Vega VII reviews inbound

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

So far everything we expected.

In DX12 titles the Vega VII trades blows with the RTX 2080 depending on optimization. In gaming benchmarks results are inconsistent but that's the fault of some benchmark apps not reflecting real world performance.

In compute benchmarks and productivity applications the Vega VII trades blows with the RTX 2080 Ti and blows Nvidia away at Luxmark.

For productivity the card offers the best bang for the buck on the market at half the cost of the 2080 Ti.

 

[bsbeamer]

Nice GPU evolution, but too bad it is dual 8-pin powered. This will not work for the majority of cMP user without an external PSU. The one area NVIDIA always seemed to excel at over AMD was the performance to power draw ratio (and CUDA). Maybe the 7,1 will allow these power-hungry stock off the shelf GPUs...

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Nice GPU evolution, but too bad it is dual 8-pin powered. This will not work for the majority of cMP user without an external PSU. The one area NVIDIA always seemed to excel at over AMD was the performance to power draw ratio (and CUDA). Maybe the 7,1 will allow these power-hungry stock off the shelf GPUs...

Yeah without the Pixlas mod but it gives an idea of what to expect for eGPU users and if a Vega VII variant is in the next Mac Pro. There are already Vega VII and Navi drivers starting to appear in Mojave builds.

It's the same repeat of the last 7-8 years. Nvidia win at some gaming and power use. AMD win at productivity and cost.

Personal opinion is that if you’re not a Windows gamer then Vega 64 offers best value for the Mac. The prices are cheap now and the productivity performance is on par with a 1080 Ti, plus 10 bit color. That’s good enough until macOS 10.15 forces all apps to use Metal.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Have any of you cMP users purchased a Radeon VII?

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Have any of you cMP users purchased a Radeon VII?

Doubt any did. Very limited numbers. They haven't sold out yet from what I see at time of writing.

 

[MisterAndrew]

Sold out in the US from what I can tell. I only see stock available in Europe.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Sold out in the US from what I can tell. I only see stock available in Europe.

Because American prices are better and Europeans are screwed on that. We should see some eGPU fans try it this week or soon with the 10.14.4 beta. Couple of guys on it already

https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/radeon-vii-compatible-with-mac/

 

[skizzo]

$700 (limiting to 1 per customer currently) and a $100 freebie codes for a couple games on AMD's website when I checked it this morning (now I see a giant black bar saying it is out of stock now....maybe I missed that this morning! ) I am deff going to wait it out and see if anything improves in the NVidia domain regarding drivers for RTX series GPUs. Otherwise, I may implement the pixlas mod and go with Radeon VII

 

[MisterAndrew]

Because American prices are better and Europeans are screwed on that. We should see some eGPU fans try it this week or soon with the 10.14.4 beta. Couple of guys on it already

https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/radeon-vii-compatible-with-mac/

Not really. Overclockers in the UK has some for preorder available for £541.66 excluding VAT. That's about $700, so same price. There's no working driver for it in 10.14.4 beta yet.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Not really. Overclockers in the UK has some for preorder available for £541.66 excluding VAT. That's about $700, so same price. There's no working driver for it in 10.14.4 beta yet.

I just went there and cheapest was £699 pounds UK and they still have some 799. Like I said in Europe they pay over the top because the conversion from dollars isn’t fair on most tech.

Yeah there’s no final driver yet. It’s in beta. Keep an eye on link I posted. At the moment the beta driver detects the card on PCI bus only.

 

[AidenShaw]

At the moment the beta driver detects the card on PCI bus only.

Since it's a PCIe card, that doesn't sound like a big problem.

 

[MisterAndrew]

I just went there and cheapest was £699 pounds UK and they still have some 799. Like I said in Europe they pay over the top because the conversion from dollars isn’t fair on most tech.

Yeah there’s no final driver yet. It’s in beta. Keep an eye on link I posted. At the moment the beta driver detects the card on PCI bus only.

The Sapphire one is £541.66 without VAT. You have to add it to your cart and select a shipping destination outside of the EU to see the price without VAT. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sapp...hbm2-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-38s-sp.html

 

[Matty_TypeR]

I had a play with one today, looks very good in the Mac, haven't had a lot of time for a few months as my mother has been ill, but thought I would try this out in a Mac Pro 5.1. it boots ok but colours are strange, no boot screen. just like RX580

I did the PSU mod but direct to the motherboard socket plug that's plugs into the logic board and soldered the cable's for dual 8 pin supply. no issues with power. in windows 10 using watt man I can underplot it to 950mv and it still reaches target 1800mhz and the fans go to 1400 rpm under load. idel its quiet as a mouse.

some of the reviews say its loud but I don't think so even under load. the driver released which was on the 6th is better than the preview driver, but still needs work. bridge temp under load was 67c GPU 58c with undervolting so quite good.

I think this will improve with newer drivers for windows but as usual Mojave has no drivers ready, all other OS variations has a driver, but Mac no. what a surprise!

so you can see what it looks like here she is.


[doublepost=1549729601][/doublepost]every colour on the Mac looks reversed, red looks blue and the drive sleds look orange lol real strange. hopefully Mac drivers soon, but who knows!

 

[HaypurTiryading]

I had a play with one today, looks very good in the Mac, haven't had a lot of time for a few months as my mother has been ill, but thought I would try this out in a Mac Pro 5.1. it boots ok but colours are strange, no boot screen. just like RX580

I did the PSU mod but direct to the motherboard socket plug that's plugs into the logic board and soldered the cable's for dual 8 pin supply. no issues with power. in windows 10 using watt man I can underplot it to 950mv and it still reaches target 1800mhz and the fans go to 1400 rpm under load. idel its quiet as a mouse.

some of the reviews say its loud but I don't think so even under load. the driver released which was on the 6th is better than the preview driver, but still needs work. bridge temp under load was 67c GPU 58c with undervolting so quite good.

I think this will improve with newer drivers for windows but as usual Mojave has no drivers ready, all other OS variations has a driver, but Mac no. what a surprise!

so you can see what it looks like here she is.


[doublepost=1549729601][/doublepost]every colour on the Mac looks reversed, red looks blue and the drive sleds look orange lol real strange. hopefully Mac drivers soon, but who knows!

Can you post some pics? Looks so sexy with ram cooler. Out of topic but is there any difference with fan?

 

[MisterAndrew]

So you can actually see a display under macOS? That’s really cool. I didn’t think it would display anything.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

you can see the display, but the colours are all messed up, red looks blue and blue looks orange, hopefully some drivers soon. fans behave normally and don't ramp up when booting. so far it seems really good, but can only test under windows, no acceleration in Mojave at all.
[doublepost=1549747180][/doublepost]8391 3d mark score time spy not bad for a 2010 mac pro 5.1

 

[MRisberg]

Matty_TypeR that was quick, trying it in a cMP already.

OT if I may: What kind of RAM are you using that needs(?) a cooling fan? I'm into getting a lot of RAM for my cMP this coming week.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

Matty_TypeR that was quick, trying it in a cMP already.

OT if I may: What kind of RAM are you using that needs(?) a cooling fan? I'm into getting a lot of RAM for my cMP this coming week.

The ram starts to throttle when it gets to warm, I did a thread on cooling it a while back.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/some-extra-cooling-makes-a-difference-5-1pro.2135147/

 

[pat500000]

I doubt this would be mp 7,1.

 

[MRisberg]

The ram starts to throttle when it gets to warm, I did a thread on cooling it a while back.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/some-extra-cooling-makes-a-difference-5-1pro.2135147/

Thank you for pointing me there.
I guess our little OT will be deleted now, as a few other OT of mine have been (other threads).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting the VII to test in my Windows machine. Have heard that even the Windows drivers are flaky atm though.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

Thank you for pointing me there.
I guess our little OT will be deleted now, as a few other OT of mine have been (other threads).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting the VII to test in my Windows machine. Have heard that even the Windows drivers are flaky atm though.

I have had no issues with the drivers at all in windows, I think like most things people have overclocked machines that are not 100% stable, but can finish a benchmark to a high score 3 times out of 5 for fame or willy waving as we say.

when it crashes they blame the last thing they put in the system, which for now is the VII many things can cause flaky behaviour from poor PSU's to old drivers on the system. I dout many start with a fresh install of windows, I expect today its test AMD tomorrow its RTx. start with a fresh install and the latest drivers it will be fine.
[doublepost=1549752302][/doublepost]

I doubt this would be mp 7,1.

its Mac pro 5.1, there is no 7.1 yet.

 

[pat500000]

I have had no issues with the drivers at all in windows, I think like most things people have overclocked machines that are not 100% stable, but can finish a benchmark to a high score 3 times out of 5 for fame or willy waving as we say.

when it crashes they blame the last thing they put in the system, which for now is the VII many things can cause flaky behaviour from poor PSU's to old drivers on the system. I dout many start with a fresh install of windows, I expect today its test AMD tomorrow its RTx. start with a fresh install and the latest drivers it will be fine.
[doublepost=1549752302][/doublepost]

its Mac pro 5.1, there is no 7.1 yet.

I know. I’m saying it wouldn’t be for 7,1

 

[MRisberg]

when it crashes they blame the last thing they put in the system, which for now is the VII

I'm with you. It sure is convenient to blame tech instead of stepping backwards for a moment to think about if one self missed a thing ...

 

[Matty_TypeR]

I know. I’m saying it wouldn’t be for 7,1

I don't think 7.1 will allow PC GFX cards if it has the T2 chip, it will be an apple version with apple Tax and possibly modular so yes I doubt it will be for 7.1 your quite right.

 

[handheldgames]

I don't think 7.1 will allow PC GFX cards if it has the T2 chip, it will be an apple version with apple Tax and possibly modular so yes I doubt it will be for 7.1 your quite right.

I don't think the T2 has anything to do with enabling specific PCIe cards. It's used as a SSD controller, handling afps encryption, secure boot, touchid, etc.

IMO.. Based on how well this card performs with professional apps, I think this card is absolutely going into the 8,1 MP.