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

[sirmo]

When will Vulkan API be standard? It seems like RX 480 is more future proof.

Doom is not just Vulkan but also the fact that Id Soft optimized for Intrinsic Shaders.. I think most of the gains come from the optimized draw calls and intrinsic shaders.. and a bit from async compute but not much.

So it's really down to developers leveraging those features present on AMD's cards.

I am hoping future Bethesda games use Id Tech 6 engine. Also there are something like 60+ titles in development using DX12 which has the same capability. All future Valve games will be Vulkan as well, like Dota 2.

In reality probably not all games will be this well optimized but in either case AMD cards should see some nice gains from most of them.

 

[torlen11cc]

A serious stability problem...

 

[sirmo]

A serious stability problem...

Reference rx480 is power throttled. Even though its reference clock is 1266Mhz it usually averages just below 1200Mhz. I suspect that's the issue. Undervolting fixes the power limiting, or getting the AIB partner card.

 

[dark zero]

So 1420 vs 2100Mhz! I hope AMD improves OC more.maybe New wafer with excellent Yeild

And the 1600 Mhz version is not out yet...

And even the GDDR5X version....

 

[Silverforce11]

A serious stability problem...

No it is not. That's PresentMon's much higher per second analysis.

It's butter smooth in gameplay. You can view that review's thread on [H] where the reviewer commented that he was enjoying the 100+ FPS smoothness and his comments on why the chart appears all over the place.

There's been plenty of video comparisons of Doom on Vulkan, do you think if there was such a stutter problem it wouldn't be talked about? lol

 

[RussianSensation]

wow I didn't expect it to be that good.

If a couple reviews corroborate that level of performance for AIB 480 cards, and if AIS manage to release 480 4GB at $200-220, AMD has a great mainstream card on its hands. Also, if AIB 480 8GB can hit $250, then it seems like 480 is going to be a better card for future games than a $250 1060 since a 2100mhz 1060 seems like a wash against a 1420mhz 480; and we already see 1060 falling behind in nearly all DX12/Vulkan titles.

AMD needs to get their clocks up for Vega and stop releasing blower reference cards. If Vega has 4096 SPs, 64 ROPs, 8 ACE engines, and 700-800GB/sec HBM2 and AMD manages 1375mhz Boost clocks, it should give 1080 a good run at 4K. I just wonder if Vega 11 will have 5000-6000 CCs or what? Doesn't seem realistic to have a 2304 shader 480, 4096 shader 490 and 6144 shader Vega 11. The gap in performance would be too large. But if AMD only has 4096 shader flagship Vega 11, it doesn't seem like it could compete with Big Pascal. Hmm...

 

[Silverforce11]

Die size and area saving of HBM2 means Vega, around 380mm2 should have 4096 SP. Since we know there's two Vega, it's safe to expect one around AMD's typical mid-range size: ~360-400mm2 and another one that's big like Fiji.

AMD needs a redesign on their front end & scheduler because such high SP count is wasteful on DX11 when they are under utilized. That's the biggest potential for them.

 

[Rannar]

DX11 problem will get better in time as more and more DX12 games are coming out.
@ Russian: Vega 10 3584 SPs. Vega 11 5120.

 

[Silverforce11]

DX11 problem will get better in time as more and more DX12 games are coming out.
@ Russian: Vega 10 3584 SPs. Vega 11 5120.

That would suggest yield issues. From the profile of the engineer who leaked Polaris 10, ie. 232mm2 IP8..

Vega was leaked as IP9 4096 SP. One of them anyway.

 

[sirmo]

DX11 problem will get better in time as more and more DX12 games are coming out.
@ Russian: Vega 10 3584 SPs. Vega 11 5120.

Those SP counts are still impressive. 15% "ipc" improvement over previous generation together with much higher clocks.. and they will be pretty potent GPUs. Also the DX12/Vulkan ecosystem will only keep improving by the time they are out.

They should also scale much better with resolution.. 1080 came close to claiming the first true 4K 60fps card but not quite.. Vega should definitely be able to achieve it.

 

[krumme]

As stilt have shown power goes up like a rocket from 1ghz on p10 gf process. Ps4 neo stays at 900 mhz for good reason.
480 oc aib fare far better than i expected but reference vega have to stay at 250 and will therefore have low freq and corresponding perf. My guess not higher than polaris. But due to high process variantion they might tune process so power is lower. Then we can expect some oc in 980ti class for all aib. That is 25%. But with the pay of power. But who cares. Its all about perf here.

 

[krumme]

lol if those gains are true on Doom Vulkan it's faster than a 1070..

Because from rx480 -> OC rx480 Nitro+ = 26%

And rx480 ref. -> 1070 is 10.6%

rx480 ref. -> Fury X is 30% so it's actually pretty damn near Fury X performance.

Yep. I said before 480 release that it could end up as fast as 1070 in 2 years.
Doom clearly shows what is possible with a thin api programmed in engine specifically for the arch.
Its damn serious business if the vulcan dx12 label is more than the stamp on the box and a few patches.

 

[krumme]

The cheapest 1060 in stock at oc uk is palit 270 the cheapest 480 8gb in stock is 225. Looking forward to aib. First should arive today.

 

[sze5003]

The cheapest 1060 in stock at oc uk is palit 270 the cheapest 480 8gb in stock is 225. Looking forward to aib. First should arive today.

I'm really liking the benchmarks of the sapphire. I would assume the powercolor would be similar? I may just grab that today if I can.

But the nitro seems more tempting I just hate more waiting.

Also, what is the general consensus? Will the 4gb versions perform the same as the 8gb ? All those benches seem to be from the 8gb nitro.

Kind of in a tough dilemma too. Got a call from my father asking if I had an extra monitor I could give him for his business.

I've been thinking of going 1440p for a few months now. This could give me a reason to finally get a new monitor.

But then that means I need a more powerful card and I would have to go 1070 or something high end from last gen like the 980ti or Fury.

Not sure what to do now.

 

[torlen11cc]

Here's leaked benches for the Nitro+ 480.

Some in the press said reviews are coming in a few days.

It is strange that the 480 enjoys (such) a large performance improvement as a result of an increase of only 200Mhz, while the 1060 only gets a minor performance improvement when it gets a 400Mhz core clock increase.

 

[Silverforce11]

It is strange that the 480 enjoys (such) a large performance improvement as a result of an increase of only 200Mhz, while the 1060 only gets a minor performance improvement when it gets a 400Mhz core clock increase.

It's the same with 1070 and 1080 OC, 2.1ghz is only 10-12% faster in games... because you guessed it?

Memory bandwidth bottlenecked.

Gamers Nexus actually got a 1080 on water cooling and ran it at 2165mhz and it wasn't much faster vs 2050mhz (1-2% within margin of error).

Also you should know, saying it gets a 400mhz core clock increase is not true since the 1060 can boost to above 1900mhz already. Running at 2100mhz is actually 200mhz, or ~11% OC.

 

[sweetusernames]

The IPC nightmare is back I guess!!!
So... if the clock is so low.... and they still manage to defeat nVIDIA at higher clocks... that could mean that the IPC is better?

Another SB vs Bulldozer scenario?

The difference between Polaris vs Pascal and SB vs BD is that Bulldozer was hotter and more power hungry than Sandy Bridge

 

[Hitman928]

What's the source on those leaked benches?

 

[Thala]

It is strange that the 480 enjoys (such) a large performance improvement as a result of an increase of only 200Mhz, while the 1060 only gets a minor performance improvement when it gets a 400Mhz core clock increase.

That is not surprising. Reference RX480 runs below 1200MHz in many benchmarks. Reference GTX1060 runs at 1848MHz in almost all benchmarks.

 

[AtenRa]

What's the source on those leaked benches?

I believe reddit, they are not official yet so we better wait a few more days.

 

[sze5003]

I'm not seeing anything on the powercolor devil card yet. I think today they must just be announcing the winner.

 

[Dygaza]

If those performance charts are legit. It's really impressive. I bet power consumption raises significantly. Not that I really care, "everyone" would oc these anyway.

 

[zinfamous]

With about 10 Nvidia cards on the top shelf? Ok.

Well, maybe AMD are just collectors.

 

[coercitiv]

Well, maybe AMD are just collectors.

Nah, they're Founders!

 

[sze5003]

Looks like a power color not coming today, just announced today.

Will be available July 29th for $269.

http://m.hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/94822-powercolor-launches-red-devil-rx-480-8gb-gddr5/