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

[guachi]

Historically, nothing priced under the 200 USD MSRP point has been good perf for dollar since basically 2013.

I guess that makes the 480 4gb, whatever its technical fails, a real achievement as it's $199 and the current performance/price leader by a fair margin.

 

[24601]

I guess that makes the 480 4gb, whatever its technical fails, a real achievement as it's $199 and the current performance/price leader by a fair margin.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context

 

[sontin]

Can you guys remember these people who claimed that Polaris will be better with DX11?

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/951-24/benchmark-project-cars.html

Nothing has changed. It is still a driver problem with AMD.

 

[Bryf50]

Can you guys remember these people who claimed that Polaris will be better with DX11?

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/951-24/benchmark-project-cars.html

Nothing has changed. It is still a driver problem with AMD.

You provide one benchmark to prove your point and its Project Cars. Get outta here.

 

[LTC8K6]

I guess that makes the 480 4gb, whatever its technical fails, a real achievement as it's $199 and the current performance/price leader by a fair margin.

Well, if the GTX1060 appears next week, it may have a tough time holding that spot.

 

[24601]

Can you guys remember these people who claimed that Polaris will be better with DX11?

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/951-24/benchmark-project-cars.html

Nothing has changed. It is still a driver problem with AMD.

You have to factor in both Perf/Watt and Perf/MM^2 when calculating process and IC design.

Clearly AMD hasn't increased real Perf/Watt an iota since Tahiti in terms of IC design (Relying only on situational gimmicks to decrease power).

They also haven't increased IPC outside of the tessellation corner cases that AMD (finally) solved with Polaris since Tahiti.

Seems like GCN has been exactly what it was sold as since the beginning. The same architecture since 2012 with extra features continually bolted onto it.

2characters

 

[William Gaatjes]

I, too, get the impression that something is holding back performance. From a clockspeed and IPC improvement standpoint, the 480 should have more brute force than the 390, but in most benchmarks (1080p and 1440p) the 480 does worse. The major differences between the 480 and 390 outside of number of SPs/TMUs and clockspeed is the number of ROPs and memory bandwidth... It seems like the drivers are too immature to really judge the potential of GCN 4. I would not be surprised if all of the architectural improvements aren't being used to their potential with the release driver, and thus would expect another 10% improvement in performance over the current benchmarks. Add in better OC potential from AIB and I think it should be possible to reach >390X/980 performance at 150W.

I too think we are in for a nice driver update treat for the next upcoming months.

 

[khon]

The RX 480 has a lot of flaws (power consumption, noise, insufficient connectors etc), but it is still faster and more future proof than anything else at the price. But I would much rather have a custom AIB with an 8-pin connector and a better cooling solution, especially if the price difference is modest ($20 or so). I'm not talking about the so-called beast mode cards here, just something decent.

 

[Bacon1]

Can you guys remember these people who claimed that Polaris will be better with DX11?

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/951-24/benchmark-project-cars.html

Nothing has changed. It is still a driver problem with AMD.

LOL

http://www.hardware.fr/getgraphimg.php?id=349&n=13

The 480 almost catches up with the Nano.

http://www.hardware.fr/getgraphimg.php?id=349&n=16

Almost catches the 980 in a game where the 390 is slower than a 970. Beats out the OC'd 970.

That site in general has a poor showing for AMD cards

 

[tonyfreak215]

Can you guys remember these people who claimed that Polaris will be better with DX11?

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/951-24/benchmark-project-cars.html

Nothing has changed. It is still a driver problem with AMD.

Seriously? A 1440p benchmark? This card is meant for 1080p.

 

[Tumaras]

I guess that makes the 480 4gb, whatever its technical fails, a real achievement as it's $199 and the current performance/price leader by a fair margin.

A year ago+ sure, but not in mid-2016. Today go to Newegg and you can buy a 390 new, 8GB, with TW Warhammer included, for $259. That's the problem, being a new gen it should be a slam dunk that it's better. Not basically a wash. If you count Warhammer as $60 game, you can get a faster 390, with 4 more GB of vram for the same price as a 4GB 480. 970 prices have been dropping fast as well. No matter the spin that's not exactly exciting for a new product release. It's not the same situation as the 1070/1080 where NV put out a clearly faster new gen set of cards that were also cheaper than the previous gen.

 

[postmortemIA]

Seriously? A 1440p benchmark? This card is meant for 1080p.

Haha and what I shouldn't even try to run one on 1440P in 2016?

Should I go back in time, say 2013 and use it? Or the card is failure on day of its release?

 

[boozzer]

Well, if the GTX1060 appears next week, it may have a tough time holding that spot.

haha, talk about it when we see the price and benchmarks of a 1060 first before you make any claims.

if you want to speculate, do so in the right thread.

 

[boozzer]

Haha and what I shouldn't even try to run one on 1440P in 2016?

don't buy a main stream gpu for 1440p, you are gonna have a bad time.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Seriously? A 1440p benchmark? This card is meant for 1080p.

Erm...

Overall, AMD is pitching the RX 480 as a card suitable for 1440p gaming as well as 1080p gaming and VR gaming. In the case of 1080p the card is clearly powerful enough, as even Crysis 3 at its highest quality setting is flirting with 60fps. However when it comes to 1440p, the RX 480 feels like it’s coming up a bit short; other than DiRT Rally, performance is a bit low for the 60fps PC gamer.

?

 

[Erenhardt]

A year ago+ sure, but not in mid-2016. Today go to Newegg and you can buy a 390 new, 8GB, with TW Warhammer included, for $259. That's the problem, being a new gen it should be a slam dunk that it's better. Not basically a wash. If you count Warhammer as $60 game, you can get a faster 390, with 4 more GB of vram for the same price as a 4GB 480. 970 prices have been dropping fast as well. No matter the spin that's not exactly exciting for a new product release. It's not the same situation as the 1070/1080 where NV put out a clearly faster new gen set of cards that were also cheaper than the previous gen.

most amd cards come with warhammer. There is a promo on their site.

 

[Bacon1]

Erm...



?

It can play @ 1440p, but not maxed settings. Hell the 980 TI only gets 57 fps average.

Project cars is the worst case scenario. It plays fine @ 1080p as I showed in my other post.

I've been using my stock 290 @ 2560 x 1600 for years. Just turn down settings from "Ultra" to "High" and you'll be fine.

 

[tonyfreak215]

Haha and what I shouldn't even try to run one on 1440P in 2016?

Should I go back in time, say 2013 and use it? Or the card is failure on day of its release?

Erm...



?

It's a mainstream part. Those settings are cranked to the max. You are going to have to give to play at 1440p.

 

[Stuka87]

Haha and what I shouldn't even try to run one on 1440P in 2016?

Should I go back in time, say 2013 and use it? Or the card is failure on day of its release?

The *VAST* majority of people use 1080P for gaming. Those with 1440 and up make up a very small section of the market.

The main issue with the post showing that benchmark is that they chose Project Cars. DX11 is definitely improved on RX480, and other games show that.

 

[guachi]

A year ago+ sure, but not in mid-2016. Today go to Newegg and you can buy a 390 new, 8GB, with TW Warhammer included, for $259. That's the problem, being a new gen it should be a slam dunk that it's better. Not basically a wash. If you count Warhammer as $60 game, you can get a faster 390, with 4 more GB of vram for the same price as a 4GB 480. 970 prices have been dropping fast as well. No matter the spin that's not exactly exciting for a new product release. It's not the same situation as the 1070/1080 where NV put out a clearly faster new gen set of cards that were also cheaper than the previous gen.

These cards are dropping in price because of the 480. They either drop in price or they don't sell. If the 480 were better, they'd be dropping even more.

I don't care if I buy a 970/980, 390, or a 480. The performance is basically the same. (480 = to 970 in dx11 and = 980 in dx12). So the price better be the same.

 

[Mercennarius]

These cards are dropping in price because of the 480. They either drop in price or they don't sell. If the 480 were better, they'd be dropping even more.

I don't care if I buy a 970/980, 390, or a 480. The performance is basically the same. (480 = to 970 in dx11 and = 980 in dx12). So the price better be the same.

Except none of those cards have DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.0. Making the 480 that much more of a value.

 

[sontin]

Seriously? A 1440p benchmark? This card is meant for 1080p.

"Beyond HD Gaming".

 

[kawi6rr]

Can you guys remember these people who claimed that Polaris will be better with DX11?

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/951-24/benchmark-project-cars.html

Nothing has changed. It is still a driver problem with AMD.

LMAO, cherry picked Project Cars! Give it a rest.

 

[renderstate]

It's also interesting to read this comment:



So they are basically disowning the 2.5-2.8X improvement as far as the RX 480 is concerned, but are still maintaining it for the 470.

Disowning? If it were NVIDIA people (not saying you) would yell "lies!!". They delivered big time on the price front because they couldn't deliver on anything else. It was clear from moment one it was positioned this way because there was no other option. Of course there is nothing wrong with that and customers are all the better for it given the NVIDIA will likely have to cut their prices as well.

 

[guachi]

Except none of those cards have DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.0. Making the 480 that much more of a value.

Thanks for pointing that out. I realized after I posted that I shouldn't have been so "FPS is everything". There are other reasons to prefer a card. For me, there are two - ability to drive better resolutions/refresh rates, and card dB.

I do a lot of photography and having a card that can drive an 8k monitor means I can game now and then the card can soldier on for photography use.

The other is dB and the reference 480 is too loud, so AIB it is.