With todays GPU prices, vega 56 looks like a decent deal.
Lets be honest. Most of us were never going to buy a $500+ card. For those that were, then this post isnt for you.
For the rest of us mortals, most(90-95%) of us will buy cards in the $250 or less market. Mabye 3-5% of us will buy cards in the 300-400 price range.
So, vega 64 variants dont matter, the only card that matters is the vega 56 at $400. So, how does that stack up in the current market?
Just looking at newegg today. The cheapest 1070 is $450. Cheapest 1060(6 gig) is $320. Cheapest 580(4 gig) is $320. You cant find a 1070, 1060, 580, 570 at MSRP, they are all inflated. Hell most cards have been out of stock for months, so they arent even an option.
If we guess at where a vega 56 will come out performance wise...(obviously we need benchmarks)
1070 vs 1080. 1070 is a 25% cut on the die. vega 56 vs 64. 56 is a 12.5% cut on the die.
If a vega 64 is ~1080, then vega 56 should be about halfway between a 1070 and 1080, and for $399 with todays gpu prices, that looks like a pretty good deal.
Especially when you are looking at $320 1060s and 580s, for only $80 more you can have a card that should be 50%+ faster.
If you need/want a card today, it starts to look pretty enticing.
There should also be plenty of thermal headroom to just up the power limit, and add a buncha clock speed as well. As long as you dont care about raising power usage(and lets be honest, if you are overclocking, you dont really care).
You dont even need to bring the freesync/gsync thing into it.
If the 580/1060s were actually in stock, and you could buy them at msrp or lower, then it would be comparing a card that is like $180 more instead of like $80 more, and it would look no where near as good. If you could buy a 1070 at msrp then it would be $30 more for a bit faster card, still looks like a better deal if you could find a 1070 at msrp.
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I was in the probably not buying vega camp. Just because i figured the prices would out of the range i like to buy in. Historically ive shopped in the $200-250 price range. For my next card i planned to buy in the 300-400 range.
Lately ive been considering just buying a 580, and then waiting for whatever comes out late 2018 or 2019 before moving up a tier in graphics cards. But with the current pricing....no thanks. Im not paying >$300 for a ~220 card, just not going to do it. I dont NEED a graphics card right now.
But with vega 56 being $400, and probably being faster then a 1070, for less then 1070s are current going for, and 580s being grossly overpriced, i'm considering just getting a vega 56 now. (tho ill probably wait to see where the AIB cards slot in at before making a decision)