Custom Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics cards may be few and far between

At least one of AMD's partners is planning to skip making a custom Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics cards, and another one is on the fence, according to TomsHardware. The supposed issue for both companies is the amount of variance in the quality of Vega GPUs.

It is generally assumed that whenever AMD or Nvidia release a new graphics card, third-party partners will follow suit with specialized models that feature factory overclocks and custom cooling solutions. And that is typically the case, save for the oddball SKU that is reserved for bulk OEM system builders.

That may not be the case with Vega. MSI told TomsHardware that it "won't be making a custom card anytime soon," but chose not to elaborate. Gigabyte, on the other hand, said it was likely the company would build a custom Vega 64 card, but was not 100 percent certain.

Several others are planning to build custom Vega 64 cards, such as Asus, PowerColor, Sapphire, and XFX. And out of those, PowerColor is aiming for November as it waits on DRAM shipments to arrive.

As for Gigabyte and MSI, the hesitation seems to be over quality control. Sources told TomsHardware that AMD's board partners are having a tough time figuring out stable overclocks due to differences from chip to chip. That's a problem because factory overclocked cards are backed by warranties.

There have also been complaints about discrepancies between the temperatures the GPU reports versus what board partners are finding when taking their own measurements. This applies to both the GPU and capacitors that sit below it.

TomsHardware also claims there are yet other issues arising from different packages for Vega. Apparently Vega GPUs have been shipping with molded and unmolded packages of varying height, making it difficult to build coolers that make optimal contact with the GPU and memory.

For the hardware partners that are planning to release custom Vega 64, they're optimistic about shipping before the end of the year.