Official OcUK RX480 4GB and 8GB review thread

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8GB reviews

http://techreport.com/review/30328/amd-radeon-rx-480-graphics-card-reviewed
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-amd-radeon-rx-480-review
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/1.html
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/06/29/amd_radeon_rx_480_video_card_review/1
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/1.html
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-RX-480-Review-Polaris-Promise
http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/amd-radeon-rx-480-8gb-review/
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/06/amd-rx-480-polaris-review/
https://www.computerbase.de/2016-06/radeon-rx-480-test/
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/951-1/amd-radeon-rx-480-8-go-14nm-polaris-test.html
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2016/06/29/amd-radeon-rx-480-8gb-review/1
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...2889-radeon-rx480-8gb-performance-review.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/1198-amd-radeon-rx-480/
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/AMD-Radeon-Grafikkarte-255597/Specials/RX-480-Test-1199839/
http://hothardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-480-polaris-gpu-review-hitting-the-sweet-spot
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/amd-radeon-rx-480-polaris-10,review-33587.html
http://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreview...view-and-benchmark-vs-gtx-970-1070#!/ccomment
http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-rx-480-video-card-review-polaris-arrives_183428
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/amd_radeon_rx480_polaris_8gb_review/1
http://ht4u.net/reviews/2016/amd_radeon_rx_480_review/

4GB reviews

Both 8GB and 4GB reviews

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/93932-amd-radeon-rx-480-14nm-polaris/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10446/the-amd-radeon-rx-480-preview

XFire

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480_CrossFire/

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C24vLB6oYyU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRDgiWBfs5I

Linux

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amdgpu-rx480-linux&num=1

Please add new reviews to the thread please!!

 

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snip

LMAO,so a £175 RX480 4GB does not exist??

 

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and that was using 28nm! the 980/Ti at least!

That is more concerning - it seems the chip is revision C!! Three respins.

 

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Apparently PCPER have said the following:

Another oddity – and one that may make enthusiast a bit more cheery – is that AMD only built a single reference design card for this release to cover both the 4GB and 8GB varieties. That means that the cards that go on sale today listed at 4GB models will actually have 8GB of memory on them! With half of the DRAM partially disabled, it seems likely that someone soon will find a way to share a VBIOS to enable the additional VRAM. In fact, AMD provided me with a 4GB and an 8GB VBIOS for testing purpose. It’s a cost saving measure on AMD’s part – this way they only have to validate and build a single PCB.

From a German review site:

Basically, the 16.6.2 that most started their reviews with had a bug resulting in lower performance due to PCIe bandwith issues. AMD sent out a new driver only two days ago, the 16.20.1035.1001-RC1, which is up to 5% faster than the 16.6.2. If you read Polaris reviews, check which drivers they used!

German original (www.ComputerBase.de):

AMD hatte ursprünglich den Crimson 16.6.2 zum Testen zur Verfügung gestellt. Wie ComputerBase jedoch an diesem Montag erfahren hat, hat dieser mit einem Bug zu kämpfen, der die PCIe-Bandbreite limitiert. AMD hat ComputerBase daraufhin den Crimson 16.20.1035.1001-RC1 zur Verfügung gestellt, der das Problem behebt. Alle Werte wurden daraufhin noch einmal erhoben, denn je nach Spiel steigt die Performance durch den neuen Treiber um bis zu fünf Prozent an.

Another quality AMD launch.

 

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One of the better more technical reviews I have read thus far is from bit-tech.net, linked earlier by someone. Waited a month on this card coming so another few weeks on AIB models/info isn't a problem.

"Sadly, the reference cooler leaves a lot to be desired. The default 2,200 RPM fan speed limit is quickly reached under load in order to keep the card at its default target temperature of 80°C, and the card is relatively loud at this speed – it's certainly nowhere near as bad as the R9 290X and R9 290 cards were, but compared to what we're used to these days it does still stand out. We found clock speeds were not able to remain at the peak boost speed of 1,266MHz, instead typically floating at closer to 1,200MHz. That said, this appears to be at least as much of a power limitation than a thermal one, as upping the power limit saw 1,266MHz maintained virtually all the time.

As a reminder, we added 9 percent to the core and 12.5 percent to the memory speeds when overclocking. With these new frequencies, we were able to achieve performance increases of between 8 and 16 percent – this is possible because we removed the power and thermal limitations, allowing the card to boost higher more often. Again, this isn't a realistic overclock for everyday use, at least not with this cooler, but it is promising that there appears to be a healthy amount of headroom here."

A 970 costs the same now . . . .

I genuinely don't know who this is for????

It has 4gb more memory than a 970, for the same price. But is only effective at 1080p.

Who needs 8gb at 1080p? Surely the better buy would be the 4gb version?

You do realise the RX480 4GB is £176?? Why are people ignoring this card and talking about the GTX970.



16 games tested,and the 4GB is not far off the 8GB one it appears.

If you really have a hatred of this card,you can buy an R9 390 then??

 

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People forget that the 970 is now a mature product and improvements are unlikely to come. Meanwhile the 480 is freshly launched and will see nothing but updates. It's already neck-in-neck with the 970, or better depending on the reviews, and cheaper. So how is the 970 a better buy again? Let's not even mention the benefit of saving £ on freesync vs gsync.

Funny how they also ignore the R9 390 too.

 

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Surprisingly he seemed to like it, competing with an SSC 970.

What Jay2Cents likes it??

 

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How bizzare

Its even weirder that PCPER was saying the 4GB cards are the 8GB cards with a different BIOS.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10446/the-amd-radeon-rx-480-preview/3



So much for a whole new architecture. This starts to explain the performance gap between expectations and reality.

It looks like it might have been a backported GCN1.2 design meant for 20NM - LOL.

 

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In absolute terms it is a perfectly fine card - slightly better performance per dollar than the 970. It is only looking particular bad when you consider it is pretty similar to the 970 for only a little less money but 2 years later, the power efficiency is now equivalent to Maxwell on 28nm, Pascal has 80% better efficiency, and the imminent 1060 may well be faster and use half the power.

Given then choice between a 970 and 480GBP at current rices, if I totally set aside my desired for Linux, openGL and CUDA then I could swing a 480 (if I never wanted to overclock). But compared to what nvidia is going to be offering this is pretty dire. A 2dn hand 970 offers better value for money, price per FPs is in pascal's favor funny enough.

You have zero warranty with a secondhand GTX970 though and by extension you could argue then to buy a secondhand R9 290 which is better value.

Plus the GTX970 is still more expensive than a RX480 4GB and after seeing how performance started to drop away as time has progressed(my GTX960 has done the same),I don't see the point of getting one unless its a really good price.

Once the GTX1060 is released I expect more performance will drop away - I had both the GTX660 and GTX960 and it happened to both.

 

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Funny how you ignore reality after getting slapped in the face with it.

Funny how I said it would be R9 390/R9 390X level performance for months and reality slapped you in the face:

http://i.imgur.com/LYu4iJ3.png



So next time I know you are very desperate for EPEEN but don't put words in people's mouth cause you are coming accross as a very sad person who needs make sure they feel better about themself.

 

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http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/amd-radeon-rx-480-8gb-review/
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/06/amd-rx-480-polaris-review/

Looking at the first one - its getting close to a GTX980 in some games?? Wait,wut?

Why is the performance so inconsistent??

 

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And hopefully by then AMD will have ironed out the issues with 14nm Finfet. I can’t help but feel that Global Foundries are to blame here for the power issues with them using a process node that’s needs some more work.

This is the first product AMD have launched since returning to Global Foundries and they give us this. Somethings just never change with time.

They better get upto speed quickly - they only have six months to get Vega and Zen working OK on the same process!

 

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I get the feeling after looking at the RX480 Zen might get pushed back to Q1 2017 (end of) or spill in Q2 2017. AMD can afford a poor launch for a video card but the CPU has to be spot on. If AMD delivers on what there claiming Zen will be perform similarly to Broadwell/Haswell which is all well and good but given there track record I'm not hopeful (RX 480 just serves as a reminder of just how underwhelming AMD product launches have been over the last 4 years)

The clockspeeds are the issue,which some of us are worried about.

 

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Thats interesting,Tarinder over on Hexus said they are getting a aftermarket Sapphire RX480 in the next few days.

 

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Updated the list - if I missed any than please post them in the thread.

 

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So not so **** as the last **** card.

Too noisy, too hot, only good for 1080p gaming and of course no mention of VR or Crossfire.

Jeez even 7970's are close to it on some tests.

Only thing it has going for it is the price, but if I was in the market, I would get a 2nd hand 970.

Emm,eh just said he loved the card and gave it a Gamers Choice award.

BTW,there is no HD7970 in the review??


Thats funny - the print review from the same website also says the following:

Blimey. What a cracking little card.

If you are one of the ignorant people who just glances at the graphs for the highlighted result and treats that as the entirety of knowledge, then you'll be missing a stunning card at a seriously affordable price. No, of course it doesn't match up to the capabilities of some of the heavy hitting high-end models, but it's not remotely competing with them. It's a £200 card. Regularly beating a GTX 970 levels of performance for a couple of hundred notes. If that doesn't impress you then you need to check your jimmies for rustling.

Like any card which we apply the 'affordable' label to, there are a couple of minor caveats. Usually we say that you have to be judicious with your resolution choice and reduce your anti-aliasing to a sensible level and all will be well. With the RX480 in 8GB trim there is only one single caveat, and that's that you shouldn't really use it to power a 4K display. Otherwise you can do what you like with it. The very latest DirectX 12 titles in 1440P with maximum image quality settings? No problem for the AMD Radeon RX480.

At 1080P, probably the resolution that 90% of people who buy a GPU at this price point will be looking to game, it's an absolute stunner. We couldn't get it to sweat no matter what we threw at it. Yes you can argue that the noise and temperature levels are a little high, but this is an AMD reference cooler and they are, with the best will in the world, somewhere between average and mediocre. It doesn't really matter because once a Strix/Twin Frozr/Dual-Dissipation/Etc cooler is on it then you'll get those low temperatures and silent running but on a GPU that has proven itself to be more than capable of running the very latest, high detail, DirectX 12 games.

We are particularly glad that AMD have finally cracked the power draw nut. The latest 4th Generation GCN has fantastic power efficiency when compared to AMD cards of yore. 22W beneath the GTX970 that it so regularly beat in the performance tests. Hell it's 140W (as an entire system) below the 380X, and the performance between the two cards is night and day. If you run a 380X you could have CrossfireX RX480s for the same power draw, and be kicking down the door of some extremely high-end setups for £420 in GPU cost.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/gpu_displays/amd_radeon_rx480_polaris_8gb_review/21

 

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some text

He seems quite positive and there is no HD7970 in the review - what have you been reading?? I think you are overspinning it yourself. Plus a secondhand GTX970 has no warranty anyway,and at that point you might as well get a secondhand R9 290 series cards if you want one with no warranty.

 

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Check the Vantage scores, such an old graph it was showing.

So a DX10 benchmark - emm?? In the 3DMark11 benchmark its pegged at a GTX980 and in 3DMark its pegged at an R9 290X.

This is the GTX970 he used:

http://imagescdn.tweaktown.com/cont...mp-extreme-core-edition-video-card-review.jpg

Guru3D said it was one of the fastest pre-overclocked GTX970 cards(think out of the box it is around 1.4GHZ) and no wonder it has an extended non-reference PCB and a really great cooler. It still sells for £260+ so yeah is quite a nice card indeed.

For £150 - £180 for a 2nd hand 970 who gives a flying about warranty. Some might, I would not. Anyway if you choose carefully on the 2nd hand market, warranty can e transferred as everyone on MM bangs on about.

Like when my mate bought a secondhand GTX770 with a non-transferable warranty and when it died,he was out of pocket.

Plus by that extension I am sure a secondhand R9 290 or R9 290X is cheaper anyway.

Considering that the 4GB card is more or less the same price,not sure what this big deal about secondhand GTX970 cards is now. I saw nobody saying to buy a secondhand GTX970 over a new one 4 weeks ago?? Whatever floats your boat.

 

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Its also odd from the POV the GTX970 is EOL and NV have a habit of dropping driver support for older cards quicker than a hot potato.

I should know - I had a GTX660 and have a GTX960. I got both brand new for a good price so excellent price/performance but the AMD competitors have seemed to have lasted a bit longer.

 

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Most wont be interested in this but one for us Linux users

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amdgpu-rx480-linux&num=1

Seems AMD has improved somewhat with the drivers both open and closed.

Good spot!!