AMD Radeon RX 480 Video Card Review @ [H]

Ah current games like? Warhammer, AoTs, Hitman, Farcry Primal, Battlefront . . .? Doom with Vulkan? Dues Ex? BF 1? Plenty of games that AMD does better and still some unknowns with upcoming big titles. Still Nvidia has GP 104 out unless AMD cuts some prices pretty low Nvidia will dominate on the high end.


Lets see I don't think they will have any discernible advantage in DX12 only games AMD has worked on will they get anything out of, its going to be the same old same old, nV wins some, AMD wins some, no overall advantage.
 
AMD has over over again shown future performance that overtakes Nvidia.

This is a myth.
AMD got more improvements because they didn't update their design in any significant way as Nvidia did with Maxwell. So old GCN cards reaped the benefits. It just happened to turn into an old wives tale. It is true that they got more improvements over time but it's not something that AMD did out of brilliance, they did it out of being out of money to update their architecture.

They aren't improving Cypress performance today or other pre-GCN chips, so I guess they don't have longer legs.

I'll be damned... not bad for a $239 card that some say it's a failure...
Compute-Focused Benchmarks
Gaming-Focused Benchmarks

Wait for the Nvidia response before proclaiming it a winner. It's not like its a year out or something. It's this month. And the 480 has problems on top of it, definitely worth waiting.
As far as I can tell, it's actually exactly what you'd expect performance-wise out of an architecture update + dieshrink.
It's actually a fail on the perf per watt improvements. AMD suggested it was going to take the lead there and it didn't. I was half believing them, but foolish me.

The 970/980 are obsolete cards that do not perform well in DX 12. They both should be sold less than $200 on clearance.

If they're obsolete then why would you need them to be under $200? Obsolete is obsolete, they'd be worth nothing. ;) But this is never how its worked in decades. Old cards drop a little bit, but they simply just run out the stock. Enough people are uninformed to clean up whats remaining. Maxwell production has been stopped for a while now. You may catch a good sale, but it won't be cheap enough to make sense most of the time.
People say this every year since 1996 when I bought my Voodoo1 4MB. But older cards still have great performance/value and aren't obsolete just because something else is faster. If they were fast last year, they're probably still fast this year. If you got a 980 you want to offload for $150 I'll buy those from you all day, they're worth more than an RX480. Higher quality build, better drivers, more features, Toyota resale value vs AMD's Yugo perception.
Yes, I'll take a 980 over a 480 in my rigs. Especially since NV drivers do more work and work well on old CPUs vs AMD which tend to lean heavily on your CPU.

If you want something truly obsolete that's cheap, buy a 4870. But it's not a 980.

There's no point in shelling out a ton of money for a new top end card when it fails to double performance.

You expect DOUBLE performance? I want an orgy with Playboy models too. You might get performance doubling if you went back to the 80s but GPUs are a mature market that was effectively kicked off with the 3dfx Voodoo back in 1996 or maybe the Rendition Verite. NV invested millions to snag that 20% performance increase and lower power consumption at the same time. You want them to stand on their head for you too? That would be cheaper and easier. Not attacking you, but that stood out to me reading the latest posts.

I'd love to know what fields people with these viewpoints work in, and how often they deliver double the performance, in anything and any metric- for their own employer, year over year! I'm a software developer and I can't think of a single time I've delivered double performance (other than out of initial incompetency). All the low-hanging fruit is long gone and well-known. Bottom line, the 1080 and 1070 are impressive.

That reminds me of what I said about NV never being good enough. I have a distinct feeling that if AMD were kicking ass with the 1080 being their product, some people would change their tune and 20% with less power consumption would be a miracle.

"Nvidia is overpriced", "NV is marketing" etc. NV NEVER is good enough for them, AMD can never lose because it's always "next year!". Yet some RX480 level product is just perfect no matter what.
 
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I should refine my last statement. Nvidia will dominate even more on the high end unless AMD do some major cuts to Fiji cards

It's not that bad. But between those two, I bet NVIDIA will capture 75%->80% share overall by December in terms of sales (once availability settles down)
 
If they do major cuts they will need to write them down if I am not mistaken. Those cards were more expensive to make than the Titan X.
 
I'd love to know what fields people with these viewpoints work in, and how often they deliver double the performance, in anything and any metric- for their own employer, year over year! I'm a software developer and I can't think of a single time I've delivered double performance. All the low-hanging fruit is long gone and well-known. Bottom line, the 1080 and 1070 are impressive.

Why thank you for taking an interest in my career and background. Let me fill you in.

I have degrees in astrospace engineering and computer science. As you are so intelligent, I'm sure you'll realize that astrospace engineers do have to take a number of design classes on electronics.

When I was in high school I competed at a national level to solve traffic congestion issues. I came up with an idea that tied car position with road traffic data to automatically reroute cars on the road during traffic jams to achieve optimal arrival time. I signed away rights to this for a scholarship. This is the forerunner to Sirius XM traffic rerouting feature.

My first job was working for NASA where I helped design hardware and firmware for satellites. I also write control and hardware level communications drivers for RS422 over an ISA slot for the ground station to control said satellite.

My next job was analyzing and controlling scientific instrumentation. My specialty was signal processing where I was able to offload signal processing onto the GPU and increase the sensitivity of real time chemical analysis in flight by an order of magnitude. This was a first in the industry.

My current job I can't talk about as I'm not allowed to represent my company or work. (It's not classified, but I had to sign this agreement) But my latest project is estimated to save the customers 1.25 million a year.

Any more questions about my background?
 
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If you guys don't like the product, why not just beat it and go get what you want? I don't understand the incredible time investment some of you put into sitting online and posting repeatedly in The AMD section about how fantastic you think Nvidia cards are and how garbage you think AMD cards are. Any positive AMD reviews must be fake and blah blah. If this crap was going on in the Nvidia section, Kyle would put a stop to that garbage in a second, but in the AMD section everyone is participating even the site owner? Come on guys get your shit together, go buy the card you want, and quit trying to crush any AMD fans who still post on your site. This shit is ridiculous.
 
Why thank you for taking an interest in my career and background. Let me fill you in.

I have degrees in astrospace engineering and computer science. As you are so intelligent, I'm sure you'll realize that astrospace engineers do have to take a number of design classes on electronics.

When I was in high school I competed at a national level to solve traffic congestion issues. I came up with an idea that tied car position with road traffic data to automatically reroute cars on the road during traffic jams to achieve optimal arrival time. I signed away rights to this for a scholarship. This is the forerunner to Sirius XM traffic rerouting feature.

My first job was working for NASA where I helped design hardware and firmware for satellites. I also write control and hardware level communications drivers for RS422 over an ISA slot for the ground station to control said satellite.

My next job was analyzing and controlling scientific instrumentation. My specialty was signal processing where I was able to offload signal processing onto the GPU and increase the sensitivity of real time chemical analysis in flight by an order of magnitude. This was a first in the industry.

My current job I can't talk about as I'm not allowed to represent my company or work. (It's not classified, but I had to sign this agreement) But my latest project is estimated to save the customers 1.25 million a year.

Any more questions about my background?

Blah blah blah I don't care if you're really the Pope or Stephen Hawking or a CEO. From your background, it makes your "double performance" statement all the more shameless/thoughtless. You, of all people, should know better. When have you consistently doubled your performance or your product's performance, year-over-year? It's a ridiculous standard but probably only applies to Nvidia's new products.
 
Blah blah blah I don't care if you're really the Pope or Stephen Hawking or a CEO. From your background, it makes your "double performance" statement all the more shameless/thoughtless. You, of all people, should know better. When have you consistently doubled your performance or your product's performance, year-over-year? It's a ridiculous standard but probably only applies to Nvidia's new products.

It's been 3.5 years since the 7970 and barely double the performance. The 7970 has all the horsepower necessary for the vast vast majority of 1080p games (provided you don't go nuts on textures). NVIDIA BARELY has 2x's the performance (depends on settings), let alone 4x's the performance necessary for 4K.

So the question stands? Why put out a ton of bucks on new product if you aren't really getting a significant upgrade that's usable other than more memory for ultra high textures?
 
It's been 3.5 years since the 7970 and not double the performance. It has all the horsepower necessary for the vast vast majority of 1080p games. They BARELY have 2x's the performance (depends on settings), let alone 4x's the performance necessary for 4K?

So the question stands? Why put out a ton of bucks on new product if you aren't really getting a significant upgrade?

Why don't AMD/Nvidia hire you then, show them how it's done. As if less than 20% can't be the difference between playable and unplayable. Those slack asses with their 20% performance improvement and decreased power consumption, after 20 years of non-stop product development in a hyper competitive industry. As far as you're concerned, the 1080 should be a downright miracle.
 
If you guys don't like the product, why not just beat it and go get what you want? I don't understand the incredible time investment some of you put into sitting online and posting repeatedly in The AMD section about how fantastic you think Nvidia cards are and how garbage you think AMD cards are. Any positive AMD reviews must be fake and blah blah. If this crap was going on in the Nvidia section, Kyle would put a stop to that garbage in a second, but in the AMD section everyone is participating even the site owner? Come on guys get your shit together, go buy the card you want, and quit trying to crush any AMD fans who still post on your site. This shit is ridiculous.


Yep. I agree with you on all points. Been coming here for some time and over all, (Except for the 5870 era) this site, or more precisely, the video card forums, is more like gforce dot com forums. Way too much Nvidia fan trolling is permitted on the AMD side versus the Nvidia side. Its been like this for as long as I can remember.
 
If you guys don't like the product, why not just beat it and go get what you want? I don't understand the incredible time investment some of you put into sitting online and posting repeatedly in The AMD section about how fantastic you think Nvidia cards are and how garbage you think AMD cards are. Any positive AMD reviews must be fake and blah blah. If this crap was going on in the Nvidia section, Kyle would put a stop to that garbage in a second, but in the AMD section everyone is participating even the site owner? Come on guys get your shit together, go buy the card you want, and quit trying to crush any AMD fans who still post on your site. This shit is ridiculous.

Yep. I agree with you on all points. Been coming here for some time and over all, (Except for the 5870 era) this site, or more precisely, the video card forums, is more like gforce dot com forums. Way too much Nvidia fan trolling is permitted on the AMD side versus the Nvidia side. Its been like this for as long as I can remember.

You know how to remedy all your HardForum issues, right?
 
Yeah, bring the issue to light and hope that the moderators clean it up as that should be the remedy. Or are you suggesting that if we expect to have as clean an environment in the AMD video cards section as anywhere in this community then we can go F ourselves and go somewhere else?

Clean of an environment?? Seriously who the hell do you think you are? Are you really expecting people not to voice their criticism about AMD fuck up just because were on the AMD subforum.
 
Clean of an environment?? Seriously who the hell do you think you are? Are you really expecting people not to voice their criticism about AMD fuck up just because were on the AMD subforum.
You mean voice, and then voice, and then voice, and then voice, and then....... I get voicing your opinion and criticism of the situation fine. But we both KNOW that is not the extent of what people are doing.
 
Clean of an environment?? Seriously who the hell do you think you are? Are you really expecting people not to voice their criticism about AMD fuck up just because were on the AMD subforum.


This isnt only about that issue. Its been like this for as long as I can remember. There have clearly been Nvidia fanboys in this section getting threads closed and wrecking havok without even a temp ban for years. Moreso than in the Nvidia section. I have certain members ingraved in memory but wont name them here. The point is there are Nvidia fanboys who will never buy an AMD product who constantly come in here and post nothing but negative stuff about AMD products. How the hell do you think that makes AMD fanboys feel and how do you think Nvidia fanboys would feel if it was the other way around ?
 
You mean voice, and then voice, and then voice, and then voice, and then....... I get voicing your opinion and criticism of the situation fine. But we both KNOW that is not the extent of what people are doing.

So what do you suggest? Start censoring people?
 
This isnt only about that issue. Its been like this for as long as I can remember. There have clearly been Nvidia fanboys in this section getting threads closed and wrecking havok without even a temp ban for years. Moreso than in the Nvidia section. I have certain members ingraved in memory but wont name them here. The point is there are Nvidia fanboys who will never buy an AMD product who constantly come in here and post nothing but negative stuff about AMD products. How the hell do you think that makes AMD fanboys feel and how do you think Nvidia fanboys would feel if it was the other way around ?

It sucks when your favorite brand gets heckle, but I am not gonna fault them for it, they can freely express their opinions in the thread. AMD fanboys heckle nVidia fanboy for the whole 970 fiasco or the FE editions. Lets face it, if AMD didn't muck up 480 release, there wouldn't have this much talk about it.
 
It sucks when your favorite brand gets heckle, but I am not gonna fault them for it, they can freely express their opinions in the thread. AMD fanboys heckle nVidia fanboy for the whole 970 fiasco or the FE editions. Lets face it, if AMD didn't muck up 480 release, there wouldn't have this much talk about it.


I understand that but it happens a lot more in this section and threads get closed because of it and people here dont feel that they get their fare shake when it comes to moderation. Thats all Im saying. Maybe there should be a pro AMD moderator here and a pro Nvidia mod in the Nvidia section. That way both communities would feel there is balance.

There are other sites where I visit and they have fixed this problem by doing just that. Rage 3d for instance has clamped down hard on notoriously known Anti Nvidia/Amd fanboys and the threads have been for the most part civil in the recent past.
 
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I say toughen up a little - it is usually easy to get the Nvidia fan boys mixed up, turned around and all agitated spending most of his/her time in the AMD section :) while totally ignoring their Nvidia worshiping section on the site.

The AMD folks are smart enough to stay in the section most applicable to them and most importantly actually use their video card for games etc and not go to the Nvidia section and constantly give their opinions and never even play a game or finish a game while buying the next over priced Nvidia card. :X3:

As for performance of AMD and Nvidia over time:
  • 5870 surpassed the 480 in numerous benchmarks later on
  • 7970 stuffed the 680 back into it's hole a long time ago and virtually caught up to the 780Ti - DX12 stuff it embarrasses the 780Ti
  • 290x/390x hmmm creams past the 980 in DX 12 which is the future of new games and competes with on DX 11
  • 480x will most likely do the same to the 1060 when predominately DX 12 games are out

Rather funny that some folks will never acknowledge long term performance which has more value then just the current generation if it performs. My 7970 on my HDTV is still pumping out great frame rates, max out in driving games (what I usually use it for), soon will get the 290x while I slapped in the 1070 in my AMD rig.
 
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Is everyone done posting OT crap? seriously just reported like the last 9 posts! I would just ban the people that started to OT in the first place, is that too much to ask for?

Come on grow a pair and talk about the topic or don't post at all.

Back to topic

If AMD doesn't fix what ever problems they have with the rx480 prior to the 1060 launch then press is going to eat them alive even when the price of this product is good for its performance amounts.
 
So what do you suggest? Start censoring people?
I would suggest treating the trolls accordingly as you would anywhere else on your boards REGARDLESS of your own bias. If you have a history of allowing massive trolling in other parts of your boards, then I stand corrected and I say carry on. If however you look back and find that you havnt historically allowed this, I would suggest altering your policy on how you handle this board, or remove yourself from moderating this section and allow an unbiased individual to do so.
 
I understand that but it happens a lot more in this section and threads get closed because of it and people here dont feel that they get their fare shake when it comes to moderation. Thats all Im saying. Maybe there should be a pro AMD moderator here and a pro Nvidia mod in the Nvidia section. That way both communities would feel there is balance.

There are other sites where I visit and they have fixed this problem by doing just that. Rage 3d for instance has clamped down hard on notoriously known Anti Nvidia/Amd fanboys and the threads have been for the most part civil in the recent past.
If Nvidia has 80% of the discrete market, then a pertinent question is why does the AMD section between AMD and Nvidia here have 46% of the threads while the Nvidia section has 54%?

Because it is not all AMD users that flood the AMD section I think is the correct answer. Now what is the urge, the need and drive to constantly flood the AMD section with many not owning even an AMD card in years? Yet will tell you all about why you shouldn't or how good Nvidia will be in the 1060 over the 480 when the 1060 has not been even tested yet?

It is easy to look at postings, put in name, see how many times they post in a given section. I think you find some strange numbers with the Nvidia crowd posting in the AMD section much more then the Nvidia section.
 
I would suggest treating the trolls accordingly as you would anywhere else on your boards REGARDLESS of your own bias. If you have a history of allowing massive trolling in other parts of your boards, then I stand corrected and I say carry on. If however you look back and find that you havnt historically allowed this, I would suggest altering your policy on how you handle this board, or remove yourself from moderating this section and allow an unbiased individual to do so.

Add anyone you feel is trolling to your ignore list. Problem solved. Anyway to get back on topic, if this upcoming driver (or the afterburner I2C fix) resolve the power draw issue, then the 480 should be in a very favorable position at $199. The 1060 is rumored to be hitting at $300 for the 1060 FE (ugh more FE crap) so that gives AMD a lot of leverage with budget customers. In addition, although not a really big deal overall, the 1060 lacks SLI support based on leaked pictures so that's yet another plus in 480's favor. I'm advising anyone I know in the market to wait on AIB 480 before jumping on 1060 because $300 seems absurd to me for a reference mid lower tier product.

I'd like to see 1440 results for 480 in Crossfire vs 1070 on [H] and see how that holds up.
 
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Is everyone done posting OT crap? seriously just reported like the last 9 posts! I would just ban the people that started to OT in the first place, is that too much to ask for?

Come on grow a pair and talk about the topic or don't post at all.

Back to topic

If AMD doesn't fix what ever problems they have with the rx480 prior to the 1060 launch then press is going to eat them alive even when the price of this product is good for its performance amounts.
Over dramatizing the problem - yes it does have a potential to wreck havoc on some motherboards if not fix (small percentage). The AIB cards most likely will not have this issue, a fix will come either through software or a revision on hardware (probably both). Electrical circuits, power delivery systems usually have a design margin which even if the specify limit is exceeded it does not immediately or even long term causes an issue. For example pulling more than 75w from a 6 pin pcie connector.

I do agree AMD needs to fix this mostly because they also gave out OCing software with it that if used will put more stress on the motherboard then wise.
 
Over dramatizing the problem - yes it does have a potential to wreck havoc on some motherboards if not fix (small percentage). The AIB cards most likely will not have this issue, a fix will come either through software or a revision on hardware (probably both). Electrical circuits, power delivery systems usually have a design margin which even if the specify limit is exceeded it does not immediately or even long term causes an issue. For example pulling more than 75w from a 6 pin pcie connector.

I do agree AMD needs to fix this mostly because they also gave out OCing software with it that if used will put more stress on the motherboard then wise.


It isn't if you think about it forum or reditt threads, are a microcosm of the people buying hardware. Websites/pages, specifically launch reviews, reach a much larger audience.
 
I expect high end AIB cards to be clocked in the low 1400s like I have previously stated. Maybe some a bit higher, but AIBs will have to get a serious binning program in place to go any higher and that is expensive. Have to wait and see. We have NO AIB cards in hand for RX 480.
 
sorry to triple post this but due several threads about this im just spamming:

Official AMD statements about power issue...

amd.PNG
 
sorry to triple post this but due several threads about this im just spamming:

Official AMD statements about power issue...

View attachment 4996

3% improvement, lol. So they expect the "compatibility" option to be a little bit more than 3% performance drop, since the improvement "substantially" offset the impact.

Seriously, they're just digging deeper holes for themselves. They must know that every site will be testing their claims now.
 
So wait, will the driver inherrently fix the issue... or will the driver implement the conspicuously named 'compatability' mode that lowers performance and is off by default and just so happens to be the fix they are talking about. ..
 
So wait, will the driver inherrently fix the issue... or will the driver implement the conspicuously named 'compatability' mode that lowers performance and is off by default and just so happens to be the fix they are talking about. ..

Hopefully the former, not the latter, but I have a feeling it is the latter. Well, we will find out in the next 48 hours.
 
They seem to be taking a two-fold approach.

1) Default behavior is to shift more power from PCI-E to the 6-pin connector. This way, they're only "out of spec" on one connector, and within spec where it's absolutely needed.

2) Give users the option to limit overall power draw and reduce both to "in-spec" via use of an optional "compatibility" button that will slightly reduce peak power.

Ideally, fully "in-spec" would be the default, out of box behavior, but I understand why they are doing this now. All that's left is to test the implementation within the next 48 hours. Looking forward to the review results after the driver hits.
 
Posted an hr ago...so after midnight EST :p

Like you, I'm curious of the performance implications.
I'm not so sure I'd be evangelizing a 3% increase, unless that is an implication that the fixes result in a 3% decrease in performance...
 
Posted an hr ago...so after midnight EST :p

Like you, I'm curious of the performance implications.
I'm not so sure I'd be evangelizing a 3% increase, unless that is an implication that the fixes result in a 3% decrease in performance...

I doubt it will be too high. Knowing that this card still boosts the same with lower voltage. if they reduced voltage and boost target it might be little slower. We will find out soon. I actually like the two fold approach. Those who want to run it cool and quiet and lose minimum performance it might be worth it with compatibility mode.
 
Just what that horde of 970 owners were looking forward to upgrading to.
Steam Hardware & Software Survey
My guess is that the 480 will be forgotten soon and the 1070 will sell like hotcakes. The majority of gamers have been proven to be willing to spend ~$350USD on a video card in the 970's case. ...
GTX970 has less than 50% of the market, so the majority has been unwilling to spend $350!
Those that did buy a GTX970 some time ago made a flawed assumption if they thought the RX480 would provide substantially more performance. They'll have to wait for the RX490 or go with a Pascal.
Those many of us that run less powerful graphics cards, are unwilling (or unable) to spend $300, and for whom the RX 480 has plenty of performance to fulfil our needs, the RX 480 will be a viable option. (Personally I'm in no hurry to buy a new card so I'll wait and see what's to be had from the 4GB RX480 (any reviews available?), the two flavours of GTX1060 as well as the GTX 1050.)

You expect DOUBLE performance? ...
When I buy a new card I expect at least double performance compared to my old one, yes. And I get it!
With a few exceptions each time I've bought a new card it's been three sections up in Tom's Hardware's Hierarchy table. (Once the jumps were first eight sections from Radeon 9800LE to GeForce 7800GT, and then ten sections to Radeon HD5770.)

They seem to be taking a two-fold approach.
2) Give users the option to limit overall power draw and reduce both to "in-spec" via use of an optional "compatibility" button that will slightly reduce peak power.
It takes a 12% reduction of overall power draw and delicate load balancing to get it barely within spec at high gaming load. Those 12% corresponds to a similar loss in performance.
Then some (1-2%?) performance can be regained as the card is running cooler, and possibly another 3-5% if a voltage reduction is applied.
 
GTX970 has less than 50% of the market, so the majority has been unwilling to spend $350!
Those that did buy a GTX970 some time ago made a flawed assumption if they thought the RX480 would provide substantially more performance. They'll have to wait for the RX490 or go with a Pascal.
Those many of us that run less powerful graphics cards, are unwilling (or unable) to spend $300, and for whom the RX 480 has plenty of performance to fulfil our needs, the RX 480 will be a viable option. (Personally I'm in no hurry to buy a new card so I'll wait and see what's to be had from the 4GB RX480 (any reviews available?), the two flavours of GTX1060 as well as the GTX 1050.)

When I buy a new card I expect at least double performance compared to my old one, yes. And I get it!
With a few exceptions each time I've bought a new card it's been three sections up in Tom's Hardware's Hierarchy table. (Once the jumps were first eight sections from Radeon 9800LE to GeForce 7800GT, and then ten sections to Radeon HD5770.)

It takes a 12% reduction of overall power draw and delicate load balancing to get it barely within spec at high gaming load. Those 12% corresponds to a similar loss in performance.
Then some (1-2%?) performance can be regained as the card is running cooler, and possibly another 3-5% if a voltage reduction is applied.

max load during gaming was 163 watt or so. So thats 8% over 150. Remember this not every game puts it at 163-165. So overall performance loss will be less. Believe it or not I think it will be like 5% performance loss max. Unless the compatibility mode significantly reduces power usage. I mean by 25w or so. We will have to wait and see what changes they made when review sites test the new drivers out.
 
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