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Radeon RX480 Review Thread, Launching Now!

Infinite Xero

Infinite Xero

Member
Coulomb_Barrier said:
Seems the fabled AMD driver improvements over time is happening faster than normal. AMD released new RotTR drivers today and in their review Hexus benched the game with them for their Nitro 4GB and 8GB review.

Nearly 20fps increase over the reference 480 at 1080p. What's surprising is the Nitro beats even the Fury X now in this game
Click to expand...

It seems like the 480 is using the latest driver while the other AMD cards are using older drivers.

Why are the Sapphire cards almost 20fps faster at 1080p than the reference RX 480? The release notes of the Crimson 16.7.3 driver show there's a performance uplift compared to older drivers, but we didn't expect this much.
Click to expand...

Although, according to this post, it seems the Fury X gains 8% but is still slower than 480. As a Fury owner, that makes me kinda mad considering the specs.
 
Coulomb_Barrier

Coulomb_Barrier

Member
DSix said:
Due to the nitro coming into market, I'm seeing the default blower models going down in price quite a bit.

Should I buy a stock RX 480 or is it important I wait for AIBs?
Click to expand...

I would get one of the cheaper AIB cards. If you aren't particularly noise sensitive or don't plan to overclock, a cheap reference is also a good buy.

Infinite Xero said:
It seems like the 480 is using the latest driver while the other AMD cards are using older drivers.

Although, according to this post, it seems the Fury X gains 8% but is still slower than 480. As a Fury owner, that makes me kinda mad considering the specs.
Click to expand...

Yeah the drivers released today were only for RotTR, and it seems AMD focused on the 480 with their optimizations. Shouldn't be anywhere near a Fury X.
 
S

SolarPowered

Member
DSix said:
Due to the nitro coming into market, I'm seeing the default blower models going down in price quite a bit.

Should I buy a stock RX 480 or is it important I wait for AIBs?
Click to expand...
The 4GB AIB cards at $220 and $230 kick the 8GB reference models right in the rear end. They're easily THE best bang for your buck below $300 if you upgrade often. The quieter and cooler performance are the cherries on top.
 
dr_rus

dr_rus

Member
Review: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro 4GB and 8GB OC
The 8GB one is probably the best 480 custom at the moment.

icecold1983 said:
your information is incorrect. kepler was when nvidia dropped the fine grained scheduling. it was last seen in fermi. everything he told you is correct. tho i should point out that dynamic parallelism and hyper Q is only usable under cuda when doing compute only. i dont believe its usable at all for games.
Click to expand...

What's "fine grained scheduling"? Kepler moved from h/w dynamic stream scheduling to s/w static stream scheduling to save power. Nothing's changed in how fine grained it is.
 
K

kinggroin

Banned
Infinite Xero said:
It seems like the 480 is using the latest driver while the other AMD cards are using older drivers.



Although, according to this post, it seems the Fury X gains 8% but is still slower than 480. As a Fury owner, that makes me kinda mad considering the specs.
Click to expand...

Taking a page out of NVIDIA'S planned obsolescence playbook.


Edit: That's a joke before y'all run me over
 
joecanada

joecanada

Member
Is there a consensus yet on best 480 yet? Or still waiting for some AIB s.? I noticed the sapphire was getting pretty close in price to the 1060 so I'm still waiting kinda to see how everything sorted out.
 
K

kaiyo

Member
kinggroin said:
Taking a page out of NVIDIA'S planned obsolescence playbook.


Edit: That's a joke before y'all run me over
Click to expand...

3o7TKJyYq6N0y4ewyQ.gif
 
dr_rus

dr_rus

Member
DonMigs85 said:
It IS weird though. The improved tesselation capabilites and color compression alone wouldn't account for such gainz
Click to expand...

It's hardly the first time AMD is using chip-specific driver optimizations. Release notes clearly state that the 10% improvement in RoTTR only relates to RX480. They'll probably bring tem to other cards in some of the following releases.
 
DonMigs85

DonMigs85

Member
dr_rus said:
It's hardly the first time AMD is using chip-specific driver optimizations. Release notes clearly state that the 10% improvement in RoTTR only relates to RX480. They'll probably bring tem to other cards in some of the following releases.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling Pitcairn could get left behind sooner rather than later, but at least it's still relatively closer to modern GCN cards than Kepler was to Maxwell/Pascal.
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
tebunker said:
Ugh if this is indeed $260ish I could find a way to get this. I hate the land rush type mentality that comes with new gpus. I would love to just walk in to my local store and get one off the shelf now.
Click to expand...

Seems like widespread availability should start later this month. Certainly hope so since it is kind of ridiculous it has taken this long.

On the other hand that forces a decision. I'd kind of rather just get what's available so I don't have to choose. Sapphire, MSI, and Powercolor's offerings are all nice.



Nitro OC was up on Newegg for a few minutes. Had to update my card info and wasn't able to get an order in before they ran out.
 
D

Dance Inferno

Unconfirmed Member
The Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+ 4GB went up on Newegg last night, and it was in stock for a grand total of 5 minutes...

I snagged one.

It's arriving on Thursday. Super psyched to replace my R9 280 and see what it can do. :D
 
R

RootCause

Member
Dance Inferno said:
The Sapphire RX 480 Nitro+ 4GB went up on Newegg last night, and it was in stock for a grand total of 5 minutes...

I snagged one.

It's arriving on Thursday. Super psyched to replace my R9 280 and see what it can do. :D
Click to expand...
That's awesome. And here I am, waiting for Amazon to ship the card I bought more than a week ago. :/
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Saw the 4GCB card last night but didn't want to get that. I just don't want to "skimp" on VRAM a third time since I don't get new GPUs that often.
 
D

Dance Inferno

Unconfirmed Member
chaosblade said:
Saw the 4GCB card last night but didn't want to get that. I just don't want to "skimp" on VRAM a third time since I don't get new GPUs that often.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'll probably upgrade in 2-3 years and I don't foresee any games exceeding 4GB VRAM on 1080p anytime soon, so I chose the cheaper option.
 
Z

zer0das

Banned
Finally got to order an 8 GB XFX 480 and it is shipping. Been waiting on my 4 GB for a month in backorder, said screw it, I'm not waiting potentially another month. Glad that's finally done, and I got the brand I wanted to too. :>
 
B

Bittercup

Member
Is this the right decision for me? I could need some advice.

Right now I have a GTX 760 4GB and I'm really looking forward to upgrading it with the RX 480. Seems like the most sensible GPU for my budget and the initial $200 price sounded amazing.
Unfortunately with the 8GB model and European prices it's more like 270-280€ for a reference model and everyone was saying you should wait for the customized partner cards so I waited.
Now they are getting reviews and sound better in every way but prices are more like 300€ and upwards there. I have never spend that much money on a GPU. And they don't seem to be available anywhere here.

Fortunately I got lucky and could get a reference card with 8GB for 250€. That's a lot closer to what I would like to pay in general. But not sure if that's the right decision. Buying an inferior model when the partner cards are better. But with that price its a 50-60€ difference for ~5-6% more performance and better cooling. Should I still wait for a different card? My feeling is that the difference in price is too high but I don't want to cheap out and regret it later. I usually don't buy GPUs more often than once every ~2-3 years so I don't want to make a mistake.
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Bittercup said:
Is this the right decision for me? I could need some advice.

Right now I have a GTX 760 4GB and I'm really looking forward to upgrading it with the RX 480. Seems like the most sensible GPU for my budget and the initial $200 price sounded amazing.
Unfortunately with the 8GB model and European prices it's more like 270-280€ for a reference model and everyone was saying you should wait for the customized partner cards so I waited.
Now they are getting reviews and sound better in every way but prices are more like 300€ and upwards there. I have never spend that much money on a GPU. And they don't seem to be available anywhere here.

Fortunately I got lucky and could get a reference card with 8GB for 250€. That's a lot closer to what I would like to pay in general. But not sure if that's the right decision. Buying an inferior model when the partner cards are better. But with that price its a 50-60€ difference for ~5-6% more performance and better cooling. Should I still wait for a different card? My feeling is that the difference in price is too high but I don't want to cheap out and regret it later. I usually don't buy GPUs more often than once every ~2-3 years so I don't want to make a mistake.
Click to expand...

Prices seem inflated right now due to the low supply, for whatever reason. Seemingly a combination of poor supply plus ethereum miners and some scalpers buying up what does become available.

I'd say bite on a decently priced reference card if you want something now. If you can wait, then wait. Supposedly availability will improve this month, but we'll see. Non-reference cards were supposed to hit last month and we've seen how that worked out, basically paper launches. The fact Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and XFX have held out until "mid August" lends some credence to the idea that availability could improve.
 
R

Rainy Dog

Member
Bittercup said:
Is this the right decision for me? I could need some advice.

Right now I have a GTX 760 4GB and I'm really looking forward to upgrading it with the RX 480. Seems like the most sensible GPU for my budget and the initial $200 price sounded amazing.
Unfortunately with the 8GB model and European prices it's more like 270-280€ for a reference model and everyone was saying you should wait for the customized partner cards so I waited.
Now they are getting reviews and sound better in every way but prices are more like 300€ and upwards there. I have never spend that much money on a GPU. And they don't seem to be available anywhere here.

Fortunately I got lucky and could get a reference card with 8GB for 250€. That's a lot closer to what I would like to pay in general. But not sure if that's the right decision. Buying an inferior model when the partner cards are better. But with that price its a 50-60€ difference for ~5-6% more performance and better cooling. Should I still wait for a different card? My feeling is that the difference in price is too high but I don't want to cheap out and regret it later. I usually don't buy GPUs more often than once every ~2-3 years so I don't want to make a mistake.
Click to expand...

I would hang fire and see what the RX 470 ends up priced at. Supposed to release today so we should hear start getting some concrete details anytime now.
 
B

BlizzyAzz

Member
Bittercup said:
Is this the right decision for me? I could need some advice.

Right now I have a GTX 760 4GB and I'm really looking forward to upgrading it with the RX 480. Seems like the most sensible GPU for my budget and the initial $200 price sounded amazing.
Unfortunately with the 8GB model and European prices it's more like 270-280€ for a reference model and everyone was saying you should wait for the customized partner cards so I waited.
Now they are getting reviews and sound better in every way but prices are more like 300€ and upwards there. I have never spend that much money on a GPU. And they don't seem to be available anywhere here.

Fortunately I got lucky and could get a reference card with 8GB for 250€. That's a lot closer to what I would like to pay in general. But not sure if that's the right decision. Buying an inferior model when the partner cards are better. But with that price its a 50-60€ difference for ~5-6% more performance and better cooling. Should I still wait for a different card? My feeling is that the difference in price is too high but I don't want to cheap out and regret it later. I usually don't buy GPUs more often than once every ~2-3 years so I don't want to make a mistake.
Click to expand...

Well why not wait a few hours till the 470 gets official released today, it should have a comparable performance for probably 30 Euros less (just a guess not a fact), prices will be regulated itself over the next few months. The 480 8gb reference design was low as 234 Euros at Amazon.fr, so if price is important just be patience.
 
B

Bittercup

Member
chaosblade said:
Prices seem inflated right now due to the low supply, for whatever reason. Seemingly a combination of poor supply plus ethereum miners and some scalpers buying up what does become available.

I'd say bite on a decently priced reference card if you want something now. If you can wait, then wait. Supposedly availability will improve this month, but we'll see. Non-reference cards were supposed to hit last month and we've seen how that worked out, basically paper launches. The fact Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, and XFX have held out until "mid August" lends some credence to the idea that availability could improve.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Yes I could wait a bit. It gets tedious since I'm waiting since June to play Mirror's Edge and it's now well over a month since the official 480 release but if it's worth it I could wait longer.
The price thing though I don't know if that's actually inflated right now or just normal European pricing. If I'm not misremembering reference cards launched for 270€ as well. 20-30€ more for a custom card seems normal, I think and some reviews mentioned a 300€ price tag.

Rainy Dog said:
I would hang fire and see what the RX 470 ends up priced at. Supposed to release today so we should hear start getting some concrete details anytime now.
Click to expand...
BlizzyAzz said:
Well why not wait a few hours till the 470 gets official released today, it should have a comparable performance for probably 30 Euros less (just a guess not a fact), prices will be regulated itself over the next few months. The 480 8gb reference design was low as 234 Euros at Amazon.fr, so if price is important just be patience.
Click to expand...
Interesting, thank you both. I missed that. Not sure if I want to go with a slower card, but I'll wait and check it out. Maybe it's a better deal after all :)
 
R

RootCause

Member
nailbombxx said:
so when am I going to able to buy one of these things

i need a new PC dammit
Click to expand...
Well it's out now. Unfortunetly it doesn't appear to be a lot of them available(at their msrp).
I bought mine more than a week ago, and still nothing from Amazon, on when the card is going to get shipped. :/
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Looks like we should get more info on XFX's non-reference 480 tomorrow.

Some people in Asia and Australia seem to have it already, and impressions are really positive. Seems like it might be up with MSI's card as possibly the best one.

Assuming those impressions stick after reviews hit, I'll probably go with whatever I can get first (at not ridiculous prices) between MSI, XFX, and Powercolor.
 
D

Deleted member 465307

Unconfirmed Member
I'm looking at getting a 4 GB version of this card in mid-2017. However, I've seen some discussion of 4 GB cards being in short supply. Is there a reason to believe that the 4 GB version of this card will still exist next year?
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
DonMigs85 said:
I believe there are some reference cards with a factory overclock though
Click to expand...

Only XFX released one like that I think. And apparently it doesn't actually maintain that OC and has to throttle a lot.

I wouldn't get a reference card unless you are buying right now and can't wait. So far everything indicates that sometime later this month 480s should get a big restock including the non-reference cards. And if there is sufficient stock prices should suck less.

kirbyfan407 said:
I'm looking at getting a 4 GB version of this card in mid-2017. However, I've seen some discussion of 4 GB cards being in short supply. Is there a reason to believe that the 4 GB version of this card will still exist next year?
Click to expand...

There will probably be some 4GB cards (non-reference ones), but the vast majority will probably be 8GB.

470 is probably going to make a bigger splash in the ~$200 price bracket. Non-reference 470s have pretty similar performance to a stock 4GB 480 but are much better built cards.
 
D

Deleted member 465307

Unconfirmed Member
chaosblade said:
There will probably be some 4GB cards (non-reference ones), but the vast majority will probably be 8GB.

470 is probably going to make a bigger splash in the ~$200 price bracket. Non-reference 470s have pretty similar performance to a stock 4GB 480 but are much better built cards.
Click to expand...

Oh? What makes them better built? I checked out reviews, but I was mostly disappointed since I was hoping for a $150 MSRP. I'm basically looking to buy the card with the best performance/price ratio in early/mid 2017, which I think is going to be either the 470 or 480 4 GB.
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
kirbyfan407 said:
Oh? What makes them better built? I checked out reviews, but I was mostly disappointed since I was hoping for a $150 MSRP. I'm basically looking to buy the card with the best performance/price ratio in early/mid 2017, which I think is going to be either the 470 or 480 4 GB.
Click to expand...

Better boards, substantially better coolers. The reference 480 is pretty shitty, and the reference 470 is basically the same thing with a slightly gimped chip.

The $150 rumor was never all that solid, and wouldn't really make sense just based on how close the 470 comes to the 480. It's so close that 4GB 480s are redundant. A good one is going to cost almost as much as an 8GB 480, and a less good one isn't going to be notably better than a good 470 that will cost the same (if not less).

AMD's positioning with the Polaris cards is really wonky and confusing. They probably would have been better off cutting down the 470 more and selling it as a $150 card.
 
D

Deleted member 465307

Unconfirmed Member
chaosblade said:
Better boards, substantially better coolers. The reference 480 is pretty shitty, and the reference 470 is basically the same thing with a slightly gimped chip.

The $150 rumor was never all that solid, and wouldn't really make sense just based on how close the 470 comes to the 480. It's so close that 4GB 480s are redundant. A good one is going to cost almost as much as an 8GB 480, and a less good one isn't going to be notably better than a good 470 that will cost the same (if not less).

AMD's positioning with the Polaris cards is really wonky and confusing. They probably would have been better off cutting down the 470 more and selling it as a $150 card.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Okay, thanks! In that case, I'll consider the 470. I'll try to find some reviews that show performance-per-dollar comparisons next year when I'm looking to buy.
 
SinSilla

SinSilla

Member
I literally ordered the Red Devil 5 Minutes ago before reading the Guru3D review of the MSI Gaming.

Both cards have the same noise level (both are very silent under load) and power consumption. But the MSI has slightly better load temps and is usually 1-3fps faster than the Powercolor.

Did i order the wrong card? Should i switch?

Buying a 480 feels a little weird coming from a 970, but i got myself a nice freesync monitor and guess this will make more of a difference than just a sidegrade / slight upgrade.
 
S

slash000

Zeboyd Games
SinSilla said:
I literally ordered the Red Devil 5 Minutes ago before reading the Guru3D review of the MSI Gaming.

Both cards have the same noise level (both are very silent under load) and power consumption. But the MSI has slightly better load temps and is usually 1-3fps faster than the Powercolor.

Did i order the wrong card? Should i switch?
Click to expand...

1-3fps difference won't really be noticeable. Was there a price difference?
Also.. doesn't the Devil have some kind of extra quiet or extra low power mode or something that the other 480s lack?
 
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