XFX Radeon RX 460 Double Dissipation Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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XFX Radeon RX 460 Double Dissipation Review - We take the XFX Radeon RX 460 Double Dissipation and use it to play some of our favorite GPU-intensive games and find out how much of an upgrade this $149 video card provides compared to last generation GPUs in this price range. What will upgrading net you in terms of a performance upgrade in the sub-$200 category? We find out.
 
The price inflation on AMD's products since they were announced months ago is obscene. The card is better than cards released years ago at the same price point, but shouldn't it be? The $149 price point should be served by the 4GB RX 470, not the 4 GB RX 460, which is radically cut down and underpowered compared to the former.

That it's a Gold award winner really seems more a testament to the stagnation in the market over the last 30 months than anything else.
 
You tested a $150 graphics card against an 260x and a GTX750 Ti? When the GTX 950 and 2GB r7 370 is cheaper than that?

I'm sorry, I guess we're transforming into Anandtech "we use whatever the we want to compare review items."
 
This card seems to give pretty good performance considering how cut down it is from a 470/480, especially in Doom Vulkan. If I were looking at a card in this price range, though, I'd seriously consider an RX 470 instead. That said, the cheapest RX 470 on Newegg right now is $189 which is a fair amount higher. But if an RX 460 4GB could be had closer to the $109 MSRP it would be a good buy for a cheap system.
 
sover said:
The price inflation on AMD's products since they were announced months ago is obscene. The card is better than cards released years ago at the same price point, but shouldn't it be? The $149 price point should be served by the 4GB RX 470, not the 4 GB RX 460, which is radically cut down and underpowered compared to the former.

That it's a Gold award winner really seems more a testament to the stagnation in the market over the last 30 months than anything else.
Click to expand...

RX470 at $150? did you want to kill AMD? AMD also want to make a living. i haven't checked it myself but they say AMD graphic division has been losing money for two quarters straight. also if they priced RX470 at $150 that would endangered RX460 even at $110. other than that seeing RX460 at $150 indeed a little bit more expensive. AIB probably should stick with AMD suggested priced for RX460 4GB. but then again this also shows us AIB want to make decent profit.
 
why not throwing in GTX950 as well in the test? i've seen lots of GTX950 can be had much cheaper than $150 on newegg. same with R7 370
 
$150.00 for any discrete graphics solution with this level of performance is money well spent.

Seeing as it didn't throttle at all makes me wonder how it overclocks.
 
renz496 said:
RX470 at $150? did you want to kill AMD? AMD also want to make a living. i haven't checked it myself but they say AMD graphic division has been losing money for two quarters straight. also if they priced RX470 at $150 that would endangered RX460 even at $110. other than that seeing RX460 at $150 indeed a little bit more expensive. AIB probably should stick with AMD suggested priced for RX460 4GB. but then again this also shows us AIB want to make decent profit.
Click to expand...

The big problem is the misrepresentation of the entire rx lineup's pricing. They announced the 480 as starting at $200, which aside from a limited first run of repackaged reference 8GB cards sold as 4GB there seems to be no $200 480s. Instead we have $200 470s instead of the expected $150. Then the RX 460s, expected to be sold at well under $150 and create a new market of faster slot powered cards the 460 is much higher priced than expected and I'm not even sure there is one that can function without a PCIE aux power connector.

I don't blame AMD for wanting to make money, I'm just disappointed in the inflation of prices of low end video cards.
 
defaultluser said:
You tested a $150 graphics card against an 260x and a GTX750 Ti? When the GTX 950 and 2GB r7 370 is cheaper than that?

I'm sorry, I guess we're transforming into Anandtech "we use whatever the we want to compare review items."
Click to expand...

You do realize that the cards are slotted into classes, and that all three are in the same class? Or was bitching just for the sake of bitching more important?
 
I think you ought to prominently mention the fact that like the 750 Ti and unlike the price-equivalent 950 the card is powered solely through the PCI Express slot. Had I not already known that I would have stopped reading at that point and dismissed the article as worthless.

I was pleased to see the card perform so well. I hope AMD see the sense in releasing the silent version over here.
 
ClariorHincHonos said:
You do realize that the cards are slotted into classes, and that all three are in the same class? Or was bitching just for the sake of bitching more important?
Click to expand...

Classes are defined by pricing and power consumption. NONE of these matched up in the review today.

XFX 460 - $150 card, and that's not markup, that's MSRP. Not bus powered, but could be.

260x is not bus powered. Never has been. It's successor the r7 360 is $90. Doesn't match on price, doesn't match on intended bus-powered market. Only makes sense to compare the two is you can only compare cards with the same product number.

GTX 750 ti is bus powered, but it's discontinued, so it's not priced competitively anymore. It's been replaced by bus-powered GTX 950 cards, which retail for the same $150 as this 460 card does.

ASUS GeForce GTX 950 DirectX 12 GTX950-2G 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card - Newegg.com

Really, whatever happened to "we will go to any heights required" to test the R9 Nano properly? It sounds like they phoned this one in. No R7 370 2GB or GTX 950 comparison means this is an easy win for the RX 460, even though it could be slower than the 370.

It would have been nice to see a comparison of the 2GB R7 370 and GTX 950 2GB and see how badly it's vram-limited compared to the 4gb RX 460, but that's not going to happen because phone it in. We have no idea how well this competes against other cards in the same price (both) AND for the GTX 950, same power bracket.
 
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defaultluser said:
GTX 750 ti is bus powered, but it's discontinued, so it's not priced competitively anymore. It's been replaced by bus-powered GTX 950 cards, which retail for the same $150 as this 460 card does.
Click to expand...

The GTX 950 cards available over here require additional power.
 
I'll join with the rest of folks questioning lack of r7 370/950 here, considering those were the "$150" cards last generation.

EDIT: It has to be said that right now in Russia rx460 goes for less than 750 ti did year ago so maybe this review's choices are justified from my PoV.
 
XFX cards stink if you get bad one and need support, they are the worst of all in the industry ive ever seen.


Maybe ok card if it works, but if it doesn't its not GOLD at all, its total garbage if you get one that doesnt work right, I udnerstand things break, but you have to see for yourself XFX support site, its un-explainably BAD BAD BAD.

When your told go buy another compter to play swap parts in, and had to wait 3 days for that is rediculous.

/17/2016 6:21:45 AM By krell@xfx Type:2
Hi ,

Thank you for contacting XFX Technical Support. We're very sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with our product. Let me help you in troubleshooting your product and see if we can fix it. If we cant, ill assist you in requesting a replacement. Have you tried to test the card on a different a machine and check if the issue follows the card? our last option is to RMA the card.

Yours,

Paul

XFX Technical Support


When you rate cards, can you maybe add in a support site check and quality of company as such vs just the card alone doesn't tell the entire quality of product you review. Actually create a support ticket see what their quality actually is for when something does go wrong. Rate the full quality fo the product line and the company and support vs just the one good card you got and gave it gold today, when lots of others are suffering with shody QA and you recommended gold to them.

I dont recommend XFX no mattar how good some FPS charts show it to be, once its has issue your permanent SOL with your purchase. That value alone is not worth the price at all or ratings.


You will laugh when you see their support system, bad part is your forced to create an account to get any access to the madness at all.
 
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KOOLTIME said:
XFX cards stink if you get bad one and need support, they are the worst of all in the industry ive ever seen.


Maybe ok card if it works, but if it doesn't its not GOLD at all, its total garbage if you get one that doesnt work right, I udnerstand things break, but you have to see for yourself XFX support site, its un-explainably BAD BAD BAD.

When your told go buy another compter to play swap parts in, and had to wait 3 days for that is rediculous.

/17/2016 6:21:45 AM By krell@xfx Type:2
Hi ,

Thank you for contacting XFX Technical Support. We're very sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with our product. Let me help you in troubleshooting your product and see if we can fix it. If we cant, ill assist you in requesting a replacement. Have you tried to test the card on a different a machine and check if the issue follows the card? our last option is to RMA the card.

Yours,

Paul

XFX Technical Support


When you rate cards, can you maybe add in a support site check and quality of company as such vs just the card alone doesn't tell the entire quality of product you review. Actually create a support ticket see what their quality actually is for when something does go wrong. Rate the full quality fo the product line and the company and support vs just the one good card you got and gave it gold today, when lots of others are suffering with shody QA and you recommended gold to them.

I dont recommend XFX no mattar how good some FPS charts show it to be, once its has issue your permanent SOL with your purchase. That value alone is not worth the price at all or ratings.


You will laugh when you see their support system, bad part is your forced to create an account to get any access to the madness at all.
Click to expand...
Uhmm... I'm pretty sure you need to have an account no matter what company you interact with. XFX gave me great support in fixing up my 280x way back when, and all the other GPU's I've bought from them have been stellar.
 
defaultluser said:
Classes are defined by pricing and power consumption. NONE of these matched up in the review today.
Click to expand...

So vendors aren't considering processor count, memory count, etc. when determining models and where they fall in the lineup?

I think what you meant to say is "In my opinion....". The industry clearly has a way of grouping cards into classes based on other metrics and assigns model numbers that match. And this review follows that practice pretty much to a T.

Pricing changes, and power consumption has never been a factor for where a product falls in a line. It's the power of the GPU, and the by product of the GPU design impacts power consumption.
 
defaultluser said:
You tested a $150 graphics card against an 260x and a GTX750 Ti? When the GTX 950 and 2GB r7 370 is cheaper than that?

I'm sorry, I guess we're transforming into Anandtech "we use whatever the we want to compare review items."
Click to expand...

Agreed, totally.
 
sover said:
The price inflation on AMD's products since they were announced months ago is obscene. The card is better than cards released years ago at the same price point, but shouldn't it be? The $149 price point should be served by the 4GB RX 470, not the 4 GB RX 460, which is radically cut down and underpowered compared to the former.

That it's a Gold award winner really seems more a testament to the stagnation in the market over the last 30 months than anything else.
Click to expand...
The market dictates price. Not you.
 
defaultluser said:
You tested a $150 graphics card against an 260x and a GTX750 Ti? When the GTX 950 and 2GB r7 370 is cheaper than that?

I'm sorry, I guess we're transforming into Anandtech "we use whatever the we want to compare review items."
Click to expand...

renz496 said:
why not throwing in GTX950 as well in the test? i've seen lots of GTX950 can be had much cheaper than $150 on newegg. same with R7 370
Click to expand...

lolfail9001 said:
I'll join with the rest of folks questioning lack of r7 370/950 here, considering those were the "$150" cards last generation.

EDIT: It has to be said that right now in Russia rx460 goes for less than 750 ti did year ago so maybe this review's choices are justified from my PoV.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the feedback. Please read page 1 carefully for the reasoning and purpose in our test setup for this specific article. We are specifically testing this card from an upgrade path to these last gen cards. This is different than comparing with the purpose of like priced items. We don't do many low end cards in this price range normally. This was something new and unique, to see what upgrading would get you on the latest gen.

Also, AMD uses both of these cards in its reviewers guide as the upgrade path to the 460. All the performance comparisons are with the 260x and 750ti in mind. We like to often test claims made by AMD and Nvidia and so this comparison does just that.

I'm sorry you didn't get out of the article what you wanted. Comparisons aside the 460 performance is still tested and there.
 
defaultluser said:
You tested a $150 graphics card against an 260x and a GTX750 Ti? When the GTX 950 and 2GB r7 370 is cheaper than that?

I'm sorry, I guess we're transforming into Anandtech "we use whatever the we want to compare review items."
Click to expand...

kyle-has-become.jpg
 
RAutrey said:
$150.00 for any discrete graphics solution with this level of performance is money well spent.

Seeing as it didn't throttle at all makes me wonder how it overclocks.
Click to expand...

you can get this kind of performance at $150 mark for quite sometime already. given you have the PSU for it. when nvidia comes out with 750ti at $150 amd slowly dropping their 270X down to $150 from $200. back then i recommend a lot of 270X for anyone that have $150 to spend on graphic card as long as their power supply not an issue.
 
sover said:
The big problem is the misrepresentation of the entire rx lineup's pricing. They announced the 480 as starting at $200, which aside from a limited first run of repackaged reference 8GB cards sold as 4GB there seems to be no $200 480s. Instead we have $200 470s instead of the expected $150. Then the RX 460s, expected to be sold at well under $150 and create a new market of faster slot powered cards the 460 is much higher priced than expected and I'm not even sure there is one that can function without a PCIE aux power connector.

I don't blame AMD for wanting to make money, I'm just disappointed in the inflation of prices of low end video cards.
Click to expand...

people expect RX470 to be as cheap as $150 but seeing how RX480 and RX470 performance is quite close it is impossible for RX470 to be priced at $150. imagine if RX470 really is $150. back then people also expect RX460 will be sold for $100 (real MSRP is $110 so they are close). if that's the case there is $50 gap going from 460 to 470 to 480. the performance gap between 460 and 470 is quite large and yet the price gap is the same as 470 and 480? that would make 460 look "overpriced".
 
Quartz-1 said:
I think you ought to prominently mention the fact that like the 750 Ti and unlike the price-equivalent 950 the card is powered solely through the PCI Express slot. Had I not already known that I would have stopped reading at that point and dismissed the article as worthless.

I was pleased to see the card perform so well. I hope AMD see the sense in releasing the silent version over here.
Click to expand...

and there is plenty of 75w 950 out there as well.
 
al
Brent_Justice said:
Thank you for the feedback. Please read page 1 carefully for the reasoning and purpose in our test setup for this specific article. We are specifically testing this card from an upgrade path to these last gen cards. This is different than comparing with the purpose of like priced items. We don't do many low end cards in this price range normally. This was something new and unique, to see what upgrading would get you on the latest gen.

Also, AMD uses both of these cards in its reviewers guide as the upgrade path to the 460. All the performance comparisons are with the 260x and 750ti in mind. We like to often test claims made by AMD and Nvidia and so this comparison does just that.

I'm sorry you didn't get out of the article what you wanted. Comparisons aside the 460 performance is still tested and there.
Click to expand...

alright i can understand that. and i know you guys rarely do low end card review. that's why i was surprise when i see this one. anyway thanks for the article.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Is totally different from, any previous review you've done, so you can understand my confusion.

I guess I just thought you guys would see the value in a 4GB versus 2GB card comparison for the upgrade buyer to make the right choice, since there's a massive price difference between the 2GB and 4GB versions of the RX 460. Just comparing against way slower cards doesn't allow an upgradeer to guage that value.

I know it's not easy to get both a 2GB and 4GB RX 460 review sample, but there are tons of easily-accessible GTX 950 or 370 2GB out there that can fill in at that 2GB point.

All I'm saying is that if a $110 version of the card performs the same as the $150 version of the card, it doesn't deserve a gold award.
 
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renz496 said:
alright i can understand that. and i know you guys rarely do low end card review. that's why i was surprise when i see this one. anyway thanks for the article.
Click to expand...

defaultluser said:
Thanks for the feedback. Is totally different from, any previous review you've done, so you can understand my confusion.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, we will not be doing another one on the low end any time soon.
 
Hey look, an efficient Radeon. This is a model example when you don't push a chip to it's limits to meet a certain specification such as "premium VR".

Polaris 11 is a good low end chip and executed much better than Polaris 10.
 
Nice card for my cheap friends who think that the video port on their motherboard is just fine and I am just trying to rip them off selling them a second set of video ports.:sneaky:

Don't really understand the comments from some on this one. I would rather have a hands on review here than just a link to some other sites review. I understand a lot of folks here can spring for the high end and this site caters to that, but there are some of us who are cheap or just need a decent part for a decent price.

THANKS FOR THE REVIEW!!
 
Lol every review [H] does people end up critacising! It's funny how xfx has changed from cheapest value card to the upper priced cards in a short period of time. This card is in a strange place compared to the 470's in the $175 area lol (25 bucks for double the performance?)
 
Nice review! I enjoyed reading it. People on these forums build HTPC systems using the 750ti and other cards. Thanks for taking the time to do this for us.

Darn this little card can play Battlefield 1 on medium settings at least. Wonder if my grandniece would want one?

 
We have some good clarity on this review - past generation to next generation and not all sorts of older generation short term sell price. For that matter maybe we should looks at used cards as well on Ebay to compare them too as in 290x/290 since you can get those around $150. Review was right on, very focus and showed clearly what kind of upgrade you would get. If those interested in other options there are also many reviews already comparing 750Ti/260x to the 950 etc.

This is a custom, slightly OC video card with custom cooling that is extremely quiet with 4gb of ram - why would it be priced with a 2gb cheaper model? Anyways price seems reasonable for initial launch and most likely will go down over time. I am very impressed with the performance jump for this generation here and is very good to see as well.

In this price range, $10, $20, $30 is a big deal. A RX460, even if inferior to the SFX going for $139 would probably sell more than the superior $149 XFX. That is how it is in this range, the smart ones would forgo a night out at McDonalds or Movies to get the XFX but many would not.

Great review
 
Hi Brent, Kyle, thanks for this review. I'm with others in expressing disappointment in the price inflation that is going on with AMD's new RX 400 series cards - RX 480s selling for nearly $300, RX 470s in the space where the RX 480 was supposed to be, and the RX 460 pushing well up to $150. But at the SRP I think the parts are competitive and good options. If you can find one at that price, at least.

I'm a little behind here for commenting on the article, but I have a request for future reviews of "mainstream" or low end hardware, whatever it's being classed as these days. If possible, I think there'd be benefit to readers in testing with a budget-build gaming setup, similar to what might actually be in use by someone hunting for an inexpensive video card.

It seems unlikely to me that someone would build a setup with an i7-6700k and then put an RX 460 in it (unless it's just as a temporary card "while I wait for Vega" or whatever). I realize that doing so cuts down on the possibility of a CPU bottleneck, letting you push the cards to their full potential, but if the performance numbers are significantly different using, say, an i3-6100 or Pentium G4400, that would be really useful information to have.

I also recognize this would basically double the amount of work, since you'd be using two testbed systems instead of one, and I know how difficult that can be to pull off when you're working with deadlines and such. I haven't written hardware reviews in a long time, but if someone asked me to double my workload I'd have a tough time justifying it.

So I guess the request would be: forget the academic comparisons of the max theoretical potential of these cards when paired with a top-end i7, and test them on an i3 rig instead. Then when you run your tests to find max playable settings, it will be a lot closer to what users with budget rigs can expect.

Anyways, thanks again for the review and keep up the great works. :)
 
KOOLTIME said:
XFX cards stink if you get bad one and need support, they are the worst of all in the industry ive ever seen.


Maybe ok card if it works, but if it doesn't its not GOLD at all, its total garbage if you get one that doesnt work right, I udnerstand things break, but you have to see for yourself XFX support site, its un-explainably BAD BAD BAD.

When your told go buy another compter to play swap parts in, and had to wait 3 days for that is rediculous.

/17/2016 6:21:45 AM By krell@xfx Type:2
Hi ,

Thank you for contacting XFX Technical Support. We're very sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with our product. Let me help you in troubleshooting your product and see if we can fix it. If we cant, ill assist you in requesting a replacement. Have you tried to test the card on a different a machine and check if the issue follows the card? our last option is to RMA the card.

Yours,

Paul

XFX Technical Support


When you rate cards, can you maybe add in a support site check and quality of company as such vs just the card alone doesn't tell the entire quality of product you review. Actually create a support ticket see what their quality actually is for when something does go wrong. Rate the full quality fo the product line and the company and support vs just the one good card you got and gave it gold today, when lots of others are suffering with shody QA and you recommended gold to them.

I dont recommend XFX no mattar how good some FPS charts show it to be, once its has issue your permanent SOL with your purchase. That value alone is not worth the price at all or ratings.


You will laugh when you see their support system, bad part is your forced to create an account to get any access to the madness at all.
Click to expand...
XFX support Is crazy good. You don't know what you're talking about. My 7970 still gets serviced by them for Christ sake.
 
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