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AMD To Release Limited Radeon RX Vega As Early As May 30

By Nics Abasta
Published on: 03:31 PST, May 10, 2017

AMD is set to release its new graphics card, the Radeon RX Vega. However, the company is reportedly launching only a limited number of units for the first months. AMD Radeon RX Vega could be released as early as May 30.

Only 16K Radeon RX Vega at launch

AMD will release less than 16,000 units of the Radeon RX Vega at launch, according to TweakTown, citing an exclusive industry source. The limited number of units to ship in the first few months after the release is attributed to the limited supply of HBM2 memory, which is expensive to use. The low supply of HBM2 memory is consequently driving the production costs for the AMD Radeon RX Vega.

Videocardz, however, reported that with AMD, the number is quite normal for the flagship model. In 2015, AMD released low quantities of the Radeon R9 Fury X at launch, and fans who were not able to get their hands on the first release had to wait a few more months to get their Fury X cards.

Given the hype for AMD’s Radeon RX Vega and the high interest for a new high-end graphics card from the chip maker, retail stores would likely face a major shortage, which could also drive the prices up, similar to what happened with Fury X two years ago. If it lives up to its performance, it is eyed to directly compete with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1070, which is where a lot of high-end and gaming enthusiasts have turned to due to lack of other direct alternatives.

Possible release date

The official date for the launch of AMD’s Radeon RX Vega has yet to be announced, but there are predictions about when the graphics card can be expected. According to Videocardz, the best place to launch the Vega is at this year’s Computex in Taipei, which is happening between May 30 and June 3. AMD can take the center stage at the event for the gaming community, given that NVIDIA has no product launch plans and Microsoft isn’t showing its Project Scorpio.

Another possible release window for the Radeon RX Vega is during the E3, which is happening from June 13 to June 15. Fans waiting for the official launch date might hear an update on May 16, though, when AMD hosts its Financial Analyst Day.

What else?

In addition to the HBM2 memory, the Radeon RX Vega features reportedly include 4096 stream processors, 12.5 TFLOPs, clock speeds of above 1.5 GHz, 8GB VRAM, texture blocks with 16 mapping units, and 256TMUs, as reported by Droid Report. Prototype leaks and teasers also showed Vega scoring great results in Futuremark’s 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark and running at over 60 to 70 frames per second, according to Hot Hardware.

Videocardz added that there are possibly three variants of the RX Vega 687F that AMD is working on. These have device IDs of 687F:C1, 687F:C3, and 6861:00, which are the most common IDs. The publication noted, though, that there can be several revisions, and it is difficult to tell how many variants there will be for the upcoming model series.

In another report, Videocardz received a picture of the Radeon RX Vega packaging from Informatica Cero. It looks like a special edition of Quake Champions with the RX Vega, which suggests that they might hit stores at the same time.

The AMD Radeon RX Vega is expected to cost between $200 and $1,200. With excellent results but lower prices than the competitors, the new chips are expected to help the company’s financial performance. The company lost around 25 percent of its market valuation a few days ago after its gross margin outlook for the second quarter disappointed investors, according to Seeking Alpha.

[Featured Image by Paul Sakuma/AP Images]

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