Discussion: Polaris, AMD's 4th Gen GCN Architecture

[TechyInAZ]

Update:

Our AMD Polaris MegaThread is going to be online VERY soon. So stay tuned.

Once the megathread is up, I will give you all 12 hours before closing this thread so you all are able to transfer any conversations you might have from this thread to the new megathread.

 

[cdrkf]

Update:

Our AMD Polaris MegaThread is going to be online VERY soon. So stay tuned.

Once the megathread is up, I will give you all 12 hours before closing this thread so you all are able to transfer any conversations you might have from this thread to the new megathread.

Any specific reason why we need a new MegaThread? Couldn't you just update the title of this one?

 

[jimmysmitty]

The "fix" for the non-existent problem has arrived it would seem.

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/amd-radeon-software-crimson-16-7-1-driver-download.html

That's good- I look forward to Toms testing it. It's impressive if they can redistribute the power from the driver (I would have assumed that level of granular control would have required a bios flash).

Assuming this does what they say it does, that should hopefully put all the pcie slot controversy to bed and people can focus on the merits (or otherwise) of the card vs the other options out there.

Pcper posted a review showing the new driver fixed the issue without hurting performance.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-RX-480-Power-Consumption-Concerns-Fixed-1671-Driver

Update:

Our AMD Polaris MegaThread is going to be online VERY soon. So stay tuned.

Once the megathread is up, I will give you all 12 hours before closing this thread so you all are able to transfer any conversations you might have from this thread to the new megathread.

Looks good. Can't wait for more sites to test it. Now the GPU can be considered but I would still wait for the AiBs anyways since they will probably have better cooling and better power numbers anyways.

It is impressive that the driver is able to do this. I wonder if it is lowering the voltage.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Originally that was the way to go. However the problem with that is myself. I'm the author of this thread, and unfortunately I simply don't have the time to continuously update a megathread with the latest graphics card information.

That is why another person is taking over this operation.

 

[cdrkf]

Originally that was the way to go. However the problem with that is myself. I'm the author of this thread, and unfortunately I simply don't have the time to continuously update a megathread with the latest graphics card information.

That is why another person is taking over this operation.

Ah, yeah I know the problem of too many things to do. Thanks for running this thread

 

[TJ Hooker]

[quotemsg="cdrkf']Where you may have a point is there are possibly some load / smoothing capacitors on the motherboard (to remove and ripple introduced through the cables from the PSU to the motherboard). These could of course be of low quality and could prove to the the 'weak link' in the event of overloading the slot. Without looking at the design of motherboards in more detail I can't honestly say I know if this is how they are built though, just speculation on my part.[/quotemsg]
But even if there are smoothing caps, they shouldn't be affected by higher DC (average) current. Only AC current would matter, and there have been cards in the past with variable current peaking well over the rated limit with seemingly no ill effects.

 

[Rogue Leader]

So I did the driver upgrade here is my results:

Idle power useage went down from 180w to 136w, thats a huge improvement IMO.

Ran Firestrike, gained 70 points over my prior best score (which was done when the card was 4gb), and 90 points over my best score with the card set to 8gb. While my power meter on my UPS doesn't do averages it was clearly biased towards the lower range running around 290 to 340w most of the time with some spikes to 370 and up as high as 408. So total power useage is the same on a spike but generally it seemed to run lower.

Current score: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/9199250
Prior 8gb best score: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/9157036

Temp went from 82 to 81 C.

Seems like its working.

 

[TechyInAZ]

So I did the driver upgrade here is my results:

Idle power useage went down from 180w to 136w, thats a huge improvement IMO.

Ran Firestrike, gained 70 points over my prior best score (which was done when the card was 4gb), and 90 points over my best score with the card set to 8gb. While my power meter on my UPS doesn't do averages it was clearly biased towards the lower range running around 290 to 340w most of the time with some spikes to 370 and up as high as 408. So total power useage is the same on a spike but generally it seemed to run lower.

Current score: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/9199250
Prior 8gb best score: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/9157036

Temp went from 82 to 81 C.

Seems like its working.

Really small performance penalty, that's probably less than 1fps difference in the real world.

I'm amazed that a graphics driver was able to fix this problem. I would of guessed the only way to fix this is thru a BIOS update.

 

[jimmysmitty]

So I did the driver upgrade here is my results:

Idle power useage went down from 180w to 136w, thats a huge improvement IMO.

Ran Firestrike, gained 70 points over my prior best score (which was done when the card was 4gb), and 90 points over my best score with the card set to 8gb. While my power meter on my UPS doesn't do averages it was clearly biased towards the lower range running around 290 to 340w most of the time with some spikes to 370 and up as high as 408. So total power useage is the same on a spike but generally it seemed to run lower.

Current score: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/9199250
Prior 8gb best score: http://www.3dmark.com/fs/9157036

Temp went from 82 to 81 C.

Seems like its working.

That is promising.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, the Polaris MegaThread is now UP AND RUNNING!
You all have 12 hours from now to get any discussions you are discussing over here to the offical megathread. (Close time is: 10:00 AM Mountain Standard Time)

Instructions:
Simply click the reply button of the comment you wish to copy over to the other thread, then copy the text (all the text) inside the body and then paste it into the body of the megathread comments section. Please also make sure you add in that you transferred the text from another thread, or else people will be really confused.

Once the 12 hours are up, I will close this thread completely. (You may still comment on here until the close time, but I don't see how that would be very beneficial.)

 

[TechyInAZ]

Thank you everyone for participating in this discussion. It has been a pleasure chating with you all on AMD's latest GPU technology. Please make your way to the new official AMD Polaris MegaThread for more discussion and information.

Closed.