AMD Radeon RX Vega 56: specs and benchmarks

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Summary

AMD started Radeon RX Vega 56 sales 14 August 2017 at a recommended price of $399 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a Vega architecture and made with 14 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 8 GB of HBM2 memory clocked at 800 GHz are supplied, and together with 409.6 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 409.6 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 267 mm. Two 8-pin power connectors are required, and power consumption is at 210 Watt.

It provides good gaming and benchmark performance at 34.34% of a leader's which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

RTX 4090GeForce RTX4090
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General info

Some basic facts about Radeon RX Vega 56: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking142
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Value for money27.04
ArchitectureVega (2017−2021)
GPU code nameVega
Market segmentDesktop
Release date14 August 2017 (6 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$399
Current price$224 (0.6x MSRP)of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

Radeon RX Vega 56's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon RX Vega 56's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores3584of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
Core clock speed1138 MHzof 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Boost clock speed1474 MHzof 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors12,500 millionof 14400 (GeForce GTX 1070 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology14 nmof 4 (GeForce RTX 4080)
Power consumption (TDP)210 Wattof 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate329.5of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)
Floating-point performance10,566 gflopsof 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Size and compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of Radeon RX Vega 56 and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16
Length267 mm
Width2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 8-pin

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on Radeon RX Vega 56: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory typeHBM2
Maximum RAM amount8 GBof 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Memory bus width409.6 Bitof 19000 (GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB)
Memory clock speed800 MHzof 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)
Memory bandwidth409.6 GB/sof 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon RX Vega 56. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI+

API support

APIs supported by Radeon RX Vega 56, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX12 (12_1)
Shader Model6.4
OpenGL4.6
OpenCL2.0
Vulkan1.1.125

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of Radeon RX Vega 56. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

RX Vega 56 34.34

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

RX Vega 56 13307

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

RX Vega 56 54586

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

RX Vega 56 29086

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RX Vega 56 20759

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RX Vega 56 125359

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

RX Vega 56 412820

SPECviewperf 12 - Catia

Benchmark coverage: 2%

RX Vega 56 141

SPECviewperf 12 - 3ds Max

This part of SPECviewperf 12 benchmark emulates work with 3DS Max, executing eleven tests in various use scenarios, including architectural modeling and animation for computer games.

Benchmark coverage: 1%

RX Vega 56 145

Gaming performance

Let's see how good Radeon RX Vega 56 is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD116
1440p77
4K48

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 55−60

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 77
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 60−65
Battlefield 5 151
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 90−95
Cyberpunk 2077 55−60
Far Cry 5 98
Far Cry New Dawn 96
Forza Horizon 4 141
Hitman 3 100−110
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
Red Dead Redemption 2 55−60
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 105
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 70
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 60−65
Battlefield 5 140
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 90−95
Cyberpunk 2077 55−60
Far Cry 5 93
Far Cry New Dawn 93
Forza Horizon 4 134
Hitman 3 100−110
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
Metro Exodus 70
Red Dead Redemption 2 55−60
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 91
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 124
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 52
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 60−65
Battlefield 5 131
Cyberpunk 2077 55−60
Far Cry 5 89
Far Cry New Dawn 84
Forza Horizon 4 109
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 74
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 55−60
Hitman 3 60−65
Horizon Zero Dawn 45−50
Metro Exodus 42
Red Dead Redemption 2 27−30
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 58

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 44
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 35−40
Battlefield 5 99
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
Far Cry 5 74
Far Cry New Dawn 74
Forza Horizon 4 88
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 45−50
Watch Dogs: Legion 27−30

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−33
Hitman 3 30−35
Horizon Zero Dawn 24−27
Metro Exodus 27
Red Dead Redemption 2 18−20
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 31
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 44

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
Battlefield 5 55
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
Far Cry 5 39
Far Cry New Dawn 42
Forza Horizon 4 59
Watch Dogs: Legion 16−18

Relative perfomance

Radeon RX Vega 56's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.


NVIDIA equivalent

According to our data, the closest NVIDIA alternative to Radeon RX Vega 56 is GeForce GTX 1070, which is faster by 2% and higher by 3 positions in our ranking.

GTX 1070GeForce GTX1070
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Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon RX Vega 56:

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

GTX 1070GeForce GTX1070
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Titan X PascalTitan XPascal
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GTX 1660 TiGeForce GTX1660 Ti
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RX 5600 XTRadeon RX5600 XT
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GTX 980 TiGeForce GTX980 Ti
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GTX 1660 SuperGeForce GTX1660 Super
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Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with Radeon RX Vega 56 according to our statistics.

User ratings: view and submit

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.


4.3 658 votes

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Questions and comments

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