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

[ThrashDeathDoom]

Its It's a great game, but she's almost done with it. Lol. She's already bought infinite for when the card comes and she's delaying finishing the first one so she can jump in to infinite lol... I'm so tired of this waiting bs.

 

[elbert]

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.

The quote is from Kyle Bennet, editor at HardOCP.com which WCCFTech was quoting. LN2 is near a 1.7Ghz OC.
http://hwbot.org/newsflash/3781_elmor_pushes_amd_radeon_rx_480_to_1.7ghz_on_ln2

 

[ThrashDeathDoom]

Nitro Rx 480 4gb are now listed as unavailable. Says it's unknown if they will come back in stock
Edit: ON AMAZON

 

[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

still is it practical to run the chip at that speed for two or three years straight without breaking? RX480 definitely have the potential to go higher but why board partner did not really push for it? one of the reason that i can think of is board partner are afraid to lose warranty from AMD if they do it excessively.

The thing is AMD really wanted to show efficiency so the lower clock is a bit lower than past AMD cards. This is why new generations of cards have such a high overclock. Now higher clocks will always eat into lifespan and no one can guarantee how much. A 1.25~1.3 VDDC should be a safe voltage for a few years if your cooling is good.

 

[renz496]

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.

The quote is from Kyle Bennet, editor at HardOCP.com which WCCFTech was quoting. LN2 is near a 1.7Ghz OC.
http://hwbot.org/newsflash/3781_elmor_pushes_amd_radeon_rx_480_to_1.7ghz_on_ln2

but he did not saw himself such card hitting the clock. only board partner reporting to him such clock is possible on extreme air cooler. we are not even sure if AMD allow board partner to produce such cards. why board partner still not coming out with such card? among the OCed model that released by board partner so far why none of them hitting 1.4Ghz and above out of the box?

 

[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.

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

still is it practical to run the chip at that speed for two or three years straight without breaking? RX480 definitely have the potential to go higher but why board partner did not really push for it? one of the reason that i can think of is board partner are afraid to lose warranty from AMD if they do it excessively.

The thing is AMD really wanted to show efficiency so the lower clock is a bit lower than past AMD cards. This is why new generations of cards have such a high overclock. Now higher clocks will always eat into lifespan and no one can guarantee how much. A 1.25~1.3 VDDC should be a safe voltage for a few years if your cooling is good.

if good cooling is the only thing needed to prevent from the silicon to wear out faster due to high voltage nvidia will not impose voltage restriction to board partner. some reviewer mentioned that you can OCed RX480 better with third party tool instead of using AMD Wattman. to me that's like AMD did not want their user to be crazy with their OC.

 

[BurgerandChips66]

Here is a positive review of the 4GB version of the RX 480 (Sapphire Nitro).

Overclocking will be looked at in a separate article however.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire_nitro_rx_480_4gb/

 

[TehPenguin]

Here is a positive review of the 4GB version of the RX 480 (Sapphire Nitro).

Overclocking will be looked at in a separate article however.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire_nitro_rx_480_4gb/

All of the reviews I've read were positive, TBH. Some people complain that it still runs fairly hot (70++ degrees Celsius) but to me that's more of a Polaris issue than a Sapphire one.
A killer 1080p card.

 

[BurgerandChips66]

In the review it noted (not for the first time) that under-volting works very well for the GPU. Temps and power consumption were reduced and max boost clocks were maintained.

 

[TehPenguin]

Ok so now my nitro card got delayed from the 5th of August to the 15th... Tempting to just go for the 1060, damn this delay!

 

[ThrashDeathDoom]

Ok so now my nitro card got delayed from the 5th of August to the 15th... Tempting to just go for the 1060, damn this delay!

tbh i canceled the preorder and i bought an evga ssc gtx 970 for just under $200 that had one day shipping and its coming in today. so guys be real with me, which is the better deal in price to performance??
$246 for the 4gb Nitro 480 (WITH COMPLETELY UNRELIABLE AVALIABLITY)
OR
$200 for the 3.5+0.5gb evga ssc GTX970 (and one-day shipping lol)

 

[-Fran-]

If you're willing to go over $250, then toss a coin between a good cooled 1060 6GB and that 4GB RX480 IMO.

Cheers!

 

[TehPenguin]

Yeah I ordered the Palit Dual 1060. It was in stock with 24h delivery time. Really wanted the nitro, tho ^^ It cost me €279 vs €249 for the AMD card. Not as sexy looking, but oh well.

That's a badass deal on the 970, btw.

 

[ThrashDeathDoom]

Yeah man very happy with the performance. I pretty much doubled my frames when maxed out In Tomb raider, metro 2033, shadow of mordor, and Arkham knight. Haven't found a stable OC yet but oh well lol I never learned How to anyway.

 

[renz496]

review for RX470. i was expecting to see RX470 to have exactly the same performance as 970 but looking at TPU test on general RX470 still slightly below GTX970

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/RX_470_STRIX_OC/24.html

MSRP is set for $180. probably about right though some people expecting AMD to price the card at $150 mark. in any case the one being review by TPU Asus Strix one was sold at $210. at such price reference RX480 4GB probably a better deal? (if you can get it at MSRP price). that being said i'm more interested to see how well RX460 going to perform. will AMD able to get that 75w crown back? (even if it's for a very short time)

 

[Math Geek]

there are not going to be any reference 470 cards. amd chose to leave all designs to the partners.

 

[TMTOWTSAC]

If they'd priced the 470 at $150, they'd have no room to price the 460 and still make a profit. As it is, you have to think margins are still going to be pretty thin. They'll probably have to sell a ton of cards to make money. Makes you wonder about yields since the 480 supply is low and no partner boards out yet.

 

[renz496]

If they'd priced the 470 at $150, they'd have no room to price the 460 and still make a profit. As it is, you have to think margins are still going to be pretty thin. They'll probably have to sell a ton of cards to make money. Makes you wonder about yields since the 480 supply is low and no partner boards out yet.

$179 is pretty much in line what i expect it to be seeing the official spec of the card when AMD announce them. but to some people no matter how powerful the card is sub 75w card must be priced at $100 at most. since AMD is not like nvidia when it comes to pricing some people firmly believe RX460 will be $100 while RX470 will be $150 at most. heck even before we know the pricing some people already declare that RX470 will be super disruptive at sub $200 market for being $150. 😀

 

[Math Geek]

8 gb 480 = $239 reference price. 4gb 470 = 85% of 480 performance. 85% of $239 = $203.15 which is what the strix card reviewed was priced at (ok well $200 price) looks spot on to me. anything less than $200 is bonus bang for the buck for the 470 card!! a 480 4 gb card at $200 however, is a no brainer over the $200 470 even if it does lose a couple % of performance to the 8gb card. it still beats the 470 enough to justify the move. this is where the price of the 470 fails in my opinion. too close to the 4gb 480 to make it worth the price. needs to be closer to the $170-175 mark to make sense with that as competition. (85% of $200 is $170)


can any of the new nvidia cards claim such price/performance numbers? they got he other way and make the price increase a lot more than the performance increase.

 

[renz496]

price/performance? lol i don't think nvidia actually have the interest to compete in that segment. 1070 being significantly cheaper than 1080 was not because they care about customer but more like they want AMD to discount their big gun (Fury X) and have much less profit on each unit sold. that way they don't have to engage AMD in price war in all segment.

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

$179 but to some people no matter how powerful the card is sub 75w card must be priced at $100 at most. since AMD is not like nvidia when it comes to pricing some people firmly believe RX460 will be $100 while RX470 will be $150 at most.

I consider the 460 a low end budget card, and it's been marketed as such by AMD. I got my HIS 6670 1GB DDR3 for USD65 back in 2012. I'm looking for a replacement and the 460 seems like it might be a good choice. I honestly expect to pay between $85-$100 for it.

Since the 470 is an in-between card between the $200 480 and what I consider to be a good budget price of $85 for the 460, $130 - $150 seems like the logical choice that gives a clear separation between tiers.

@Math Geek: I'm with you on the $170 regarding percentage of performance to price. However, let's look at it from this angle:
470 performance = 100%
470 price = $180

480 performance = 118%
480 4GB expected price = $212 ($180 * 118%)
480 4GB actual price = $200 (err, not the "actual price" right now 🙂

The 480 seems like quite the sweet deal should people be able to afford it. IANAE but that seems like illogical pricing to me unless AMD drops their prices soon because they will sell more and more of their "fully functional" Polaris 10 chips because they offer better bang for buck unless they are *really* counting on the budget segment not to be able to pony up the cash for a higher tier card.

 

[Ags1]

Has anyone put out a 480 4GB with 8GHz memory? That is currently my dream card.

 

[Robert Cook]

Has anyone put out a 480 4GB with 8GHz memory? That is currently my dream card.

the first cards that unlocked to 8GB should have 8GHz memory on them. other than that who knows, it seems 4GB cards are very rare right now

 

[renz496]

Has anyone put out a 480 4GB with 8GHz memory? That is currently my dream card.

the first cards that unlocked to 8GB should have 8GHz memory on them. other than that who knows, it seems 4GB cards are very rare right now

seeing how RX470 costing around $200-$220 at newegg that made me thinking if AMD intend to discontinue RX480 4GB and replace them with RX470 instead (price wise).

 

[Sakkura]

seeing how RX470 costing around $200-$220 at newegg that made me thinking if AMD intend to discontinue RX480 4GB and replace them with RX470 instead (price wise).

That makes no sense, why would they waste time coming up with the 4GB RX 480 and then immediately discontinue it? Nah, I expect they have it around for when availability improves and price competition gets tougher. Especially once Nvidia launches something below the 1060.