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

[zinfamous]

Mod post on that Reddit thread:



4Chan is probably not the most reliable source of info.

ah, you're right. Here's the culprit:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38327323&postcount=582

never posted a link or sourced anything, but if you look at that image you can tell it's coming from Chan.

Baffles me that people still don't understand how to source their info...degradation of society and all that. I mean, you wanna know what grinds my gears? People that pass off information as their own or fail to link "confirmed" information in some way....like this guy! :

Now there are rumors that there will be the RX485 with improved P10 chip and GDDR 5X memory. The date is unknown BTW..

However on the official side, the RX490 is already listed in a promotion in this year.

 

[LTC8K6]

Basically. AMD made the comparison, hell it's the foundation of their marketing slogan "VR for the masses" but reviewers be damned if they compare the RX 480 to anything that is VR capable.

EDIT:

Got to sort of chuckle at some of these after reviews hit.

Actually, it is AMD's campaign I'm talking about. AMD used the term "premium VR" in reference to the RX480.

In fact, it looks to be just the minimum you need for VR. Basic VR, rather than premium.

 

[zinfamous]

If actually is roflstopming gtx980 in VR:

It actually comes out in better light in VR than in dx11 games.

seriously: where are you getting this chart?

 

[LTC8K6]

AMD doesn't even show it doubling a 380 in the VR test...

3.6 vs 6.3

 

[Doom2pro]

Actually, it is AMD's campaign I'm talking about. AMD used the term "premium VR" in reference to the RX480.

In fact, it looks to be just the minimum you need for VR. Basic VR, rather than premium.

AMD isn't claiming the RX 480 offers premium VR in the way you are suggesting, and in the interview with Linus, Raja was pretty clear, he is talking about Premium compared to stupid Google Cardboard, or other lame VR "Solutions" that use a smart phone as the display.

It's offering Premium VR with Oculus Rift type sets, clearly.

 

[Erenhardt]

seriously: where are you getting this chart?

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/amd-radeon-rx-480-review/1100-6441354/

But seems it is wrong. They ignored the quality rating and posted only # of rendered frames

 

[LTC8K6]

AMD isn't claiming the RX 480 offers premium VR in the way you are suggesting, and in the interview with Linus, Raja was pretty clear, he is talking about Premium compared to stupid Google Cardboard, or other lame VR "Solutions" that use a smart phone as the display.

It's offering Premium VR with Oculus Rift type sets, clearly.

I don't see any other way to interpret it.

http://i65.tinypic.com/fyidr8.jpg

 

[Tweak155]

Premium VR is akin to saying a gourmet cookie. It doesn't really mean much lol, too subjective.

 

[LTC8K6]

Premium VR is akin to saying a gourmet cookie. It doesn't really mean much lol, too subjective.

Yeah, but if you tell me it's a gourmet cookie, and there's an Oreo in the box...

 

[topmounter]

Sorry if these are reposts:

ASUS

MSI

Yep, definitely interested in seeing what Asus / ROG can do with a RX-480 STRIX variant:

https://rog.asus.com/23792016/comin...gamers-introduces-strix-rx-480-graphics-card/

 

[Tweak155]

Yeah, but if you tell me it's a gourmet cookie, and there's an Oreo in the box...

Hand that same cookie to a starving kid... who knows?

I still think it's subjective I guess.

 

[agfkfhahddhdn]

.

 

[Armsdealer]

seriously: where are you getting this chart?

If this chart is right, then the reason it's performing badly in the steam vr test is due to inconsistent fps. Remember min fps is important in the steam vr test, and vr in general is about keeping fps above 90. Perhaps something that could be fixed in drivers?

If they do fix it, I will regret buying the 1070.

 

[railven]

Arguing about the meaning of the word "premium" is yet another disingenuous way of refusing to admit that AMD's got a pretty great perf/$ card on their cards.

Reading NeoGAF and now even AMD Reddit, the Perf/$ is getting jacked by market gouging.

From the hype monster to the power draw issues.

I think people drawing parallel to Hawaii launch nailed it. All it takes now is for NV to release GP106 to shake up the perf/$ charts and it's like the GTX 780 price cut to counter the R9 290X.

If the miners get involved, it's almost 1:1 parallel.

 

[IllogicalGlory]

Even cards like the stock 780 are "VR capable". Anything "VR Ready" is premium.

 

[kawi6rr]

NVDIA said that GTX 1070 brings the performance of $650 cards, but they positioning the GTX 1070 against GTX 970.

AMD said that RX 480 brings the performance of $500 cards but they positioning the RX 480 against R9 380. This card is a Tonga replacement, not a Hawaii/Fiji/GM204 competitor.
It is nice to see the RX 480 vs those cards but not comparing the RX 480 to its real competitors (R9 380/X and GTX 960) is completely fail fro the Reviews that they did just that.


AMD compared the RX 480 against the R9 380 for VR. Also you fail to understand that there is no other $199 VR capable product in the market. And you are trying also to compare the RX 480 against GTX 1070/1080. This is not the segment RX 480 was made for, open your eyes.

I find it hard to believe people on these forums don't understand this but the more I read posts the more this becomes true.

 

[topmounter]

So, these guys are getting the expected power draw...and somehow this thing is slightly edging out Fury X in a few games...even at 1440p? (practically matches Titan in SW Battlefront? )

wtf....

these reviews are all over the place. Really sounds like a chip/board lottery issue. Hopefully this isn't as bad in the retail space as it is for reviewers.

OC is still pretty bad here, but could be fixed with AIB options and drivers? Oh, as far as power/OC, that still doesn't look good with their charts. They managed ~6% OC but that required 13 more W... (Actually, is that bad? I have no idea )

Something is amiss. TechAlter's 1080p and 1440p results are what I was expecting / hoping for from the 480.

 

[realibrad]

Yeah, but if you tell me it's a gourmet cookie, and there's an Oreo in the box...

When you compare the different types of VR out there, the 480 offers the ability to do the premium of the different types of VR. What I think you are having trouble whit is thinking that of the types of VR that would use a PC and a GPU its entry level. The way they wanted to market it was to compare it to all types of VR and not just PC based.

I dont think that was a marketing trick though. There are many different types of VR platforms out there and AMD is targeting the PC types.

 

[Headfoot]

RX 480 VR on the Rift will be better than PSVR on the original PS4.

 

[agfkfhahddhdn]

.

 

[stuff_me_good]

What is becoming apparent is that this GPU is made for poor people.

AMD PR is absolutely terrible. They could have released not buggy driver in the first place, so the GPU performance could go up by 5%. And then they could lower the voltage so that GPU could not get into thermal limit, and draw over 30 watts less, so the general perception of this GPU would have been MUCH, MUCH better.

I 100% agree.

Plus they could have spent like 5$ more in the heatsink and there would have been some small room for OC even in crappy reference card. Apparently they had to go complete retard on cost savings this time.

Well, at least it wont be problem with custom cards.

 

[railven]

Price gouging is, honestly, not a bad thing for AMD right now. It means supply is constrained and demand is still high. It means they sold out of their launch inventory, which was like 20x times what Nvidia had for the 1080/1070, and it means the PCI-E stuff isn't impacting sales.

This is really interesting to read. As someone who missed out on R9 290X due to gouging, I'd disagree.

I doubt the 1060 will match the 480 for perf/$. And even if it comes close, it'll likely be a mediocre FE-only launch vs the first wave of AIB 480s. I think AMD wins this mid-range round handily. The only real concern is how Vega competes at the high end.

I don't think NV has to even match it to affect 480 sales. Just reading once strong RX 480 posters over in other forums is showing that NV just teasing GTX 1060 and RX 480's poor initial showing is causing people to hesitate. (EDIT: You even witness here from some buyers who just went and bought something else.)


Be interesting to see how this launch affects AMD's numbers. However, sad to see that this launch was plagued by so many missteps. I'd wonder if it is due to AMD's limited resources or AMD possibly rushing out this product to get as much selling time before NV's product for the similar price bracket.

Ultimately if it is GloFlo's issue, Vega and Zen are both now questionable.

 

[IEC]

ah, you're right. Here's the culprit:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38327323&postcount=582

never posted a link or sourced anything, but if you look at that image you can tell it's coming from Chan.

Baffles me that people still don't understand how to source their info...degradation of society and all that. I mean, you wanna know what grinds my gears? People that pass off information as their own or fail to link "confirmed" information in some way....like this guy! :

RX 490 was listed in AMD's 2016 game promo page for a number of hours before someone realized they goofed and removed it:
http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Lists-Radeon-RX-490-Graphics-Card-New-APUs-Gaming-Promo
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/rx490-amd-game-promo-page/

 

[xthetenth]

Price gouging is, honestly, not a bad thing for AMD right now. It means supply is constrained and demand is still high. It means they sold out of their launch inventory, which was like 20x times what Nvidia had for the 1080/1070, and it means the PCI-E stuff isn't impacting sales.

I doubt the 1060 will match the 480 for perf/$. And even if it comes close, it'll likely be a mediocre FE-only launch vs the first wave of AIB 480s, plus the 470 and 460, the former of which might be the best deal of the bunch. I think AMD wins this mid-range round handily. The only real concern is how Vega competes at the high end.

From a pure business perspective it's a great sign because it vindicates their decision to pull a Dr. Frankenstein and slam volts into marginal chips because the power use cost isn't enough to cost them in sales, let alone cost them enough that they'd have been better off keeping volts low and accept lower yields.

I'd agree that the 1060 is going to be limited. NV has shown they either don't have the willingness to hammer their chips with volts to make more chips usable or aren't getting nearly as many good dice, and coming out with a leak of a cooler a day before the competition's launch when the 1080 cooler was leaked months before screams a very fast launch without time to build stock. I think there's good odds that the 1060 will get gouged enough to keep it out of the 480's way even if NV tries to be aggressive.

This is really interesting to read. As someone who missed out on R9 290X due to gouging, I'd disagree.



I don't think NV has to even match it to affect 480 sales. Just reading once strong RX 480 posters over in other forums is showing that NV just teasing GTX 1060 and RX 480's poor initial showing is causing people to hesitate. (EDIT: You even witness here from some buyers who just went and bought something else.)


Be interesting to see how this launch affects AMD's numbers. However, sad to see that this launch was plagued by so many missteps. I'd wonder if it is due to AMD's limited resources or AMD possibly rushing out this product to get as much selling time before NV's product for the similar price bracket.

Ultimately if it is GloFlo's issue, Vega and Zen are both now questionable.

Everything I'm seeing indicates that yields are the key issue for both companies. If that's the premise, then gouging means that demand's outstripping supply. We know supply isn't utterly terrible, so that would indicate that demand is healthy if not outright good.

I think a lot of the people were cross shopping the 1070 and a hypothetical 480 that would be an 8800 GT grade legend, and the 480 as is is just not in their bracket, and it wasn't likely to be. The people I know in the actual price range for it are still excited even though I've told them to wait for aftermarket.

Wasn't Vega going to be TSMC? That'll be interesting to see. If we accept the premise that GloFo gave really inconsistent chips that needed huge volts to get parametric yields I think AMD did the right thing volting them hard and keeping yields high so prices are low.

 

[sm625]

I've never even heard of tech altar. Why is it not listed in the OP? I also wish that their gaming compilation listed on page 3 had provided some context. And measuring power consumption using AOTS doesnt seem very wise.