Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

[AlamoX]

ergh, i was just about to order one, now its better to wait for AIBs cards? Because it uses too much power?
What is this, the green party? who cares how much power it needs, if we need to build more coal powered power plants lets do it.
if we need to cut down more rain forests, lets do it.

well not just use power, the card draw power from 6pin cable (75watt) and from pci-e slot (75watt) for a total of 150watt, th issue is when you increase the power limite by 20% and overclock the card, the card draws 160-180watt, the reference cooler itself is rated 150TDP so the heat is 30 over what it can dissipate, but the extra 30watt instead of being pulled of the PSU cables it's pulled from the pci-e slot, wthing that got ppl concerned about cheap motherboards, because ppl are used to see extra power draw from the PSU but not the mobo.
so yes it's better to get AIB, if you plan on overclocking, but if you leave it at stock the reference should be fine.

 

[akarypid]

ergh, i was just about to order one, now its better to wait for AIBs cards? Because it uses too much power?
What is this, the green party? who cares how much power it needs, if we need to build more coal powered power plants lets do it.
if we need to cut down more rain forests, lets do it.

Personally, I wish people would give it a rest with this red herring. I'm pretty sure every single 9xx series card and also the 3xx series cards are the same or even worse, especially when overclocked.

The partner cards will consume even more power, but probably through 8-pin connectors. They will also be a bit more expensive.

It's up to you, but if "power draw" is your reason then I'd say you have no real reason to switch.

 

[akarypid]

well not just use power, the card draw power from 6pin cable (75watt) and from pci-e slot (75watt) for a total of 150watt, th issue is when you increase the power limite by 20% and overclock the card, the card draws 160-180watt, the reference cooler itself is rated 150TDP so the heat is 30 over what it can dissipate, but the extra 30watt instead of being pulled of the PSU cables it's pulled from the pci-e slot, wthing that got ppl concerned about cheap motherboards, because ppl are used to see extra power draw from the PSU but not the mobo.
so yes it's better to get AIB, if you plan on overclocking, but if you leave it at stock the reference should be fine.

Well said.

I would also add to this that the issue also appears (to much lesser extent) when you are using 4K resolutions and thus stressing the VRAM modules. Let's be real: nobody in their right mind will use the 480 for 4K gaming. So it's practically a non-issue...

 

[Cyber-Mav]

how does this card compare to a r9 270x? every review only compares it with higher end stuff.
also risk of it killing my mobo means I will sit on the fence till 1060 comes out.

 

[RavenXXX2]

how does this card compare to a r9 270x? every review only compares it with higher end stuff.
also risk of it killing my mobo means I will sit on the fence till 1060 comes out.

100% faster.

 

[AlamoX]

how does this card compare to a r9 270x? every review only compares it with higher end stuff.
also risk of it killing my mobo means I will sit on the fence till 1060 comes out.

twice the performance, just double the fps you have and you get an idea what the upgrade would give you

 

[SouthEastBlue]

I'm not sure how serious the motherboard power issue is, I've read conflicting views on Reddit about this. I highly doubt it's likely AMD would have released a card that could wipe out your motherboard (I would bloody hope not unless they want to sink like a lead balloon as a company).

Here is a Digital Foundry video testing against previous generations of 'mid level' gaming cards from AMD, it looks about twice as fast as a 270X.

 

[tyler_jrb]

 

[kieran_read]

Genuinely worried now, comments on this video (Though I know they should be taken a pinch of salt) say that older motherboards are the ones likely to fail because of the power draw issue.

Which on the video he was saying they were drawing 10watt above what it should be.

I'm still sporting an old Maximus II Formula Core2duo, I really don't want/need to upgrade it yet =/.

Better not fail on me.

 

[PhoenixUK]

$379 1070 msrp, best case scenario I think we can knock $150 off that so $230 for the 1060 because it is way off 1070 performance. 1060 6GB £220-250, 3GB £160+. These prices will kill off the 480 and will sell like crazy, think 970 popularity.

980 release - $549
970 release - $329
1080 release - $599, $699 flanders edition
1070 release - $379, $449 flanders edition
960 release - $199 2gb, $249 4gb

Logic will therefore say the following:
1. 1060 will be slightly faster than a 480, yes, most likely 980 performance to fill the gap as 980 is no longer.

2. It will cost around $230 for 3gb and $270 for 6gb.

3. With current rates that translates to around around £250 minimum for 6gb.

4. The sub £200 (£160+) card you're talking about will be the 1050, competing with 4gb 480.

Thus leaving the market at
1080 - £££££
1070 - ££££
1060 - £££
480 - ££
470/460/1050 - £

I can see 490 being somewhere around 1070 area at $349.

 

[PhoenixUK]

Genuinely worried now, comments on this video (Though I know they should be taken a pinch of salt) say that older motherboards are the ones likely to fail because of the power draw issue.

Which on the video he was saying they were drawing 10watt above what it should be.

I'm still sporting an old Maximus II Formula Core2duo, I really don't want/need to upgrade it yet =/.

Better not fail on me.

I'm not, been OCing PCIE slots, GPUs in the past and using much more power hungry GPUs, never had a motherboard fail on me.

Unless you're running £29.99 motherboard and try to OC the card, CPU and everything else on it at the same time I fail to see how this could be a problem.

"Limits" and "recommendations" are there and that's it. They also don't recommend that you OC your CPU, GPU or RAM and it doesn't to be a problem. Components are much more durable nowadays than they used to be, they don't just break from few watts or volts extra.

 

[kieran_read]

I'm not, been OCing PCIE slots, GPUs in the past and using much more power hungry GPUs, never had a motherboard fail on me.

Unless you're running £29.99 motherboard and try to OC the card, CPU and everything else on it at the same time I fail to see how this could be a problem.

"Limits" and "recommendations" are there and that's it. They also don't recommend that you OC your CPU, GPU or RAM and it doesn't to be a problem. Components are much more durable nowadays than they used to be, they don't just break from few watts or volts extra.

True I guess, even though it's over 8 years old now so it' snot one of these "nowadays mobos" but it was one of the best you could get at the time so I guess it should be ok.

If not it gives me an excuse to upgrade lol.

 

[Rroff]

I'm still sporting an old Maximus II Formula Core2duo, I really don't want/need to upgrade it yet =/.

Better not fail on me.

Shouldn't be a problem as it was a reasonably specced board in its day with beefed up onboard power delivery to handle the current hungry quad cores, etc.

The boards where failure is a possibility will be the ones where they've cut corners and "sort of not really" meet the minimum requirements.

 

[akarypid]

Shouldn't be a problem as it was a reasonably specced board in its day with beefed up onboard power delivery to handle the current hungry quad cores, etc.

The boards where failure is a possibility will be the ones where they've cut corners and "sort of not really" meet the minimum requirements.

The 480 is out and running on lots and lots of boards by now. Tens of thousands of them.

By the end of next week, we'll see how many complaints there've been from people claiming it burned their boards. My guess is that it'll be the same number of people as now: ZERO.

 

[AlamoX]

question :
why AMD doesnt do like 300 series, and leave only AIBs sell their own cooling solution, i am pretty sure they can make a blower also, wouldn't that save money for AMD in cooler R&D, and reputation ?

 

[PhoenixUK]

question :
why AMD doesnt do like 300 series, and leave only AIBs sell their own cooling solution, i am pretty sure they can make a blower also, wouldn't that save money for AMD in cooler R&D, and reputation ?

Probably a money thing - looking at the blower they designed, it looks like it costs them about $4.99 to make these. It's just one tiny heatsink and 35mm fan blowing air through it. I reckon the custom cooler will get the temps down from 80c to around 40-50c which will be amazing.

 

[Mr Latte]

Worth it for thermals but not worth it for framerates

Hi Greg, seems to be that it really needs 8 Pin as TTL and also some others have covered too.

Sapphire Nitro is meant to have 8 Pin according to Sapphire Ed with a white Sapphire logo LED on top. Does looks like a sweet card (in black) for £250


Perhaps going for the triple fan AIB models might only give minor performance advantages over the Sapphire Nitro twin fan above. Curious to see how the AIB all compare.
I assume the Asus Strix will likely be closer to £280 or even £300 but seems also a much bigger card and with all the unnecessary LED stuff.

 

[AlamoX]

Hi Greg, seems to be that it really needs 8 Pin as TTL and also some others have covered too.

Sapphire Nitro is meant to have 8 Pin according to Sapphire Ed with a white Sapphire logo LED on top. Does looks like a sweet card (in black) for £250

Perhaps going for the triple fan AIB models might only give minor performance advantages over the Sapphire Nitro twin fan above. Curious to see how the AIB all compare.
I assume the Asus Strix will likely be closer to £280 or even £300 but seems also a much bigger card and with all the unnecessary LED stuff.

word from some AIB, the 480 can clock to 1500-1600mhz, but not all , you need binned chips, it's kind of a lotery.
i think sapphire is planning 3 custom cards, a lite/dual to replace reference, better binned for 1400-1500mhz for Nitro, and 1500mhz+ for toxic model

 

[akarypid]

Genuinely worried now, comments on this video (Though I know they should be taken a pinch of salt) say that older motherboards are the ones likely to fail because of the power draw issue.

Which on the video he was saying they were drawing 10watt above what it should be.

I'm still sporting an old Maximus II Formula Core2duo, I really don't want/need to upgrade it yet =/.

Better not fail on me.

Come on, he discusses it at 2:14: https://youtu.be/cVVJPbFRDEc?t=134

The most important bit is at 3:14: https://youtu.be/cVVJPbFRDEc?t=194

"Apparently if you look at ANY card's power draw almost all of them pull more than 75watts from the PCIe slot."

So none of these cards have ever damaged a board, yet the 480 will? How do people come up with this crap?

 

[akarypid]

Well this is an interesting turn of events regarding the power draw issue: Apparently this has all happened before and Anandtech looked into it circa 2011.

When asked about it "AMD’s answer basically amounts to a polite deflection: it’s an ultra-enthusiast card that at default settings does not exceed the power available by the combination of the PCIe slot and PCIe power connectors."

The article goes on to say that when PCI-SIG where asked, they basically said they don't care. The whole point of this is to allow OEMs to build systems using certified parts.

In the end, it seems to me that it's all about what the card does when operating in "default" conditions. So if the 480 "behaves" at stock clock, it doesn't matter what happens when you overclock it.

Not to mention the fact that almost all recent cards have been breaching the 75W limit anyway...