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RX Vega 64 or WX 7100?

TECK

TECK

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 18, 2011
1,129
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In the process of upgrading my recently purchased MP 2009, firmware upgraded. I'm not sure what direction to take. Both cards are close, price range. WX 7100 is an amazing workstation card, fully supported by Dell UP3218K monitor. I have a feeling Apple will match it perfectly on their new 2019 10bit monitors. Then, you have the RX Vega 64 who scores high on every possible level but is crazy power hungry.

Can you please share your experiences with Vega 64 and Pixlas mod? Thank you.
 
Thanks, did not know. Nice entry between 7100 and 9100. It looks like it will be $1000, vs 7100 at $500 and 9100 at $1500. Mini-display ports, like 9100. I don't know, I like 7100 a lot.
 
RX 580 Pulse is faster than WX 7100 for only $239, so I think that's a better option unless you need the certified Windows drivers. RX Vega 56 is twice as fast as RX 580 and just a hair below the 64, and some models consume less power than RX 580. Also be aware of the fan issue on some Vega cards detailed in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...u-macos-support.2083168/page-28#post-26362278

I don't think you'd need Pixlas mod for a Vega card that has 8+6 pin power connectors if you take the 6 pin from the optical bay SATAs.
 
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If I understand correctly, the fan issues are fixed in 10.13.4+. The RX 580 was also my choice, I'm going to consider it again. Do we know if a RX 580 Dell OEM works straight out of the box without any mods?
 
TECK said:
If I understand correctly, the fan issues are fixed in 10.13.4+. The RX 580 was also my choice, I'm going to consider it again. Do we know if a RX 580 Dell OEM works straight out of the box without any mods?
Click to expand...

Why not simply buy the Apple recommend consumer version Sapphire PULSE RX580?
 
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AidenShaw said:
Choice?

Too often "Apple recommended" means "priced higher than it should be".
Click to expand...

But not on this one. The PULSE RX580 is just a regular PC graphic card. It was expensive solely because of mining. And now the price already back to normal range.

I don’t know how cheap that OEM RX580 is, but does OEM card has the usual warranty?

If he is looking for the Apple licensed Sapphire HD7950Mac Edition card from OWC, I will ask him to get a PC Card as well. That’s really "priced higher than it should be".
 
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I see the Dell OEM RX 580 8GB going for $230 with free shipping. I just want to make sure I don't need to do any flashing or other stuff to the card, when I insert it into my MP.
 
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TECK said:
I see the Dell OEM RX 580 8GB going for $230 with free shipping. I just want to make sure I don't need to do any flashing or other stuff to the card, when I insert it into my MP.
Click to expand...

Then you better go for the Sapphire PULSE, roughly the same price, guarantee has proper support and warranty.
 
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I'm also looking at RX Vega 56 that could be flashed to 64, for an extra $100. I could combine dual mini pins to 8 pins and 8 pins to SATA cables for the extra required power. Very tempting. Decisions, decisions... :)
 
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My choice is the RX580 as the Vega card requires more power and I wouldn't be happy powering it via SATA X 2 to 8pin and 2 x 6pin mini to 8 pin. I am not saying it wouldn't run, but the risk on power draw through the logic board is to much for me. you can mod the PSU with 2 8pin cables direct to Vega card, that would be the way I would choose, but the RX580 is fast enough for my needs and 45% faster than the GTX680 with 4 X more memory unless you had the 4g GTX680
 
TECK said:
Interesting comparison stats between RX 580 and WS 7100:
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-RX-580-vs-Radeon-Pro-WX-7100
Click to expand...

I tested the RX580 about it's power consumption. Clock speed is the main parameter!

Guess what? with auto voltage (the GPU will dynamically adjust the voltage according to the clock speed), when I ran Unigine Heaven in Windows. The "GPU only draw" (monitored from GPU-Z)

~145W @1366MHz (voltage about 1.13V)
~125W @ 1300MHz (voltage about 1.07V)
~100W @ 1250MHz (voltage about 1.02V)

Simply reduce the clock by 100MHz, the GPU draw 45W less. This actually fit the comparison. Just by reducing 100MHz, then the whole card's TDP reduced by ~55W

That means, if we mod the RX580's VBIOS and make it run t 1243MHz, it's TDP will also very close the WX7100's TDP.

And it seems the optimised clock speed is actually around 1243MHz. This clock speed will give the card much much better performance per watt.
 
TECK said:
Interesting comparison stats between RX 580 and WS 7100:
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-RX-580-vs-Radeon-Pro-WX-7100
Click to expand...
Other links from that page are also interesting.

Compare a $1500 RX580 with a $300 GTX 1060
580-1060.jpg

...and compare a $2000 WX7100 with a $530 GTX 1080
7100-1080.jpg

Things look good for the green team, not so good for the red team.

Edit: Apologize profusely.

The prices above seem to be prices for systems with ATI cards vs bare Nvidia cards.

Clearly a comparison between kumquats and orange orangutans. Please ignore while I investigate.
 
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They have had that problem for a while - I have filed multiple bug reports with no change.

Quite frankly, I consider the evaluations suspect.
 
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