AMD Radeon RX Vega review: Vega 56, Vega 64, and liquid-cooled Vega 64 tested

Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Next up: Ghost Recon: Wildlands, a drop-dead gorgeous and notoriously punishing game based on Ubisoft’s Anvil engine. Not even the GTX 1080 Ti put in a decent showing at Ultra graphics settings at 4K, so we dropped down to Very High, which “is targeted to high-end hardware.” It’s a game that includes some Nvidia GameWorks features, but again, we test with those disabled.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Unless you’re running a GTX 1080 Ti or willing to reduce graphics settings below what we tested here—and for reference, dropping down to the High preset only added 3fps of performance to the air-cooled Vega 64—this game is much better suited to 1440p than 4K. The Vega 56 draws even with the GTX 1070 at those resolutions in this Nvidia-leaning game, though the GeForce card opens the lead a bit at 1080p.

Likewise, the GTX 1080 maintains a 5 percent lead over both Vega 64 models at 4K, which only amounts to a couple of frames per second in practice. It keeps that advantage over the air-cooled Vega 56 at 1440p, though the liquid-cooled version closes the gap.

The PNY GTX 1080 Ti XLR8 still carries the performance torch, with a 32 percent performance advantage over the GTX 1080 at 4K, and 26 percent performance advantage at 1440p. The GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition would likely be roughly 5 percent slower.

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