AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Review - Good Enough For Laptops

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Review – Good Enough For Laptops?  

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If you are interested in buying a gaming laptop with an AMD graphics card. If you think RTX cards are too overrated, then you have a great option. Buying a laptop with the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 mobile graphics can be a good choice in 2023. However, there is only one laptop that comes equipped with this graphics card…..

If you wish to learn more about this dedicated laptop graphics card and the laptop to buy. Read this post till the end.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Specifications And Background  

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Review - Good Enough For Laptops

The primary specifications of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile graphics cards for laptops are:

CodenameVega 10 Mobile
ArchitectureGCN 5.0
CUDA Cores/Pipelines/Shader Units3584
Core Clock Speed1138 MHz
Boost Clock Speed1301 MHz
Transistor Count12,500 million
Manufacturing Technology14 nm
TSP (Thermal Design Power)120 Watts
Texture Fill Rate291.4
Memory InterfacePCIe 3.0
Memory TypeHBM2
Maximum Memory8 GB
Memory Bus Width2048 Bit
Memory Clock Speed1600 MHz
Memory Bandwidth409.6 GB/s
API SupportDirectX 12_1, Shader Model 6.4, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1.125
Release DateJune 2018
SupportMedium sized Notebooks

As you can see from the table above. This mobile graphics card is the laptop variant of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics card. While the original version and the mobile version are almost the same. The desktop version has the advantage because of a higher clock speed.

AMD introduced the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 desktop graphics card in early 2018. AMD marketed this graphics card as the main competitor of NVIDIA RTX 2080 – the best graphics card at the time. While it may lack NVIDIA’s ray tracing support, it was still a powerful graphics card on its own merit.

After reviews and sales of the RX Vega 64 proved reasonably successful. AMD decided to shop this graphics card on laptops as well. Therefore, a mobile version of this card was created, which is what this post is about.

However, it failed to capture the market as AMD intended since the mobile variants of NVIDIA’s RTX cards proved better.

So far, we have only seen one laptop that comes with this dedicated laptop graphics card – The Acer Predator Helios 500. This laptop is pretty powerful, hailed as one of the best gaming laptops of 2018. However, later renditions of the laptop started using NVIDIA RTX cards instead, bringing an end to Vega 64 mobile.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Performance  

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Performance

Regarding performance, you can expect this graphics card to be similar to the NVIDIA RTX 2080.

Therefore, if you plan to buy a laptop with this graphics card, it will be a good choice in 2023. While most older games can be played at 60+ fps on the highest settings, you can still get 60+ fps on newer titles as well. However, you might have to play these games in medium graphical settings.

Older games like Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Assassins Creed: Valhalla can run at 60+ fps. However, this is at 1080p resolution. If you wish to play games at 2k or 4k settings, expect to get around half the frames.

Therefore, basing it on the performance of the RTX 2080, here are some average FPS that you can expect on many popular AAA games. However, note that this list shows you the highest average frames possible. Therefore, this represents what you will get when playing in low/medium settings.:

GAMESHIGHEST AVERAGE FPS (1080p)
Microsoft Flight Simulator32
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands60
Assassin’s Creed Unity122
Assassins Creed Origins95
Assassins Creed Odyssey70
Assassins Creed Valhalla61
Watch Dogs: Legion62
Red Dead Redemption 272
Horizon: Zero Dawn75
Total War: Three Kingdoms84
Marvel’s Avengers80
The Division 285
Borderlands 384
Control88
Need For Speed: Heat93
Metro: Exodus96
Hitman 3100
Grand Theft Auto V101
Total War: Warhammer 2105
Just Cause 4106
Far Cry: New Dawn110
Death Stranding115
Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord119
Forza Horizon 4120
Rise of The Tomb Raider144
Shadow of the Tomb Raider122
Battlefield 1167
Battlefield V130
Far Cry 5128
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt132
F1 2019160
Crysis 3166
DOOM: Eternal130
Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus162

Best Laptop With AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Graphics Card  

Best Laptop With AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Graphics Card

If you wish to buy a laptop with a dedicated AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 mobile graphics card, you only have one option –  Acer Predator Helios 500 17 AMD. Since this laptop has many variants (other variants have RTX graphics cards), the one that I am referring to is the Acer Predator Helios 500 PH517-61-R0GX Gaming Laptop.

Here are the main specifications of this laptop:

Operating System➼ Windows 10 Home (can be upgraded to ➼ Windows 11 Home)
Display17.3 FHD (144 Hz refresh rate with AMD FreeSync support)
ProcessorAMD Ryzen 7 2700 (3.2 GHz)
Graphics CardDedicated AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 mobile
Memory16 GB DDR4 SDRAM
Storage256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Ports➼ 1x RJ45 Ethernet Port,
➼ 1x HDMI 2.0 Port,
➼ 1x DisplayPort,
➼ 3x USB 3.0,
➼ 1x USB Type C
Battery Life1.5 hours – 4 hours
Weight4.3 kg
Release DateJuly 2018
Price (2023)$2000

As you can see in the table above, this laptop has pretty good specs for a 2018 laptop. Yes, it’s true that you will get better options in 2023, but they will be significantly pricier.

The main draw of this laptop is its impressive FHD 17.3” screen with a 144 Hz refresh rate. Couple that with support for AMD FreeSync, and you will get a display that produces no stutters while playing games.

If you checked the section above, you could expect to get average frames on games around that mark. Plus, if you are more interested in buying this laptop for playing online multiplayer games, then you will get even more frames. Therefore, you can expect games like Valorant, Overwatch 2, and Counter-Strike 2 to run smooth as butter with 140+ fps.

When it comes to other graphically intensive tasks like video editing, 2D and 3D animations, Photoshop, and more, you can also do them pretty well here.

However, there are two downsides to buying this laptop – poor battery life and a heavy weight of 4.3 kg. Therefore, it’s best if you don’t carry this out much. Also, if you are using this laptop, try to use it plugged into the charger at all times.

Final Verdict: Should You Buy Laptops With Dedicated AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile Graphics Cards?  

Personally, RTX graphics cards are a better option in 2023. They have better driver support, plus they run better on laptops as well. However, if you cannot afford a laptop with RTX 2080 or higher, then the Acer Predator Helios 500 PH517-61-R0GX Gaming Laptop with dedicated AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 mobile graphics is the best option for you in 2023 under $2000.

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