AMD RX 400 series (Polaris) MegaThread! FAQ & Resources

[TehPenguin]

A new review for the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480, both 4GB and 8GB models.

https://www.computerbase.de/2016-07/sapphire-radeon-rx-480-nitro-oc-test/

It's in german so here's a TL;DR by me:

The 8gB is faster by 5-10% by default but loses the edge when both are overclocked (unless a game can utilize more vRAM[Black Ops III saw a 40% fps boost with 8gB vRAM, 77 vs 109 fps]).
The 4gB also overclocks much better than the 8GB card(and they even out in performance when both manually OC'd).

The cooling solution is good but not excellent. The card runs fairly hot(77°C average under load) with noise levels reaching 44dBA which, subjectively, isn't loud but nothing for the enthusiasts quiet pc. According to the reviewer the generated noise has a fairly low frequency which isn't as unpleasant as the higher pitched noise the reference model generates.
You can increase the Temp Target for a noticeably quieter operation. This applies to both cards.
Both cards have 0 fan mode.

Both cards outperform the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming when overclocked(1060 stock). An imperceptible but measurable improvement.

My personal opinion: the 4gB is the best value card so far. If you want 8gB I'd go for the Strix as it seems to sell for a round the same price but performs much cooler and quieter under load. There is no 4gB Strix.

 

[Warmacblu]

Nice review, I really like how you can highlight the bars on the charts and it give you percentages based on what you are highlighting.

 

[Math Geek]

yah they do nice reviews and i love how many cards they include. good source of info there.

 

[ThrashDeathDoom]

http://slickdeals.net/f/8959199-rx480-nitro-4-and-8gb-pre-order-opened

is this legit?

 

[ThrashDeathDoom]

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Computer-Graphics-Cards/zgbs/pc/284822/ref=zg_bs_nav_pc_2_193870011

seems legit to me!

 

[TehPenguin]

It's sold directly through Amazon so you are safe either way.

 

[ThrashDeathDoom]

yay! now i just have to play the "how-long-does-it-take-for-preorders-to-come" game, and i can stop worrying about missing it 😀

 

[TehPenguin]

A lot of people(comments on the review I posted)complain about the nitro card running too hot and how disappointing it supposedly is. What difference does it make when it can sustain an overclock?

 

[renz496]

so they disappointed about full load temp? or about the card in general?

 

[ThrashDeathDoom]

Tbh if it's as good as the reference card I'll be completely satisfied so anything above that is just pure bonus. I'm jumping from a HD 7870 ghz and the most demanding game I play for hours on end is Witcher 3, and even with only 2gb VRAM on a 4 year old card I run very high preset at 40 fps average. So I'm pretty sure the 480 nitro will be leaps and bounds better than the 7870 which imo is a great card so I have nothing to worry about for another 3 or 4 years

 

[TehPenguin]

so they disappointed about full load temp? or about the card in general?

People say the Nitro disappointed them completely. They say all kinds of things, really. Hard to keep up. Most of the complaints are ridiculous, IMO. Don't know what they expected, though. People thought the Nitro would make the Polaris chip somehow more efficient.

@Thrash: You can max out Witcher 3 at around 50fps with the Nitro so no worries there.

 

[BurgerandChips66]

Well at the moment there is still no availability in my country (France) for the Sapphire Nitro RX 480. I have seen a pre-order here for 309€. I can buy from the UK but after the exchange rate (from my bank) plus postage to France, it works out even more expensive at about 325€.

But now I see the Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury on sale (new) for 329€. I'm not bothered about the additional power consumed by the card etc... so now I'm thinking I might as well get that instead. Plus I can have it tomorrow. Pretty sure it is faster than the RX 480 😉

 

[TehPenguin]

€309 for the 4gB?! That's a lot. I got mine for €249. Should arrive next week Friday. Overclockers UK have a preorder for 199(~€240) for the 4gB.

R9 Fury is a bit faster but if you limit yourself to 4gB I'd go for the rx480 or the 1060 for around €300.

 

[BurgerandChips66]

My mistake, I was looking at the 8GB versions of the RX 480! That's what happens when you check prices online at 2.30am when you ought to be asleep...

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

That's what happens when you do anything at 2.30am when you ought to be asleep...

FTFY

I can totally understand though. 🙂

 

[renz496]

so they disappointed about full load temp? or about the card in general?

People say the Nitro disappointed them completely. They say all kinds of things, really. Hard to keep up. Most of the complaints are ridiculous, IMO. Don't know what they expected, though. People thought the Nitro would make the Polaris chip somehow more efficient.

@Thrash: You can max out Witcher 3 at around 50fps with the Nitro so no worries there.

some people simply have unrealistic expectation from AMD card. and RX480 is not the first. i think many probably hoping AIB RX480 to hit 1400mhz at factory setting and with manual OC they can reach 1450mhz or even 1500mhz.

 

[Math Geek]

saw a strix 8gb review that was just as disappointing. though it stayed a good 10 degrees cooler than the nitro it was a lot louder than we are used to from strix models. it did oc to 1400 mhz though but showed little performance gain from it just like the pascal cards.

 

[elbert]

so they disappointed about full load temp? or about the card in general?

People say the Nitro disappointed them completely. They say all kinds of things, really. Hard to keep up. Most of the complaints are ridiculous, IMO. Don't know what they expected, though. People thought the Nitro would make the Polaris chip somehow more efficient.

@Thrash: You can max out Witcher 3 at around 50fps with the Nitro so no worries there.

some people simply have unrealistic expectation from AMD card. and RX480 is not the first. i think many probably hoping AIB RX480 to hit 1400mhz at factory setting and with manual OC they can reach 1450mhz or even 1500mhz.

Thats because the card can but AMD's OC tool doesn't increase voltage beyond 1.15 VDDC. It takes either the mode ASUS bios or a vrmtool.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1605757/vrmtool-a-simple-tool-to-read-and-write-to-i2c-vrm-controllers

Once the voltage is pushed beyond AMD's top setting you may see between 1.5~1.6Ghz.

 

[TehPenguin]

1.4GHz was achievable with all the 4GB models I saw out there. W/O touching the vBIOS even.

 

[BurgerandChips66]

I posted a link earlier in this thread where a reviewer got a stable 1405MHz OC using a stock bios.rom

This link is for a bios.rom unlocking to 1.4 V http://overclocking.guide/download/amd-radeon-rx-480-unlocked-air-bios/

The settings in the rom file should allow most users to hit up to 1450MHz. Apparently you'll need to be a silicon lottery winner to get much above that - without tweaking things beyond reasonable voltages

Obviously if you happen to have a very good cooler then you increase your chances as well.

I'd like to see real game benchmarks at 1450Mhz to see if it's even worth it.

But here's hoping anyway. I think I'll not get that R9 Fury now and wait on an RX 480 instead!

 

[renz496]

so they disappointed about full load temp? or about the card in general?

People say the Nitro disappointed them completely. They say all kinds of things, really. Hard to keep up. Most of the complaints are ridiculous, IMO. Don't know what they expected, though. People thought the Nitro would make the Polaris chip somehow more efficient.

@Thrash: You can max out Witcher 3 at around 50fps with the Nitro so no worries there.

some people simply have unrealistic expectation from AMD card. and RX480 is not the first. i think many probably hoping AIB RX480 to hit 1400mhz at factory setting and with manual OC they can reach 1450mhz or even 1500mhz.

Thats because the card can but AMD's OC tool doesn't increase voltage beyond 1.15 VDDC. It takes either the mode ASUS bios or a vrmtool.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1605757/vrmtool-a-simple-tool-to-read-and-write-to-i2c-vrm-controllers

Once the voltage is pushed beyond AMD's top setting you may see between 1.5~1.6Ghz.

is that clock stable to run actual games or just for bench? we see record being made on LN2 but it doesn't mean we can run that clock on daily basis. also it is possible AMD limiting the voltage for the same reason as nvidia did since kepler; too much voltage will shorten the silicon life and AMD probably don't want to deal with people asking for warranty because the card being OCed to the extreme.

 

[Sakkura]

That power draw figure... crikey.

 

[elbert]

so they disappointed about full load temp? or about the card in general?

People say the Nitro disappointed them completely. They say all kinds of things, really. Hard to keep up. Most of the complaints are ridiculous, IMO. Don't know what they expected, though. People thought the Nitro would make the Polaris chip somehow more efficient.

@Thrash: You can max out Witcher 3 at around 50fps with the Nitro so no worries there.

some people simply have unrealistic expectation from AMD card. and RX480 is not the first. i think many probably hoping AIB RX480 to hit 1400mhz at factory setting and with manual OC they can reach 1450mhz or even 1500mhz.

Thats because the card can but AMD's OC tool doesn't increase voltage beyond 1.15 VDDC. It takes either the mode ASUS bios or a vrmtool.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1605757/vrmtool-a-simple-tool-to-read-and-write-to-i2c-vrm-controllers

Once the voltage is pushed beyond AMD's top setting you may see between 1.5~1.6Ghz.

is that clock stable to run actual games or just for bench? we see record being made on LN2 but it doesn't mean we can run that clock on daily basis. also it is possible AMD limiting the voltage for the same reason as nvidia did since kepler; too much voltage will shorten the silicon life and AMD probably don't want to deal with people asking for warranty because the card being OCed to the extreme.

If it can take firestrike bench it should handle 95% of all games stable at the very least. Here is the facts on AIB cards.

Kyle Bennet :
AIB partners are reporting to me this morning that with extremely good custom air coolers the 480 GPUs are seeing from 1480MHz to 1600MHz clocks, but tell me it is a “lottery draw” on GPUs.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-asus-strix-msi-gaming/#ixzz4Fd4LnUsE

 

[TehPenguin]

Never trust BBQWCCFTech. The only 480 that reached 1.6GHz, so far, was cooled with LN2. Dunno how custom a 480 has to be to get much higher clocks on air and if the price for such card is even worth mentioning.

 

[Embra]

AMD to release Radeon RX 470 and RX 460 in Early August

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/amd-to-release-radeon-rx-470-and-rx-460-in-early-august.html