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Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

akarypid said:
I still don't get it. So far, I think the info we got is:

1) The RX 480 exceeds PCIe power draw when overclocked

2) More or less any card will do so when overclocked

3) Tom's Hardware identified this when running overclocked at 4K

...yet AMD admit to some problem that will be rectified with a driver update?

What do they intend to do? Lower the power draw? Up to what? I mean, how many spikes are an 'acceptable level' for this? And what about other cards that draw more power when overclocked?

This just keeps making no sense...
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People seem to be getting some things confused - the ATX specs have guidelines for the entire slot - which is not what it can draw from the slot (socket) but the entire thermal and electrical envelope for the device in the slot regardless of where it gets it power from. Also some devices will put more strain on the power delivery of the PCI-e socket itself than others some might be "out of spec" but their main current draw will be from the additional power connectors - in this case the 480 can quite cheerfully draw considerably from the socket itself which might not be the case with other devices.

EDIT: To a certain extent they may be able to limit power draw from the socket via the power management chip which usually has quite a bit of functionality that can be tweaked via I2C which would change the demand to the additional power connector.
 
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akarypid said:
Not only that, they will arrive just in time for competing with the GTX1060. For about the same price you can get either a stock 1060 or a partner 480 with about the same performance (unless we're talking about some really memory-hungry scenario where maybe 6GB vs 8GB actually makes a difference).

These partner AIBs will definitely have double-6 or single-8 pin connectors and superior cooling, so I expect one to be able to OC them even further (the 1500MHz rumours may be true). We'll see...

In any case, the 1060 will be at a 192bit bus, and 2GB less memory. If it's clearly 1080p though, it won't matter. In fact, the question is whether partner 480s will be fast enough for decent 1440p. If they still can't hit reasonable framerates, then I guess the extra bandwidth and RAM won't be a significant advantage (at least until newer games are out).

The 1060 will of course lose out in DX12 and will be less future-proof, but should overclock like a devil and consume much less power.
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The extra bandwidth is rarely that I root at between architectures. Nvidia has Shown time and time again that they can have superior performance with less bandwidth. Compare FuryX to 980ti.
 
fastboy said:
no some stock cards are also over the limit,and lest not forget,you can buy the 480 already overclocked..

I'm confident the AIB's with more than a 6 pin connector will solve it,doesnt really help people with ref cards tho :(
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I see, so then will this 'fix' mean less performance? I hope benchmarks get repeated when the update is out. Will be interesting what effect it had.

What makes things even more confusing for me is that I was just reading a Reddit thread where people are under-volting their cards and posting overclock results. Apparently by lowering the voltage they can get to around 1340MHz stable. Not sure if the lower voltage has an effect on the power draw through PCIe though.
 
LoadsaMoney said:
XFX Accidentally Leaks Its Own Custom ‘Double Dissipation’ RX 480 Graphics Card With Hard Swap Fans

http://wccftech.com/xfx-double-dissipation-custom-rx-480/
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If i remember the XFX DD editions of the 290 were hot running cards, have they improved that cooler since then?

Im liking the look of the Powercolor and the Sapphire Toxic so far...

Gigabyte still to show their hand, and we have little info on the Strix and MSI..

HIS (sp?) are also doing a custom 480? i dunno...
 
well regards the voltage underclocking,it might be the case where the voltage was set too high at the factory and be slightly too much?

the problem isn't so much the electrical limit as the physical limit,you can only pass the current the physical connectors were designed to pass,if you try to pass more then you produce heat at the physical connection and the resistance goes up..vicious circle.

now if the 6 pin can say pass 100 watts and the pcie 75 watts but the card is drawing an equal amount from both of say 80+80 then yes I guess you could introduce a software update forcing the card to draw more from the 6 pin..but if you are already at the physical limit of the 6 pin that's not going to help,the only way to lower the overall power draw is to limit performance by underclocking/volting..maybe the volts are too high from the factory and they can fix that but I don't see how they can fix this for people with 6 pin connectors if your already at the physical limit of the connectors without sacrificing performance..unless somehow they have royally screwed up the software in the card or have a bug in there which is making the card overdraw with no performance gain.
 
http://videocardz.com/61687/sapphire-shows-off-radeon-rx-480-nitro

Haven't watched the whole thing, they talk about the RX480 Nitro that Gibbo is bringing to us at £249.

Interesting point at about 18min mark, it will come with fan testing software and if any of the fans don't match the required performance (coil whine, degraded performance etc), they can be removed without having to take the shroud off and Sapphire will send you a new set of fans.

---

Also they say that it's got 8pin power, but doesn't need it? Interesting.
 
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easyrider said:
It's just a 970 tho no ?
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At stock and ref yeah its roughly a 970 in dx11 and 980 in dx12 it seems, with some aftermarket bodgery and power tweaking and oc'ing though it seems the card can hit Fury / Nano levels of Performance...

Really i would wait and see what the custom AIB jobs come out looking like, and then if they can overclock, then you will get a good idea of how the card is..

Really i never rate Reference cards, to me they are basically the lowest level of performance you will get for that product, its upto the AIB's to customise them and draw out the real performance and sort out the cooling etc.

i got burnt (Literally!) by the Ref 290, i wont ever buy another Ref AMD card, but i will only buy AMD AIB Custom cards when i can help it, because they seem to do a brilliant job of drawing the proper performance out of the cards while keeping them cool and quiet.
 
Boomstick777 said:
0.0

How, brings decent performance and 8GB of vram at an affordable price. How is this a flump?

The fact that the media and fanboys are trying to spoil the launch shows that AMD have a winner.

Eeeeergh fanboys are the worst...
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take off your AMD fanboy glasses and realise that card has issues. No point denying it, as someone else already said they would not be working on a fix if there was nothing wrong with it. So sit tight and wait for the fix
 
fastboy said:
well regards the voltage underclocking,it might be the case where the voltage was set too high at the factory and be slightly too much?
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Wouldn't be the first time, I remember my 7970 was set at it's max (before modding bios) 1.25v when it was much happier at the same or higher clocks a shade under 1.2v with both lower core and vrm temps.
 
Griffildur said:
take off your AMD fanboy glasses and realise that card has issues. No point denying it, as someone else already said they would not be working on a fix if there was nothing wrong with it. So sit tight and wait for the fix
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Given that it only applies to the ref cards which will sell out in 1-2 weeks, then customs will take over which won't have this problem.
 
PhoenixUK said:
http://videocardz.com/61687/sapphire-shows-off-radeon-rx-480-nitro

Haven't watched the whole thing, they talk about the RX480 Nitro that Gibbo is bringing to us at £249.

Interesting point at about 18min mark, it will come with fan testing software and if any of the fans don't match the required performance (coil whine, degraded performance etc), they can be removed without having to take the shroud off and Sapphire will send you a new set of fans.
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Coil whine isn't anything to do with fan performance, think you got your wires crossed there.

The fan software is simply to test fan rpm vs volt (or pwm %) against a defined set of parameters; most likely laid out by the manufacturer and tweaked by Sapphire for it's intended purpose.

Hopefully it's not a forced thing in the bios and is just an (optional) part of Trixx.
 
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