AMDs Vega Graphics Cards Could Kick Off a War. Every nerd loves a good tech war Windows vs Mac, Apple vs Android, Intel vs AMD. They give us something to armchair argue about over beers with friendsor to rant over in the comments of illustrious tech blogs. After spending the weekend playing with AMDs new Vega 6. Vega 5. 6 graphics cards, I think I can safely say an old tech war is back oneven if AMDs latest salvo feels paltry. Nvidia might be leading the discrete graphics card industry, but AMDs two newest cards are cheap and fast enough to finally compete. And that can only mean good things for PC users. AMD Vega 6. 4 AMD Vega 5. Price4. 00 Vega 5. Vega 6. 4What is it Discrete GPUs that are competing against graphics titan Nvidia. No Like. Dont expect any flash. AMD, which purchased Nvidias previous competitor, ATI Graphics, has been losing the GPU war for a while. Nvidia is currently producing the majority of discrete graphics cards found in computers today. According to Jon Peddie Research, by the end of 2. Nvidia had more than 7. AMD trailed far behind with just 2. So AMD decided to focus on building cheap cards to go in cheap machineslike the 5. I reviewed back in April. This week Amazon had its biggest shopping day ever, with the Dot, the pintsized version of the companys Echo, being the best seller of the day. While the device. Microsoft Windows, or simply Windows, is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. It consists of several families of. Learn about HP printers, laptops, desktops and more at the Official HP Website. But the absolute best thing about Craft is that when teamed up with another Flowenabled device like Logitechs MX Master 2S mouse, it completely eliminates the. Tabtight professional, free when you need it, VPN service. Get help, support, and tutorials for Windows productsWindows 10, Windows 8. Windows 7, and Windows 10 Mobile. TheINQUIRER publishes daily news, reviews on the latest gadgets and devices, and INQdepth articles for tech buffs and hobbyists. Download the free trial version below to get started. Doubleclick the downloaded file to install the software. The AMD Vega 6. 4 and Vega 5. Nvidia 1. 08. 0 with cheaper options that start to approximate its performance. TCZi.png' alt='Logitech Touch Mouse Server 1.0 Win 7 64 Bits' title='Logitech Touch Mouse Server 1.0 Win 7 64 Bits' />When the Vega microarchitecture the cards are based on was announced back at CES, people didnt immediately leap out of their seats. AMD didnt have a cool hook like when Nvidia announced it had spent billions to develop its latest card. All AMD had was a promise of speed when the cards arrived this summer. Eight months later, the Vega 6. The AMD Vega 6. 4 retails for 5. AMD Vega 5. 6 retails for 4. Both also have 8. GB of RAM built in. The big difference between the two is the number of compute unitsthink of those like the cores in a CPU the more the better. The Vega 6. 4 has 6. Vega 5. 6 has 5. 6. Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. The U. S. government recently revamped its password recommendations, abandoning its endorsement of picking a favorite phrase and replacing a couple characters with. Logitech Touch Mouse Server 1.0 Win 7 64 Bits' title='Logitech Touch Mouse Server 1.0 Win 7 64 Bits' />When I compared the Vegas to the 1. I found was far less exciting that what Id hoped for. While the AMD Vega 6. Instead it was sort of like going to the car lot and having to choose between a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla. Theyre both very nice, cost the same, and do the same damn thing. What was really astounding was the performance of the 4. AMD Vega 5. 6. Despite being considerably cheaper than both the Vega 6. Nvidia 1. 08. 0, it played Overwatch and Civilization VI only marginally slower. The 1. 08. 0 managed 1. Overwatch on Ultra at 4. K, the the Vega 6. Vega 5. 6 pulled of 9. K with the graphics cranked to Ultra. Thats not just a little respectable, thats really damn good. In Civilization VI the difference was even smaller, with the Vega 5. Vega 6. 4. In one case the Vega 5. Nvidia 1. 08. 0, and was on par with the more expensive Vega 6. When I rendered a frame in Blender, graphics software that allows you to create large 3. D images that heavily tax a discrete GPU, the Nvidia 1. The Vega 6. 4 rendered the same frame in 9 minutes and 2. The Vega 5. 6 Just 9 minutes and 2. With that kind of neck and neck performance theres no reason to really buy either a Nvidia 1. Vega 6. 4 over the Vega 5. But speed isnt the only factor to consider when buying a discrete graphics card. See, the cards that go in your desktop PC are very power hungry. If your power supply cant provide enough juice, the GPU is worthless, and that is one place Nvidia performs far better than AMD every time. The Nvidia 1. 08. The Vega 5. 6 requires 2. Vega 6. 4 requires a whopping 2. All the extra juice means you have to use not one, but two 8 pin power connectors from your power supply. The Nvidia 1. 08. With the new Vega cards AMD is trying to get around the power constraints of it GPUs by offering some software solutions. Install The Microsoft Access 2007 Database Engine Error on this page. The first, and most notable, is the Radeon Chill feature, and its actually sort of clever. It operates under the assumption that people dont really need the fastest video card, they just need one fast enough for their monitor. Both AMD and Nvidia have a technology that allows cards to sync with monitors to deliver top level graphics without straining the GPU Nvidia calls its tech G Sync, while AMD calls it Free. Sync. But you have to have a special monitor that works with the syncing technology and no monitor works with both the AMD and Nvidia sync tech. Radeon Chill works with any monitor. You simply tell it how many frames you actually want to see per second. Got a monitor that refreshes 6. Set the max to 6. Radeon Chill makes magic happen. In addition, the software doesnt try and churn out 6. Instead it recognizes moments with static visuals and dramatically cuts down on how much power is being usedand you can tweak the number as well. Want it to never go below 3. Just set the slider in the AMD software. AMD added other software features that give users a better ability to throttle their cards without diminishing visuals. Theres a power saver mode which allows you to force the cards to sip as little as 1. Frame Rate Target Control mode that lets you cap the frames per second and an Enhanced Sync mode that figures out the optimal frame to display on screen, even if it means skipping a few other frames. All these features make the AMD Vega cards feel incredibly practical versus the excess and overclocking shenanigans of Nvidia. Its as if AMD is trying to say if you want nose bleed speed go with Nvidia, but if you want control and a nice experience join us. Thats a reasonable sale to an old woman such as myself. I play my games on 4. K TVs that have no syncing technology though Microsoft suggests that could change next year and can only show between 6. I dont need dual video cards or crazy numbers, I need good enough. And the AMD Vega 6. AMD Vega 5. 6 are good enough. If youre looking for a reasonably priced card the AMD Vega 5. But these cards arent enough to lure Nvidia loyalists or the power hungry away. As the latest salvo in the war between Nvidia and AMD goes, the new Vega cards are pretty weak. READMEThese cards are neck and neck with the 5. Nvidia 1. 08. 0 in the speed department. But they natively draw a lot more power. A bevy of software features try to resolve the power issue, but it means youre effectively throttling your shiny new GPU. SPEC DUMPAMD Vega 6. GB of RAM 6. 4 compute units 1. MHz base GPU clock 4. GBs memory bandwidth 2. TFLOPS 3 x Display. Port 1 x HDMIAMD Vega 5. GB of RAM 5. 6 compute units 1. MHz base GPU clock 4. GBs memory bandwidth 2. TFLOPS 3 x Display.