AMD RX 480 reference card

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CA_Steve
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AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Jun 29, 2016 8:30 am

I'll start a review compilation thread when the aftermarket cooler cards start showing up..but thought it was worthwhile to start a comment thread on the reference card.

Looks comparable to the GTX 970 for performance and gaming power consumption for ~$30-80 less (depending on 4 vs 8GB and GTX 970 stock dumping fire sales). Needs to fine tune the idle, media player and multi-monitor (different resolution) power consumption though. Pascal can drop to 200MHz or so GPU and Memory clock rates with 0.625V while Polaris is 300MHz and 0.8V at idle.

Note the way lower max core frequency on the RX 480 (1266MHz) vs the GTX 1070 (1987 GHz for the MSI card). I hope this means there's some headroom for AMD and not a process/architecture limitation.

A rumor has Nvidia pulling in the GTX 1060 launch to July...

Abula
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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Abula » Wed Jun 29, 2016 8:46 am

CA_Steve wrote:A rumor has Nvidia pulling in the GTX 1060 launch to July...
The GTX1060 was scheduled for nov/dec, what i read was that it was bieng moved toward september, but july seems like a rush to me, they wont have much to release aside from the GTX1050 and GTX1080Ti for Christmas. Either way hope they do release on July would be great to see some good pricing on both cards.

I had read earlier from multiple sources that the rumor date was September..this new rumor is July. Like all rumors, could be a lot of crap.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Jun 30, 2016 7:11 am

Abula wrote:
CA_Steve wrote:A rumor has Nvidia pulling in the GTX 1060 launch to July...
The GTX1060 was scheduled for nov/dec, what i read was that it was bieng moved toward september, but july seems like a rush to me, they wont have much to release aside from the GTX1050 and GTX1080Ti for Christmas. Either way hope they do release on July would be great to see some good pricing on both cards.

I had read earlier from multiple sources that the rumor date was September..this new rumor is July. Like all rumors, could be a lot of crap.
EEP! I accidently edited your post instead of quoting it for my reply. Very sorry.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by ggumdol » Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:39 am

Apart from the performance per watt, which is rather disappointing, it is reported by several benchmarks that RX480 is tapping into the power from the motherboard excessively, failing to meet the PCI-E specifications.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4 ... ification/

I'm afraid I cannot recommend this GPU unless this safety/instability issue is resolved.

In practice, I think it does not really matter how much this GPU is powered via 6-pin plug as long as the amount does not exceed 150W because modern PSUs are very capable in this regard. However, it is simply too dangerous to use 88-90W from the PCI-E slot of the motherboard.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Jun 30, 2016 11:28 am

If you are on this site, you won't be buying the reference card. You'll be getting an aftermarket version that'll have their own power management designs. It's too early to paint all of the RX 480 card with the same brush.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Abula » Thu Jun 30, 2016 12:17 pm

As steve said, this is mostly the reference cards.

Wait for MSI and Asus to release their own PCB and custom power design, and probably they are going to tweak the power the cards draw from the PCI, i think the cards are going to be really good option for 1080p, specially for people looking for a great value card.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:06 pm

I saw a three fan Strix card all ready to go. Not sold yet, but they are made. They look really nice. I will be hitting one asap.

They are making another Gaming MSI one as well, just doesnt seem to be made yet.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Abula » Thu Jun 30, 2016 9:11 pm

~El~Jefe~ wrote:I saw a three fan Strix card all ready to go. Not sold yet, but they are made. They look really nice. I will be hitting one asap.

They are making another Gaming MSI one as well, just doesnt seem to be made yet.
Guru3d had some ASUS and MSI tease Custom Radeon RX 480 cards. I would wait for reviews though, in my experience Asus and MSI do best, the problem is the asus had a much more agressive fan curve at the same temps, this was on 2 fans on asus and 2 fans on MSI, now a days the Asus Strix coolers have 3 fans and a bigger cooler, but on GTX1080/1070, still MSI seems slightly quieter, that said, its best to wait for reviews and see how it works out on the RX480s.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Fri Jul 01, 2016 12:18 am

yes, the 3 fans on Asus look interesting. Seems that you cant go wrong with either in most editions the past two years.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Abula » Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:21 am

CA_Steve wrote:I had read earlier from multiple sources that the rumor date was September..this new rumor is July. Like all rumors, could be a lot of crap.
Seems your sources are accurate, Pressing AMD Radeon RX 480, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 determined in mid-July listing
One of the sources mentioned that Hulk will be lifted NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 on July 7, and the time will be on sale around July 14

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Jul 01, 2016 6:37 am

Abula wrote:Seems your sources are accurate, <snip>
One of the sources mentioned that Hulk will be lifted NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 on July 7, and the time will be on sale around July 14
Yeah - Techpowerup is quoting the same dates.
If the 4GB RX 480 is $199, I bet the 3GB GTX 1060 will be $249+ at intro...maybe even $279.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Jul 01, 2016 1:41 pm

CA_Steve wrote:maybe even $279.
40% MORE??? Geez...

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Fri Jul 01, 2016 7:23 pm

I will have to wait for 1060 6gb and the strix asus before I buy now.

Such constant delays to get the right card. Also, this is the price of Reference 1060 gtx. Probably add 30 dollars for different versions. Could be a 299 dollar card or who knows what

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Abula » Fri Jul 01, 2016 8:01 pm

~El~Jefe~ wrote:I will have to wait for 1060 6gb and the strix asus before I buy now.
Man and i thought you were the Jefe, btw a joke no pun intended. My GTX1080 is ordered to ship on 7/31 so the wait is long my friend, at least to people that can order from the egg. Before committing to Asus, crosscheck Techpopwerup for both Asus Strix / MSI Twin Frozr noiselevels, even if its not as accurate as SPCR labs, it should be accurate to compare between both reviews, like the db difference.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Jul 01, 2016 8:10 pm

<shrug> I'm just swagging it. It's all just yammering until we see the card. :) If the GTX 1060 is a 120W card to the GTX 1070's 150W...and if performance is somewhat linear to power use in the sweet spot...then the 1060 will be ~80% of the 1070's performance. Looking at Techpowerup's performance summary for the RX 480, the GTX 1070 is ~50% faster across monitor resolutions. Sooo, this would put the 1060 at around 20% faster than the RX 480 while using 20% less power.

20% over $199 is $240. Call it $249 for the 3GB because they can.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Fri Jul 01, 2016 10:21 pm

I will be using the thing to do SETI@Home. It will first go in this old machine and then in a new one. I know a 1070 would be optimal but it is a lot of cost.

I also will be using it for 1440p gaming. The RX480 already can do that, if the 1060 GTX is faster, that would be a consideration. 192 bit ram and 2 gigs less though could crimp it.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Kaleid » Sat Jul 09, 2016 4:00 am

Does anyone know if this card is compatible with Arctic Cooling S1+ or the new S3? I bet I can still get it quieter than Asus, MSI or whatever solutions, three fans or not considering I cool a much warmer 280x with S1+ and a 700rpm fan (over the VRM section) and a 500rpm.

What are the hole distances?

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by doveman » Sat Jul 09, 2016 4:36 am

The Arctic website shows the S3 is compatible with the RX480, as long as it's actively cooled. They only guarantee their coolers will fit on reference cards however, which is fine if the display output arrangement suits you. I'd probably be OK with it, as my two monitors both support DP and I only need one HDMI for my sofa TV and if I ever got a 4K TV to use as a flight-sim cockpit display I guess that would run off DP or I could just buy a cheap switch to choose which TV the single HDMI feeds.

A bonus with buying a reference card is that you may well be able to unlock the cheaper 4GB one to 8GB and of course you don't waste money paying for a fancy cooler which you're just going to rip off. On the other hand, with a partner card you're likely to get better VRM's, etc. and have more OC potential, so I can't decide either way just now and by the time the partner cards are available and properly reviewed so I can see if there's one that's quiet enough without needing to fit an Arctic, the unlockable reference cards probably won't be available anymore.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Kaleid » Sat Jul 09, 2016 8:10 am

Thanks for the response, should have checked the official website of course, but a bit on the tired side (no vacation for over a year now)..

Well, I've already decided for a 8-pin card just not to put a strain on the 6-pin either, despite that I'm sure that my PSU can take it. There is a benefit to a better aftermarket cooler too, because it will increase the cards value in the second hand market.

So far I haven't been able to find any 4GB cards at all in Finland, they seem mostly be available in other countries. The 8GB will be wasted of course, as the GPU itself is neither that quick or efficient for that matter, but the price difference is not so huge either, plus this too will increase the value once sold later on.

If the holes are the same place then I can probably mod the cooler to fit just in about any card really, I've even used the S1 on much smaller cards such as 7750 which meant that I had to bend the cooler fins quite a bit, but it worked well and cooled tremendously well. Of course I'll go with active cooling, but my guess is that a larger 700rpm fan will do it, even if I overclock the card to its limits.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Sat Jul 09, 2016 9:45 am

the 8-pin connector on non-reference cards makes that the only card to buy. I cannot imagine having to worry about my whole computer going on fire because of a power draw that exceeds 75 watts at the board.

I do not trust the longevity of my system either, even though it was patched this week.

if 8 pin was on reference for a 4gb at 199 US dollars, i would buy that and cool it myself definitely.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by nagi » Sat Jul 09, 2016 5:58 pm

Also, feel free to contact Arctic about any of their proucts. They'll help, and do it fast. I asked them about RX 480 compatibility days before the launch, and they helped me out even with a diagram of how to best place the heatsinks.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by doveman » Sat Jul 09, 2016 10:41 pm

~El~Jefe~ wrote:the 8-pin connector on non-reference cards makes that the only card to buy. I cannot imagine having to worry about my whole computer going on fire because of a power draw that exceeds 75 watts at the board.

I do not trust the longevity of my system either, even though it was patched this week.

if 8 pin was on reference for a 4gb at 199 US dollars, i would buy that and cool it myself definitely.
Good point. I don't want to risk my PC either, so I'll forget about getting a reference card and hopefully one of the partner cards will be quiet enough for me as is.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by quest_for_silence » Sun Jul 10, 2016 6:28 am

nagi wrote:Also, feel free to contact Arctic about any of their proucts. They'll help, and do it fast.

YMMV: I've asked them in the past about FirePro and GTX 750Ti S1 Plus/S3 compatibility and they were of no help at all.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by doveman » Sun Jul 10, 2016 10:30 am

quest_for_silence wrote:
nagi wrote:Also, feel free to contact Arctic about any of their proucts. They'll help, and do it fast.

YMMV: I've asked them in the past about FirePro and GTX 750Ti S1 Plus/S3 compatibility and they were of no help at all.
Likewise when I asked about the 6950, all they would say is that their products are only designed to work with reference cards and that I'd have to check the layout/height of any partner cards myself to decide if the Accelero might fit. I was lucky and it worked out but it was quite stressful trying to choose a card without being able to be sure and it would've been much better if they could correspond with the card makers to come up with a list of known compatible cards.

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Sun Jul 10, 2016 11:44 pm

doveman wrote:
~El~Jefe~ wrote:the 8-pin connector on non-reference cards makes that the only card to buy. I cannot imagine having to worry about my whole computer going on fire because of a power draw that exceeds 75 watts at the board.

I do not trust the longevity of my system either, even though it was patched this week.

if 8 pin was on reference for a 4gb at 199 US dollars, i would buy that and cool it myself definitely.
Good point. I don't want to risk my PC either, so I'll forget about getting a reference card and hopefully one of the partner cards will be quiet enough for me as is.
nice! i made one good point this year :D

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Sizzor » Tue Oct 11, 2016 11:30 am

The RX 480 is a pretty good card for the price and surpassing the GTX 1060 in dx 12 and vulkan titles . Here are some alternative to them both http://www.tekgrains.com/best-graphics- ... under-300/

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Re: AMD RX 480 reference card

Post by Kaleid » Fri Oct 14, 2016 1:41 am

So I purchased the MSI 480 8GB and it is as the reviews point out completely silent in windows, but the fans can speed up quite a lot in some games like Far Cry primal, whilst being close to quiet in Fallout 4.
As I wrote before I have the Arctic Cooling S3 for it, but for some reason as I have tried to use it twice the temps go up all the way to 90c, and I don't get why as the I see from the thermalpaste that both have connection. Frustrating as the 480 should be quite a lot easier to cool down than the 280x I used to have. :evil:

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