Who bought/is buying a Radeon RX 480?

[GIS]

I just pre-order the Sapphire RX 480 Nitro 4GB directly from Amazon, found it on Nowinstock. Not sure how long that's going to take to get my card but it's free shipping so that's a bonus.

Considering how scarce new GPUs have become, I say the 4GB nitro is well worth $229.99 ($250 after tax). I was thinking about the 8GB model, which costs $40 more, but I can't justify the $40 extra even though it gives faster core clock (1342 MHz vs 1306 MHz) and faster memory clock (7000 MHz vs 8000 MHz).

Here's my reasoning, I will be sticking with my 1080p monitor for the next 5 years at least. The $40 extra over the 4GB model is roughly 17% more expensive, and I don't see 8GB model performs 17% better than the 4GB one at 1080p. Plus that $40 extra would have cover my taxes for the 4GB model, so it's a win-win situation here.

I always enjoy how RussianSen gives cost analysis to video cards, here's mine. Would love to hear how other think about my reasoning and if that's a great buy.

P.S. Stop telling me to wait until price drop to where it should be, I know for $229.99 I should be getting the 8GB model after 6 months? The culture here at Anandtech is wait, wait, wait, and wait a little more so you never get to buy.

I'm getting my rx 480, don't tell me to wait, my 5 year old XFX HD 6950 2GB purchased in May 2011 is dying. In fact, it passed-out 1 time, and I woke her up out of desperate need to game.

 

[sze5003]

I just pre-order the Sapphire RX 480 Nitro 4GB directly from Amazon, found it on Nowinstock. Not sure how long that's going to take to get my card but it's free shipping so that's a bonus.

Considering how scarce new GPUs have become, I say the 4GB nitro is well worth $229.99 ($250 after tax). I was thinking about the 8GB model, which costs $40 more, but I can't justify the $40 extra even though it gives faster core clock (1342 MHz vs 1306 MHz) and faster memory clock (7000 MHz vs 8000 MHz).

Here's my reasoning, I will be sticking with my 1080p monitor for the next 5 years at least. The $40 extra over the 4GB model is roughly 17% more expensive, and I don't see 8GB model performs 17% better than the 4GB one at 1080p. Plus that $40 extra would have cover my taxes for the 4GB model, so it's a win-win situation here.

I always enjoy how RussianSen gives cost analysis to video cards, here's mine. Would love to hear how other think about my reasoning and if that's a great buy.

P.S. Stop telling me to wait until price drop to where it should be, I know for $229.99 I should be getting the 8GB model after 6 months? The culture here at Anandtech is wait, wait, wait, and wait a little more so you never get to buy.

I'm getting my rx 480, don't tell me to wait, my 5 year old XFX HD 6950 2GB purchased in May 2011 is dying. In fact, it passed-out 1 time, and I woke her up out of desperate need to game.

$229 for the custom 4gb is alright. With taxes that's $250 or so which is $30 less than the cheapest 1060 with taxes.

At 1080p it's an excellent card and you don't really need the extra 4gb unless you want to crank every single setting to the max in the newer games.

I'm no longer staying 1080p so I'm sad I won't be able to have one. I thought about it and wasn't happy with the 1440p benches it produced.

 

[hellfire88]

Sadly, this is not the case. While each rail can put out that current on their own, they cannot all put out that current together at the same time.

I was thinking the same thing, good to know thanks.

Is that an XPS system? I have an XPS and the total rating is something like 460 watts, but the 12V rails are broken up into 3 like that: very strange. Mine has 2 six pin connectors, and I have seen advertisements that it can allow 225 watts for the gpu (2x75 plus PCIe).

No, this is a Dell Precision T3620 desktop PC with the "larger" 365W PSU (the stock is 205W or something). It was cheaper just to get this than build my own custom Skylake PC. I didn't really have an urge/need to upgrade from my Intel i7-3770K custom PC but I got such a good deal on the Dell that I barely spend any money upgrading. I also got a Dell XPS 8900 that has 460W PSU but I'm thinking to return that and keep the Precision since it comes with a 3yr warranty vs 1yr.

That power supply should be more than fine for a 1060, and I would think OK for a 480 as well. But the 480 could be dicey if you overclock it as power usage goes up a lot.

Thanks, I probably wouldn't overclock either one, so I guess 365W is OK for stock!

Watts delivered per rail are also mentioned below the Amps rating, usually. However, its good that it's a 80+ PSU. Total system power consumption should be under 250Watts which it can handle just fine.

However, you should lookup that Delta PSU from dell online to check complete specifications for this particular model to ensure it'll work fine with a discrete graphics card with 6pin connector pulling 120+ Watts.

Thanks for another vote that the PSU should be OK. The sticker shows that its a D365EM-00 or DPS-365CB. I searched on Google but couldn't find anything on it.

 

[hellfire88]

Anyone want my PowerColor reference RX480 4GB for $199 before I try to sell it on Craigslists? Supposedly the early batches of 4GB cards are actually 8GB cards with the 4GB BIOS? Its this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131693

I'll probably stick with the Zotac 1060 Mini just to be safe on my 365W power supply.

 

[GIS]

So I read that Sapphire is extremely strict when it comes to RMA and its policy, do you guys think is safe to buy the RX 480 from amazon?

On the Sapphire website, it has a list of RMA policy, and one of them states No RMA:

-"Products not purchased from an official SAPPHIRE distributor or reseller."

And they required the owner to contact the original seller for RMA, which is Amazon?
On the product page, it says the product is "Sold by: Amazon.com LLC"

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J1M4IHS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So I'm guessing if any troubles down the road, I will be contacting Amazon for RMA?

Or I should just buy it from Newegg so that I can have a peace of mind.

 

[Arachnotronic]

So I read that Sapphire is extremely strict when it comes to RMA and its policy, do you guys think is safe to buy the RX 480 from amazon?

On the Sapphire website, it has a list of RMA policy, and one of them states No RMA:

-"Products not purchased from an official SAPPHIRE distributor or reseller."

And they required the owner to contact the original seller for RMA, which is Amazon?
On the product page, it says the product is "Sold by: Amazon.com LLC"

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J1M4IHS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So I'm guessing if any troubles down the road, I will be contacting Amazon for RMA?

Or I should just buy it from Newegg so that I can have a peace of mind.

Amazon is an official Sapphire reseller.

 

[sze5003]

So I read that Sapphire is extremely strict when it comes to RMA and its policy, do you guys think is safe to buy the RX 480 from amazon?

On the Sapphire website, it has a list of RMA policy, and one of them states No RMA:

-"Products not purchased from an official SAPPHIRE distributor or reseller."

And they required the owner to contact the original seller for RMA, which is Amazon?
On the product page, it says the product is "Sold by: Amazon.com LLC"

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J1M4IHS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So I'm guessing if any troubles down the road, I will be contacting Amazon for RMA?

Or I should just buy it from Newegg so that I can have a peace of mind.

Amazon is a distributor that qualifies. Anyway Amazon is very good about returns.

 

[GIS]

Let's hope you two aren't working for Amazon, Sapphire, and AMD haha, Just kidding!

Okay, I know I get paranoid when something fails on me, I just hope I don't have to deal with RMA at all for at least 3 years because I don't upgrade often.

I read horror stories about Sapphire RMA, I mean this will be my first Sapphire card AND my 2nd GPU in my life, so you Sapphire have a chance to screw me once, but definitely not twice!

I will keep my order then.

 

[Stuka87]

Let's hope you two aren't working for Amazon, Sapphire, and AMD haha, Just kidding!

Okay, I know I get paranoid when something fails on me, I just hope I don't have to deal with RMA at all for at least 3 years because I don't upgrade often.

I read horror stories about Sapphire RMA, I mean this will be my first Sapphire card AND my 2nd GPU in my life, so you Sapphire have a chance to screw me once, but definitely not twice!

I will keep my order then.

You are fine ordering from Amazon.

And if you look, you will find horror stories about pretty much any company on earth. Nobody is perfect.

 

[sze5003]

When I had the card in my sig, I was also worried about Sapphire RMA's. But then again if you read about any RMA experience, not many are painless. I didn't have any issues and now my brother is using that card after almost like 5 years now.

With Amazon, you should not have a problem returning or exchanging the card if it is defective within the first 30 days.

 

[Sonikku]

Anyone know what day the Nitro is launching? I missed out on the references ones. I CAN'T miss out on this again. The auto notify at newegg does shit. What things can I do to give me an advantage in snatching stock?

 

[IEC]

I only had to RMA with Sapphire once, but even though the AlthonMicro subcontract makes things slower and more tedious, it's not outright terrible as long as you're polite, descriptive, and clear. They do AMD cards right, for the most part.

XFX is great in North America. Had a R9 290 cooler with a fan go bad. They sent me a whole replacement HSF unit with some swag.

Gigabyte replaced a card for me no questions asked within warranty. It was relatively painless.

Defects within 30 days are easy to deal with if you buy from a legit retailer. After 30 days, YMMV but most of the vendors these days are okay. When in doubt, uploading a clear, descriptive video of the issue to youtube will generally work (did this for a $600 monitor once, free RMA return label issued right away).

 

[sze5003]

Anyone know what day the Nitro is launching? I missed out on the references ones. I CAN'T miss out on this again. The auto notify at newegg does shit. What things can I do to give me an advantage in snatching stock?

Pre order it on Amazon. They will ship you it when they get stock.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J1M4IHS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

8Gb version: https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Rad...ements=p_n_feature_four_browse-bin:6066318011

 

[Sonikku]

Pre order it on Amazon. They will ship you it when they get stock.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J1M4IHS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

8Gb version: https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Rad...ements=p_n_feature_four_browse-bin:6066318011

hmm I can get past charging $10 over msrp but being Amazon they want $20 tax on top of that and even if I go with the free 2 week (!) shipping it'd still end up over $250. Might better almost buy a 1060 at that point.

 

[YBS1]

I finally grabbed a dGPU for my mini-itx 6700K. Newegg had some 8GB RX 480s in stock as well as the Zotac and EVGA mini-itx version 1060s. I was torn, I didn't want to give my money to nVidia so long as AMD had a similar performing part at a similar price, I might have went with the EVGA had it been the Superclocked version. The 1060 looks good right now, but who knows how it will age. Plus I can be certain to get a block for the 480, it's take your chances with a custom design mini-itx 1060. I sure would have liked to waited on a custom 480, but again, that becomes hit or miss as to if a block will be made available. I just wanted an 8 pin or 2x6 pin.

 

[sze5003]

hmm I can get past charging $10 over msrp but being Amazon they want $20 tax on top of that and even if I go with the free 2 week (!) shipping it'd still end up over $250. Might better almost buy a 1060 at that point.

AIB cards will usually cost $20-40 more than the msrp reference models. In my state Amazon always charges tax.

As for the 1060, would you not pay more tax on it?

 

[Sonikku]

Not if I could get one on Newegg. But I don't see nitro on newegg at all.

 

[sze5003]

Newegg doesn't do preorders and it seems like you will have to take your chances at grabbing one on the 29th if they are not already on newegg.

I don't know any other retail place that sells without tax. Also if you buy anything over 200 there is a newegg coupon code for using PayPal it will take $25 off.

 

[Sonikku]

Indeed. With the paypal code and no tax it would be significantly cheaper. But them odds... bah.

 

[sze5003]

Yea I always miss the launches because I'm at work and can't be browsing around in an open office area.

I plan on using that code to order whatever 1070 is least expensive at the time. It expires August 1 so hopefully I'll know if I get my monitor before then.

 

[3DVagabond]

I only had to RMA with Sapphire once, but even though the AlthonMicro subcontract makes things slower and more tedious, it's not outright terrible as long as you're polite, descriptive, and clear. They do AMD cards right, for the most part.

XFX is great in North America. Had a R9 290 cooler with a fan go bad. They sent me a whole replacement HSF unit with some swag.

Gigabyte replaced a card for me no questions asked within warranty. It was relatively painless.

Defects within 30 days are easy to deal with if you buy from a legit retailer. After 30 days, YMMV but most of the vendors these days are okay. When in doubt, uploading a clear, descriptive video of the issue to youtube will generally work (did this for a $600 monitor once, free RMA return label issued right away).

Most issues I've seen with RMA's are where the consumer refuses to do what is asked by the RMA center. It's usually, "I gave them X and they asked for Y but I shouldn't have to do that. So I rang the RMA center and abused the crap out of the person that answered the phone." lol

 

[codyray10]

The powercolor devil went live on newegg a little while ago. I got an order in. Already charged me and all. Not sure if they have it on hand and will be shipping already or what. I guess we'll see what happens with my order tomorrow

Edit: For anyone else who is lucky enough to get an order in be sure to use paypal if you can and get the $25 off with the coupon code PP2016BTS link to card below

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-131-694

 

[Kozlow]

Not if I could get one on Newegg. But I don't see nitro on newegg at all.

He is the link for the 8Gb Nitro+:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...APPHIRE_100406NT+8GOCL-_-14-202-223-_-Product

not in stock, auto notify.

 

[Sonikku]

4gb one up? Not paying $285 for a 480...

 

[GIS]

Howcome the 8GB version is $10 cheaper on amazon than Newegg?

Amazon has it for pre-order @ $269.99 and Newegg @ $279.99?

So Newegg contributes to the GPUs inflation as well by actively participating in collecting "early adopter fee"?

Edit: I don't find Newegg offers the 4GB model, so I'm not sure if they also sell it $10 more than Amazon...