AMD Radeon Graphics cards RX Vega XL, RX Vega XT and RX Vega XTL are replacing the RX Vega Core, RX Vega Nova and RX Vega Eclipse

AMD is still set to unveil three new desktop graphics cards during and event called SIGGRAPH 2017 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The event will take place during 30 Jul 2017 – 3 Aug 2017. It appears as though the cards will have a name change as well.

The entry level RX Vega Core is being renamed the RX Vega XL despite the confusing XL in the name, commonly an acronym for extra-large. The amount of Stream Processors for the Vega XL card is set to be 3584 (56 Shader Clusters) with 8GB of HBM2 Memory. The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of this card appears to be 220W (watts). The card should be air cooled. This card will most likely be the lowest clocked or have the least amount of head-room for over-clocking enthusiasts. The good news is that it will also be the cheapest card into 4k gaming or pushing 1440p gaming to the highest refresh rates. You should expect an RX Vega XL vs NVidia 1070 card comparison in the future.

The slightly pricier mid-level RX Vega Eclipse is being renamed the RX Vega XT. The amount of Stream Processors for the Vega XT card is set to be 4096 (64 Shader Clusters) with 8GB of HBM2 Memory. The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of this card appears to be 220W. This card should also be air cooled with an option for enthusiasts to add a water-block to create a custom water loop.

The RX Vega Nova which is the most powerful of the three is being renamed the RX Vega XTX. The amount of Stream Processors for the Vega XTX card is set to be an increased 4096 (64 Shader Clusters) with 8GB of HBM2 Memory. The TDP of this card appears to be a much higher at 375W. With the highest TDP card comes the AIO (All in One) cooler as part of the graphics card. You can expect a closed-loop water cooled solution for this card. This card is set to be the fastest and most capable designed to go head to head with NVidia’s 1080 Ti card. Unfortunately there is no news as to whether their will ever be a 16GB version of the XTX card. The flagship AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition performance benchmarks show comfortable performance above the NVidia 1080. Taking into consideration that the Frontier Edition wasn’t designed for gaming and stacks up better than an NVidia 1080 graphics card, it can be assumed that the XTX card should be comfortably on par, possibly better than a 1080 Ti card and cheaper.

It should be noted that Stream Processors between graphics from AMD and their rivals NVidia have never been on a 1 to 1 ratio and overall performance should not be measured solely on this. The TDP is usually the maximum amount of power consumed by the card and waste heat produced thus the better cooling solution requirements. Stream Processors are part of the graphics processing unit and in conjunction with the amount of memory available; power requirements, cooling unit and clock speeds, it is possible to gain a better idea of the overall performance of the cards in relation to what Nvidia is offering.

This article is focused on the new information on https://www.3dcenter.org/ which includes the new naming scheme of the three high-end graphics cards to be released by AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc) later this year. SIGGRAPH 2017 will take place during 30 Jul 2017 – 3 Aug 2017.