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
The primary specifications of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 Mobile graphics cards for laptops are:
Codename | Vega 10 Mobile |
Architecture | GCN 5.0 |
CUDA Cores/Pipelines/Shader Units | 3584 |
Core Clock Speed | 1138 MHz |
Boost Clock Speed | 1301 MHz |
Transistor Count | 12,500 million |
Manufacturing Technology | 14 nm |
TSP (Thermal Design Power) | 120 Watts |
Texture Fill Rate | 291.4 |
Memory Interface | PCIe 3.0 |
Memory Type | HBM2 |
Maximum Memory | 8 GB |
Memory Bus Width | 2048 Bit |
Memory Clock Speed | 1600 MHz |
Memory Bandwidth | 409.6 GB/s |
API Support | DirectX 12_1, Shader Model 6.4, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan 1.1.125 |
Release Date | June 2018 |
Support | Medium 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
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.:
GAMES | HIGHEST AVERAGE FPS (1080p) |
Microsoft Flight Simulator | 32 |
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands | 60 |
Assassin’s Creed Unity | 122 |
Assassins Creed Origins | 95 |
Assassins Creed Odyssey | 70 |
Assassins Creed Valhalla | 61 |
Watch Dogs: Legion | 62 |
Red Dead Redemption 2 | 72 |
Horizon: Zero Dawn | 75 |
Total War: Three Kingdoms | 84 |
Marvel’s Avengers | 80 |
The Division 2 | 85 |
Borderlands 3 | 84 |
Control | 88 |
Need For Speed: Heat | 93 |
Metro: Exodus | 96 |
Hitman 3 | 100 |
Grand Theft Auto V | 101 |
Total War: Warhammer 2 | 105 |
Just Cause 4 | 106 |
Far Cry: New Dawn | 110 |
Death Stranding | 115 |
Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord | 119 |
Forza Horizon 4 | 120 |
Rise of The Tomb Raider | 144 |
Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 122 |
Battlefield 1 | 167 |
Battlefield V | 130 |
Far Cry 5 | 128 |
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 132 |
F1 2019 | 160 |
Crysis 3 | 166 |
DOOM: Eternal | 130 |
Wolfenstein 2: New Colossus | 162 |
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) |
Display | 17.3 FHD (144 Hz refresh rate with AMD FreeSync support) |
Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 2700 (3.2 GHz) |
Graphics Card | Dedicated AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 mobile |
Memory | 16 GB DDR4 SDRAM |
Storage | 256 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 Life | 1.5 hours – 4 hours |
Weight | 4.3 kg |
Release Date | July 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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