AMD RX 480 Fails PCI-E Specification

[humbug]

Ben@EVGA helped you overclock an AMD card? ^^^^^ don't tell Nvidia....

Some people have downvolted the GPU and memory even further already, and gotten even better performance from it.

I do wonder why the hell AMD overvolted the card so much on the reference design. Someone in the Owners thread is running it at just under 1V as well.

They do it all the ###### time, half their battle with power consumption is always massively over volted cards, everyone i had you could axe a chunk of volts off and then overclock it.

 

[harney]

I really have to bite my tounge sometimes with some of the stuff i read.

Me too

i even get to writing most of the reply msg and then well can not be bothered with a rukas .....No got time for it ...

 

[N19h7m4r3]

They do it all the ###### time, half their battle with power consumption is always massively over volted cards, everyone i had you could axe a chunk of volts off and then overclock it.

I wonder if it was down to Apple working with AMD that got their FirePro D700's so damn cool running and drawing so little power in the 2013 Mac Pro.

They were modified W9000's which is the same core as the 7970, and my system had no issue running two of those, with the 6 core Xeon at full pelt for hours on end rendering projects on a power supply rated for 450W.

They need to really take a hard look at this current issue, and how much bad PR they got from it. It's something that should have been completely avoided with the RX 480 launch, and the current driver should have been there on review day at the latest.

 

[fat4l]

Thoroughly, with some games getting a performance improvement on the drivers, and no performance difference if you choose to run the optional "Compatibility Mode" that further reduces powerdraw.

Note: PCIe 12 = PSU
Mainboard 12v = PEG/PCIe Slot

So basically they redistributed the power so pcie 6pin is drawing more power making the pcie motherboard be "in spec" ye?
Do ppl have to run "Compatibility mode" on? Or what's that for?

 

[N19h7m4r3]

So basically they redistributed the power so pcie 6pin is drawing more power making the pcie motherboard be "in spec" ye?
Do ppl have to run "Compatibility mode" on? Or what's that for?

Yes to the first question, and No to the second.

You don't need to run in compatibility mode, it's just their for people that want even further reduction in power draw.

GuruD noted that the mode is irrelevant from their tests, when it comes to performance. So unless you're on a very old motherboard and still afraid it might be only reason to bother with Compatibility mode.

 

[Rroff]

Thanks

Right so 68 Watts on the PCIe, down from 82. Panic over, don't overclock it.

Has anyone done any OC testing? they might have essentially put a limit in at 66 watt for the phases connected to the PCI-e socket (which wouldn't necessarily be hard on 66 watt) and overclocking might just increase the 6 pin draw.

 

[humbug]

Has anyone done any OC testing? they might have essentially put a limit in at 66 watt for the phases connected to the PCI-e socket (which wouldn't necessarily be hard on 66 watt) and overclocking might just increase the 6 pin draw.

I should have put a sarcasm disclaimer there.

 

[AlamoX]

i wonder if AMD will slap 8pins on their next wave of reference 480.

 

[Orangey]

"just don't overclock it"

Great advice for what was supposed to be the next 4850 budget OCer champ.

 

[humbug]

"just don't overclock it"

Great advice for what was supposed to be the next 4850 budget OCer champ.

Yeah i really should have used that disclaimer.

 

[Rroff]

I should have put a sarcasm disclaimer there.

Doesn't matter if the post was sarcastic or not I was wondering if anyone had tested OC results since the driver update.

 

[fat4l]

Yes to the first question, and No to the second.

You don't need to run in compatibility mode, it's just their for people that want even further reduction in power draw.

GuruD noted that the mode is irrelevant from their tests, when it comes to performance. So unless you're on a very old motherboard and still afraid it might be only reason to bother with Compatibility mode.

Thanks m8

 

[D.P.]

So basically they redistributed the power so pcie 6pin is drawing more power making the pcie motherboard be "in spec" ye?
Do ppl have to run "Compatibility mode" on? Or what's that for?

Yes to the first.
The compatibility mode is there to reduce power over the 6 pin to get it closer to spec. Originally even the 6pin PCIE connector was drawing more power than it should, with the new drivers that has increased even more out of spec.

In most cases this shouldn't be a problem but some people with cheap power supplies might run in to trouble. So the comparability mode will reduce the power draw from the 6 pin as well as the motherboard to try and get things closer to spec. This comes at a small cost in performance, largely negated by the increase the newest drivers have provided.


I'm somewhat surprised AMD decided to have the compatibility mode turned off as default, since the performance drop is minimal it would have made sense to have compatibility on as default and have some kind of optional performance mode that can be optionally enabled.

 

[Geck0]

I really have to bite my tounge sometimes with some of the stuff i read.

I got a weeks holiday haha

 

[Catanonia]

Makes for interesting viewing for those wanting a clear explanation on everything that has happened.

Covers it all in detail and debunks a lot of the fud going around.

waiting for them to make a follow up on the new drivers.

 

[Catanonia]

Thanks

Right so 68 Watts on the PCIe, down from 82. Panic over, don't overclock it.

Yup and 68w compatibility (gimped) or 72w non compatibility is still over spec of 66w and that is stock yet alone overclocking. (See the video above)
This was supposed to be a maximum 150 TDP card and that was the marketing drive, total failure / marketing hype.

Basically AMD have rushed this card out trying to pull the marketing wool over their customers eyes and have had their pants pulled down.

So sure buy this card, but overclock it at your own risk. A bit like over loading your mains and hoping your circuit breaker will stop your house burning down. Any sane person would not do this, so why do it on an expensive computer.

 

[keybaud]

Yup and 68w compatibility (gimped) or 72w non compatibility is still over spec of 66w and that is stock yet alone overclocking. (See the video above)
This was supposed to be a maximum 150 TDP card and that was the marketing drive, total failure / marketing hype.

Basically AMD have rushed this card out trying to pull the marketing wool over their customers eyes and have had their pants pulled down.

So sure buy this card, but overclock it at your own risk. A bit like over loading your mains and hoping your circuit breaker will stop your house burning down. Any sane person would not do this, so why do it on an expensive computer.

And the video also showed that the GTX 960 peaked at over 80W on the 6-pin PCI-E molex, but I appear to have missed your rant on NVidia.

The spec has a +/- 9% on the 12V and a 1.1A limit on each connector, which is a steady-state limit of just under 72W. The peak voltage spikes can be double the stated voltage, so the standard actually supports an instantaneous power draw of up to 144W. Hence, running at 72W is perfectly acceptable.

 

[Angilion]

[..]
There is plenty of headroom on the 6-pin connector as it stands. AMD has over engineered the connector circuit anyway by actually using the sense pin as a ground so it can handle more than 150W. The 480 only uses 90W max on the pcie 6-pin but will obviously use more when overclocked like any other gpu on earth

AMD don't make every component. The card is only one end of the chain.

Sure, in practice it's very unlikely to be a problem. But it's out of spec. It's a bit dodgy to assume and rely on other manufacturers making their kit well over spec, even if it's normal for them to do so.

 

[Angilion]

How can you miss the comments in here about spec updates, and then still claim it doesn't meet the spec? Looks well within spec to me.

It isn't within the known specs. It costs a lot of money to see the current specs, so there's a lot of speculation about specifications

I can make a comment that the spec has been changed to three donkeys and a large pear. Comments aren't much use by themselves.

The known PCI-E spec for a 6-pin PCI-E connector specifies a maximum current and voltage that gives a maximum of 75W.

It's also known that manufacturers usually go well over that spec, but there's no good evidence that the spec has changed. The only thing that can be stated for certain is how much current the wires are physically capable of carrying because that can be calculated from their composition and thickness.

With a good PSU, I wouldn't care at all about a card pulling 100W or even more through a 6-pin PCI-E connector if all the relevant connections on the card itself were up to that. But I wouldn't claim it was within spec.

 

[chrcoluk]

going over 75watt on the psu 6 pin cable is no big deal, but I think going over it on the pci-e slot is.