ASUS ROG STRIX RX 480 O8G GAMING Video Card Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS ROG STRIX RX 480 O8G GAMING Video Card Review - We have put the ASUS ROG STRIX RX 480 O8G GAMING video card through the wringer to find out how well this video card performs and overclocks against a highly overclocked MSI GTX 1060 GAMING X overclocked video card. Check out the highest overclock and fastest performance we’ve ever achieved to date with the ASUS STRIX RX 480.
 
Pretty nice RX 480 card that Asus engineered! That GTX 1060 was no slouch at all. Looks like you can't go wrong with either choice if upgrading at this time. If I wasn't waiting for Vega, I'd toss one of these into my PC for some CrossfireX action. Still might; never know when the upgrade bug bites.

Thanks for taking the time to create a review as always. :)
 
Please do not post full summaries of our own articles in our forums. At least give us the respect of allowing our own coummunity to READ THE REVIEW.
To sum up the article.

Go read the review.

Great review as always.
 
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Gold award for a card that only convincingly beat the overclocked 1060 in one game? Even though this was obviously an overclocking test review from the start?

When the same overclocking gold MSI 1060 card you tested is exactly the same price after rebate?

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GAMING-GTX-1060-6G/dp/B01IEKYD5U

I don't understand [H] awards sometimes. You'd need to step-up to an entirely different class of PSU to power a system with that 1.3v RX 480, but that's ignored in the final award.

Silver, sure. BUT GOLD? Not seeing the logic here.
 
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whateverer said:
Gold award for a card that only convincingly beat the overclocked 1060 in one game? Even though this was obviously an overclocking test review from the start?

When the same overclocking gold MSI 1060 card you tested is exactly the same price after rebate?

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GAMING-GTX-1060-6G/dp/B01IEKYD5U

I don't understand [H] awards sometimes. You'd need to step-up to an entirely different class of PSU to power a system with that 1.3v RX 480, but that's ignored in the final award.

Silver, sure. BUT GOLD? Not seeing the logic here.
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Well this is exactly why we share all our data so you can make up your own mind.

This card is one of the best, if not the best RX 480 cards that you can buy if you are looking to overclock. That and considering it is priced very reasonably right now is why we gave it a Gold Editor's Choice Award.

Awards are 100% subjective evaluations. Certainly you can assign whatever value you wish.

(Did you know that Scott Wasson, owner of TechReport.com, is an AMD employee?)
 
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It's good I don't have the money to get a card now because I know whatever I might get, I would do nothing but second guess myself. So, hurray for observations from the sidelines. Still eyeing the 1070... I guess I'll get to keep waiting all the way to Vega and see how things get shaken up.

Nice review.
 
whateverer said:
Fair :D

Thank you for the complete review, in terms of testing lots of modern games. It's been awhile.
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Well, keep in mind that because of the way we test, we do not have the luxury of just dumping in a new game immediately. First we spend time looking for more demanding portions of the game, so what we generally show as "best playable" is represented through the entire game, not just a benchmark or first level. Then we have to iron out a real world gameplay runthrough that is solidly repeatable. Getting this done alone can take a great amount of time. Then we also spend a lot of times with games that we make a decision that those should NOT be added to testing as well. And of course, we have to take time to figure that out as well.
 
whateverer said:
Gold award for a card that only convincingly beat the overclocked 1060 in one game? Even though this was obviously an overclocking test review from the start?

When the same overclocking gold MSI 1060 card you tested is exactly the same price after rebate?

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GAMING-GTX-1060-6G/dp/B01IEKYD5U

I don't understand [H] awards sometimes. You'd need to step-up to an entirely different class of PSU to power a system with that 1.3v RX 480, but that's ignored in the final award.

Silver, sure. BUT GOLD? Not seeing the logic here.
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I viewed it as:


2GB More

BF1 tie, GOW4 barely different, Deus Ex run in DX11 barely a difference (all the new DX11 games run quite well on both)

Doom which afaik doesn't have either direct AMD or Nvidia influence, 1060 is completely outclassed using an API that is now in Unity engine.

Pretty much same as a gold award card.
 
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-wow, +110 watt more power consumption for the AsusRX480 compared to MSI1060GTX !!. Didn't expect to see this kind of gap!! :eek:
-Also, in my opinion, maybe it's time for older games like Fallout4 to be replaced by newer & thus, more interesting from benchmarking-point-of-view titles (*TotalWar:Warhammer or F1 2016 come to my mind:sneaky: )
P.S. Great review !!
 
I agree with Kyle, that it appears to be the top 480 card people can buy....So the Gold award seems justified to me. The power consumption is common knowledge for 6 months now lol and +100 watts is no big deal to me
 
ASUS made a totally custom/refined RX 480. Highest OC tested, cooling was superb and card was very quiet with a great current price point really not much more then a reference version. Asus OCing software allowing voltage of 1.3v and the card easily could handle it. Also compared to one of the best 1060's OC out there and both would have in most cases the same game play. The only downside is the added power but the cost of that is virtually nothing, noise and card temp was great. For a RX 480 and at this price point I agree it should be Gold.

Review was really well done with a lot of significant Data points - I give this review a Gold standard of achievement award.
 
Not sure why you would this behemoth of a card when a GTX1060 mini performs just as well for less power, space, and cost.
 
shad0w4life said:
I viewed it as:


2GB More

BF1 tie, GOW4 barely different, Deus Ex run in DX11 barely a difference (all the new DX11 games run quite well on both)

Doom which afaik doesn't have either direct AMD or Nvidia influence, 1060 is completely outclassed using an API that is now in Unity engine.

Pretty much same as a gold award card.
Click to expand...

The 480 was 13% faster in Doom. I'm not sure why that counts as "outclassed" but the 1060 winning by the same margin in three other games doesn't seem to count.

The 1060 was 12-14% faster in Watchdogs, Witcher 3 and Fallout 4. Tied in Battlefield and Deus X (allowing for margin of error) And had a minor win in GOW.

While I understand the article's Gold Award for being such a great card compared to other 480s, I don't see why you'd choose this over a 1060 unless you are playing a very select group of games that line up with it's strength's or you have a Freesync monitor. All else being equal you might as well get a similarly priced 1060 and enjoy and get the few percent of extra performance with no downside.
 
^ Still doesn't make sense, Kyle. If that is the case, you should just compare it to other 480 cards in a round-up or something, and give it a Gold award as the "Best 480".

But since you ARE comparing it directly to the GTX 1060 which performs better, costs about the same, and uses 100 watts less power, it doesn't make sense to give it a Gold award.

Just my $0.02.
 
Darkswordz said:
^ Still doesn't make sense, Kyle. If that is the case, you should just compare it to other 480 cards in a round-up or something, and give it a Gold award as the "Best 480".

But since you ARE comparing it directly to the GTX 1060 which performs better, costs about the same, and uses 100 watts less power, it doesn't make sense to give it a Gold award.

Just my $0.02.
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Though we compare it 1060 performance, it doesn't live in a vacuum. We must also consider other 480's we've evaluated, and thus, this one stands at the top so far. It is literally the best 480 we've tested yet, with the highest overclock, and performance and matches gameplay experience with the overclocked 1060.
 
Wow great card and review as always. Good to finally see a 1400mhz 480 RX....That price though wowsa. You can pick up used 980ti's for around that price.
 
primetime said:
I agree with Kyle, that it appears to be the top 480 card people can buy....So the Gold award seems justified to me. The power consumption is common knowledge for 6 months now lol and +100 watts is no big deal to me
Click to expand...

I was surprised by the results, not because i'm unaware of AMD's greater power consumption (*this is a fact for a long time now ! :sneaky: ), but mostly because after AMD's new CRIMSON driver release, the company claims that the power consumption drops up to 31%(*magic word is up-to), by enabling "Radeon Chill "
On the other hand, i've read about some possible-sporadical stuttering when using "Chill" , so i'm assuming that Brent didn't enable this feature during the review tests in order to avoid possible stuttering ? :confused: ? :confused:
 
This is why I love this website. Everything you guys do just makes sense and, to me, seems like the way it should be done. I've always thought about Hard awards in the exact manner you describe.
 
Good to see the 480 start to shine. I believe as new games come out might see it start pulling ahead of the 1060 across the board when DX12 becomes the standard. I love my 1060, but the 480 can deliver. Did AMD fix the Polaris VR issues? That was a main concern when i decided to go with the 1060.
 
Sith'ari said:
I was surprised by the results, not because i'm unaware of AMD's greater power consumption (*this is a fact for a long time now ! :sneaky: ), but mostly because after AMD's new CRIMSON driver release, the company claims that the power consumption drops up to 31%(*magic word is up-to), by enabling "Radeon Chill "
On the other hand, i've read about some possible-sporadical stuttering when using "Chill" , so i'm assuming that Brent didn't enable this feature during the review tests in order to avoid possible stuttering ? :confused: ? :confused:
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Probably so.....And i agree with their decision not to use it either and i doubt it really helps because of the way [H] picks very demanding areas of the game with any and all fps limiters off.....the two just dont mix in my mind
 
cptnjarhead said:
Good to see the 480 start to shine. I believe as new games come out might see it start pulling ahead of the 1060 across the board when DX12 becomes the standard. I love my 1060, but the 480 can deliver. Did AMD fix the Polaris VR issues? That was a main concern when i decided to go with the 1060.
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+1, I'm in the same boat having gotten a 1060 for VR.

Kyle, any plan to run through this (or another) rx480 in a VR game or two with the new drivers? I'd like to see if they've fixed anything yet and if they can achieve parity, or something approximating that, with the 1060.
 
Great review, and I agree entirely with the award you gave the card.

I was quite surprised by the deus ex results, perhaps just a lapse in memory but I remember the AMD cards outperforming their competition even in DX11. Was that just the benchmark?
 
on my sapphire Rx480 nitro+oc card i can do 1400mhz on gpu and 8020mhz on the ram out of the box. If i set the voltage to 1.3v would i be able to reach the same memory clock speed?
 
123Lanoix said:
on my sapphire Rx480 nitro+oc card i can do 1400mhz on gpu and 8020mhz on the ram out of the box. If i set the voltage to 1.3v would i be able to reach the same memory clock speed?
Click to expand...

1400mhz is pretty impressive for stock voltage. Sounds like you have a great card there.
 
But but
Stryke1983 said:
The 480 was 13% faster in Doom. I'm not sure why that counts as "outclassed" but the 1060 winning by the same margin in three other games doesn't seem to count.

The 1060 was 12-14% faster in Watchdogs, Witcher 3 and Fallout 4. Tied in Battlefield and Deus X (allowing for margin of error) And had a minor win in GOW.

While I understand the article's Gold Award for being such a great card compared to other 480s, I don't see why you'd choose this over a 1060 unless you are playing a very select group of games that line up with it's strength's or you have a Freesync monitor. All else being equal you might as well get a similarly priced 1060 and enjoy and get the few percent of extra performance with no downside.
Click to expand...

I only look at Doom, GOW , BF1, Deus Ex as benchmarks due to them being newer engines/tech and fairly mature in patches to fix issues. WD2 is new and Ubisoft so that right there gives it a wait and see plus it was only a few actual FPS difference . Non OC'ed 480 beat 1060 in Vulkan which is huge considering Unity now supports it.

I read reviews to see how things will most likely pan out for future games, I don't buy video cards for games I am not playing is more so my approach.

1060 has 2GB less ram and cost 499.90 CAD the ASUS O8G is $395; I'd rather save $100 get 2GB more RAM just to be safe

Personal Experience: Rather have better or same performance in newer games, and not have to deal with Nvidia horrible drivers and G-sync, more so gsync I hate, I can live with waiting 40 seconds after making a change in their horrible control panel compared to having to AltTab/AltEnter and screw around to get G-sync to stop locking games at 30FPS for no reason/ 8 FPS in windowed mode bug
 
Kyle and Brent
Why do newer games like The Division get removed from your game test suite while older and less graphically impressive ones like Fallout 4 still continue to remain. btw Division also saw a DX12 patch which shows a nice bump in performance for a few cards like GTX 1080, Rx 480 and Fury X. Division is showing that DX12 could improve the user experience. Removing newer and more graphically demanding games while retaining older less impressive titles does not help when trying to determine the capabilities of these latest GPUs and their architectures in latest apis like DX12. Whats more relevant is you are searching for titles which improve the user experience while running on latest APIs. So its really puzzling to see you leave out The Division while continuing with Fallout 4.

https://www.computerbase.de/2016-12/the-division-dx12-benchmark/
 
nice article as always. sweet not-so-little card and I wonder what it would do under water...
 
pendragon1 said:
nice article as always. sweet not-so-little card and I wonder what it would do under water...
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temps dont appear to be an issue with this card one bit.....i be more tempted with xfx if i were going water just cause that asus cooler seems bad ass lol
 
there have been several examples where a rx480 gets even better under water. theory is that is from reduced load from the missing fans, more for the core to use and lower wattage used too. even with just an aio.
 
pendragon1 said:
there have been several examples where a rx480 gets even better under water. theory is that is from reduced load from the missing fans, more for the core to use and lower wattage used too. even with just an aio.
Click to expand...

XFX rep said that the cleaner the voltage the more the internals will allow for more overclocking with lower voltage. Maybe I should spring for one of those UPS? *Too cheap of a A-hole to do it*
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Uninterruptible-Power-Supply-Units/b?ie=UTF8&node=764572
 
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As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
123Lanoix said:
yeah the temps are pretty good at around 75c at full load. Should i try increasing the voltage?
Click to expand...

Just a little. These cards don't like a ton of voltage. Using the Asus GPUTweak II tool will give a little too much voltage as you near 1450 - 1475. Just experiment a little and see what you can get out of it.
 
Is there an MSRP for the GTX 1060 6GB non-founders edition? I think it's $249, but not sure if that's for the 3GB version............
 
Ieldra said:
Great review, and I agree entirely with the award you gave the card.

I was quite surprised by the deus ex results, perhaps just a lapse in memory but I remember the AMD cards outperforming their competition even in DX11. Was that just the benchmark?
Click to expand...

Yeah, in other reviews they used the in game benchmark tool and the rx480 seemed to completely outclass the 1060 going by that little tool. But in actual gameplay all of a sudden it isn't the same.
 
w00t69 said:
Yeah, in other reviews they used the in game benchmark tool and the rx480 seemed to completely outclass the 1060 going by that little tool. But in actual gameplay all of a sudden it isn't the same.
Click to expand...
We do not and have not used canned benchmarks in our GPU reviews. Please point out where we have if I am wrong on this?
 
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