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

[Erithan13]

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

AFAIK the 470 is a cut 480 die (2048 vs 2304 SPs), I expect the perf/w savings will be primarily from targeting lower clocks. I know there's been some rather pessimistic views on the perf/w of Polaris based on the 480 but I personally expect the 480 will be the outlier rather than the norm. Here is the reddit post in question, my takeaway is that we will be seeing Polaris cards with very competitive perf/w, just the 480 isn't the best at it.

Some good news: The Sapphire Nitro 480 has been negotiated down to £249 in the UK. Reference 8GB 480s are around the £220 mark. £30 extra for better cooling, power delivery and overclocking? Yes please!

 

[lukart]

It seems someone got the first PowerColor Devil picture of the RX480 card.
Looks definitely better and 3fan, 8pin.. (apparently they were testing using 6pin power on the picture)

http://videocardz.com/61769/exclusive-powercolor-radeon-rx-480-devil-pictured


Said that users should be able to get 1400+ OC .

 

[Yakk]

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.

Nice! The Powercolor Devil card is looking pretty good : http://wccftech.com/powercolor-rx-480-devil-leak/

Probably going to be between it and the Asus Stix for me.

 

[sze5003]

Nice! The Powercolor Devil card is looking pretty good : http://wccftech.com/powercolor-rx-480-devil-leak/

Probably going to be between it and the Asus Stix for me.

That does look good. If they are already testing it hopefully it will be for sale fairly soon. The Asus also looks very nice. Depending on the clocks, it will be between powercooler, sapphire or Asus for me.

Looks like $250-300 will be the price. Maybe $250 for 4gb and $300 for 8gb. But they mention it most likely only come in 8gb.

 

[lyssword]

Did AMD not learn anything with their 390/x launch? Those were all non reference cards and they performed almost a class better compared to reference cooler 290x, even though it's the exact same chip.. They should have just refused to make OEM blower and make their partners design a "cheap" cooler.

 

[railven]

Did AMD not learn anything with their 390/x launch? Those were all non reference cards and they performed almost a class better compared to reference cooler 290x, even though it's the exact same chip.. They should have just refused to make OEM blower and make their partners design a "cheap" cooler.

Or they could have done just like they did with 390/390X and let the AIB's do the talking while silently releasing the reference blowers to OEMs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0446076&PID=6164151&SID=iq3vi50po8015ndv00053

 

[DarkKnightDude]

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=29723412&postcount=10554

Sapphire Nitro will be £249 in the UK. That's like 275 USD I think.

 

[SK10H]

Just cancel the 2 x 8GB and swap with 2 x Powercolor 4GB to lower the cost. :thumbsup:

 

[sze5003]

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=29723412&postcount=10554

Sapphire Nitro will be £249 in the UK. That's like 275 USD I think.

Hmm £249 is $330...

If that's the standard for the aib models I may as well get the $399 1070.

 

[littleg]

Hmm £249 is $330...

If that's the standard for the aib models I may as well get the $399 1070.

It's always more expensive in the UK. The reference 480 is £229 which is about $300.

 

[Final8ty]

They are smart, this is the far bigger market! 2000 sold at OcUK in just over 24hr !!!!

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=29723592&postcount=75

 

[IEC]

Hmm £249 is $330...

If that's the standard for the aib models I may as well get the $399 1070.

That price includes VAT. So $275 USD is probably not far off the mark for expected USA pricing.

 

[boozzer]

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.

480 AIB should beat 380 by about 30-40% they are not about the same. is 30-40% performance worth 50$ to you? up to you. I would never presume, just giving you info so you can make your own choice.

ps: even the reference 480 is quiet if you don't try to oc with it. check out paul's video linked in the first post. he showed idle, full load, oc, and 100% fan profiles. I honestly don't understand how the noisy fud spread around when it is super quiet. If you oc with any reference blower card, don't complain about anything.

 

[Abwx]

In France it s 260€ with 20% VAT included for the Sapphire, other brands, particularly Asus, are pricier, wich is odd since this should be exactly the same cards, or is each brand manufacturing their own reference design..?..

http://www.ldlc.com/informatique/pieces-informatique/carte-graphique-interne/c4684/+fv121-14899.html

 

[boozzer]

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

Anandtech


Digital Foundry


PCPer


Hot Hardware


Guru3D


HardwareCanucks

I think IEC should add score and a small summary like this to the OP just to avoid some parts of the fud storm. :thumbsup:

 

[KaRLiToS]

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

My bad I only checked Ncix.

 

[sze5003]

That price includes VAT. So $275 USD is probably not far off the mark for expected USA pricing.

Most likely what it will be here in US. Now if they could give us some dates.

 

[IEC]

I think IEC should add score and a small summary like this to the OP just to avoid some parts of the fud storm. :thumbsup:

I will consider your suggestion. I prefer to avoid editorializing and cherry-picking unlike some of the FUD artists around here, so it will be done carefully to avoid even the appearance of bias (can't please everyone, I suppose).

 

[obidamnkenobi]

480 AIB should beat 380 by about 30-40% they are not about the same. is 30-40% performance worth 50$ to you? up to you. I would never presume, just giving you info so you can make your own choice.

ps: even the reference 480 is quiet if you don't try to oc with it. check out paul's video linked in the first post. he showed idle, full load, oc, and 100% fan profiles. I honestly don't understand how the noisy fud spread around when it is super quiet. If you oc with any reference blower card, don't complain about anything.

Sorry I meant the 380X. That's within 10% of the performance of the 480 I believe? So for custom boards it might be between a 380X for maybe just under $200 or a 480 for $280+? Over $80 more for same-ish performance and power consumption, but new..

As for noise I've just read reviews, and this for example say 41 dBA at load for the 480. That's not quite. The Strix or similar 380X, 960 etc are below 29 dBA at load!
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/23.html
Anandtech preview give 50 dBA for the 480, while 380X and 960 are at 38-39. Also a significant difference

ps: people mainly do videos for hardware reviews now, is that the thing? Seems inconvenient. I prefer to scroll to the interesting part or charts, I can't watch a whole video!

 

[boozzer]

I will consider your suggestion. I prefer to avoid editorializing and cherry-picking unlike some of the FUD artists around here, so it will be done carefully to avoid even the appearance of bias (can't please everyone, I suppose).

you could add score and small summary for all, so no cherry picking.

Sorry I meant the 380X. That's within 10% of the performance of the 480 I believe? So for custom boards it might be between a 380X for maybe just under $200 or a 480 for $280+? Over $80 more for same-ish performance and power consumption, but new..

As for noise I've just read reviews, and this for example say 41 dBA at load for the 480. That's not quite. The Strix or similar 380X, 960 etc are below 29 dBA at load!
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/23.html
Anandtech preview give 50 dBA for the 480, while 380X and 960 are at 38-39. Also a significant difference

ps: people mainly do videos for hardware reviews now, is that the thing? Seems inconvenient. I prefer to scroll to the interesting part or charts, I can't watch a whole video!

380x is 30-40% slower than 390 which the 480 is on par or better.

noise part is 7:50 of paul's video. you can skip parts of the video you know hahaha

I dunno why they are all so high in the anandtech preview but it is only 3 dba more than 970

Finally, with load noise levels, RX 480 produces middling (but acceptable) results. Given that we have a mix of blowers and open air coolers here, the RX 480 performs similarly to other mainstream blower based cards. The $199 price tag means that AMD can’t implement any exotic cooling or noise reduction technologies, though strictly speaking it doesn’t need them.

anandtech summary for noise.

paul's video alone shows how much fud are in tech reviews.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

380x is 30-40% slower than 390 which the 480 is on par or better.

Looking at Techpowerup's performance summary I see now that the 380X maybe is 75% of the performance of the 480? It's hard since they don't include all cards in the graph. I think the 470 might be more for my needs (low money, low demands). If that's at the perf level of 380/X for $150 it's a great deal.

noise part is 7:50 of paul's video. you can skip parts of the video you know hahaha

hah, yeah I do know that. But it's just quicker to skim an article and look that the plots than scrubbing through a video. Plus easier to do at work..

I dunno why they are all so high in the anandtech preview but it is only 3 dba more than 970 anandtech summary for noise.

Being a log scale, 3 dBA is twice the sound pressure.. Pretty significant. Anandtech numbers for the strix 380X is 39 dBA. I'd much prefer that.

 

[boozzer]

just watch the part of paul's video I pointed out it only gets loud at 75% or higher fan speed which it never gets on stock/reference. it will answer all your questions.

fyi, I would not trust techpowerup for anything for your own good. I am 100% sure 390 is 30% + better than a 380x, there is no doubt on my end. by that logic, 480 will be 30% or better than 380x. if you want to spend only 150$ go for the 470 when it comes out

 

[Headfoot]

Being a log scale, 3 dBA is twice the sound pressure.. Pretty significant. Anandtech numbers for the strix 380X is 39 dBA. I'd much prefer that.

You're mixing up the rules of thumb, 3db more is not perceived as twice as loud. That's 10db. 3db is the smallest perceptible increment, e.g. on average people cant notice 1 or 2db increases but they can notice 3. see: http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/2004-About-dB/ 3db requires 2x the acoustic energy, but doesn't result in 2x louder to the listener.

 

[Thala]

Looking at Techpowerup's performance summary I see now that the 380X maybe is 75% of the performance of the 480? It's hard since they don't include all cards in the graph. I think the 470 might be more for my needs (low money, low demands). If that's at the perf level of 380/X for $150 it's a great deal.

Just going by the performance summary of computerbase.de RX480 is 46% faster than 380X. In conclusion 150$ for 380X performance is the worse deal.

 

[Qwertilot]

Being a log scale, 3 dBA is twice the sound pressure.. Pretty significant. Anandtech numbers for the strix 380X is 39 dBA. I'd much prefer that.

Don't worry about noise with the 480. Well do with the reference 480's but don't buy those. Plain bad idea for a few reasons.

There will be AIB 470's and 480's and they will be roughly as quiet as 380X's (very similar power draws, similar coolers etc.).