AMD’s new Radeon 7 graphics card launches worldwide in simply three days time on February seventh, and from what AMD have mentioned to this point, the world’s first 7nm monster card is about to be a possible RTX 2080 killer. I’ll be bringing you my full assessment on the seventh to see how that declare holds up in observe, however at the moment, I assumed I’d take a tiny peak on the card itself, as a result of even when it doesn’t find yourself being higher than Nvidia’s RTX 2080, the stand that got here in my press field means it ought to not less than make a mighty advantageous doorstop.
Alas, this glass GPU stand received’t be accessible within the common Radeon 7s you’ll be shopping for within the outlets, however it might appear graphics card presentation is the new new factor for GPU launches nowadays, as you could recall that Nvidia’s RTX bins operate in a lot the identical manner, with the graphics card oriented in an upright place such as you’re lifting the lid off a Michelin star dinner – albeit in cardboard versus a glass plaque.
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- My stand is best than your stand…
Still, foolish stands apart, from a pure design perspective, I feel I really favor Nvidia’s RTX playing cards over AMD’s silver slab look. Yes, the Radeon emblem down the aspect and the little, semi-translucent R dice on the nook are infinitely extra preferable to my ‘red is best’ color sensibilities, however as a lot as I just like the Radeon 7’s diamond minimize edge and refined bronze highlights, its plain silver chassis simply isn’t almost as eye-catching as Nvidia’s black and silver RTX combo.
You’ll additionally discover that regardless of the Radeon 7 having three followers to its identify, the variety of particular person fan blades on them is definitely decrease than what you’ll discover on the twin followers of the RTX 2080. Whereas the RTX 2080 has 28 fan blades, the Radeon 7 solely has 27. It’s too early to say whether or not one fewer fan can have any noticeable impression on efficiency, after all, but it surely simply goes to indicate that extra followers doesn’t all the time essentially imply higher followers.
The Radeon 7 additionally lacks a USB-C output. It’s not the top of the world, admittedly. You’ll nonetheless discover three DisplayPorts and one HDMI right here, similar to the RTX 2080. But the absence of that additional USB-C output means it’s nonetheless a fraction much less versatile than its RTX rivals, particularly with regards to VR. After all, the primary purpose why Nvidia’s included a USB-C port on their RTX playing cards is to allow them to benefit from the upcoming VirtualLink commonplace, which guarantees to ship all the mandatory energy, video information and information over a single connection somewhat than the many-cabled warrens we cope with presently.
Again, it’s hardly make or break for all of the non-VR customers on the market, particularly when AMD appear to be positioning this card as one thing that’s going to be as a lot for skilled video content material creator bods as it’s for fanatic avid gamers. Case in level is that ludicrous 16GB of HBM2 (2nd gen excessive bandwidth reminiscence) it’s bought, which is twice as a lot as you’ll discover on AMD’s present top-end card, the Radeon RX Vega 64. No one wants that quantity of video reminiscence for enjoying games proper now. 8K video editors, however, would possibly say in any other case.
Still, the proof of whether or not the Radeon 7 will graduate from its present doorstop standing can be when my assessment goes dwell on Thursday, the place I’ll be placing it by way of its paces in my common suite of gaming benchmarks to see the way it performs throughout each decision going, and whether or not it’s bought the chops to interrupt into our best graphics card checklist. I’ll even be doing a separate, extra detailed comparability piece between the Radeon 7 and RTX 2080 with some pretty graphs and the like, both on Thursday or shortly after, so maintain them peepers peeled, of us.
