Product Photos

Alright, so there she is; the Radeon RX 480 card we received is a reference 8GB version with a single-fan heatpipe slash radiator design cooler. It has just one PCIe PEG power connector (6-pin). The card has been designed to be a nice match for Full HD gaming, up-to 1080P and even 1440P. 

AMD is clearly positioning these cards as a great alternative for 2560x1440 gaming as well, so we will place a focus on that in the review. In our findings the card is faster compared to the competition's GeForce GTX 970, and starting at 199 USD for the 4GB version that's not a bad position to be in. Obviously there's more to check out other than performance, we'll have a peek at PCB heat levels, GPU temperatures as well as noise levels.    

 
The Radeon RX 480 (reference) is armed with either 4 or 8 GB graphics memory which will be clocked at 8.0 Gbps / 256-bit to give you a little more leash with the higher resolutions and image quality settings. The reference clocked product will run with clock frequencies up-to 1267 MHz on its 2304 shader processors, this model is indeed clocked at 1267 MHz (dynamic boost) for you with that promised 8 Gbps (effective data-rate) on the memory.
  

This Polaris 10 based product has been designed to be a match for the most popular Full HD and Wide Quad HD resolutions. Actually, it places a strong focus on 1440P gaming. AMD also markets VR everywhere, but likely a year from now the VR wind will have passed on to the 1% of people that will actually purchase VR. Memory wise, the Radeon RX 480 with 4GB would already be plenty, as 4GB will get you a long way. The tested model with 8GB though... as you can see, AMD includes one HDMI (2.0b) and three DisplayPort 1.4 (HDR ready) connectors. Unfortunately they stripped away the DVI monitor connector which in the end I feel is an incredibly poor choice. Especially in this price range there are a lot of monitor owners with just a DVI connector.