Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

AMD’s first Vega-powered graphics card arrives June 27, but not for PC gamers

Kevin Parrish
By
AMD Computex Livestream 2017
AMD’s first graphics card based on its new Vega chip architecture will arrive on June 27, CEO Dr. Lisa Su said at a press conference at this week’s Computex technology convention in Taipei, Taiwain —  fulfilling the company’s promise of delivering its next-generation graphics cards during the first half of 2017.

But don’t get too excited just yet.

Recommended Videos

Called the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, this card will target the professional workstation market as an upgrade to the Radeon Pro Duo, Radeon Pro WX 7100, and competing graphics card solutions. The Vega Frontier Edition will consist of 4,096 stream processors (aka 64 compute units), 16GB of HBM2 dedicated video memory, and around 25 teraflops of compute performance.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

But what about AMD’s PC gaming audience? When will the Radeon RX Vega cards hit the market? Towards the end of the press conference, Su said details regarding the launch would be provided during SIGGRAPH 2017, which starts on July 30 and ends on August 3. Sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery, this conference focuses on professional computer graphics and “interactive techniques.”

“We chose SIGGRAPH because we believe that for high performance graphics and all the content creation capability there, that this is the perfect place to showcase the Vega product line,” Su said.

However, that didn’t stop Su from teasing the Radeon RX Vega in a demo featuring Prey. This demo actually relied on two Radeon RX Vega cards in CrossFire mode, and the game set on Ultra High settings and a 3,840 × 2,160 resolution. The demo also showcased an upcoming Ryzen Threadripper processor that’s coming this summer, featuring up to 16 cores, 32 threads, and support for up to a massive 64 PCI Express 3.0 lanes. That said, the Prey demo looked really, really good.

In other Vega-related news, Su said AMD will talk more about the upcoming Radeon Instinct MI25 graphics card on June 20. This card will head straight into the data center to accelerate machine intelligence, as it’s designed for deep learning training. June 20 will also serve as the launch date for AMD’s return to the data center with its new lineup of Epyc processors for servers (aka Naples). However, the Vega-powered Radeon Instinct MI25 card won’t be launched at that time.

That said, there’s a possibility AMD may not make a hard launch of its PC gaming Radeon RX Vega solutions during the SIGGRAPH 2017 convention in late July. Instead, AMD may introduce the card lineup, their prices, and availability during the show with a hard launch shortly thereafter. Hopefully, we’re completely wrong and AMD floods the market with Radeon RX Vega cards at the end of July.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kevin Parrish
Kevin Parrish
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
Snag a year’s access to Norton’s ‘Secure VPN’ while it’s 75% off
A close-up of a computer monitor displaying a generic VPN.

For one of the best VPN deals today, check out Stack Social which currently has Norton Secure VPN available for just $20 for a one-year subscription instead of the usual price of $80. Protecting up to five devices including all your iOS and Android devices, as well as your laptop or desktop, it’s fantastic value for such strong peace of mind. If you’re in the market for a new VPN, keep reading while we explain why it’s worth buying Norton Secure VPN.

Why you should buy Norton Secure VPN
You won’t see Norton Secure VPN in our look at the best VPNs, but don’t fret as it’s still a major name in the security world featuring prominently in looks at the best antivirus software. With Norton Secure VPN, you get real-time threat protection for up to five of your devices along with online privacy.

Read more
Save $400 on this Razer gaming laptop with an RTX 4060
A game playing on the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop.

For a gaming laptop that will be able to handle the most demanding games, you're going to want a machine that's as powerful as the Razer Blade 14 with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. It's understandably expensive, but you can currently get it with a $400 discount from Razer that drops its price to an even $2,000 from $2,400 originally. We're not sure how much time is remaining before this offer ends though, so if you want the savings, you're going to have to complete your purchase as soon as you can.

Why you should buy the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop
The Razer Blade 14 is capable of challenging the best gaming laptops with the help of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, which offers excellent efficiency and strong ray tracing performance. Combined with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor and 16GB of RAM that's good for gaming, according to our guide on how much RAM do you need, not only will you be able to play the best PC games without any issues, but you'll also be prepared for the upcoming PC games of the next few years.

Read more
Get this Asus laptop with a year of Microsoft Office for $199
asus vivobook go laptop deal amazon march 2024 lifestyle

You don't need to spend several hundreds of dollars on a new laptop that you'll use as a productivity tool because there are budget-friendly options like the Asus Vivobook Go L510MA. It's actually currently even cheaper from Walmart after an $80 discount, which brings its price down to just $199 from $279 originally. There's no telling how much time is remaining before the offer expires though, so if you want to take advantage of it, you're going to have to proceed with the purchase as soon as possible.

Why you should buy the Asus Vivobook Go L510MA
For a laptop that will be able to handle basic activities like doing online research, building reports, and browsing social media, you can't go wrong with the Asus Vivobook Go L510MA. It's equipped with the Intel Pentium Silver N5030 processor and 4GB of RAM, which are a far cry from the specifications of the best laptops, but it will be enough for simple tasks. The device also comes with a 15.6-inch screen with Full HD resolution, which is pretty large and sharp for its price, but it's still portable as it only weights about 3.5 pounds with a thickness of just 0.72 of an inch.

Read more