AMD announces RX Vega, shows off features of the new architecture

It looks like Vega is more than just a codename as today at AMD's Capsaicin event, the company announced that its next high-end GPU would be called the ‘RX Vega'. However, the presentation didn't stop at simply naming the GPU, AMD also began showing off some of the new features that are made possible by this new architecture, including next-gen compute units, a high bandwidth cache controller and more.

Four main features were mentioned at the event: High Bandwidth Cache Controller (HBCC), Next-Gen Compute Units featuring RPM, Programmable Geometry Pipeline and an Advanced Pixel Engine. Radeon team lead Raja Koduri showed off just how much game performance can be improved using HBCC with average frame rates receiving a 50 percent boost on average and minimum frame rates doubling in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

The second feature we got to see in action was Rapid Packed Math (RPM), which uses Vega's Compute Units to increase the amount of calculations per second. TressFX hair technology was used to demonstrate this, with half-precision (FP16) shaders generating around 550,000 hair strands per second when RPM is switched off. Turn that rapid calculator on and suddenly a Vega GPU could generate more than 1.2 million TressFX hair strands per second.

Those were the bulk of the new details we received at the event. Unfortunately we still don't have a release date for the RX Vega but current rumours are pointing towards a May release date. Perhaps AMD is holding back a bit while Nvidia unveils the GTX 1080Ti, which should be announced in a few hours time.

KitGuru Says: AMD has been drip feeding us Vega information for a couple of months now so hopefully the final unveiling and release isn't too far off. Are any of you guys waiting on new high-end GPUs from AMD? 

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