Buying an RX480...

[Maximilian]

I have a few questions:

1. Do the AIB cards with an 8 pin power connector completely fix the issue the original 6 pin reference cards had with drawing too much power from the pcie slot? I keep my cards for a long time, something like this is not what I want my card to be doing for 3-5 years.

2. Is now a good time to buy an RX480? There isnt something new and fancy just around the corner is there?

3. Which RX480 would be a good choice? Im thinking the Sapphire 8GB model. It looks good, it has 8 pin connector. I think I read someone raving about the VRM quality on it but I can't remember.

Im upgrading from a fantastic but big hot and sometimes noisy R9 280X. It also looks like it might be sagging a bit.

 

[William Gaatjes]

With the 8 pin pcie power connector the problem is solved. All thirdparty cards have an 8 pin connector.

I think vega cards will require a bigger budget anyway.

Any RX480 card is fine when it comes to the vrm. But the tendency seems to be that the bigger the cooler, the less the rx480 will down throttle the maximum clock when the target temprature is reached. For overclocking a huge cooler seems to be the key factor for high scores / fps rates.

 

[tential]

I think the Sapphire care is horrible. Why not the Red Devil card?

 

[Mem]

Best RX480 IMHO is the XFX GTR Black edition RX480, I actually own one, comes overclocked by default,fan swap in seconds and tool-less, good VRMs and quality PCB,, very good cooling and heatsink, second choice would be MSI.

The fans on XFX don't even turn on until 60C, most of my games stay in low 50s, no issues with my card over the months of use.
XFX quick review below,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWASNajSdpg .

 

[tential]

He has a GOLDEN sample in his review.
Got a nonyoutube review? Not saying the model isn't good, I'd just like to see it tested and actually see graphs. I hate youtube.

 

[Mem]

He has a GOLDEN sample in his review.
Got a nonyoutube review? Not saying the model isn't good, I'd just like to see it tested and actually see graphs. I hate youtube.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/xfx_rx480_gtr/ (non Black edtion reviewed, same apart for Black Edition comes overclocked by default).

XFX 480 PCB breakdown(YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBWs_7vRWkA&t=1029s .