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Radeon RX480 Review Thread, Launching Now!

D

Durante

Member
R9 390s seem to go for ~280€ right now, so there isn't really a massive movement in price/performance (but obviously there is some).

brotkasten said:
The card seems to have a good price/performance value. But after reading the PCGH review, it seems like the card is unsuitable for my needs. It draws 150W-160W under load and potentially stresses the PEG port a little too much (since it can potentially draw more than 75W from it). It's not something that should concern regular users, but I don't want to stress my riser card with it.

Guess I'll have to wait for the 1060 or RX470.
Click to expand...
This makes it tempting to drag out TDP discussions in pre-release threads. But I'll leave that up to the imagination.
 
E

enemy2k

Member
Aztechnology said:
Temps are my biggest concern and seem to be a common theme across all the reviews. The base boost clock is hitting 80C+ that's not good. Really really need to see how low custom AIB's can bring those temps for OC'ing. I'm really surprised at the temps though given the supposed TDP and wattage improvements. I really do wonder if that reference cooler is just that bad.
Click to expand...

I think it may just be the cooler which is disappointing as AMD hyped this as being as good as coolers on their $500 cards. Hopefully with some decent AIB coolers they can shave 10 degrees of that base clock temp? Or maybe more? Idk. Would certainly make the card more attractive in that category if so.
 
N

napata

Member
Vuze said:
219€ for 4GB
269€ for 8GB

http://www.mindfactory.de/Hardware/Grafikkarten+(VGA)/Radeon+RX+Serie/RX+480.html
Click to expand...

That's so bad. I can get an AIB 390 for €280 which beats this card at 1440p. Almost no progress in prince/performance.

Rodin said:
So it's close to the 980 in "neutral" games, but still beats the 970 even in games where Nvidia has an advantage. Very, very nice for a 200$ card.
Click to expand...

Nah. In neutral games the 980 easily beats it. At 1080p it's between a 390 and a 390x. At 1440p the 390 starts pulling ahead.
 
M

Marlenus

Member
Disappointing to be honest. Performance is OK but the power draw is awful, at 110-120 Watts it wouldn't be too bad and the cooler would be able to cope but as it is it's going above spec.

This shows why PS4k has a 911Mhz clock speed and it means Scorpio will be based on a Vega design.

The only potential saving grace is that the AIBs are been given much better binned chips for their custom cooled designs leading to lower power and better clocks.

Based on the specs and talk of improved utilisation I was expecting better than the 390x at 1080p and about equal at 1440p due to the reduction in ROPs.
 
G

GhostTrick

Banned
Durante said:
R9 390s seem to go for ~280€ right now, so there isn't really a massive movement in price/performance (but obviously there is some).

This makes it tempting to drag out TDP discussions in pre-release threads. But I'll leave that up to the imagination.
Click to expand...




GTX980 is going for 300€ right now.
 
S

Seiniyta

Member
Okay, looked up the specs of my monitor and it only has a DVI-D video output, will a DVI-D to Displayport cable work just fine?
 
ethomaz

ethomaz

Banned
After read some reviews my thoughts...

- Avg. performance below GTX 970 with some games performing best on RX 480.
- In terms of architecture looks like it didn't have any performance improvements, in most cases looks like a downgrade in SP/CU performance compared with previous AMD's cards.
- RX 480 4G uses slower memory.
- Over almost non-existent for reference cards.
- Power draw increase is unstable and didn't scale with clock increase.
- Temperatures are not ideal in reference cards.
- Sweet price for performance.

Well overall it is a good launch due price but in terms of architecture and improvements Polaris 10 / RX 480 doesn't look good and I'm guessing the poor GF 14nm FinFET is holding the chip in terms of overclock/temperatures/power draw... I should love to see this chip being made in TSMC 16nm FinFET+.

Most people won't have reason to upgrade unless you are holding some mid-end cards from last two generations... 390+ or 970+ are more than happy with their over 1 year old cards holding great against RX 480.

Definitively not the best launch from AMD neither the worst... it won't put the world on fire or increase competition.

PS. For a company that says performance/watt is the main focus on Polaris it left to desire... the power draws is crazy high and near GTX 1070.
 
Bl@de

Bl@de

Member
Hmm ... power draw is pretty disappointing :/ Needs more than a 1070, is a little bit hotter and louder. Not sure if this is the right thing for my small HTPC. At least it's short.

Positive: Seems like frametimes improved and performance is all right (along with improvements to tesselation and other things).

Will keep my 770 for now and play the good old backlog, wait for custom cards and the GTX 1060 (possibily even Vega...) I need more performance (A cool and quiet custom 480X with Fury performance for example).
 
T

Tagyhag

Member
So glad AMD is putting out better cards than before. Can't let Nvidia take over everything, and it seems like a great VR starter card as well.
 
E

enemy2k

Member
LordOfChaos said:
TR



My impression too. Polaris is a big jump, but still not to new GTX efficiency.
Nvidia learned the lesson Intel did a long time ago that efficiency = power in a universe with physics and thermal limits. Do wonder what their 200 dollar-ish answer will be (they'll probably upcharge from AMD a bit).
Click to expand...
It's impressive just how efficient Pascal is tbh. I hope the RX480 will push Nvidia to release a "8800gt" of this gen at around $200. Hey, a man can still dream right?
 
A

Aztechnology

Member
GhostTrick said:
GTX980 is going for 300€ right now.
Click to expand...

Yes but when it comes to future proofing a bit the 480 is a better bet. Will be supported longer (970/980 will slowly stopped receiving quality attention from Nvidia on Drivers) in addition lower Vram and not as high performance in most DX12 games. Remember also this is essentially the card that will see lots of optimization techniques for console too, so add that to the mix with custom AIB's coming later. Not worth buying a 970 or 980 IMO. For the price range this is the card to go with. Just wait for custom coolers.
 
L

Litri

Member
Ok, not the incredible beast some expected but pretty good. I think I will take one for my new PC and maybe crossfire it later this year.
 
D

darkwing

Member
uhm so what is the bottom line here, you cannot get a better card at this price point then? i'm still rocking an HD6850 lol
 
Z

Zojirushi

Member
Not sure why people all of a sudden care about power draw for desktop use so much but this could be a problem for console use of Polaris/Vega right?
 
R

Rodin

Member
napata said:
That's so bad. I can get an AIB 390 for €280 which beats this card at 1440p. Almost no progress in prince/performance.



Nah. In neutral games the 980 easily beats it. At 1080p it's between a 390 and a 390x. At 1440p the 390 starts pulling ahead.
Click to expand...
Drivers are still crap (it's obvious considering it's a new card but you can easily see that from the trainwreck results in frametime as well), which means it should improve a bit.

Anyway, this is a 1080p card. I doubt people spend 200$ for a GPU and expect to have optimal performances at 1440p.

EDIT: i was looking at tpup benchs now that the website is finally up, the card is overall 1% slower than the 390 at 1440p, it's basically on par with the 390X at 1080p and only 10% slower than the 980 at the same res for less than half the price, so it's still good, especially considering it has 2x the VRAM.
 
The Cowboy

The Cowboy

Member
Looking on overclockers uk the prices seem very good @ £175 for the 4gb and £220 for the 8gb (lowest priced cards), but is no one using a 3rd party cooler - all the cards have the reference one.
 
ethomaz

ethomaz

Banned
darkwing said:
uhm so what is the bottom line here, you cannot get a better card at this price point then? i'm still rocking an HD6850 lol
Click to expand...
Solid performance for the price but temps and power draw are issues in reference cards... maybe it is better to spend a little more in AIB customs.
 
E

enemy2k

Member
Zojirushi said:
Not sure why people all of a sudden care about power draw for desktop use so much but this could be a problem for console use of Polaris/Vega right?
Click to expand...

Where have you been bro? People have been caring about power draw, efficiency and related things on the desktop for awhile.
 
H

hardcastlemccormick

Banned
Zojirushi said:
Not sure why people all of a sudden care about power draw for desktop use so much but this could be a problem for console use of Polaris/Vega right?
Click to expand...

People always care about power draw. It defines the possible uses for the card in smaller, cheaper builds with less power requirements like HTPCs, and it also gives more headroom for OC. Personally, I would always lean toward the card with better power draw, even if I take a hit on performance or price.
 
J

J4mm1nJ03

Member
Seiniyta said:
Okay, looked up the specs of my monitor and it only has a DVI-D video output, will a DVI-D to Displayport cable work just fine?
Click to expand...

What HZ are you running? If you're just at 60 an adapter should be fine. Something higher like 144 requires an "Active" adapter which tend to run $80-100. I need DVI and I run a 144hz monitor so I'm waiting for AIB.
 
B

beinfilms

Member
Well, shit. I guess I gotta reassess my plans AGAIN, and come back to this over a 970. Hopefully, the non-reference cards aren't too far away...
 
P

Phinor

Member
It's worth noting that the 4GB $199 card is in fact slower than the 8GB variant that most sites have reviewed. Not much slower mind you, but it's a relatively tight race between 970-980-290-390-480 so the details matter. So when comparing those 8GB results to other cards, remember that it's a $239-249 card, not a $199 card. Sure, a little overclocking helps to get the 4GB performance up, but it helps all the other cards too.
 
L

Luigiv

Member
Overall performance per dollar seems ok but performance per watt is abysmal for finFET and overclockability seems spotty for what's suppose to be the top yield chip. It'll be interesting to see how the the 1060 and 1050 compare.
 
V

ViciousDS

Banned
due to that price point


Totally building me a microatx cube tower with this. I need something cheap and mobile.


Whats the best bang for buck intel processor out there right now?
 
O

opticalmace

Member
Phinor said:
It's worth noting that the 4GB $199 card is in fact slower than the 8GB variant that most sites have reviewed. So when comparing those 8GB results to other cards, remember that it's a $239-249 card, not a $199 card. Sure, a little overclocking helps to get the 4GB performance up, but it helps all the other cards too.
Click to expand...

Got a link?
 
W

wachie

Member
From Canucks - http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...9-radeon-rx480-8gb-performance-review-24.html

DX11

EFKBFpm.jpg


Actually lining up the RX480 8GB against some of its closest performance competitors shows us an interesting yin and yang situation. At 1080P –a screen resolution most gamers in this segment currently have- it polls above the GTX 970 and is just 13% slower than the once-mighty GTX 980. Meanwhile moving on to 1440P highlights NVIDIA’s weakness at higher resolutions since this card is able to move even further afield of the GTX 970 and nearly catches the GTX 980. Given the fact these two cards were priced at $329 and $549 respectively not that long ago, it is abundantly obvious that AMD is well on their way towards offering the best price / performance GPU around.
Click to expand...

DX12

GuKUibQ.jpg


Moving on to DX12 and we see AMD’s new architecture really coming into its own against the NVIDIA cards. It absolutely demolishes the GTX 970 across the board (even in NVIDIA-friendly games like Tomb Raider) and even manages to run circles around that once-expensive GTX 980. These tests show Maxwell’s performance in current DX12 applications is nothing short of embarrassing and proves this architecture simply wasn’t designed with these types of workloads in mind. How this translates to Pascal or upcoming DX12-based games is unknown at this point (remember, our sample size is quite small here) but something drastic needs to be done if NVIDIA’s mid-tier competitors are to have any hope against Polaris.
Click to expand...
 
D

Durante

Member
Luigiv said:
Overall performance per dollar seems ok but performance per watt is abysmal for finFET and overclockability seems spotty for what's suppose to be the top yield chip. It'll be interesting to see how the the 1060 and 1050 compare.
Click to expand...
Given 1070/80 results, I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which 1060 is not more power efficient than 480 (it will likely also be a bit more expensive, current rumours are 249 and 299 for the 3 and 6 GB variants).
 
N

NormalFish

Banned
well the numbers are lower than expected, unfortunately.

Really anxious to see how non-reference cards will improve, since there seems to be some consensus that there's a lot of room for improvement with overclocking once you give it a proper cooler.
 
A

Avtomat

Member
Marlenus said:
Disappointing to be honest. Performance is OK but the power draw is awful, at 110-120 Watts it wouldn't be too bad and the cooler would be able to cope but as it is it's going above spec.

This shows why PS4k has a 911Mhz clock speed and it means Scorpio will be based on a Vega design.

The only potential saving grace is that the AIBs are been given much better binned chips for their custom cooled designs leading to lower power and better clocks.

Based on the specs and talk of improved utilisation I was expecting better than the 390x at 1080p and about equal at 1440p due to the reduction in ROPs.
Click to expand...

The performance is a bit disappointing TBH it is run close by a 970 which can be had for roughly same price - down in memory obviously - and the 979 has good over clocking head room. Not to mention this thing is at least one node smaller.
 
C

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
Holy fuck, I didn't actually think it would be that good a price in the UK but there it is.

I think I've found my 7850's replacement.

EDIT: Really can't decide if I should go for it now or if I should wait for a version with a better cooler. I really like my MSI 7850 for the twin fans, so quiet during down time.
 
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