While (most) reviewers had enough time to prepare their Threadripper reviews, RX Vega is a different story.

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64/56

It appears that AMD decided to sample RX Vega 56 (the cut-down version) to reviewers just recently. The NDA on reviews ends on August 14th, while embargo on unboxing ends tomorrow. We are talking about both Vega graphics cards.

Interestingly, according to GamersNexus AMD asked reviewers to prioritize Vega 56 over Vega 64:

“As of today, AMD noted that RX Vega 56 cards have been shipped to reviewers, along with a request that reviewers specifically “prioritize coverage” of RX Vega 56 over RX Vega 64 under time-constrained conditions.”

This is not something you ask reviewers to do just a few days before NDA ends. This whole launch seems very rushed, despite the fact that NDA date was known for some time now. AMD has only started sending samples a few days ago, which means reviewers didn’t have much time to play with their new cards. A comprehensive review takes about a week to do (at least by my standards), I’m not sure about the quality of the upcoming RX Vega reviews at this point.

The full list of embargo dates follows:

Radeon RX Vega 56

Unboxing embargo: August 12, 11AM EDT,

Performance embargo: August 14, 9AM EDT,

Launch: August 28th.

Radeon RX Vega 64

Unboxing embargo: August 12, 11AM EDT.

Performance embargo: August 14, 9AM EDT.

Launch: August 14th.

Source: GamersNexus