Current GPU inflation has left logical investors like me scavenging our old parts to pump out that crisp 120 framerate we all have grown so attached to with our 120 HZ+ monitors. Using this pair of AMD VEGA 64's from 2018, I have managed to manifest a worthy Team Red Battlestation.
Let's first start off with an important note the VEGA 64 has HBMII memory which is not synonymous with DDR5 or DDR6 like most other AMD and Nvidia GPUs have used for gaming. This is a workload memory type, arguably significantly underpowered and throttled as an early generation. Being so caught up with RDNA2 and the Ryzen 9 state-of-the-art parts, AMD was not focused much on this type of memory.
What is Tokamak and Why is @phusionphil on it?
First off, it's not a drug but it made me feel like some kind of desperate addict going back to old habits, a 1500 Watt PSU to have 2 GPU's running that both like to ask for over 300 Watts from time to time.
I have seen things, yes, I have seen 2 of these VEGA's eat up a 1250 Plantiunum rated PSU like it was chump meat in a predators den. it's funny that I was able to mine, but when the CPU would ask for a full load with the PBO settings from AMD Ryzen Master, the TDP would trip the PSU.
Hence I am on the Tokamak again
1500 Watts... I hope to soon find a more modern single GPU to match the rest of the specs in this build. The appropriate GPU would be a liquid-cooled 6900 XT... That is the dream right now as it costs more than the entire build so far, which recycled a case.
I Present to You My Finished Build Post-Ergo Hoc a GPU 2022
You bet Behemoth was pumping through the 10-year-old surround system I have... lets not talk about the audio aspects of this build LOL!!!
System
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
MOBO: ASUS TUF Gaming X570 ATX
RAM: Trident NEO 3200mhz 2x8gb 16gb
GPU0: XFX AMD RX VEGA 64 8gb HBMII
GPU1: AMD VEGA Frontier Edition 16gb HBMII
PSU: Rosewill Tokamak 1500 Watt Titanium Rated PSU
CASE: Fractal Design Define XL R2 Black Silent
AIO: ARCTIC COOLING Liquid Freezer II - 240mm
After doing that deep dive on God Tier AMD PC the biggest takeaway I received was the fact that AMD is actually doing a good job with overclocking software this time around. The Power Boost Overdrive feature works very well, especially when paired with the preferred 3600mhz DDR4 System RAMM.
The 3200mhz RAM I listed, runs at 3606mhz D.O.C.P. this technicality was the only part of this build, aside from legacy issues with a HHD, that would be hard on new builders. Don't be put off because you are new, building is something everyone could enjoy who likes being creative and handy.
The biggest surprise to me, although I feel stupid for not realizing this before, was realizing that the Ryzen 9 5950X was actually going to use 400 Watts about at max power peaks. When it hits over 4.9ghz NO TUNING REQUIRED, it's amazing that PBO can do this so effectively, when I am gaming about 3 or 4 of the CPU cores is consistently over 4600ghz which is way over 4.3 it shipped with stock.
This combined with the 2 GPU's asking for up to 350 Watts in remote scenarios, lead to some serious system instability with the 1000 Watt PSU I originally hoped to use, but alas I am back on that Tokamak 🤣