AMD’s Radeon RX Vega GPUs Built Using At Least Three Different Packages

To say that the past week has been an exhaustive one in RX Vega’s world would be an understatement. Alongside our look at compute performance, gaming performance, and the chips’ HBCC (high-bandwidth cache controller), we were hit with a deluge of uncertainties and raised questions. I covered most of my thoughts this past weekend, so I won’t repeat them here.

Credit: VideoCardz, Tom’s Hardware (FR)

Today, though, it looks like there’s another issue to toss onto the pile: multiple Vega packages. This might not seem like a real problem on the surface, but in this particular case, a difference of 0.1mm in GPU height has been creating some real headaches for card builders. In talking to some AIBs, I’ve gained the impression that we’re not likely to see vendor Vega 64s with custom designs hit the market for another month, which really doesn’t bode well for Vega 56, which has yet to even hit etail. At the moment, supply is extremely limited, and AIB vendors are are struggling. It’s no wonder each and every Vega 64 that happens to hit etail carries a large premium, something the mining craze hasn’t been helping.

Tom’s Hardware‘s French website (via VideoCardz) managed to get a shot of the three known Vega packages, and hints that Vega 56 could have a fourth out there. While these all look similar, the resinless versions have the GPU 40 μm higher than the HBM2, and 0.1mm higher in general, creating issues for vendors. It’s not just the GPU that needs to be worried about, but the card’s VRM, which can get finger-singeing hot if the cooler is not perfectly placed.

Interestingly, the resinless Vega 56 variant, built in South Korea, features SK Hynix HBM2, while all known Vega 64 retail cards have had Samsung’s HBM2, as the picture up top suggests. A quick teardown last week revealed that our Vega 56 and 64 samples are of the epoxy resin variety.

The problems that can arise from using different packages isn’t an unknown to AMD. In fact, the company has produced a slide deck to give to vendors to explain the differences between the packages, verifying the differences in heights:

I’m not sure how much these design differences truly impede how quickly AIBs can get their own editions out the door, but it doesn’t strike me as a minor issue. Again, I don’t expect vendor cards of either the Vega 56 or 64 from appearing for another month, so something, or more likely a combination of things, is clearly causing delays.