Red devil with obesity: Powercolor RX Vega64 Red Devil in review

If we were asked for a somewhat eye-catching RX Vega64 and if the range of such cards were not so limited, then the Red Devil from Powercolor would come to mind spontaneously. Because it not only applies quite strongly visually, but also ... Board layout Powercolor also differs somewhat from AMD's reference layout at first glance, but the most important areas were taken over almost 1:1 during the layout. Only for the second BIOS chip and the LED block with DIP switch... We intentionally use the standard BIOS of the card for the benchmarks, because as we will see later, the OC-BIOS buys a completely negligible performance increase due to an almost nonsensical increase in power consumption. Genere... The overall picture does not change much, even if the Vega cards break in a little more in a few games. But then it almost doesn't matter if reference or board partner card. Shared suffering is half suffering, although it is never a real d... Power consumption at different loads The power consumption in the gaming loop is at the measured approx. 283 watts in standard mode about 3 watts above what could be measured with the reference in the default BIOS. This is all the more astonishing because the... Overclocking and undervolting The conventional overclocking by means of an even higher power limit and more clock counteracts the current cooling concept, because the rather quiet cooler gets along quite well with what it has to dismount ex works. More on the other hand... Cooling system and backplate Of course, the generated waste heat is directly related to the recorded power, for which the cooling solution is responsible for optimum dissipation. If you remove the top cover of the cooler, we already see the ... With the Powercolor RX Vega64, the circle of all graphics cards we have tested so far with AMD's Vega chip closes, because there are no more really produced and traded custom designs on the market, you can see from Sapphires Pu...

Power consumption at different loads

The power consumption in the gaming loop is at the measured approx. 283 watts in standard mode about 3 watts above what could be measured with the reference in the default BIOS. This is all the more astonishing because the performance is even a tick higher. The BIOS change and the different power table, as well as the better cooling seem to work. The measured 282 watts in the Torture loop are also fine.

The OC mode only sets the power limit and not the maximum clock as default, but then shoots far beyond the 320 watt mark. In terms of performance, it is only gains in homeopathic doses, only the socket glows. For this reason, we have also dispensed with overclocking in the further course and only use the much more sensible standard mode without additional surcharges.

The corresponding voltages for both loops in the factory state are shown in the diagram below, whereby the control fury around the power limit has increased sharply.

Compliance with the standard on the motherboard slot

With a maximum of 2.4 amps (torture), the card is well below half of what the PCI SIG sets with a maximum of 5.5 amps (66 watts) for the 12 volt rail on the motherboard slot. In the Gaming Loop, you're only 2.3 ampere below. Overall, the balancing has been implemented very exemplary and the mainboard lot is hardly seriously burdened.

Detailed graphics: power consumption and currents

For better illustration, we have also recorded all measurement results as detailed curves in the graphs below. Naturally, the power consumption peaks in gaming are the most important. With peaks of up to 330 watts, however, you can live well, because they occur only very briefly.