Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

akarypid · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:05

TNA said:
Was not happy to find out it is 32 ROP's only. If it turns out to perform like 970, then I think I will just keep my 290 until Vega.

Here's hoping that it can reach at least a Fury level of performance once overclocked.

JediFragger said:
32 ROPs????? Is this made for 720p gaming or what!!???

TNA said:
Raja must have some magic going on, as some guy is playing Overwatch at 4K. lol

I'll refer you to my original reaction to this. Pixel fill rate is proportional to both ROPs and clock speed, so it's not as low as you may think. But I've now also read the actual number is 48, so that would put them on par (48*1266=60,76GP/s, which is very close to the 67.2 of the 390X).

akarypid said:
Hmm... Only 32 ROPs as opposed to 64 on the 390X...

On the other hand, the pixel fillrate is calculated as the number of ROPs multiplied by the clock speed so it will be more than half the 390X fill rate. That is, 1050*64 is about 67.2GP/s, whereas the 480 would (if this leak is to be believed) be at 1266*32=40.51GP/s.

I don't think there's a disadvantage here really. Shader count and speed are what rule performance nowadays. Besides, I'm guessing the primitive discard accelerator helps with the reduce ROP count (as stuff that is covered up will never be rendered and thus never reach the ROP).

So it still looks like 390X performance to me: only 390X advantage is the higher memory bandwidth where we expect compression to even things out.

I've recently gone from expecting "about 390X" performance to leaning towards "at least 390X" performance. But that's all good either way...

The real question is: how much will it OC? If it's excellent there (and AMD have hinted it as one of their 5 major focus areas) then it'll be a super-sweet deal.

Having said that, if it's really just 32 then that may be a limiting factor for higher resolutions (provided the card can reach enough FPS for that to be a bottleneck).

tavtavtav · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:07

That gta benchmark is seriously confusing me if legit. Unless the current drivers are actively reducing performance, I would have thought that an rx 480 even without any of the special architectural additions disabled, as a base card would be a bit faster than that.

Roll on the NDA lifting.

harney · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:09

Got a funny feeling that tomorrow there may be reviews of the cards...not sure why my crystal ball in the corner of the room is glowing for ...

INFYN · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:21

Weren't there issues with GPU-Z reporting the wrong amount of ROPS/TMUS on the GTX 970? That was corrected in a later update to it wasn't it? Possibly the same problem here.

Aren't ROPs pretty important at higher resolutions? It would not make sense to promote a VR premium card with only 32 ROPs considering VR headsets use high resolution panels per eye.

AlamoX · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:22

tavtavtav said:
That gta benchmark is seriously confusing me if legit. Unless the current drivers are actively reducing performance, I would have thought that an rx 480 even without any of the special architectural additions disabled, as a base card would be a bit faster than that.

Roll on the NDA lifting.

you are really considering a 380 performance for the 480 ?

FoxEye · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:27

Pick said:
GTAV - 970OC (on i7) vs RX480 (on i5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0b-lBEkfjg

Regardless of settings, it's disappointing that the 480 can't even do 1080p @60FPS in last year's games...

Looks like a 980ti or better is what 1080p users should aim for. No such thing as "overkill". That 480 is getting <30 FPS in that vid

tavtavtav · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:27

AlamoX said:
you are really considering a 380 performance for the 480 ?

No, which is what has me confused.

shankly1985 · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:31

FoxEye said:
Regardless of settings, it's disappointing that the 480 can't even do 1080p @60FPS in last year's games...

Looks like a 980ti or better is what 1080p users should aim for. No such thing as "overkill". That 480 is getting <30 FPS in that vid

Read the description of the video. He turns down the most demanding setting for the 970, extended draw distance to medium.

Extended draw distance is very demanding.

razorpakk · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:32

FoxEye said:
Regardless of settings, it's disappointing that the 480 can't even do 1080p @60FPS in last year's games...

Looks like a 980ti or better is what 1080p users should aim for. No such thing as "overkill". That 480 is getting <30 FPS in that vid

If you have the money for a 980Ti is about time to move on from 1080p, in that sense there is such thing as overkill

RedGoose · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:32

FoxEye said:
Regardless of settings, it's disappointing that the 480 can't even do 1080p @60FPS in last year's games...

Looks like a 980ti or better is what 1080p users should aim for. No such thing as "overkill". That 480 is getting <30 FPS in that vid

That's what really boggles my mind about some people's attitude. Apparently expecting a brand new 200-300 dollar card to be able to play several year old games at a decent frame rate is ridiculous over-hype.

Greebo · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:38

RedGoose said:
That's what really boggles my mind about some people's attitude. Apparently expecting a brand new 200-300 dollar card to be able to play several year old games at a decent frame rate is ridiculous over-hype.

Why? my 4850, 4870, 5870, 7970 all did

Cheapest was £130 and most expensive was £299 on that list.

BluD · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:41

I suspect he was been sarcastic

mtdew332 · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:42

That's what really boggles my mind about some people's attitude. Apparently expecting a brand new 200-300 dollar card to be able to play several year old games at a decent frame rate is ridiculous over-hype.

Yeah, we all know this GPU was specifically designed to run just Firestrike and Steam VR tests.
If it happens play games too, well that's just a bonus.

mahius · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:47

spikerules said:
I wouldn't put it past OCUK to still try it on

You mean an anti-Brexit Gibbo? My conspiracy that vocal 'remain' folks are actually in it for an excuse to charge more with the saying: "blame it on Brexit" and "I told ya so".

The value of the GBP fluctuates the same as any other commodity, due to supply and demand (and cost, except this isn't much of a factor for currency).

Who knows... if it did go through, VAT might be cut or removed all together... but enough of Politics. AMD is holding an AMA on Reddit of all places, with the chance to win one of 14 reference 8GB RX480s for just asking a question. UK residents are eligible and AMD mentioned they'd do their best to get them out to winners ASAP, around the launch date of the card itself.

It's funny... 6 days to go and we know jack all. Even price, since USD doesn't translate well into GBP so easy.

FoxEye · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:48

mtdew332 said:
Yeah, we all know this GPU was specifically designed to run just Firestrike and Steam VR tests.
If it happens play games too, well that's just a bonus.

I thought GTA5 was a game? Mind you, at <30FPS on the 480, it's probably more like a slide-show

mtdew332 · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:52

FoxEye said:
I thought GTA5 was a game? Mind you, at <30FPS on the 480, it's probably more like a slide-show

That's a bonus "feature" it gives you more time to admire the texture detail.

Biffa · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:52

Landed means including shipping costs and VAT

shankly1985 · 23 Jun 2016 at 23:55

FoxEye said:
I thought GTA5 was a game? Mind you, at <30FPS on the 480, it's probably more like a slide-show

Again seems you missing the key issue with his Bench results.

Performance: Rendering every single game element at a significantly higher detail level has an unsurprisingly large impact on performance. And as before, the impact of Extended Distance Scaling varies between locations, and with the detail levels of your other settings.

http://international.download.nvidi...o-v-extended-distance-scaling-performance.png

Of all settings, Extended Distance Scaling has the largest performance impact when you factor in the added simultaneous hit from civilians, heavy traffic, police chases, explosions, and grass, which is impossible to accurately portray in benchmarks. It is strongly recommended, therefore, that you only use this setting on the most powerful of machines as it will crush your performance.

andybird123 · 24 Jun 2016 at 00:01

Biffa said:
Landed means including shipping costs and VAT

Not if you're a business that reclaims the VAT

BluD · 24 Jun 2016 at 00:02

shankly1985 said:
Again seems you missing the key issue with his Bench results.

Performance: Rendering every single game element at a significantly higher detail level has an unsurprisingly large impact on performance. And as before, the impact of Extended Distance Scaling varies between locations, and with the detail levels of your other settings.

http://international.download.nvidi...o-v-extended-distance-scaling-performance.png

Of all settings, Extended Distance Scaling has the largest performance impact when you factor in the added simultaneous hit from civilians, heavy traffic, police chases, explosions, and grass, which is impossible to accurately portray in benchmarks. It is strongly recommended, therefore, that you only use this setting on the most powerful of machines as it will crush your performance.

Yeah i only ever have mine about 2-3 ticks up from minumum. Its all you need to keep things looking nice around you. If all the other setings are high then increasing that one decreases performance massively. Its just a good way of stopping the FPS getting too high and been CPU limited i guess.