AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 chips differ - physically and quite significantly (Updated)

Published 2017-08-17 07:29 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

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#5463943

fantaskarsef

2017-08-17 10:42

Still I can imagine it might make a marginal difference in physical resistance when mounting coolers, as well as a minor gain in thermal dissipation if that epoxy isn't present (epoxy doesn't transport heat well unless you put in the right fibres, or am I wrong?). With the final product it will probably make no difference though.

#5464027

waltc3

2017-08-17 15:32

Lets see if my prejudices' towards Chinese manufacturing is wrong. The top sample looks neat and complete and gives off a polished manufacturing look. The second looks like my teenage cousin made it in his basement. By looks and prejudice, the top one I would expect to be from Taiwan and the bottom shabby looking one from China. Where were they manufactured?

Let me know when your cousin starts making these in his basement...I'd like to order a few--as I'm sure AMD would as well. BTW, the image of the GPU without the epoxy only appears rough because the pic was taken with the thermal compound left on, as is revealed in the text here. The other images are either of dummies or real GPUs that have no thermal compound on them at all--hence they appear "clean." The only difference between them is the epoxy, according to AMD.

#5464028

NewTRUMP Order

2017-08-17 15:35

I thought it looked more like a heat spreader between the actual chips?

If it's epoxy it is not a good conductor of heat. It will actually hold it in more. Epoxy however is a great insulator.

#5464091

__hollywood|meo

2017-08-17 18:21

Still I can imagine it might make a marginal difference in physical resistance when mounting coolers

it assuredly would affect the even dispersal of mounting pressure, albeit very slightly. it seems to function as an integrated shim.

#5464162

Amx85

2017-08-17 23:11

Interesting... Hilbert Please make other VEGA review with "Power Modes" comparision, VEGA 64 has Boost, Balanced and PwrSave on every BIOS (6 power modes in total) would be interesting see Gaming Performance per Watt with every mode to compare :infinity:

#5464229

HeavyHemi

2017-08-18 07:23

I doubt these differences have any effect on performance or thermals, however, I do wonder if this has something to do with the voltage. These GPUs can be under-volted a lot, even for AMD cards. But if they're manufactured by different facilities, one may have worse quality transistors, where the voltage needs to compensate for that. It may be easier to just use the same configuration for all chips.

Why wouldn't they bin for vid?

#5465532

Evildead666

2017-08-23 12:31

There is an update on this doing the rounds. Its from Toms iirc. There are 3 or 4 variants of the Vega chip apparently, with differing heights of HBM and GPU (depending on whether there is the epoxy filler or not). I really hope this isn't going to be a b'stard for those of us who want to slap waterblocks on them... edit : link : http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-vega-package-problem,35281.html

#5465567

fantaskarsef

2017-08-23 13:50

Evildead666:

There is an update on this doing the rounds. Its from Toms iirc. There are 3 or 4 variants of the Vega chip apparently, with differing heights of HBM and GPU (depending on whether there is the epoxy filler or not). I really hope this isn't going to be a b'stard for those of us who want to slap waterblocks on them... edit : link : http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-vega-package-problem,35281.html

Yeah that's the big question, how will it be if you put an aftermarket cooler on it. The sold cards obviously perform all within normal margins. Thanks for posting the read, I wasn't aware that HBM2 is running at 90°C during the benches.

#5465621

Evildead666

2017-08-23 16:02

Well my EK Waterblock arrived this morning, so I might give it a shot this weekend. I just hope I've got a chip with the epoxy filler included.

#5465642

Agent-A01

2017-08-23 17:04

Evildead666:

Well my EK Waterblock arrived this morning, so I might give it a shot this weekend. I just hope I've got a chip with the epoxy filler included.

AMD is stupid for such an oversight. The differences in package size(height mainly) will cause AiBs to increase prices due to the fact that the 'uneven' heights will require their standard coolers to be modified to fit correctly. Vega is a total failure at this point.

#5469224

Evildead666

2017-09-04 16:04

Well, there WAS epoxy filler, so it was a walk in the park. 🙂