mind, if you face this event. Either style you lot slice it, you are going to crave at least a 600-watt PSU to continue everything running smoothly.

Concluding verdict

The Asus RX Vega Strix 64 OC is the perfect card for someone who's looking to upgrade to buttery smoothen gameplay at 1080p or fifty-fifty at 1440p. Information technology can fifty-fifty run some games smoothly at 4K just falls just short of the 60 fps at 4K Mecca. Compared to the competition even so, it runs hotter and guzzles more power. Currently, Asus is yet to decide on the cost and availability for the bill of fare and we volition update this review to reflect that once the details are in.