AMD Radeon RX 480 (14nm Polaris)

[jag272]

TPU tested 16 games and came up with the following average:

http://i.imgur.com/LYu4iJ3.png



The 4GB version at £175ish is well priced but the 8GB pricing is really not improving bang4buck that much at all although someone mentioned the 4GB and 8GB models are the same cards(not sure how that works out).

The pound has not helped,but I am finding it hard to understand why the performance is inconsistent.

The 8GB cards are really not that cheap and are around R9 390 and R9 390X level pricing.

It does look the GPU-Z info indicates a C7 stepping IIRC,so I feel its another GF feck up.

At this point there really isn't a compelling £200 to £300 card IMHO.

Sadly,I expect the GTX1060 might be that card.

See based on that chart alone I would think it was a pretty decent deal, though a slightly bigger lead on the 970 would have been nice. Its just a shame it seems to be so inconsistent, and if we are to judge by the Hexus breakdown, is generally on par with the 390 and occassionally punches above its weight, as opposed to occassionally having a game it sucks at which I would find somewhat more acceptable.

If it turns out to be an architecture problem though, or something that could be worked out via drivers, it might be quite a nice card. As it stands now though we don't know what caused it to do so well and push up the average on particular games, could well be some fluke effect or something that it simply hands better than older generation cards.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Can somebody watch the PCPER review??

Apparently the 4GB cards can be BIOS flashed to 8GB ones??

Edit!!

WTF:

https://www.computerbase.de/2016-06/...x-480-test/12/

Reduce voltage and performance goes up??

Eh??

Second Edit!!

Another oddity – and one that may make enthusiast a bit more cheery – is that AMD only built a single reference design card for this release to cover both the 4GB and 8GB varieties. That means that the cards that go on sale today listed at 4GB models will actually have 8GB of memory on them! With half of the DRAM partially disabled, it seems likely that someone soon will find a way to share a VBIOS to enable the additional VRAM. In fact, AMD provided me with a 4GB and an 8GB VBIOS for testing purpose. It’s a cost saving measure on AMD’s part – this way they only have to validate and build a single PCB.

Can anybody confirm this??

[scaryjim]

The price is massively disappointing to me.
8gb 480 $229 which according to xe.com equates to £169 at the current lower exchange rate (which seems to be slowly going back up)

Not sure on the import duty rate though.

No import duty, but you need to add VAT (dollar prices never include sales tax). So just over £200 once you take that into account, and potentially there are higher distribution costs getting cards into and around the UK? Don't think the price is too bad, personally.

... The performance profile across games is as mentioned quite different from past AMD cards. DX12 looks like it'll really shine, and I wasn't expecting it to do so well in The Division. Could be unbalanced architecture.. or could be that previous cards were hitting bottlenecks in certain circumstances that this card is able to overcome more easily, giving a greater than expected result. ...

Techreport tested Hitman in DX11 mode and get a similar result to hexus's DX12 test - it seems Polaris and Hitman just love each other

I think the biggest surprise for me was the power draw. It's obviously very good for the performance level, but 25W higher than the similar die-size and similar TDP 7870? Not the progress we were lead to expect. So much for my theory that 150W was a peak board power and the actual dissipation would be more like 100 - 110. My crystal ball has failed me...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I think the biggest surprise for me was the power draw. It's obviously very good for the performance level, but 25W higher than the similar die-size and similar TDP 7870? Not the progress we were lead to expect. So much for my theory that 150W was a peak board power and the actual dissipation would be more like 100 - 110. My crystal ball has failed me...

It seems to be a C7 stepping IIRC,so might have been some issues ATM.

From a German review site:

Basically, the 16.6.2 that most started their reviews with had a bug resulting in lower performance due to PCIe bandwith issues. AMD sent out a new driver only two days ago, the 16.20.1035.1001-RC1, which is up to 5% faster than the 16.6.2. If you read Polaris reviews, check which drivers they used!

German original (www.ComputerBase.de):

AMD hatte ursprünglich den Crimson 16.6.2 zum Testen zur Verfügung gestellt. Wie ComputerBase jedoch an diesem Montag erfahren hat, hat dieser mit einem Bug zu kämpfen, der die PCIe-Bandbreite limitiert. AMD hat ComputerBase daraufhin den Crimson 16.20.1035.1001-RC1 zur Verfügung gestellt, der das Problem behebt. Alle Werte wurden daraufhin noch einmal erhoben, denn je nach Spiel steigt die Performance durch den neuen Treiber um bis zu fünf Prozent an.

Another quality AMD launch.

[Obie]

Would you guys say the 4GB version would be better for single screen 1080p gaming or 8GB? Also, I see no 4GB models listed. TIA

[Tarinder]

I went through similar testing malarkey during the course of this review.

The original press driver gave me substandard scores at 1080p and 1440p. After trying a different press driver and going back and forth with AMD, this new driver, as shown on page four, was used.

If you're interested, this is the original driver seeded to the press, and one that, on two test systems, gave poor throughput scores. So do take a look at what different sites are using.

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2016...20ef887f28.PNG - original

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2016...dcbc188ce8.png - newer driver, improving PCIe perf.

[Tarinder]

Would you guys say the 4GB version would be better for single screen 1080p gaming or 8GB? Also, I see no 4GB models listed. TIA

You'll be fine with 4GB in this instance. Such cards are listed at UK retailers.

[Ferral]

I find it a bit off putting with it not having a DVI connector on there so if I upgraded to this card I would need to buy a new screen or get a HDMI to DVI connector or Displayport to DVI adapter, I do run a long HDMI out to my TV so would have to look at the displayport adapter.

I think I will be heading back to the green team with them not including DVI seeing as the GTX 970 is now at the same price

[kalniel]

Techreport tested Hitman in DX11 mode and get a similar result to hexus's DX12 test - it seems Polaris and Hitman just love each other

Yeah I saw. TR seem very impressed with the smoothness of frames as well

Indeed, what's most notable about the RX 480 compared to past Radeons of any price is its consistently smooth frame delivery. Where AMD's older cards have trailed the GeForce competition in delivering smooth gameplay—often by wide margins—the RX 480 chalks up a huge improvement in both our advanced 99th-percentile frame time and "badness" measures compared to the Radeon R9 380X.

I think the biggest surprise for me was the power draw. It's obviously very good for the performance level, but 25W higher than the similar die-size and similar TDP 7870? Not the progress we were lead to expect.

That's why it's always fun throwing in a comparative card like that But then look at the number of transistors - the 480 is double the number of the 7870, so lots of opportunities to consume power. What the node process shows is you can cram that many into a similar die size, albeit with a higher power draw. Does show how impressive maxwell's efficiency is though, shame nVidia are a little more coy about the tricks they use.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I went through similar testing malarkey during the course of this review.

The original press driver gave me substandard scores at 1080p and 1440p. After trying a different press driver and going back and forth with AMD, this new driver, as shown on page four, was used.

If you're interested, this is the original driver seeded to the press, and one that, on two test systems, gave poor throughput scores. So do take a look at what different sites are using.

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2016...20ef887f28.PNG - original

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2016...dcbc188ce8.png - newer driver, improving PCIe perf.

Honestly,why are drivers so rushed for this card if AMD had working examples for months now??

AT said it was basically a GCN1.2 design with some additional improvements.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Would you guys say the 4GB version would be better for single screen 1080p gaming or 8GB? Also, I see no 4GB models listed. TIA

Look on OcUK.

[scaryjim]

...Another quality AMD launch.

Indeeeed....!

Interesting crossfire review from TPU - some titles just don't scale, but where it does it scales really well.

Still can't get over that inconsistency though - it's either slower than a 970 or faster than a 980 depending on what games you play!

Definitely one for checking all the reviews and seeing how it performs in the games you like. Anyone seen a review using Dark Souls 2 yet?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Indeeeed....!

Interesting crossfire review from TPU - some titles just don't scale, but where it does it scales really well.

Still can't get over that inconsistency though - it's either slower than a 970 or faster than a 980 depending on what games you play!

Definitely one for checking all the reviews and seeing how it performs in the games you like. Anyone seen a review using Dark Souls 2 yet?

Its a GCN1.2 design with more improvements according to AT.

What is wrong with AMD - every new GPU launch in the last few years has had an issue:
1.)R9 290/290X
2.)R9 285
3.)Fury/Fury X
4.)Fury Nano
5.)RX480

Seriously,why are they always having rushed launches?

First impressions count - at least have the drivers upto speed and with enough times for reviewers to test them leisurely.

[scaryjim]

I went through similar testing malarkey during the course of this review.

The original press driver gave me substandard scores at 1080p and 1440p. After trying a different press driver and going back and forth with AMD, this new driver, as shown on page four, was used.

If you're interested, this is the original driver seeded to the press, and one that, on two test systems, gave poor throughput scores. So do take a look at what different sites are using.

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2016...20ef887f28.PNG - original

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2016...dcbc188ce8.png - newer driver, improving PCIe perf.

Thanks Tarinder - above and beyond as always! Interestingly it looks like TPU used the old driver (they have a GPU-Z shot in their crossfire review), and they came out with the RX 480 overall faster than a GTX 970 at all resolutions....

[Tarinder]

The reason I'm more hopeful of quality AIB cards is because the reference board isn't good. If the game can really hammer the GPU then the engine core clock never hits 1,266MHz, quoted as the peak speed by AMD. I know this because of the following frequencies produced during the 3DMark Stress Test:

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2016...62370d0c5b.txt - it's about 100MHz off peak, because the temperature is hitting the default 80°C, and the GPU is scaling back. This is without increasing the board power. The effect is less prevalent in games, mind.

A quality Asus or Sapphire cooler ought to keep temps in check and allow the RX 480 GPU to hit its frequency stride more often.

We're down for getting one of the very first Sapphire own-designed cards in the next few days; its review scores will make for an interesting comparison.

[Biscuit]

The reason I'm more hopeful of quality AIB cards is because the reference board isn't good. If the game can really hammer the GPU then the engine core clock never hits 1,266MHz, quoted as the peak speed by AMD. I know this because of the following frequencies produced during the 3DMark Stress Test:

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2016...62370d0c5b.txt - it's about 100MHz off peak, because the temperature is hitting the default 80°C, and the GPU is scaling back. This is without increasing the board power. The effect is less prevalent in games, mind.

A quality Asus or Sapphire cooler ought to keep temps in check and allow the RX 480 GPU to hit its frequency stride more often.

We're down for getting one of the very first Sapphire own-designed cards in the next few days; it's review scores will make for an interesting comparison.

When you say, 'own designed', does that mean custom PCB and cooler?