Official AMD Polaris Review Thread: Radeon RX 480, RX 470, and RX 460

[sze5003]

Reading through that thread now. It seems the biggest complaints is the price. Which is odd considering the biggest praise for the RX 480 is price.

It seems some where along the way, the price is getting skewed out of line. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes for more. More so if it starts to nip at GTX 980/Fury Nano.

We'll have $250-300+ custom RX 480's versus whatever NV does for GTX 1060. Gonna be some fun times for the buyers in that bracket.

The price is fine if you are buying reference. But I have a feeling most people won't be happy with a $300+ AIB 480. Because then, what extra value or performance does it offer? If it does do a lot better then maybe it's worth it. If I have to pay over $300 with tax for an AIB I might as well spend $99 more and get that $399 gigabyte 1070.

But for now I'm hoping $270 is what the AIB models come in at. Also if 8gb models don't provide any more power then I'd probably be better off with a 4gb AIB.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Why havent we (or me) not seen 480 4gb reviews? Would love to see how much difference it makes vs 8gb versions. I dont expect much since the card may not have enough GPU power to flesh out the differences, but would be interesting to see in newer vram heavy games.

Anandtech had one in their review. Basically within a few percent same performance. I'm thinking it's mainly due to the 4gb ram being clocked slower. I'd be interested to know whether the 4gb is actually slower ram that would not pass validation at higher speeds or ram that amd clocked slower just to differentiate the 8gb and 4gb so they could charge an extra $40. I plan on overclocking the ram on my 4gb 480 when I get it. I'm thinking I can get it close to 8000 or at least 7800. Maybe even higher than 8000.

 

[khon]

What's so bad about it? Seriously? You guys are nitpicking this thing to death. This isn't some high end masterpiece of engineering. I'll agree. They also aren't pricing it anywhere near the 1070. I bought one for $199. I'll take my $250 savings over the 1070 and do something fun over the holiday weekend. Different strokes different folks I suppose.

I fully agree that the performance is good for it's price, because the price is so low. And if your goal is to buy the best card available for <$250, there is no doubt that the RX 480 is the best choice right now.

However, it isn't good in terms of performance per watt, or performance per transistor, so AMD is producing an inferior product, and remaining competitive by lowering their prices. Personally I would rather have a situation where AMD and NVIDIA were roughly equal, since that leads to more competition, which is better for consumers.

I want Vega to be equal to Pascal, and Zen to be equal to Skylake, but I don't believe they will be.

 

[RussianSensation]

What's so bad about it? Seriously? You guys are nitpicking this thing to death. This isn't some high end masterpiece of engineering. I'll agree. They also aren't pricing it anywhere near the 1070. I bought one for $199. I'll take my $250 savings over the 1070 and do something fun over the holiday weekend. Different strokes different folks I suppose.

$199 RX 480 is a good deal as a product. If AIBs can hit $210-220 for 4GB, it will be a good card against a VRAM gimped 1060 3GB. The issue with P10 is AMD's entire high-end stack. 1080 used 185W or so and smashes P10 by 80-85%. That means AMD will need to pull off a miracle with Vega to create a 225W card that's as fast, but there lies another problem - Big Pascal. NV will still have room to release a 250-275W Pascal, but it would take a Vega with over 350W to compete. Unless AMD shifts production to TSMC and dramatically improves efficiency in the same generation, they lost this generation. Their only shot will be to price their cards way below NV. But, this time the price/performance metric is downplayed by NV marketing/PR as the least important metric! That's why NV could dominate every single tier this generation. Not having good high-end competitors to NV also means high prices from them and not enough competition. AMD also lied for 6+ months about perf/watt increases. These are the reasons people aren't happy with RX 480.

 

[Eymar]

All of the reviews seem largely positive on the RX 480 - some very positive. The negative reactions are mostly from us on this forum.

It is interesting how this card can have such a range of opinion, but that seems the case for every big AMD release as hype always exceeds reasonable expectations. The 480 really should be compared to a 960/970 based on current pricing so looks really good in that comparison.

 

[Qwertilot]

$199 RX 480 is a good deal as a product.

I think I have to dissent from this. They've made a nasty mess of the reference cards and it just isn't worth spending good money on them.

If AIBs can hit $210-220 for 4GB, it will be a good card against a VRAM gimped 1060 3GB.

Now, that would be much closer to being true

 

[railven]

The price is fine if you are buying reference. But I have a feeling most people won't be happy with a $300+ AIB 480. Because then, what extra value or performance does it offer? If it does do a lot better then maybe it's worth it. If I have to pay over $300 with tax for an AIB I might as well spend $99 more and get that $399 gigabyte 1070.

But for now I'm hoping $270 is what the AIB models come in at. Also if 8gb models don't provide any more power then I'd probably be better off with a 4gb AIB.

Well that is sort of what is being discussed there. That thread isn't about reference cards anymore. If the AIB prices get too high, the preposition of value goes out the window.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

$199 RX 480 is a good deal as a product. If AIBs can hit $210-220 for 4GB, it will be a good card against a VRAM gimped 1060 3GB. The issue with P10 is AMD's entire high-end stack. 1080 used 185W or so and smashes P10 by 80-85%. That means AMD will need to pull off a miracle with Vega to create a 225W card that's as fast, but there lies another problem - Big Pascal. NV will still have room to release a 250-275W Pascal, but it would take a Vega with over 350W to compete. Unless AMD shifts production to TSMC and dramatically improves efficiency in the same generation, they lost this generation. Their only shot will be to price their cards way below NV. But, this time the price/performance metric is downplayed by NV marketing/PR as the least important metric! That's why NV could dominate every single tier this generation. Not having good high-end competitors to NV also means high prices from them and not enough competition. AMD also lied for 6+ months about perf/watt increases. These are the reasons people aren't happy with RX 480.

Lol. Nvidia is playing the who cares about price performance card. The hilarious part is that it's actually the truth. Now money doesn't even matter when buying a video card. I've seen every argument and never thought I'd see the day when the price of a card is irrelevant.

 

[Eymar]

Lol. Nvidia is playing the who cares about price performance card. The hilarious part is that it's actually the truth. Now money doesn't even matter when buying a video card. I've seen every argument and never thought I'd see the day when the price of a card is irrelevant.

It is kind of sad that it doesn't just apply to forum warriors and now applies to a lot of buyers. I guess for those people buying the card that wins makes for a confident buying decision. However, 480 is going to sell well because there a lot of people where price point is number one factor.

 

[Qwertilot]

Well that is sort of what is being discussed there. That thread isn't about reference cards anymore. If the AIB prices get too high, the preposition of value goes out the window.

It is possible that the AIB's won't have too much option - if the chips that AMD put in the first batch of ref 480's are any indication then either they (and/or AMD) will have to at least moderately, perhaps heavily, bin things to find chips that work to decent specifications. Especially with factory over clocks.

Have to presume that'll push costs up a bit. This could at least be expected to be going to improve over time.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

RX 480 is a $199/239 card positioning to replace the R9 380/X, GTX 960 and lower. In DX-12 games it is faster than GTX 970/980 at half the MSRP.

I'm in this target market; cheapskate doing light/1080p gaming only. But problem is I've seen custom 380/x now for $160/$200. Vs custom 480 when they come for $270+? Almost 50% more? I don't like it.

I'll probably be more interested in the 470, if those are in the upper 100s. But where will they be performance-wise? At the 380/GTX960 level?

 

[boozzer]

I'm in this target market; cheapskate doing light/1080p gaming only. But problem is I've seen custom 380/x now for $160/$200. Vs custom 480 when they come for $270+? Almost 50% more? I don't like it.

I'll probably be more interested in the 470, if those are in the upper 100s. But where will they be performance-wise? At the 380/GTX960 level?

you would be best serve by buying the 4gb version then, it fits you perfectly. it will be 200-220$, my best guess.

 

[railven]

It is possible that the AIB's won't have too much option - if the chips that AMD put in the first batch of ref 480's are any indication then either they (and/or AMD) will have to at least moderately, perhaps heavily, bin things to find chips that work to decent specifications. Especially with factory over clocks.

Have to presume that'll push costs up a bit. This could at least be expected to be going to improve over time.

I'm in this target market; cheapskate doing light/1080p gaming only. But problem is I've seen custom 380/x now for $160/$200. Vs custom 480 when they come for $270+? Almost 50% more? I don't like it.

I'll probably be more interested in the 470, if those are in the upper 100s. But where will they be performance-wise? At the 380/GTX960 level?

That also hurt the 390/390X at the start, though not enough to matter. The last gen 290/290x which was close in performance was going for substantially less.

480 just brings us full circle to where it's MSRP for a 290X-like performance card to be <$250. The power improvements are great, can't scoff at those.

But with the other cards now getting a price cut, for a budget gamer who is really relying on price, the current rumor of AIB prices with the actual reviews of the reference 480 is starting to cause hesitation.

EDIT: What I mean is some people are making notice, that an AIB 390X is probably going to cost less than a AIB RX 480 but deliver possibly the same performance.

 

[Janooo]

Why are you even comparing to others problems? " Oh that card has throttling issue so it's okay if the other brand has some too". Geez.



Do you guys expects everyone to say: " Yay, what an awsome card". This card sucks to me. Higher power draw, lower performance than expected... and its freaking 379$ CAD.

Are you guys really happy with the GPU market right now? If you are, than I'm not. And even if you think I was hyped, I wasn't but I was expecting more...again, but to me it is another disapointment.

It's $309CAD on newegg.ca
Stop spreading fud!

 

[Erithan13]

AMD also lied for 6+ months about perf/watt increases. These are the reasons people aren't happy with RX 480.

It's not often I have reason to disagree with you, but I have to honestly suggest that you're racing ahead to conclusions here based on way too little evidence. Yes, I've seen the reports of 480s drawing 150W+ at stock and throttling etc but I have also seen reports of considerable power savings from a bit of undervolting. Some reviews have rightfully hammered the 480 for high power consumption on their sample while others have praised it for barely exceeding 100W under gaming load so there's definitely some wide variation to take into account. I've been following the power draw discussions very closely and I'm thinking at this point that the typical 480 is drawing more power than it needs to due to some driver/bios issue that will hopefully be resolved very soon by AMD. Could be as simple as dropping the core voltage a little, there was a report of a 480 actually increasing in performance from doing so since it wasn't throttling the core clocks. I think it's far too soon to declare Polaris' perf/watt a failure and I'll bet after some new drivers things will start to look much better for the 480 even though I'm certainly not expecting miracles.

We also have to see what the 470 delivers, on Reddit an AMD employee confirmed the 470 should have much better perf/watt than the 480, I think it's clear that the 480 is being pushed hard for performance at the sake of efficiency. We don't really have an idea about the 460/Polaris 11 yet either. The other thing that occurred to me was that the PS4 Neo is using the RX480 and I have serious doubts that would be the case if Polaris was as colossal a failure in perf/w as you seem to be suggesting.

 

[Oyeve]

My 8gb card should be here today. So, while you bitches are whining and complaining, I will be enjoying my card!


cursing is not allowed in the technical forums.
Markfw900


That word technically is not a curse. And a 1 point infraction is a bit uncalled for. But whatever.


according to wikipredia it is one of the 10 most common curse words:
"The word bitch is one of the most common curse words in the English language. According to Dr. Timothy Jay, there are "over 70 different taboo words" but 80 percent of the time only ten words are used, and the word bitch is included in this set of ten.[1]"
Don't ever question me again !
Markfw900


And if you want to reference the action, the ONLY place to do so is Moderator Discussions. You don't get to come behind mods and debate their decisions here.

admin allisolm

 

[obidamnkenobi]

you would be best serve by buying the 4gb version then, it fits you perfectly. it will be 200-220$, my best guess.

Perhaps, but again the 380 will probably be under $150 by then. If performance is about the same I'm just not seeing a reason to pay premium just for newer. Then again I still have my 6950 so little extra won't amount to much over the years I keep it..

I'm also trying to make my new PC quite, so the high power/heat is a concern (170W!!?). There's certainly interesting stuff coming, with lower TDP rx 470 and the 1060 and 1050 soon.

 

[Leadbox]

We also have to see what the 470 delivers, on Reddit an AMD employee confirmed the 470 should have much better perf/watt than the 480, I think it's clear that the 480 is being pushed hard for performance at the sake of efficiency. We don't really have an idea about the 460/Polaris 11 yet either. The other thing that occurred to me was that the PS4 Neo is using the RX480 and I have serious doubts that would be the case if Polaris was as colossal a failure in perf/w as you seem to be suggesting.

Is the 470 a different die or something? Doesn't make much sense targeting a fused off chip for perf/watt numbers.

 

[sze5003]

My 8gb card should be here today. So, while you bitches are whining and complaining, I will be enjoying my card!

Post some impressions when you use it. There haven't been many that received their refernece models to give some real world examples.

 

[Yakk]

It's $309CAD on newegg.ca
Stop spreading fud!

And $259 CAD for the 4GB version. Newegg sold out at $309 unfortunately and as soon as that happened other vendors raised prices $329. Now newegg has some more but are bundling them, so for $379 you get a 480 8GB, and 700 watt PSU!

$379CAD for just the card is just silly pricing from some smaller vendors taking advantage of the extremely high demand for 480 cards in Canada.

Edit: grammar

 

[Oyeve]

Post some impressions when you use it. There haven't been many that received their refernece models to give some real world examples.

Will do. I am hoping to replace my 290x with it as the 290x is a power hog and space heater. If I can yield similar results with the 480 without issue then its a win for me. I'll let yall know this weekend.

 

[R0H1T]

Is the 470 a different die or something? Doesn't make much sense targeting a fused off chip for perf/watt numbers.

It could be P11 based on the latest rumors, cause there might well be a full P10 waiting to be revealed at a later date :sneaky:
https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/a...sing-xx5-revisions-e-g-amd-radeon-rx-495.html

 

[SK10H]

It's $309CAD on newegg.ca
Stop spreading fud!

I just got 2 more Powercolor at 309 + 14 shipping. Powercolor and Visiontek is back in stock. The bi-annual inventory check is not done until Sunday night.

2 x 4GB, 2 x 8GB. Enough ref card for me. Need a few more non-ref still.

 

[HiroThreading]

The negativity is because the price is basically the only good thing about the Rx 480. Granted that's a very big positive, and for a lot of people it's probably enough to make it a good purchase, but it's not a good sign for AMD going forwards. We might end up with a situation like the CPU market, where Intel is just plain better than AMD, and the only reason to buy AMD is if your budget is very limited.

The card literally has the best bang-for-buck stat of any card on the market. I don't care if it breathes fire:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/26.html

Also, again, who the heck cares if it consumes 40 watts more than what was initially believed? And if performance/watt is the be-all end-all that budget games should abide by, then stop recommending Intel K-series processor and start pushing ULV/S-series processors.

I understand that some people are concerned about what this all means for Vega, but keep in mind a few things:
- Polaris is a different architecture to Vega; and
- Polaris uses GDDR5, Vega will use HBM.

 

[dark zero]

I fully agree that the performance is good for it's price, because the price is so low. And if your goal is to buy the best card available for <$250, there is no doubt that the RX 480 is the best choice right now.

However, it isn't good in terms of performance per watt, or performance per transistor, so AMD is producing an inferior product, and remaining competitive by lowering their prices. Personally I would rather have a situation where AMD and NVIDIA were roughly equal, since that leads to more competition, which is better for consumers.

I want Vega to be equal to Pascal, and Zen to be equal to Skylake, but I don't believe they will be.

I feel that Samsung themselves will help AMD on Vega and Zen and leaves to Glofo to the easy tasks... they need an experimental Rabbit and AMD is the indicated.

Zen is about to fight against Broadwell... Vega can fight Pascal... and beat the dead horse of Maxwell.