When AMD revealed its upcoming RX Vega lineup, most of the focus was on its upper-end SKUs among speculations of how well they would compete against the Nvidia GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti. However, there was a minimal discussion on how the more modest Vega 56 might compare with Nvidia's GTX 1070. The latest leaked benchmarks suggest this matchup might actually be the stronger of the two.
AMD has launched Radeon RX Vega 56, which has an 1156MHz base clock, 1471MHz boost, 64 ROPS, and 224 texture units. The Vega 56 features 3584 shader cores and 8GB of HBM2 on a 2048-bit memory bus. The TDP is also quite low, at 210W; at least in comparison to the other Vega 64 parts. However, this is still above the 150W rating on the Nvidia GTX 1070, as reported Extreme Tech.
Considering the fact that AMD has priced Radeon Vega 56 at $400, it is safe to assume that it would be capable of outpacing the GTX 1070, with its price tag of $340. However, preliminary benchmark results leaked to TweakTown putting the Vega 56 at 20-30 percent faster than the Nvidia GTX 1070 means it is going to justify its price tag given the cost difference between itself and its Nvidia competitors.
The publication cites sources familiar with the matter, providing some downright benchmark results that put the RX Vega 56 at nine to nearly 20 frames per second ahead of GTX 1070 in four gaming tests. According to benchmark figures were all collected at 2,560 x 1,440 resolution with visual settings varying between high and ultra.
With this latest preliminary benchmark, it will be interesting to see how Vega and HBM2 stand up against Nvidia given that Team Green has gone 15 months without any important competition on the board. Even if Radeon RX Vega isn't a knockout blow, it is expected to compete better than its current competitors.
