AMD RX 480 Red Devil Reviews

[noko]

So far it looks like the Sapphire Nitro is the best AIB card to get and probably worth the extra $. Now it is able to sustain the 1340mhz rate which the reference one could not sustain the 1266mhz rate. So you are looking at a sustain 125mhz + out of the Nitro straight from the box. Unfortunately there may not be that much more beyond that to tap into. ~7% performance gain overall from the Nitro. So the $279 price at NewEgg is pushing it but for me it would be OK to get over a reference
rx 480 Nitro - Newegg.com. As for the Red Devil - price needs to be lower to like $259. To me the 3 fans, extra long card with subsequent performance not much better then a reference is stupid. Hate big cards that really is more for shown then necessity and this is one of them.

 

[NKD]

So far it looks like the Sapphire Nitro is the best AIB card to get and probably worth the extra $. Now it is able to sustain the 1340mhz rate which the reference one could not sustain the 1266mhz rate. So you are looking at a sustain 125mhz + out of the Nitro straight from the box. Unfortunately there may not be that much more beyond that to tap into. ~7% performance gain overall from the Nitro. So the $279 price at NewEgg is pushing it but for me it would be OK to get over a reference
rx 480 Nitro - Newegg.com. As for the Red Devil - price needs to be lower to like $259. To me the 3 fans, extra long card with subsequent performance not much better then a reference is stupid. Hate big cards that really is more for shown then necessity and this is one of them.

Yea I got two 1070s in a hurry cuz I got greedy when I saw them at best buy. But my second rig doesn't benefit from it much as it is used by kids and 1080p, so I am selling one of them in forums and I will most likely be grabbing a reference rx 480 or rx 470. I am leaning more towards 470 4gb and it should do just fine for 1080p. And suppose to be available on the 4th. I think I know what i am getting for 150 lol. Should keep the young ones happy.

 

[thesmokingman]

why the hell would a chip guru not work on their most important product to date that might make or brake the company? Almost every tech journalist has put his name behind Zen. So I have no reason to doubt those claims to be honest.

Yea, um Jim was just brought in to hang out and not do much of anything lmao.




What? NO WAY! He was in charge of everything, both x86 and arm? But wait...!???

 

[noko]

Yea I got two 1070s in a hurry cuz I got greedy when I saw them at best buy. But my second rig doesn't benefit from it much as it is used by kids and 1080p, so I am selling one of them in forums and I will most likely be grabbing a reference rx 480 or rx 470. I am leaning more towards 470 4gb and it should do just fine for 1080p. And suppose to be available on the 4th. I think I know what i am getting for 150 lol. Should keep the young ones happy.

yeah, the 1070 with 1080Ti/TitanX performance starting at $400 is hard to turn down indeed! How is SLI working for you if you tried it that is, maybe worthwhile to test? Could be an option for me in the future once I upgrade the cpu early part next year either Zen or Intel.

 

[NKD]

yeah, the 1070 with 1080Ti/TitanX performance starting at $400 is hard to turn down indeed! How is SLI working for you if you tried it that is, maybe worthwhile to test? Could be an option for me in the future once I upgrade the cpu early part next year either Zen or Intel.

No didn't get them to sli. I got them for two different rigs. I had a 1080 but I returned it to get the two 1070s as I saw better value in those. But really I don't wanna put more money in to rig I don't really use I didn't have a video card in that but i think for 1080p custom rx470 should be plenty. So I am selling one of those to get the few hundred back.

 

[noko]

No didn't get them to sli. I got them for two different rigs. I had a 1080 but I returned it to get the two 1070s as I saw better value in those. But really I don't wanna put more money in to rig I don't really use I didn't have a video card in that but i think for 1080p custom rx470 should be plenty. So I am selling one of those to get the few hundred back.

The RX 470 maybe the killer perf/$ card for 1080p, hope to see some reviews shortly, otherwise the $199 RX 480 would probably fill that slot. I've just have not heard to much from anyone SLIing 1070's or 1080's which to me is loud and clear they are not too great at the moment.

 

[NKD]

The RX 470 maybe the killer perf/$ card for 1080p, hope to see some reviews shortly, otherwise the $199 RX 480 would probably fill that slot. I've just have not heard to much from anyone SLIing 1070's or 1080's which to me is loud and clear they are not too great at the moment.

I don't go sli. I am a single card type a guy. Always depending on driver support or now developer support is not what I wanna depend on going forward. But I am really drooling over the 470 though. WCCFTECH has a lot of pictures of different models already, looks like they are all ready to go and we will mostly be seeing after market cards at probably 170-180 or so. I am not counting on ever finding a reference 480 for 199 though lol. I think those are gone.

 

[Araxie]

NKD if you already have the card no reason to sell and then downgrade.. keep the puppy.. even at 1080P all that power is required for enjoy at max some games.. and the vRAM also is needed, 4GB is actually low even for 1080P.. keep the card and it will give your kids years of gaming with no problems.

 

[cray10]

My Devil RX 480 showed up this weekend. After getting it installed and running a few quick benchmarks, it is very quiet and stays cool. However as mentioned, it is not able to sustain it's boost clock of 1330mhz too often. This is definitely due to the power being limited to 5% in WattMan, which is awful. Sounds like the new bios Powercolor has available already doesnt do anything to change this. I'm looking forward to either a modded bios or new third party OC tools to get around this ASAP.

 

[Daniel_Chang]

TPU has the MSI card up. 1303 boost clock, no throttling, maxes at 224W. Performance is closer to the 1060, and it's $15 cheaper than the Red Devil. If noise and temps matter, then this is better than the Sapphire. The latter still wins in performance.

 

[primetime]

My Devil RX 480 showed up this weekend. After getting it installed and running a few quick benchmarks, it is very quiet and stays cool. However as mentioned, it is not able to sustain it's boost clock of 1330mhz too often. This is definitely due to the power being limited to 5% in WattMan, which is awful. Sounds like the new bios Powercolor has available already doesnt do anything to change this. I'm looking forward to either a modded bios or new third party OC tools to get around this ASAP.

So increasing power or what ever in the wattman options doesnt help at all? I would imagine the card stays very cool at least especially with the fans turned up? Is your card hanging with the over clocked 1060s via 3dmark or what ever?

 

[noko]

TPU has the MSI card up. 1303 boost clock, no throttling, maxes at 224W. Performance is closer to the 1060, and it's $15 cheaper than the Red Devil. If noise and temps matter, then this is better than the Sapphire. The latter still wins in performance.

This sounds good, I am sure the Red Devil will get a bios update to compete better with the Nitro and MSI card. They need to, it has way enough cooling to scream or push P10 to it's limits.

 

[Daniel_Chang]

This sounds good, I am sure the Red Devil will get a bios update to compete better with the Nitro and MSI card. They need to, it has way enough cooling to scream or push P10 to it's limits.

Bios updates for GPU performance enhancements this drastic are extremely rare. I've never heard of one. End users typically don't update a GPU bios, so this is generally avoided.

As of now, the Sapphire and MSI cards are faster out of the box than the Red Devil. If buying a 480 for performance today, go with the guaranteed thing.

 

[cray10]

So increasing power or what ever in the wattman options doesnt help at all? I would imagine the card stays very cool at least especially with the fans turned up? Is your card hanging with the over clocked 1060s via 3dmark or what ever?

I'm only able to give it 5% power limit, it does help versus 0%. The card is very quiet, and runs cool. Im currently running crossfire with the Devil and a reference 480. I noticed that in crossfire it seems to maintain its boost clock of 1330 quite well for the most part. I believe more so than it did in a single card configuration. I dont recall numbers off the top of my head, I'll run firestrike/timespy tonight and post some numbers for you guys.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

I don't see the point of these cards. All these beefy coolers and same performance to stock with gimped bios that limits it to same power envelope as reference card. Give the users more tools to push these cards for those who want squeeze every bit of performance. Sort of disappointed how locked down the new cards seem.

Is this such a surprise after Fury did the same thing?

Quite frankly AMD was facing deja veuz all over again. They couldn't get the clocks they really wanted and they knew nvidia had a really high clock rate out of the gate. So they pushed it to it's practical limits (enough to give a high yield) even if not the most efficient, and locked it down to avoid warranty claims.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

So far it looks like the Sapphire Nitro is the best AIB card to get and probably worth the extra $. Now it is able to sustain the 1340mhz rate which the reference one could not sustain the 1266mhz rate. So you are looking at a sustain 125mhz + out of the Nitro straight from the box. Unfortunately there may not be that much more beyond that to tap into. ~7% performance gain overall from the Nitro. So the $279 price at NewEgg is pushing it but for me it would be OK to get over a reference
rx 480 Nitro - Newegg.com. As for the Red Devil - price needs to be lower to like $259. To me the 3 fans, extra long card with subsequent performance not much better then a reference is stupid. Hate big cards that really is more for shown then necessity and this is one of them.

For that kind of coin, it loses against a 1060 in terms of value, especially when both are overclocked.

 

[Daniel_Chang]

For that kind of coin, it loses against a 1060 in terms of value, especially when both are overclocked.

Agreed, and that's where I ended up.

EVGA 1060 SC was $225 after MIR and Paypal code. Sapphire will be $280 when available. Even if the Sapphire reaches performance parity with the 1060 (it doesn't, but let's give it the benefit of the doubt), that would still be $55 and 100W more for the same performance. It's not worth it.

I've said before that I don't care about power draw (within reason). When the 390 edged out the 970, I said that the 390 was the better card despite it's higher power draw. But if the card with higher power draw is slower than the more efficient card, then that higher power draw is not justified.

 

[Ieldra]

Agreed, and that's where I ended up.

EVGA 1060 SC was $225 after MIR and Paypal code. Sapphire will be $280 when available. Even if the Sapphire reaches performance parity with the 1060 (it doesn't, but let's give it the benefit of the doubt), that would still be $55 and 100W more for the same performance. It's not worth it.

I've said before that I don't care about power draw (within reason). When the 390 edged out the 970, I said that the 390 was the better card despite it's higher power draw. But if the card with higher power draw is slower than the more efficient card, then that higher power draw is not justified.

Also worth noting that any 1060 will overclock roughly the same. Especially with that tiny power envelope it is very forgiving with cooling

 

[NKD]

Also worth noting that any 1060 will overclock roughly the same. Especially with that tiny power envelope it is very forgiving with cooling

True, since they already boost like crazy lol. Overclocking is not as fun as it used to be lol.

 

[NKD]

NKD if you already have the card no reason to sell and then downgrade.. keep the puppy.. even at 1080P all that power is required for enjoy at max some games.. and the vRAM also is needed, 4GB is actually low even for 1080P.. keep the card and it will give your kids years of gaming with no problems.

My kids yea when I have them. hehe. For now its my nephews hehe. On the serious note I kinda over spent. If I am not infront of it they can turn down a few settings hahaha. My greed cost me 50 bucks or so. Just sold the second one.

 

[Ieldra]

True, since they already boost like crazy lol. Overclocking is not as fun as it used to be lol.

Yeah it's basically done for you, at least with maxwell you had more room to OC because stock was stupidly low.

In the other corner you have amd doing the exact same thing, the rx480 is already clocked pretty high considering it tops out at around 1360 on average

 

[cray10]

Here is a few benches I ran last night using just the Red Devil 480, stock settings +5% power limit. It struggles to maintain 1330mhz boost during these benchmarks. However, it does for the most part maintain at least 1300mhz.

Firestrike
https://app.box.com/s/s1udrhqlko53epbur4yo529m5602cnlj

TimeSpy
https://app.box.com/s/ckp8ph1gd9fur6ho8i2zz571wv3vf3yv

Unigine Heaven 1440p 2x MSAA
https://app.box.com/s/swlu3eem54zwi9g99efeefqliil8dmgt

Unigine Valley 1440p 2x MSAA
https://app.box.com/s/58m5lbryyxzw0ywv3at91ggn0vfefehj

 

[gordon152]

Here is a few benches I ran last night using just the Red Devil 480, stock settings +5% power limit. It struggles to maintain 1330mhz boost during these benchmarks. However, it does for the most part maintain at least 1300mhz.

It's probably similar to reference. You will need to increase the power limit to maybe 15-20% in order to get it consistent at 1330. I know I saw a decent boost just from tweaking the power and fan settings on my reference card so that it maintains an above 1250MHz average at the regular 1265MHz boost.

 

[cray10]

It's probably similar to reference. You will need to increase the power limit to maybe 15-20% in order to get it consistent at 1330. I know I saw a decent boost just from tweaking the power and fan settings on my reference card so that it maintains an above 1250MHz average at the regular 1265MHz boost.

You cannot go beyond a 5% power limit with the Devil 480. That's as far as the sliders allow you. It appears to be locked down in the bios. I've seen modded bios' floating around the net but for reference cards, im too scared to try and flash one of them on the custom devil.

 

[gordon152]

You cannot go beyond a 5% power limit with the Devil 480. That's as far as the sliders allow you. It appears to be locked down in the bios. I've seen modded bios' floating around the net but for reference cards, im too scared to try and flash one of them on the custom devil.

Well thats different and this is limit in Wattman? Maybe they already are bios edited to use higher power limit to ensure clocks.

Too bad I have the reference PowerColor, would have been nice to play around with devil version. Then again, I got impatient and the Paypal code was running out so I just went with what I could get when it was available.

 

[cray10]

Well thats different and this is limit in Wattman? Maybe they already are bios edited to use higher power limit to ensure clocks.

Too bad I have the reference PowerColor, would have been nice to play around with devil version. Then again, I got impatient and the Paypal code was running out so I just went with what I could get when it was available.

Yep thats using WattMan. PowerColor made this card to handle the extra power, so I'm not sure what the deal is. It could definitely use another 10-15% power limit. I've only briefly toyed with undervolting but so far it hasn't helped much.

 

[Daniel_Chang]

Here is a few benches I ran last night using just the Red Devil 480, stock settings +5% power limit. It struggles to maintain 1330mhz boost during these benchmarks. However, it does for the most part maintain at least 1300mhz.

Firestrike
https://app.box.com/s/s1udrhqlko53epbur4yo529m5602cnlj

TimeSpy
https://app.box.com/s/ckp8ph1gd9fur6ho8i2zz571wv3vf3yv

Unigine Heaven 1440p 2x MSAA
https://app.box.com/s/swlu3eem54zwi9g99efeefqliil8dmgt

Unigine Valley 1440p 2x MSAA
https://app.box.com/s/58m5lbryyxzw0ywv3at91ggn0vfefehj

Cards tend to boost higher in synthetics. Load up Witcher 3 and track your boost clocks.

 

[cray10]

Cards tend to boost higher in synthetics. Load up Witcher 3 and track your boost clocks.

I dont have the Witcher 3. Currently I've got Overwatch, The Division, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and I bought and installed DOOM yesterday but havent played it yet.

 

[sover]

You cannot go beyond a 5% power limit with the Devil 480. That's as far as the sliders allow you. It appears to be locked down in the bios. I've seen modded bios' floating around the net but for reference cards, im too scared to try and flash one of them on the custom devil.

Note to self, cross Red Devil card off of list.

 

[Daniel_Chang]

I dont have the Witcher 3. Currently I've got Overwatch, The Division, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and I bought and installed DOOM yesterday but havent played it yet.

RotTR should do it. The card tend to throttle below boost more in demanding games.

 

[Daniel_Chang]

Note to self, cross Red Devil card off of list.

Sapphire Nitro of any variety, or the MSI Gaming cards are the current winners.

 

[sover]

Sapphire Nitro of any variety, or the MSI Gaming cards are the current winners.

Seems to be the case. Really makes you wonder what the point of the long heatsink and 8pin connector are on those cards.

 

[cray10]

I dont know that I would go that far. I mean I guess it depends on what you want to do with it. The card has a very premium look and feel, it runs very cool and quiet. I'm sure given a bit of time there will be a workaround for the power limit to see what it can really do. I've seen a review where they were able get 1420mhz stable with a Devil, I'd like to see their WattMan settings for that

 

[Brackle]

TBH I expected better from AIB cards. Looks like Kyle was spot on yet again about these cards.

And some people where saying 1500-1600mhz.....my ass.

 

[Daniel_Chang]

Looks like Kyle was spot on yet again about these cards.

And some people where saying 1500-1600mhz.....my ass.

Kyle was one of the people saying that...

 

[NKD]

TBH I expected better from AIB cards. Looks like Kyle was spot on yet again about these cards.

And some people where saying 1500-1600mhz.....my ass.

Kyle said the same thing about his AIB sources lol. Even WCCFTECH quoted him.

 

[noko]

Of course they can go 1500-1600mhz, yep, a select few, very few, LN baby!

Like to see how Dues Ex and BF1 performs on Pascal compared to Polaris. Doom Vulcan seems to highly favor AMD, if that is continued then this may all change around for best perf/$.

 

[Maddness]

Of course they can go 1500-1600mhz, yep, a select few, very few, LN baby!

Like to see how Dues Ex and BF1 performs on Pascal compared to Polaris. Doom Vulcan seems to highly favor AMD, if that is continued then this may all change around for best perf/$.

With all the Pascal cards released, I'm sure Deus Ex and BF1 will fly. AMD needs to get back in the game.

 

[Pieter3dnow]

Of course they can go 1500-1600mhz, yep, a select few, very few, LN baby!
Like to see how Dues Ex and BF1 performs on Pascal compared to Polaris. Doom Vulcan seems to highly favor AMD, if that is continued then this may all change around for best perf/$.

Not to sure if you remember this but at the launch of the GTX 1080 "they" said that Nvidia fixed things with raw performance rather then architectural improvements on games as Ashes of the Singularity. This comes back to haunt them in Vulkan I guess where you could gain more from having improved hardware features rather then what Nvidia did.

With all the Pascal cards released, I'm sure Deus Ex and BF1 will fly. AMD needs to get back in the game.

I'm sure that if anything Battlefield will be interesting to watch since it will use the new Frostbyte engine. There is one thing that DICE really want performance out of their engine and if it does support key AMD features (remember were talking game engine here not game) all EA games across the board can have those features implemented.
That would amount to excellent performance under DX12 (not sure if DICE did a Vulkan version of Frostbyte).

 

[cray10]

Found a new review this morning PowerColor Red Devil RX 480 Video Card Review

These guys are able to go to 50% power limit using Asus GPU tweak. I wonder if the 5% limitation I'm seeing is only in WattMan. I reached out to them to see if they had the same issue. I will be trying GPU tweak tonight.