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

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The math doesn't just work that way. The labelled amperage is only a label, nothing more. Gabriel Torres tested the PSU which maintained 20A on each 12V rail. But wait, that is above what's on the label. Yes, because the labels are meaningless values in general. Overcurrent protection will not be triggered with your setup with an RX 480. All that matters is that voltages stay in spec and overcurrent protection is not triggered. That's all that matters.
 


You should start a thread in the power supply forum.
 
I'm still waiting on a low profile GPU that either needs no external power or can use molex adapters... on a 300 watt PSU... with a G3258 that has a OC to 3.6 GHz... hell, forget the pentium, say with a 4th gen i5.
 


mmm, and the money.
I know the pricing for the 480 was leaked at 200 USD, did the pricing for teh 460 get leaked as well?
 
There is a confusion in regards to how DX12 is going to expose multi-GPU setups.

When DirectX, OpenGL or whatever "API" tells the developers "use this; expect this behavior", then the GPU makers have to clarify HOW and WHAT level of support they have for the API portion that exposes said functionality.

Currently, there is *nothing* in either spec that tells the devs (or graphical engine makers) how to approach multi-GPU and that is why the makers are fully in charge to create the profiles and other driver optimizations. That is also why they *work* closely with Devs. To get to know what they need to do to achieve this.

That is the fundamental difference when saying AMD and nVidia won't have to deal with it anymore. They will support the DX12 spec, so the Devs will invoke the API just like they do with shaders or any other part of the DX API. This, in theory, won't need the interaction between AMD/nVidia with Developers to get the profiles/drivers right.

I hope that clears some of the misunderstanding or confusion.

Cheers!
 
@em88 you mean modern AAA games? No, not even close. Even a gtx 1080 is probably a ways from being able to max out every game at 1440p/144fps.

Edit: On paper, 1440p@144 fps is about as demanding as 4k@60 fps, based on pixel rate. If you look at Tom's GTX 1080 review, you'll see it averages <60 fps at 4k in the majority of games tested. And I can't see the RX 480 beating a 1070, never mind a 1080.
 
should be 1440p but no idea about whether it will do max settings or not and what fps i can do.. seems like close to 980 performance. can that card max 1440p? if it is less than 980, it may not. and of course xfire is so inconsistent like sli, there is no telling. leaked stuff shows it beating a 1080 but that is not even close to real world gaming and we know it is very different from game to game.

just too many unknowns right now to say anything this specific like you are asking.
 


If there was a power supply forum :lol: I'm not sure why this site does not have a PSU forum. It's a pretty important component that deserves its own forum over "Cars" for example.
 


No, we don't need a PSU category. It's already in the components category as a subcategory like others have said. If we did need a power supply category, then we'd need a liquid cooling category, a hard drive category etc.
 
some nice numbers for the various cards http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-rx-480-8-gb-229-usd/

starts with MSRP for 8 gb reference 480 at $229 and custom cards at $250. then has some demos of various games on various cards fro an amd polaris day. like a 460 playing dota 2 at 1080p and 144 hz!! pretty damn impressive for a sub $100 card.

lastly only reference cards on release day. so get ready for the million "when will we see custom cards" threads that will pop up VERY SOON. also suggest NDA might end on the 24th and not 29th. http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-overclocking-tool-leaked/ (some guy streamed a small review but did not include any benchmarks)
 


DOTA2 is not a game to be impressed by performance wise. While it was updated to Source 2 Source alone was a highly optimized game engine. I was getting 300FPS with a HD2900Pro 1GB on TF2. VALVe makes very optimized game engines that cane run on a wide array of hardware while also having good features.

I say when the NDA lifts we will see the truth finally and all the hype can go bye bye. Hopefully it hasn't built up too much though. AMD needs a solid GPU to sell that was not hyped to kingdom come.
 
So what performance level do you think will justify versus deflate the current expectations?

For me, since you can get nice custom GTX 970s and R9-390s at that same $250 price point, the 480 has got to come in at least at the level of a GTX 980/390X. The TPU "Performance per Dollar" charts should be able to provide some judgement.
 




Wait, where are $250 390s at? I found $290 at Microcenter but if you have a link to a cheaper one that would be great.
 


I was just saying a Source game performance never truly impresses me since it is one of the most optimized game engines on the planet.

However if the 480 could give 390X/980 level performance for $250 that would be a pretty killer deal.

If only we could go back to $400 being the top price for the best GPU. At least that is what I paid for my 9700Pro when it came out and beat nVidia into the ground.
 
I'm awaiting some form of a GPU upgrade. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I own a 390, Nvidia's cards are too high right now, and AMD's options will probably not be powerful enough to merit an upgrade. I can rule out getting the 1070 or 1080 right now, too expensive. A single RX 480 won't be much better than an R9 390. I could get two for $400, but if I can already get a second 390 instead for $250, it's something i need to think about. I don't want multi-GPU issues, so I might be holding off until 1070 and 1080 prices drop.
 


By the time the rx 480 will come out, both non-reference cheaper designs will come out and we will have proper benchmarks with good comparisons.
 
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