AMD Polaris Thread: Radeon RX 480, RX 470 & RX 460 launching June 29th

[agfkfhahddhdn]

The 6 was a hypothetical. I'm not even saying the drivers are for sure unstable, but 3 reports if they are legit is a lot in this context.

1. "I'm not saying the drivers are for sure unstable" is a bizarre clarification given that you know literally nothing at all about the quality of the drivers. You shouldn't need to clarify that you don't know something that's impossible for you to know.

2. No, three unverifiable reports, with unknown driver versions, with unknown driver versions available at launch, is not "a lot" in any context.

Everyone is aware that AMD had driver issues in the past. They have been fine for quite some time, and Nvidia has issues of their own. Continuing to perpetuate this myth that AMD drivers suck and Nvidia's are flawless...it's just the worst.

 

[Headfoot]

This argument make no sense at all. I never understand those who make a huge deal about the price of a card or cpu and ignore the power cost. Why *not* save 60.00 no matter how much you can afford to spend?

You won't save $60. Nobody is actually playing 5 hours a day, every day. You'll save $20 at best. It's a complete and utter waste of time, to the point of being ludicrous.

Air dry your laundry in the summer and you'll save vastly more than switching video cards.

It's a tiny drop in the bucket.

 

[agfkfhahddhdn]

$66 over three years is a nothing amount of money. That's less than $2/month. My electric bill goes up like $100 when summer arrives. As Headfoot said, if you're worried about electric consumption, there are far better ways to reduce it.

 

[sze5003]

I leave my PC on when I'm home during the weekend. My electric bill is like $55 a month or a bit more now because I run the central AC now that it's super hot.

 

[boozzer]

$66 over three years is a nothing amount of money. That's less than $2/month. My electric bill goes up like $100 when summer arrives. As Headfoot said, if you're worried about electric consumption, there are far better ways to reduce it.

he conveniently forgot to mention that the other gpu costs more upfront.

just another fud, one that has been beaten to death.

 

[ozzy702]

These posts make me happy that I only pay $.09/kWh after taxes and fees. Shoot, even then I get on the wife and kid's case to stop leaving the TV and lights on when not in use and to not crank the A/C in the summer while they leave the back door open.

Wed cannot come soon enough. I just upgraded to Skylake since a relative wanted to buy my current Ivy Bridge platform and I'm GPU-less at the moment. More than likely going to wait until mid-July for some AIB cards with more overhead and better/silent cooling but at least Wed will give an idea of what to expect.

 

[TeknoBug]

Curious to how the pricing in Canada for the RX 470 will be, at one point a couple months ago I thought abuot picking up some R7 370's and they're under $200 CDN now.

I leave my PC on when I'm home during the weekend. My electric bill is like $55 a month or a bit more now because I run the central AC now that it's super hot.

Mine is like $52-55 too, I watch usage each day online and it goes up a fair bit when I'm gaming on my PC (and obviously cooking) but when I'm not home or when we don't cook that day, it's super low which is pretty often since we don't have in suite laundry. When I leave my NUC on all day (for Netflix, or VM remote hosting) it doesn't even put a dent in the usage that my desk fan on low uses more.

 

[frozentundra123456]

You won't save $60. Nobody is actually playing 5 hours a day, every day. You'll save $20 at best. It's a complete and utter waste of time, to the point of being ludicrous.

Air dry your laundry in the summer and you'll save vastly more than switching video cards.

It's a tiny drop in the bucket.

Well then, so is 60.00 difference in the purchase price. All I am saying is what you have to consider is total cost, purchase price plus cost of operation. And BTW, I probably average 3 or 4 hours per day gaming, and I know a few retired people who *do* game at least 5 hours per day, sometimes more. Plus many, including myself, pay close to 20 cents (or more) per kwh, especially in the summer with surcharges, etc.

 

[Mercennarius]

Awfully wrong.

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Electricity_price_statistics

10 EUR Cents = 11 USD Cents.

Even in terms of the US, it depends a lot on the state:

Glad I live in Texas where I pay only .06/kWh and my total bill with taxes included is only .11/kWH during the summer. Averaging only a $100 a month electricity bill in my 2,400sqft home .

 

[Mopetar]

$66 over three years is a nothing amount of money. That's less than $2/month. My electric bill goes up like $100 when summer arrives. As Headfoot said, if you're worried about electric consumption, there are far better ways to reduce it.

Also, if you have electric heating, a more power-hungry GPU means a lower heating bill in the winter so it balances out.

 

[agfkfhahddhdn]

All I am saying is what you have to consider is total cost, purchase price plus cost of operation.

No one does this, nor should they, the differences are miniscule.

 

[TeknoBug]

Glad I live in Texas where I pay only .06/kWh and my total bill with taxes included is only .11/kWH during the summer. Averaging only a $100 a month electricity bill in my 2,400sqft home .

.37/kWh in Hawaii, how do people live?

 

[Mercennarius]

.37/kWh in Hawaii, how do people live?

Seriously...that's over triple what I pay.

 

[Mopetar]

.37/kWh in Hawaii, how do people live?

It's almost always nice outside year round and they have a pretty stable average temperature compared to most of the US, so the summer doesn't feel that much hotter than any other time of year. Once you get used to it you don't feel like you need AC.

That and you live next to the Ocean and can go to beach whenever you want, so you're likely not inside running up electricity costs as much. I would also imagine that solar works out pretty well so you can likely get paid by the power company for your excess.

 

[Headfoot]

Well then, so is 60.00 difference in the purchase price. All I am saying is what you have to consider is total cost, purchase price plus cost of operation. And BTW, I probably average 3 or 4 hours per day gaming, and I know a few retired people who *do* game at least 5 hours per day, sometimes more. Plus many, including myself, pay close to 20 cents (or more) per kwh, especially in the summer with surcharges, etc.

The people who game 3-5 hours a day are probably the same people that buy faster cards than a 480. Even if they aren't, I very much doubt 3-5 hours every day is real. 3-5 hours maybe some days. But other days probably 0. Average across 365, I would be astounded if there is any substantial portion of PC gamers hitting 3-5 hours a day.

So we're talking $20-40 over 3 years. Which is infinitesimal. Honestly, the time spent worrying about this topic is easily worth more than the savings from it. It's trivial. It's less than trivial.

You will save significantly more money in energy just making a list of the top ten things you can do to reduce utility usage. Off the top of my head: turn off your lights more consistently, install timed faceplates that turn off your lights automatically. That's assuming you've already moved to all LED and CFL lights. Install a Nest smart thermostat. Increase insulation. Dry your clothes outside.

 

[ElFenix]

Glad I live in Texas where I pay only .06/kWh and my total bill with taxes included is only .11/kWH during the summer. Averaging only a $100 a month electricity bill in my 2,400sqft home .

Those aren't taxes, those are transmission costs. If you're in a deregulated area, electric rates here are (rate paid to "competitive market middleman") + (~5 cents per kWh in transmission costs to the local utility). Those costs on my March bill totalled $34.61. Taxes were a whopping 96 cents.

Afaik, everywhere else on the planet typically includes transmission coats when talking about electric rates. In Texas, some of us have stopped doing that.

 

[Stuka87]

If people are really trying to decide what GPU to get based on how many cents per month they may save in power, you need to take up another hobby. Also, can't speak for the EU, but here (In california) there are zero taxes on utilities.

Those whole last two pages or so just makes me want to smack somebody.

The only reason you should care about how much power it consumes is for cooling purposes.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

If people are really trying to decide what GPU to get based on how many cents per month they may save in power, you need to take up another hobby. Also, can't speak for the EU, but here (In california) there are zero taxes on utilities.

Those whole last two pages or so just makes me want to smack somebody.

The only reason you should care about how much power it consumes is for cooling purposes.

My main concern is heat but if there are savings to be had electricity wise I'm going to take it. Even if it's a few cents.

 

[sm625]

If people are really trying to decide what GPU to get based on how many cents per month they may save in power, you need to take up another hobby. Also, can't speak for the EU, but here there are zero taxes on utilities.

There must be an awful lot of those people because cents per hour saved is the only rational benefit of buying a GTX 960 vs its closest priced AMD competitor. Yet lots of people did just that. Same with the 970. The only benefit it offered vs the competition was cents per hour saved at the cost of lower performance per dollar. The fact that the savings were only $0.0002 per hour didnt seem to matter.

 

[sze5003]

If people are really trying to decide what GPU to get based on how many cents per month they may save in power, you need to take up another hobby. Also, can't speak for the EU, but here (In california) there are zero taxes on utilities.

Those whole last two pages or so just makes me want to smack somebody.

The only reason you should care about how much power it consumes is for cooling purposes.

I think they are just killing time until Wednesday lol. I was surprised there happened to be a full blown discussion about such topic.

 

[Mopetar]

If people are really trying to decide what GPU to get based on how many cents per month they may save in power, you need to take up another hobby.

If you're only using the card for mining (some people do this) than power cost is a factor in the profitability of said card.

If you're just gaming ~20 hours per week you're right in that it really doesn't matter that much or would only amount to a few dollars in difference for the average person.

 

[Barfo]

So when does the review NDA lifts? can I order one from Amazon and there'll be stock on the 29th?

 

[sze5003]

So when does the review NDA lifts? can I order one from Amazon and there'll be stock on the 29th?

Wednesday. Dunno about stock but my guess is even the reference models will sell quickly. Depending on the reviews if the reference models are good then I'll get one otherwise I'll wait for aib.

 

[zinfamous]

If people are really trying to decide what GPU to get based on how many cents per month they may save in power, you need to take up another hobby. Also, can't speak for the EU, but here (In california) there are zero taxes on utilities.

Those whole last two pages or so just makes me want to smack somebody.

The only reason you should care about how much power it consumes is for cooling purposes.

It's very important for miners.

But yeah, if you get this only for gaming then you might as well talk about bumping your house temperature up 1 or 2 degrees in the summer to see real tangible savings.

But also for heat and cooling--the power requirement also allows you to make different sorts of decisions in your system regarding the power supply and maybe some other components that wouldn't otherwise have had enough available power to draw from.

....but this is a real oddball discussion. This thread has covered just about everything now.

 

[Mercennarius]

Those aren't taxes, those are transmission costs. If you're in a deregulated area, electric rates here are (rate paid to "competitive market middleman") + (~5 cents per kWh in transmission costs to the local utility). Those costs on my March bill totalled $34.61. Taxes were a whopping 96 cents.

Afaik, everywhere else on the planet typically includes transmission coats when talking about electric rates. In Texas, some of us have stopped doing that.

You're probably right. Looking at my bill I pay .06 per kWh for "Energy Charge", .019 per kWh for "Peak Capacity Charge", .016 per kWh for "Fuel Adjustment", and .010 per kWh for "Regulatroy Adjustment". My total electricity charge divided by my kWh used was .11 cents a kWh. In the winter it looks like I averaged closer to .10 per kWh on my bill.