Radeon RX 480 8GB reference review
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Stormyandcold
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powercolor-radeon-rx-480-8192mb-gddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-187-pc.html
Very good price, a little cheaper than I thought it'd be. Don't forget there's tech in these cards that haven't been unlocked on PC yet so yeah, could be a decent investment.
However, I think this card is an indication that vega needs a lot of work to meet power spec and be significantly more powerful.
GeniusPr0
It's okay. It's now another day after release and 1080 prices have gone up yet again. Now the ASUS 1080 Strix is joining the MSI @ the $1000 CDN mark! Rejoice! I can go 3-way RX480 4GB for that price AND still buy SLI bridges as tokens of my dead enemies.
chispy
Are you trolling me :3eyes:
Clouseau
For a mainstream card this performs quite well. People have a difficult time remembering that. Having a mainstream card perform at High end levels from a generation or two ago is on par.
Power draw, what was one expecting, it is a laptop chip. To get the performance out of it, they had to remove the power envelope restrictions. Hence why it runs hot; not surprising there with a reference cooler. Those reference coolers have always been known to be loud leaf blowers. AIB offerings is the way to go.
Once again, remove the clouding of the argument by looking at this card from the vantage point of anything other than a mainstream card. Kudos to AMD for introducing a new architecture in the mainstream sector; from the start, usually the domain of rebranded high-end cards from the last generation or two. This card performs fantastically from that perspective. AMD has always stated publically that Polaris was to be a mainstream offering. The whole high-end performance for mainstream prices is all marketing spin. High-end performance from last generation yes. Current high-end is Vega.
Thanks for the great review HH.
Denial
1060 is probably going to be 6GB but I think overall that's sufficient.
Denial
Yeah but the 970 is the price it is because of this card, that price reduction was recent. Plus it has 4GB(4.5) more VRAM and in DX12, which is the future, it performs significantly better.
If people are buying 970's over RX 480's they are dumb. That being said, if I currently owned a 970, I definitely wouldn't "upgrade" to a RX480, because for the most part it would be a sidegrade.
Clouseau
It is a value based card. It is cheaper than the 970. The 970 does not offer features that this card has to offer. Like I said it is on par from last generation. 970 is last generation. The card, at least here in the U.S. is cheaper than a new 970. New tech for cheaper. That is why.
EDIT: Nvidia needs to drop the price of the 970 below the RX 480. All the 970 has to offer at this point is performance. Over time the frame buffer will strangle the 970. Its relevance will quickly fade.
Ryu5uzaku
That 51% load was 151% for 2 gpus in aots and later rose to near 200% when gpu became the bottleneck in the test. Tad different thing anyway.
It is actually great for budget 1080/1440p @ 60fps (lose some settings and done). 1060 should be similar I presume unless nvidia fumbles again like with 960.
Undying
Thats it. Only a madman would buy last gen nvidia card with 3.5GB Vram over a new RX480 8GB. Looking forward at new dx12 games releasing this year its smart idea to with AMD this time around.
We'll see how fast will nvidia respond with 1060 and i have a feeling they need to be fast or this market segment is lost.
Dont forget that RX470 is also taking its place under 150$ mark where nvidia has nothing to offer really.
maxio
I would take used the GTX 980 OC with a long warranty over the 480 ANY DAY, seriously.
The architecture of Polaris doesn't improved anything regarding driver cpu overhead on DX11 tittles, nvidia does this job better.
DirectX 11 games STILL needs a strong CPU.
Ryu5uzaku
1060 might be released on july 7th. So not long till that. rx 470 will be interesting card as will the 460.
NCC1701D
It's a really good budget card. I can't agree with the 1440p recommendation though. This card is 1080p all the way and is barely pushing past 60 frames in a lot of the 1080p benchmarks which means that you're going to get a lot of drops below 60 every time the action on screen gets intense. I guess you could always lower your settings and that will increase its longevity slightly when more demanding titles come out in the future.
If I was cash strapped I would still save up for an extra month or two and go with a better performing previous gen AMD card or the 1070. This is a budget baller caller all the way that got hyped way too much. Would have been what AMD needed...2 years ago.
Clouseau
Hopefully the used price will below the price of the RX 480. Hence why you would go for the used card.
alanm
AMD are masters in turning fails into wins. All they have to do is drop price to get good review conclusions. Lets face it, only thing going for this card is price.
Denial
1060 is rumored to be released the 7th, which is fast enough -- the issue is whether or not they will be able to supply it. The 1060 is a different chip and will have a cut down version at a cheaper price.
The only problem Nvidia has right now is stock. There are cards at varying price points in the US/UK, they are just really hard to get.
theoneofgod
Thanks for the review. Great as always.
Clouseau
Since when does the mainstream market concern itself with 60fps. That is a high-end/enthusiast metric. All that is cared about is if it runs at an acceptable level. That is why used last gen cards or lower priced new last gen cards would be considered as well. But this is new tech. Something that has not been introduced to this segment from the start.
Undying
http://esl.culips.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/hot-cakes.jpg
NCC1701D
I think everyone in any market should be concerned with at least 60fps. I thought that was a given. The experience is much more fluid and enjoyable at a steady 60fps. Even HH recommends that in all his reviews at the beginning.
In regards to this being new tech, I don't think that is a reasonable argument either. By the time the majority of games start taking advantage of the new features available in this card it will be horribly obsolete.
You must be trolling lol.
Ryu5uzaku
We have to remember that on pc you can always turn hairworks off or the like without sacrificing a lot in terms of image quality while getting nice boost in framerates.
Ok... The overpriced 279-320€ cards in Finland are pretty much all gone now.
