Radeon VII

Radeon VII was AMD's first graphics card based on the Vega 20 architecture and used innovative HBM2 manufacturing technology. This product was announced at CES 2019 and launched on February 7, 2019. In this article we will look at the development, architecture, characteristics and performance of the Radeon VII, and also present interesting facts about this video card.

Design and Architecture: Radeon VII is based on the Vega 20 architecture, manufactured on the 7nm process. It was AMD's first graphics card produced using this process, allowing the company to reduce power consumption and increase performance compared to previous generations. Vega 20 has 3840 stream processors, 240 texture units and 64 ROP units.

The main feature of the Radeon VII was the use of HBM2 (High Bandwidth Memory 2) memory with a capacity of 16 GB. This was AMD's decision to compete with NVIDIA, which used GDDR6 memory in its products. HBM2 allowed high throughput (1 TB/s) in a compact and energy-efficient printed circuit assembly.

Features:

• 3840 stream processors
• 240 texture blocks
• 64 ROP blocks
• base frequency GPU: 1400 MHz
• Boost frequency GPU: 1750 MHz
• Memory: 16 GB HBM2
• Memory bus: 4096-bit
• Memory Bandwidth: 1 TB/s
• TDP: 300 W

Pricing: At the time of its announcement, the Radeon VII had a suggested retail price of $699. For a short time after the card's release, prices varied by store and region.

Gaming Performance: The Radeon VII offered competitive performance comparable to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080. At 1440p and 4K resolutions, the card delivered excellent results, especially in games optimized for the Vega architecture. In some games, the Radeon VII outperformed the GeForce RTX 2080, while in others it lost, but the difference was negligible.

An impressive 2GB of HBM16 VRAM allows the Radeon VII to handle games with high levels of texture detail and busy scenes with ease. This has attracted the attention of users involved in professional rendering, video editing and content creation.

Interesting Facts:

1. Radeon VII was AMD's first graphics card manufactured on the 7nm process, allowing it to reduce power consumption and increase performance compared to previous generations.

2. HBM2 memory was used in the Radeon VII instead of traditional GDDR6, which allowed for high bandwidth and a compact size of the video card.

3. Radeon VII was a limited release and AMD discontinued it a few months after launch. This made the graphics card more rare and desirable among collectors and enthusiasts.

4. In addition to using a 7nm process, the Radeon VII also used Infinity Fabric technology, which allowed for simpler and faster communication between GPU and HBM2 memory.

5. Thanks to its 16GB memory capacity and high performance, the Radeon VII has also been popular among cryptocurrency mining users.

Conclusion: Radeon VII was an interesting product from AMD, offering competitive performance in the high-end graphics card market. It made its mark in history thanks to the use of the 7nm process technology and HBM2 memory. Although the Radeon VII was discontinued a few months after its launch, this graphics card is still remembered by gamers and hardware enthusiasts as one of AMD's most interesting products.

Impact on the graphics card market: Radeon VII also stimulated innovation in the graphics card market. Despite being a limited release, Radeon VII demonstrated the capabilities of the 7nm process and the benefits of using HBM2 memory. These technologies were subsequently improved and applied in subsequent generations of AMD video cards, such as the RDNA and RDNA 2 architecture.

Third-Party Card Manufacturers: In addition to reference models, graphics card manufacturers such as ASUS, Gigabyte and Sapphire, released their own versions of the Radeon VII with improved cooling and overclocking potential, allowing users to choose models with different specifications and design preferences.

Community and Support: Radeon VII has attracted the attention of the modding and enthusiast community due to its performance and overclocking capabilities. Many users have been able to squeeze extra performance out of their graphics cards using various overclocking and customization methods. AMD has been proactive in supporting users with new driver releases and game optimizations that have contributed to improved Radeon VII performance throughout its lifecycle.

In conclusion, Radeon VII was a notable product in the graphics card market and left a mark in the history of AMD. This video card demonstrated innovative technologies that later led to the development of new architectures and technologies in the video card industry.