AMD has confirmed that introduction of the Vega 10 and 11 GPUs will happen February 28 or Day 2 of the GDC 2017. The chipmaker will give a sneak peek of its next-generation graphics platform with the Radeon RX 500 series, which likely will become available as early as April this year, new report said.
For the 2017 edition of its "Capsaicin and Cream" event, AMD will preview the RX 500 GPU cards that according to WCCFTech will be part of the Vega GPU family. Vega will replace Polaris, the report added.
As AMD's premium graphics card, the Radeon RX 500 series will make use of the 14nm process technology that is faster, more powerful and energy efficient than its most immediate predecessor. Per the same WCCFTech report, the Vega GPU "represents the most significant leap forward for the company in half a decade."
Leaked benchmark results have so far indicated that the Vega-powered RX 500 cards will pose a direct challenge to the GPU dominance presently enjoyed by NVIDIA. The upcoming premium Radeon graphics cards are seen to match or even surpass the GeForce GTX 1080 as well as the GTX 1080 Ti.
AMD itself has teased that both the Vega 10 and 11 cards will showcase fresh GPU technologies such as virtual reality or VR gaming capabilities that will "propel the games industry forward."
However, Tech Spot reported that NVIDIA appears bent on stealing the thunder off AMD as the former has scheduled an event on the same day dubbed as "GeForce GTX Gaming Celebration". While details have yet to be confirmed, it is expected that the GTX 1080 Ti will be announced on the same occasion.
NVIDIA said that gaming enthusiasts would not want to miss the "amazing surprises" that are in store for them.
According to the same report, part of the supposed surprised packages from NVIDIA is the likely introduction of GeForce Now. The service will easy give access to GPU-intensive gaming even for users on budget PC machines and Macs.
Still, it is the AMD Radeon Vega cards that appear to generate the most excitement as the RX 500 series is seen to be on par with the NVIDIA GTX 1080 in terms of performance but with one clear advantage - pricing. Like the AMD Ryzen CPUs that will sell for no more than $500 for the flagship edition, the AMD Vega GPU is seen to undercut its NVIDIA rival with lower price points.