AMD Radeon VII 7nm Graphics Card Review

How Much Does It Cost?

You can pick up a Radeon Vii for just £639.98 from Sapphire right now. That’s not bad, giving then ASUS one is £689.99 despite being absolutely identical. What’s more, the MSRP is what, £719.99? So since launch, this is becoming not only a faster card, but a cheaper one too. In the US the card is also just $699.99. What’s more, that’s give or take £10 on various models, the same price as the RTX 2080 series. Keep in mind, the one we tested was the £800 XC Ultra from EVGA too, not an entry level model!

Overview

I was expecting to jump into the review of this today and rip it to pieces for being too hot and noisy. I love AMD cards, and have had many of them myself over the years, but it’s just one of those things you expect from them I guess. AMD, you don’t get away without some bruises here, the card is pretty damn noisy at full load and that needs to be addressed with AIB custom coolers, please. It also burns power like it’s fueled by coal, but at just a few Watts more than a VEGA 64, it delivers a frankly HUGE performance upgrade from their last-gen cards.

Performance

So, I was expecting performance to be a bit lower, I have to admit. Launch reviews didn’t always paint the Radeon VII in the best light. It was too expensive, and it just didn’t have the legs on it to topple Nvidia. Since launch, we’ve had driver updates, game updates, and a price drop. Now it’s competitive on price, no issues there. Furthermore, it’s far more competitive on performance. Over three resolutions it was right behind the 2080, matching it, or even beating it, especially at 4K. Is this a great gaming card? Absolutely, it’s up there with the best. Short of dropping £1500 on our current chart leader, the MSI 2080 Ti, it’s every bit as fast as our EVGA RTX 2080 XC Ultra… Incredible.

Should I Buy One?

It’s a tricky one this, I must admit. For the same money, Nvidia cards have RTX features, run cooler, quieter, and use less power. On that alone, AMD is still behind the curve. However, I know for a fact that many are loyal to AMD and for good reason. FreeSync (properly supported, no grandfathered in minimal support like Nvidia has done), Radeon Chill, etc. Also, that whopping great big 16GB HBM2 memory setup. While we focused purely on gaming, if you do computational workloads in the day and gaming at night, the Radeon VII is a mighty workstation card in gaming armour, giving it an impressive secret weapons chest to back it up. It’s not perfect, but it’s still an impressive card for the money worthy of your consideration and our Editors Choice Award.