Two Vegas…ha ha ha
We got two Vegas…so why not CrossFire them?
When the preorders for the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition went up last week, I made the decision to place orders in a few different locations to make sure we got it in as early as possible. Well, as it turned out, we actually had the cards show up very quickly…from two different locations.
So, what is a person to do if TWO of the newest, most coveted GPUs show up on their doorstep? After you do the first, full review of the single GPU iteration, you plug those both into your system and do some multi-GPU CrossFire testing!
There of course needs to be some discussion up front about this testing and our write up. If you read my first review of the Vega Frontier Edition you will clearly note my stance on the idea that “this is not a gaming card” and that “the drivers aren’t ready. Essentially, I said these potential excuses for performance were distraction and unwarranted based on the current state of Vega development and the proximity of the consumer iteration, Radeon RX.
But for multi-GPU, it’s a different story. Both competitors in the GPU space will tell you that developing drivers for CrossFire and SLI is incredibly difficult. Much more than simply splitting the work across different processors, multi-GPU requires extra attention to specific games, game engines, and effects rendering that are not required in single GPU environments. Add to that the fact that the market size for CrossFire and SLI has been shrinking, from an already small state, and you can see why multi-GPU is going to get less attention from AMD here.
Even more, when CrossFire and SLI support gets a focus from the driver teams, it is often late in the process, nearly last in the list of technologies to address before launch.
With that in mind, we all should understand the results we are going to show you might be indicative of the CrossFire scaling when Radeon RX Vega launches, but it very well could not. I would look at the data we are presenting today as a “current state” of CrossFire for Vega.
Setup: Just as easy as expected
Installing and enabling CrossFire with our Radeon Vega Frontier Edition hardware was a simple as would expect. The current driver from AMD’s website was used, and in both the Game Mode and the Professional Mode, the CrossFire option exists under the Global Settings.
We only had one hiccup in our testing in terms of stability with Rise of the Tomb Raider – but the issue seemed related to our Frame Rating overlay application. While the application was running fine without this overlay in CrossFire mode, we require the overlay to measure performance accurately using our capture methodology. Because the capture methods of our performance analysis are even more important when evaluating multi-GPU performance (where anomalies are more common), I decided to leave out RoTR results than report potentially inaccurate scores.
Our test setup remains unchanged, in both hardware and software, from our initial Radeon Vega Frontier Edition review. If you need another refresh on how we test gaming performance, which is still quite different than the norm, you can find that page of our previous review right here.
Let’s dive in to the results!
Wow, optimized for Xfire and
Wow, optimized for Xfire and gaming or not, TWO of these things still get destroyed by 1080 Ti! Vega is off to a fugly start. Glad I didn’t wait (and wait…and wait…)
While the design is similar,
While the design is similar, you have to look at intended use case. Vega FE and RX Vega are going to be 2 different graphics cards. Vega FE is a pro level card you can play games on. RX Vega is going to be a top performing gaming card. I’m not saying I have any info anyone outside of AMD doesn’t, but I’m looking forward to see what RX Vega is actually capable of.
I am hoping to buy the Vega
I am hoping to buy the Vega FE for my 2009 Mac Pro for editing with FCPX, we all know a Mac running FCPX destroys any Windows PC’s on render times, Im currently running a Maxwell Titan X as they have good open CL performance, and I have upgraded my Cameras to record 10 BIT 4.2.2 This plays perfectly smooth in my 8 1/2 year old Mac Pro at 4K even before its optimised to Pro Res. so have been hoping to see some real open CL tests of this workstation card.
Everyone seems to be testing it for gaming, wtf, Its like buying a Van and testing it against hot hatch’s, and worse still testing it with DX11 API, the worst API ever, anyone coding for DX11 in 2017 needs shooting, DX11 uses single core, how many people have dual core CPUS now.
I currently run 4 networked Computers, a 12 core (24 HT) heavily modded 2009 Mac Pro, 8 Core (16HT) Full open loop water cooled 5960X OC 4.4 GHz X99, 4 Core (8HT) 4790KOC 4.6GHz 4 core (8HT) 2600K OC 4.4GHz, They are all networked and Connected to multiple 50′ and 65′ Panasonic 4K THX certified smart TV’s, that have 99.3 % of the sRGB colour gamut at default Also have an ASUS MG279Q 2KIPS 144Hz gaming monitor, for times when I’m not working.
But the AMD VEGA Frontier Edition used with Final Cut Pro will be a monster, for us professional film makers and broadcasters. we know Apple plan to use Vega graphics in the IMAC PRO, scheduled for release in December, running the latest High Sierra OS, so looks like the drivers will be there to run it on my 2009 Mac Pro, with High Sierra OS as well.
Enjoy your gaming, I don’t really game that much, but please test the Vega on DX12 and Vulkan games, it’s meant to work with, not the poorly optimised DX11 API, and that new Tomb raider title is a disaster, whoever pretended they coded that for DX12 should give the money back and never work again. there is a distinct difference between something working with DX12 and being Optimised for it.
You didn’t undervolt them. You can expect a smoking hot card(s) like that to not downclock because of heat. I expect you were running 500mhz hmb2 speeds just about all the time.