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

[antihelten]

This graph actually makes the 480 look bad. 1060 is 9% faster now and uses less power. And in 3 years, the 480 will only be 3% faster. Plus, the 1060 will probably overclock better as well. But honestly, the difference across the board are not really that different. Starting the scale at 80% magnifies the differences.

But honestly, there is too much bickering and bashing by both sides. Both the 480 and 1060 are great cards, as evidenced by the supply problems.

That depends entirely upon which numbers you look at. As I mentioned I don't really agree with the dates that they have put on the graph.

If you only look at AAA* games (which to be honest are the only ones that ever ever really show up in benchmark, with very few exceptions), then it looks like this (DX12/Vulkan games in Bold):

Released in 2016:

• Ashes of the Singularity
• Dark Soul 3
• DOOM
• Far Cry Primal
• Gears of War UE
• Hitman
• Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
• Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
• No Man’s Sky
• Overwatch
• Quantum Break
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Stellaris
• The Division
• Total War: Warhammer
• XCOM 2
  

To be released in 2016:

• Ark: Survival Evolved
• Battlefield 1
• CoD: Infinite Warfare
• CIV 6
• Dead Rising 4
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Dishonored 2
• Forza Motorsport 6
• Gears of War 4
• Mafia 3
• Titanfall 2
• Watch Dogs 2

That's 28 games, 14 of which feature DX12 or Vulkan (please feel free to point out if I missed any). In other words 50% of all AAA games released in 2016 feature DX12 or Vulkan. Admittedly a few of them can be debated whether or not they are AAA games (Ashes, Homeworld, Ark, Stellaris and Dead Rising are probably the most questionable, without these the ratio is 52% though).

The question then is if 3Dcenter.org's graph are meant to indicate games released in a given year, or rather a more fuzzy concept like average game played in a year. If one uses the the first definition of games released within the given year, then 2016 should be closer to 50% not 20%.

Obviously looking at the total amount of games released and not just AAA games, DX12 adoption will still remain quite low and probably significantly lower than even 3Dcenter predicts, but the vast majority of games such as indie games and the like will never show up in benchmarks. Partly because they just aren't popular enough and partly because they will run just fine on low end hardware and are thus largely irrelevant for these kind of GPUs (doesn't really matter whether you are running your average indie game at 200 FPS or 250 FPS).

As Such the 1060 is only ahead by about 3% if review sites were to only use 2016 games and then following their prognosis the 480 would be ahead by 1% next year with only 2017 games and 5% the year after that.

All in all I'd personally probably still prefer the 1060, simply because the difference is too small to matter and as you say the 1060 uses less power (plus the two cards are practically the same price, given that the 4GB 480 is almost impossible to find).

*AAA as in the publisher definition, i.e. big budget games, not the critic definition.

 

[raghu78]

Look again at the Steam hardware survey...Fury series doesn't even register, 1070/1080/980 Ti registering in significant quantities. These high end AMD cards just don't sell.

I do not think Steam is the definitive source on market share. I think Jon Peddie and Mercury Research are more reflective of actual market share. Still Nvidia dominates overall GPU market share with absolute 100% market share control over mobile enthusiast and high performance notebook GPUs. Even in desktop GPUs after R9 290X vs 780 Ti I doubt AMD has any meaningful market share. I am guessing 5-10% market share at the absolute high end (980 Ti vs Fury X). With GP102 / GP104 its currently at 100%. I would say if AMD can bring competitive products like they did with R9 290X and R9 290 but without build / quality issues like poor reference cooler they have a chance at taking back market share in the USD 300 - USD 700 space.

 

[Enigmoid]

As far as civ 6 goes... the machines used for their latest event (where they had a number of players record footage) used a 960.

 

[Layer8]

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

Tell me where on here the RX 480 even shows ups. GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 already registering significant share after a short time on the market.

Tell me why the R9/R7 3XX series are listed for 2 months now. They are all quite new?
Same for the Intel HD 530. Skylake is probably only out the 2nd month now.

At that adaption rate, the RX 480 will start to be listed in 2018.:\

It looks like the least competent intern is responsible for that survey. He probably gave his best though...

 

[Erithan13]

Some hope that the 480 shortage may be starting to ease (source):

AMD also inform me over 100k units of RX 480 are shipping to AIB's in the next 10-12 days, so I think by middle of August (2 weeks), we shall be in a much better position and would of cleared the majority of backorders.

It seems that in the real world people consider the 480 to be a compelling product worthy of purchase. Good work AMD, keep those cards coming :thumbsup:

 

[eRacer]

Tell me why the R9/R7 3XX series are listed for 2 months now. They are all quite new?

The 300 series were released last year and are just 200/7800 rebrands/refreshes. The Steam video card survey was consolidating the 300 series into the 200 series since both are based on the same GPUs. Steam finally started breaking out the 300 series rebrands/refreshes into their own categories which is why the "AMD Radeon R9 200 Series" took a huge tumble this month.

At that adaption rate, the RX 480 will start to be listed in 2018.:\

The Steam video card survey only goes down to 0.16% market share. RX 480 is below 0.16% overall market share, but can be seen on the Steam DirectX survey.

 

[Yakk]

Some hope that the 480 shortage may be starting to ease (source):

It seems that in the real world people consider the 480 to be a compelling product worthy of purchase. Good work AMD, keep those cards coming :thumbsup:

100,000 units by Mid-August, that's pretty much the date that was always mentioned. Though I wouldn't think that will ease the shortage for very long. Hopefully there will be a steady production output of product from that point on.

 

[Sonikku]

Maybe I should sell my 1060 while it's hot and get a 480 in a couple weeks instead and mine. :hmm:

 

[Yakk]

480s became essentially free with mining, why not start with a half dozen and see?

 

[Sonikku]

Doubt I could even find two to rub together.

 

[Yakk]

LOL... You do get a few 15 minute windows of stock per day to order from if you watchout for them like a hawk. So supply is there and constant, just evaporates quickly at record speeds.

 

[3DVagabond]

That graph is talking about DX12 and Vulkin only though. it is not making a prediction about DX11 and the gains that might have.

They are actually only using today's driver support. All you have to do is go back and compare older cards to see what's really going to happen. Compare 680/770 vs. 7970/280X, OG Titan vs. 290X, 980/70 vs. 390/X.

That graph isn't figuring in nVidia's lack of driver support going forward.

 

[Det0x]

That depends entirely upon which numbers you look at. As I mentioned I don't really agree with the dates that they have put on the graph.

If you only look at AAA* games (which to be honest are the only ones that ever ever really show up in benchmark, with very few exceptions), then it looks like this (DX12/Vulkan games in Bold):

Released in 2016:

• Ashes of the Singularity
• Dark Soul 3
• DOOM
• Far Cry Primal
• Gears of War UE
• Hitman
• Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
• Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
• No Man’s Sky
• Overwatch
• Quantum Break
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Stellaris
• The Division
• Total War: Warhammer
• XCOM 2
  

To be released in 2016:

• Ark: Survival Evolved
• Battlefield 1
• CoD: Infinite Warfare
• CIV 6
• Dead Rising 4
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Dishonored 2
• Forza Motorsport 6
• Gears of War 4
• Mafia 3
• Titanfall 2
• Watch Dogs 2

That's 28 games, 14 of which feature DX12 or Vulkan (please feel free to point out if I missed any)

Quake Champions based on id Tech6 with Vulkan, and we know what way that swings

*edit*

Nevermind, 2017 release

Quake Champions will be going into closed beta in 2017

 

[USER8000]

In the UK,AIB RX470 4GB cards are almost the same price as the AIB RX480 4GB cards!!

No wonder when apparently the GTX1050 is going to be a 3GB card - I expect it will be a bit quicker but with only 3GB of VRAM performance will probably fall off a cliff,unless they do something like with the GTX660. I can still remember the 8800GT 256MB.

 

[Arachnotronic]

In the UK,AIB RX470 4GB cards are almost the same price as the AIB RX480 4GB cards!!

No wonder when apparently the GTX1050 is going to be a 3GB card - I expect it will be a bit quicker but with only 3GB of VRAM performance will probably fall off a cliff,unless they do something like with the GTX660. I can still remember the 8800GT 256MB.

I think RX 480 4GB was a stopgap until RX 470.

 

[USER8000]

I think RX 480 4GB was a stopgap until RX 470.

Well,the pricing in the UK is stupid. The relative US pricing seems far better - some of the cards like the non-reference Gigabyte and Powercolor RX470 cards are £200!! A non-reference Sapphire RX480 PCS 4GB or a reference RX480 4GB can be had for £200 and £182!!

The only RX470 which seems to be hitting the £165 price point is the Sapphire one with the reference cooler.

I really hope AMD don't get ideas of jacking the RX460 price up too much above £100 to £110. The GTX750TI is £90 to £100 and the GTX950 starts at £125 to £130.

The RX460 uses a salvaged Polaris 11 die for some reason(only 896 shaders so looks like a rejigged R7 260X),so I honestly cannot see it beating or matching a GTX950 and you get bus powered GTX950 cards too.

IMHO,this WHOLE 14NM/16NM generation has been somewhat of a let down for the sub £300 graphics card purchaser.

 

[mohit9206]

RX470s real price is $200 as there are no $180 cards available similar to 1070 and 1080 situation.And that Powercolor card does not count as it was a price mistake.
So at $200, RX470 is 25% cheaper but 34% slower than GTX 1060 at $250 not to mention 2GB less vram.
As for where i got these figures from,i used the techpowerup 1080p performance summary chart to calculate so its accurate.

 

[USER8000]

RX470s real price is $200 as there are no $180 cards available similar to 1070 and 1080 situation.And that Powercolor card does not count as it was a price mistake.
So at $200, RX470 is 25% cheaper but 34% slower than GTX 1060 at $250 not to mention 2GB less vram.
As for where i got these figures from,i used the techpowerup 1080p performance summary chart to calculate so its accurate.

Regarding the GTX1060 - you might as well include the RX480 8GB model too,which can be had for as low as £216 here(although it subsequently sold out quickly).

Even the cheapest GTX1060 here is £230,and I can get a reference RX480 4GB for £182,or a reference RX470 4GB for £165,which makes the GTX1060 £50 and £65 more expensive.

At this point the reference RX480 4GB seems the best value of the RX470,RX480 and GTX1060 card out there,even with its crap cooler.

 

[mohit9206]

Regarding the GTX1060 - you might as well include the RX480 8GB model too,which can be had for as low as £216 here(although it subsequently sold out quickly).

Even the cheapest GTX1060 here is £230,and I can get a reference RX480 4GB for £182,or a reference RX470 4GB for £165,which makes the GTX1060 £50 and £65 more expensive.

At this point the reference RX480 4GB seems the best value of the RX470,RX480 and GTX1060 card out there,even with its crap cooler.

International prices are all messed up so depends on your country which card is the most value for money.In yours RX480 4GB is best value,in US its 1060.RX480 4GB supplies are very tight according to sources so that card may as well not exist.
Just wanted to point out that an Nvidia card offers better perf/$ than an AMD card.
Let me say that again. An Nvidia card offers better perf/$ than an AMD card.
:hmm:

 

[Erenhardt]

If you take the most expensive and slowest 470, then you are probably right. Other rx 470, are much faster and cheaper:

If you discard some questionable benches like dx11 Warhammer, ROTR, Anno, then 1060 is tied with 480 and 470 (I mean the real 470, not the throttling asus model) 5% behind.

Anyway, 470 is overall 5% slower than 480 and 480 is 5% slower than 1060. If a 480 vs 1060 was a draw, than a 10-20% cheaper 470 is a win.

I think 4GB 470 should cost $149
custom oc 4GB 470 models up to $169
8GB standard 470 $190
8GB OC models up to $210

4GB 480 would slot between 8GB 470 and would be viable alternative for those who are willing for trade some VRAM for slightly more core perf.

But because the difference in perf between 4GB 480 and 4GB 470 is so small (5%) the price difference is also very close (10%)

I think amd can offer better prices. They utilize their WSA fab, they will have to pay for all the chips anyway, even those not ordered

But I guess they are determined to have higher margins. Cards are selling like a hot cakes, so might turn profit anyway. Which is a shame. I like my radeons cheap

 

[ShintaiDK]

http://videocardz.com/63033/gigabyte-radeon-rx-460-windforce-2x-performance-leaked

460 numbers. Slower than 950.

 

[eRacer]

If you discard some questionable benches like dx11 Warhammer, ROTR, Anno, then 1060 is tied with 480 and 470 (I mean the real 470, not the throttling asus model) 5% behind.

Anyway, 470 is overall 5% slower than 480 and 480 is 5% slower than 1060. If a 480 vs 1060 was a draw, than a 10-20% cheaper 470 is a win....

Why are you comparing factory overclocked RX 470 vs. reference RX 470 and GTX 1060? The throttling Asus RX 470 actually is closer to the "real" RX 470 than the others as it is closest to the 120W (formerly 110W) TDP target AMD set for the RX 470.

 

[eRacer]

overclocked RX 470 vs. reference RX 470** and GTX 1060?

**meant to say reference RX 480

 

[boozzer]

for people in the market for 470, there is a msi 470 on jet for 170$ https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsa...si_radeon_rx_470_17282_255_5238_savings_3000/

 

[Finalnight]

Just ordered the Sapphire RX 470 Nitro+ 4GB off Jet.com. Looking forward to the reduced heat/power consumption.