AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB Review

[bit_user]

so i logged into the bay half an hour ago and got a slightly used Titan X for $350 dollars.

That's interesting, because I don't see any recently sold listings of functional Titan X's for less than $600, with most being about $700 and up.

Was in a private auction on the bay, i asked the seller to do that for me so no one knows what i buy.
sometimes you just catch people needing fast cash with best offers.

So, you get them to sell it dirt cheap and end it early? Their negotiating skills must be pretty poor. Any time I see a buy-it-now offer on a reasonably popular item that's significantly below market, it sells within half a day or less. I hope you don't get burned, as this doesn't sound like an experienced seller.

Anyway, congrats on the deal, but if you were offering this as any kind of advice, I think it falls short. That's way below the market price for used Titan X's. Like half, as I said.

 

[vertexx]

I hate to say it, but this is really disappointing. More power consumption at load than a 1080? Out of spec power draw? Did AMD do ANYTHING with their architecture to improve power-efficiency? It looks like they relied exclusively on the 14nm process shift for the generational power efficiency improvement and didn't actually gain ANY ground on NVidia.

One of the PCs upstairs in my house runs an R9-280X - does a job on keeping the whole upstairs hot in the summer. I was planning on the RX 480 for a well-timed upgrade. I'm sorry AMD, I have 3 out of 5 gaming PCs in my house running an AMD GPU, but for this upgrade I'm going to wait to see what the GTX 1060 can do.

 

[truegenius]

why no crossfire test ?

Read 17seconds's comment.

let me rephrase it
why no crossfire test <b>by toms</b> ?
sure i can search google for other sites with their reviews, if other can then why not toms.
toms got nasa's equipments so it would have been interesting of crossfire by toms.

 

[SpAwNtoHell]

A lot of people ask me why i do not like this rx 480, my question is what to like i we were promised a 500$ card at 200$, so when nvidia announced gtx 1080 i was sure is not competing with that but i was convinced is going to be a contender or very close performance wise with gtx 1070 or 980ti but the only thing close is temperature and power usage... If i am wrong please correct me. And... Yes generally i do not care about power draw that much but performance, temperature and value but this time that 6 pin power connector....pff and is something else why is not consistent performance?

This review would have not had this many negative comments otherwise in regard to the card. Price performance promise let us down otherwise a fine card in its bracket if you cannot get a bargain on 970 980..

 

[bit_user]

Did AMD do ANYTHING with their architecture to improve power-efficiency? It looks like they relied exclusively on the 14nm process shift for the generational power efficiency improvement.

Yes. This details many of the efficiency improvements and optimizations:

http://semiaccurate.com/2016/06/29/amds-polaris-10-becomes-radeon-rx-480/

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

The conlcusion, the VR part, is a bit off. Why? becaus VR is not mainstream yet. As a personal opinion, VR is going to die like 3D TV's

 

[Kewlx25]

Turns out the PCIe slot power draw of 75watts is the minimum. The PCIe spec allows the motherboard to dynamically tell each PCIe device what their current maximum is all the way up to 300 watts. Seeing that the 480 passed PCIe compliance, I assume anything over 75watts is because the motherboard is allowing it.

 

[InvalidError]

The conlcusion, the VR part, is a bit off. Why? becaus VR is not mainstream yet. As a personal opinion, VR is going to die like 3D TV's

I am extremely skeptical of VR's future success as well. I occasionally get motion sickness from playing some games for more than an hour at a time and imagine VR would make that ten times worse. I'm in no hurry to jump on that bandwagon.

 

[quilciri]

In any event, Nvidia makes more profit by selling many more of the x70 series for a reduced profit margin. That's a win-win, and that's why Nvidia continues to own AMD in the revenue and profit generation departments...where it REALLY matters for thinking "down the road." There's a reason why the GTX 970 is most commonly owned GPU by Steam users and has been for over a year now.

This is misleading. Yes the 970 is the most used single card on steam, and by a significant margin, but, that's still just five percent of the user base. There are dozens of cards at lower price points than the 970 that have beefy profit margins. AMD has also been modestly gaining market share on Nvidia over the past year. In Q2 2015, AMD held 18% GPU market share (discrete & mobile). Now AMD has around 22% market share - which the steam hardware survey confirms.

 

[redgarl]

I posted this in another thread, and thought it bears putting here too:

I agree that for a card that touted low power usage, the RX 480 is a FAIL. Price / performance is excellent, but that wasn't the big selling point. Not to sound like a nVidiot, but I'm inclined to believe the GTX1060 will render this card irrelevant.

The thing is, the GTX 1060 is probably not going to compete in the same market segment as the RX 480. It'll likely be a $250-$300 card.

Anyway, I'd say with AMD's R&D funds compared to Nvidia, the RX 480 is as expected. A good card. Not great. Not bad. Just good.

Small R&D never stopped ATI from kicking nVidia hard.

Once again, Toms is dropping the ball... I should do these reviews if what we get is this.

http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image//skymtl/GPU/RX-480-ABC/RX-480-ABC-93.jpg

Chris is one of the better reviewers out there. Sure not everyone is going to like the results here, that is why there are multiple sources. So far it is not anything that the hype led up to, short of DX12 that is still a minority and should only be considered once it becomes more of a majority.

I think it is an OK GPU. I think AMDs mistake is allowing the hype to build up. That is what hurts them the most, not the actual performance but the hype that says "IT WILL BE TEH BESTZ CARD EVAR!!!!!" crap. Some people actually thought it would be a $200 dollar 980Ti level GPU. Some sites posted "leaks" showing it at Fury levels. It is neither.

The best reviews I come across are the ones from these guys www.hardwarecanucks.com

They know how to review graphic cards and cases. Toms totally missed the point that DX12 games are running incredibly well on the new Polaris architecture. This is a key feature for the new consoles having those chips designed for. I would not be surprised to see PS4 Neo and Scorpio having a 480 as a GPU. If that's the case, the switch to DX12 is going to be massive.

However, during that time at Toms... (cricket sounds)

 

[InvalidError]

Seeing that the 480 passed PCIe compliance, I assume anything over 75watts is because the motherboard is allowing it.

How many 12V wires are on the 24 pins ATX connector? Two. If you allow 5A per pin, which is twice what the 75W 6 pins PCIe AUX power connector officially allows, that's 120W on the 12V rail for the whole motherboard except the CPU which has its own 12V supply.

The PCIe edge connector has only five pads dedicated to 12V power (A2-3, B1-3) and I doubt they would handle much over 1A on a continuous basis very well.

 

[Onus]

Some motherboards have a molex connector to supply additional PCIe power when more than one graphics card is used. I'd use that molex for a single RX 480 just in case.

 

[vertexx]

Hopefully the board partners do the right thing and fit the RX 480 with an 8-pin connector for the custom versions once they come out.

 

[Kewlx25]

Seeing that the 480 passed PCIe compliance, I assume anything over 75watts is because the motherboard is allowing it.

How many 12V wires are on the 24 pins ATX connector? Two. If you allow 5A per pin, which is twice what the 75W 6 pins PCIe AUX power connector officially allows, that's 120W on the 12V rail for the whole motherboard except the CPU which has its own 12V supply.

The PCIe edge connector has only five pads dedicated to 12V power (A2-3, B1-3) and I doubt they would handle much over 1A on a continuous basis very well.

More correct info. This seems to be a problem
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4qfwd4/rx480_fails_pcie_specification/

[strike]If your motherboard is not following spec and is lying to the videocard, it's not the videocard's fault. All that is required is that the PCIe device not pull more power than what the motherboard tells it to pull, all the way up to 300 watts. This is a dynamica protocol, allowing the motherboard to change its mind at any time.

75watts is the minimum the motherboard must support by spec. If you have 4 PCIe 6x slots, then the motherboard must be able to supply at least 300 watts across all PCIe 16x slots(75w per).

And the 12v pins on the 24pin plug are specd to 8 amps per pin or 96watts.[/strike]

 

[jimmysmitty]

I posted this in another thread, and thought it bears putting here too:

I agree that for a card that touted low power usage, the RX 480 is a FAIL. Price / performance is excellent, but that wasn't the big selling point. Not to sound like a nVidiot, but I'm inclined to believe the GTX1060 will render this card irrelevant.

The thing is, the GTX 1060 is probably not going to compete in the same market segment as the RX 480. It'll likely be a $250-$300 card.

Anyway, I'd say with AMD's R&D funds compared to Nvidia, the RX 480 is as expected. A good card. Not great. Not bad. Just good.

Small R&D never stopped ATI from kicking nVidia hard.

Once again, Toms is dropping the ball... I should do these reviews if what we get is this.

http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image//skymtl/GPU/RX-480-ABC/RX-480-ABC-93.jpg

Chris is one of the better reviewers out there. Sure not everyone is going to like the results here, that is why there are multiple sources. So far it is not anything that the hype led up to, short of DX12 that is still a minority and should only be considered once it becomes more of a majority.

I think it is an OK GPU. I think AMDs mistake is allowing the hype to build up. That is what hurts them the most, not the actual performance but the hype that says "IT WILL BE TEH BESTZ CARD EVAR!!!!!" crap. Some people actually thought it would be a $200 dollar 980Ti level GPU. Some sites posted "leaks" showing it at Fury levels. It is neither.

The best reviews I come across are the ones from these guys www.hardwarecanucks.com

They know how to review graphic cards and cases. Toms totally missed the point that DX12 games are running incredibly well on the new Polaris architecture. This is a key feature for the new consoles having those chips designed for. I would not be surprised to see PS4 Neo and Scorpio having a 480 as a GPU. If that's the case, the switch to DX12 is going to be massive.

However, during that time at Toms... (cricket sounds)

What do consoles have to do with PC? Nothing.

First off it has been confirmed that neither console will benefit from the newer APIs because their APIs, a custom DX11 for the XB1 and custom OpenGL for the PS4, already do a lot of what DX12 is going to do for PC (and actually return PC to).

Second, DX12 means absolutely nothing for the PS4 or PS4 Neo since they use a custom Linux based OS with a custom OpenGL API.

Why do so many people think that? Because they trust something some random guy said without looking into the facts behind it. DX12 means nothing for consoles since their APIs already do most of what DX12 is to do for PC and the PS4 especially since it does not use DX at all.

And a RX 480? I doubt it. The GPU is a 150w TDP part itself. They need better power numbers than that plus it will be a SoC based CPU/GPU with shared RAM again most likely to fit the lower TDP they want those systems to run at.

DX12 is all great and dandy but until we have a larger sample size than 2 games that are heavily AMD influenced, 1 game that is OK and one that for some reason favors nVidia we can't make any final judgement calls.

In fact I am willing to bet that by the time DX12 becomes the major API (along with Vulkan) there will not be a disparity in performance between nVidia and AMD from DX11 to DX12 and it will be the same as always with one beating the other back and forth.

 

[-Fran-]

If your motherboard is not following spec and is lying to the videocard, it's not the videocard's fault. All that is required is that the PCIe device not pull more power than what the motherboard tells it to pull, all the way up to 300 watts. This is a dynamica protocol, allowing the motherboard to change its mind at any time.

75watts is the minimum the motherboard must support by spec. If you have 4 PCIe 6x slots, then the motherboard must be able to supply at least 300 watts across all PCIe 16x slots(75w per).

And the 12v pins on the 24pin plug are specd to 8 amps per pin or 96watts.

Oh, that is very interesting to know. Do you have a source for that information I could read?

Cheers!

 

[InvalidError]

75watts is the minimum the motherboard must support by spec. If you have 4 PCIe 6x slots, then the motherboard must be able to supply at least 300 watts across all PCIe 16x slots(75w per).

The slots are spec'd to 75W but there is no requirement for the motherboard to be able to supply 75W to all slots simultaneously. The responsibility of picking a motherboard capable of providing 75W to multiple slots with the help of a supplementary 12V power connector for systems that will need to support multiple high power PCIe cards lies with the system integrator.

Instead of pushing the very limit of the PCIe slot specification and beyond, AMD should have simply used an 8-pins PCIe connector and powered just about the whole GPU from that.

 

[10tacle]

This is misleading. Yes the 970 is the most used single card on steam, and by a significant margin, but, that's still just five percent of the user base. There are dozens of cards at lower price points than the 970 that have beefy profit margins. AMD has also been modestly gaining market share on Nvidia over the past year. In Q2 2015, AMD held 18% GPU market share (discrete & mobile). Now AMD has around 22% market share - which the steam hardware survey confirms.

That 5% user number of 970 users on Steam is three times the nearest highest AMD GPU users (R9 2xx) at 1.7%. Everything is relative, just like three out of four PC gamers have an Nvidia GPU. The bottom line is that Nvidia earns more money than AMD and has been doing so a long time. There's a reason for that.

AMD needs to start focusing on the higher end as they've been mastering the main stream/mid-tier for a while now. That may change now with the less than stellar 480 release and upcoming GTX 1060. Their Fury X was a monumental failure: it didn't even stay on the market six months after intro nearly a year ago, while the 980Ti is still selling a year and a half later after introduction.

And as you can see in the graph below, Nvidia has been leading AMD since Q3 2005 in market share. This is a long term trend which is troubling. They really need to step it up as Nvidia needs their feet held to the fire. I sincerely hope they do better than the Fury X this time around with their 1070/1080 response, and I think everyone can agree that we all benefit from healthy competition.

http://i.imgur.com/bNqJYgA.png

 

[n0ns3ns3]

75watts is the minimum the motherboard must support by spec. If you have 4 PCIe 6x slots, then the motherboard must be able to supply at least 300 watts across all PCIe 16x slots(75w per).

The slots are spec'd to 75W but there is no requirement for the motherboard to be able to supply 75W to all slots simultaneously. The responsibility of picking a motherboard capable of providing 75W to multiple slots with the help of a supplementary 12V power connector for systems that will need to support multiple high power PCIe cards lies with the system integrator.

Instead of pushing the very limit of the PCIe slot specification and beyond, AMD should have simply used an 8-pins PCIe connector and powered just about the whole GPU from that.

that kinda wrong ...

check Molex 26-01-3116 specifications, which have specifications both 13A per contact (16AWG wire in small connector) to 8.5A/contact (18AWG wire). This means that using common 18AWG cable, 6-pin connector specified for 17A of current (3 contacts for +12V power, 2 contacts for GND return, one contact for detect). 8-pin have 25.5A current specification (3 contacts for +12V power, 3 contacts for GND return and 2 contacts for detection). This is 204W at +12.0V level or 306W for 8-pin accordingly.

so AMD (or nvidia) do not have to use all this connectors ...
They are BIOS limited. and that is kinda marketing or safeguard to prevent "weak" PSUs to be used with "stronk" cards.
P.S.
The full article i quoted from is HERE

 

[InvalidError]

Instead of pushing the very limit of the PCIe slot specification and beyond, AMD should have simply used an 8-pins PCIe connector and powered just about the whole GPU from that.

that kinda wrong ...

Read again: "PCIe slot specifications"

PCIe slots - the things you plug your PCIe cards into that provide PCIe x1/x4/x8/x16 data connectivity to the CPU or chipset, are only rated for 75W. While benchmarking, the reference RX480 was pulling over 100W from the motherboard's PCIe slot. Those tiny pins in the x1/x4/x8/x16 slots are only rated for about 1A each. (75W / 5 guaranteed 12V pins / 12V = 1.25A each.)

 

[bit_user]

<<Mod Edit>>looked like a personal attack...

Thanks mod.

inovermyhead2: I was simply surprised by that deal. Yes, a little skeptical, but weirder things happen. I just wanted to inform folks that this is not a typical price for the card you mentioned, and to share some pricing data on the 980 Ti's, which I've been following (actually, just bought one at NCIX US).

In all sincerity, congrats on your Titan X!

 

[IInuyasha74]

@jimmysmitty: You tell 'em. This has nothing to do with consoles, and it is too early for any real DX 12 testing. Rumor sites have people thinking all kinds of things that aren't necessarily true.

There is good reason to think that Polaris will end up in Nintendo's NX console, but even then it would be a customized chip, probably something fairly close to the RX 460, but not the exact same chip. That has nothing to do with the PC market, however, and it also won't be using DX12, as Nintendo always uses its own customized API set.

 

[monsta]

Wow this card sux a lot of power, well done on the lies AMD, I see a law suit happening

 

[Jon-bot]

Your mb determines how much power your pcie slot can give your device. 75w is a baseline, not a ceiling. So if your mb tells the card it can only have 75w and it takes 85w, i could see a problem. I want to a retest with the same card/bios/drivers with a super cheap mb and see what the power draw is on the pcie slot....

 

[MusicHaven]

I think AMD needs to quickly roll out a new BIOS or something cause' exceeding the power draw the PCI-E slot is specced could potentially fry a MoBo which sucks so damn bad.