Who bought/is buying a Radeon RX 480?

[coercitiv]

I am running 1.3ghz at an under-volt, not 1266mhz at 1150mV.

I know you are @ 1300, my point was about signalling the need for voltage guard band rather than saying there is no room for improvement.

Okay, here's the stock clocks @ 1050mV

If your cards are stable at 1050mV stock, then yes, a 50mV drop in stock voltage should be possible, and it should bring all cards within the 150W spec.

But the new features of Polaris should allow all this to happen automatically. The better cards should get lower voltages and the worse ones higher voltages. Reduction (albeit not elimination) of the necessary voltage guard band was explicitly shown on the release-day slides as one of the features of P10. So was boot-time power calibration. Based on AMD's own claims, we should be seeing the cards auto-adjust the voltage table on each boot to reduce it to the minimum necessary for stable operation. As of now, that's not happening.

I was only talking about about the limits themselves, not how you get there.

However, how does automated calibration coexist with software based "manual" calibration? (this more of a rhetorical question, I just realized I'm not on topic here)

 

[Piano Man]

I want to buy the RX 480, but its just not enough of an upgrade for me to justify the purchase.

I try to only upgrade when it will double my performance between 250-300 bucks.

8800GTS 320mb --> ATI 4850 --> AMD 5850 --> AMD 7950 -->??? GTX1060/VEGA??

I'm usually able to do this around 2-3 years. Its coming up to 4 years on my 7950 and there still isn't anything that can double my performance in that price range, especially since my 7950 can OC so well (It can do 1200, but I keep it at 1150 for noise reasons)

I'm not sure whether to be mad that these companies aren't able to innovate as quickly as before or whether to be happy that I got such a rockstar card at the time. I guess a bit of both.

If the AIBs RX 480 can OC like crazy, then maybe, but I doubt that will happen. Probably gonna have to wait on Vega, or maybe the 1060 if it can OC like mad. The 1070 is just too much money, especially with the price gouging, and I don't see that coming down anytime soon since it doesn't really have any competition from AMD at this point.

 

[Silverforce11]

@Piano Man

7950 @ 1.15ghz is no slouch, if you're gaming 1080p it's still enough IMO. Basically a slightly faster 280X/380X which is still the current mainstream GPU, faster than the GTX 960.

If you want something twice as fast within that price range, there's nothing yet. Maybe Navi & Volta.

 

[coercitiv]

I want to buy the RX 480, but its just not enough of an upgrade for me to justify the purchase.

I try to only upgrade when it will double my performance between 250-300 bucks.

Wasn't the AMD 7950 a $450 MSRP product?

 

[Piano Man]

Wasn't the AMD 7950 a $450 MSRP product?

Perhaps when it launched, but I didn't buy it until the Boost Versions came out and finally got one when AMD had those free game deals going on. If I remember correctly, I was choosing between that and the GTX 660 Ti, which were about the same prices back then.

I ended up getting it for $289.99 on 10/26/12 and then I remember selling the games for some cash, so it was definitely under $250 when said and done, but I'll still say it was $290.

 

[coercitiv]

Perhaps when it launched, but I didn't buy it until the Boost Versions came out and finally got one when AMD had those free game deals going on. If I remember correctly, I was choosing between that and the GTX 660 Ti, which were about the same prices back then.

I was merely pointing out the initial price (and associated die size). Your card was punching well above the $300 category, and it shows that even today. You'll need to wait for Vega to put some downward pressure and help you get a sweet deal at $300. (from either brand)

 

[n0x1ous]

Picked up a 4gb XFX for mining on launch day. Fedex has had it at my local warehouse since early Friday morning, but they just sit on it until its due date of Tuesday because Fedex sucks. I wanted 1 more mining card to get me over the 100 MH/s hump and this will do it. Hopefully the upcoming driver takes care of the pcie slot issue since this will be going into an old C2D 775 board, but otherwise I figure I can undervolt and underclock and be fine.

 

[TeknoBug]

Will be getting 4GB version, maybe a second one later (for virtual machine use).

 

[JDG1980]

However, how does automated calibration coexist with software based "manual" calibration? (this more of a rhetorical question, I just realized I'm not on topic here)

That's a very good question, and I wonder if it might not actually be the key to the whole situation. Perhaps the automatically calibrated boot-time values are being overridden by the manual voltage table in WattMan, and AMD needs to add some kind of software switch (probably presented to the user as a check box in the interface) to choose between automatic and manual.

 

[NTMBK]

I was thinking of getting one for my HTPC to replace the R9 270, but I'm worried about power consumption and the PCIe slot problem. Think I might go for the 1060.

 

[sze5003]

I was thinking of getting one for my HTPC to replace the R9 270, but I'm worried about power consumption and the PCIe slot problem. Think I might go for the 1060.

That will be fixed soon with a driver update. I think this week or next week, as I remember reading here.

 

[NTMBK]

That will be fixed soon with a driver update. I think this week or next week, as I remember reading here.

PCIe issue, sure. But power consumption? I am less sure. I could mess around with undervolting/underclocking, or I could just buy a 1060.

 

[sze5003]

PCIe issue, sure. But power consumption? I am less sure. I could mess around with undervolting/underclocking, or I could just buy a 1060.

It really all depends what you will be doing with it. Mining? Yes then power consumption is a big deal. If not, I've never worried about that. Sometimes I leave the PC on all the time, game heavy, bench stuff, etc and I've complained more about my washer and drier raising my bill than my card. Of course it's all trivial and I'm also waiting to see how the 1060 comes up.

My guess is it may be more expensive. If the aib models of the 480 get in the $300+ range I'm just going to go for a 1070.

 

[boozzer]

PCIe issue, sure. But power consumption? I am less sure. I could mess around with undervolting/underclocking, or I could just buy a 1060.

why would 170 watt be an issue? do you run your pc on a OEM lvl 400 watt psu?

 

[Madpacket]

My 2x RX 480s came in today. Some preliminary testing and brief conclusion.

Stock voltage definitely too high for stock clocks.

It had 1150mV @ stock clocks. At everything auto, it was boosting to around 1190mhz during benchmarks.

Not even 1266mhz boost clocks.

I manage to get it stable at 1100mV, but actually OC to 1.3ghz.

It was stable at this clockspeed at +5% power target. At default power target, it was hovering around 1288mhz.

Both card behave similarly, the 2nd one would tolerate lower at 1085mV @ 1.3ghz, but I saw artifacts in the benches, so I bumped it up to 1100mV.

My conclusion is AMD's power management is fail because it's defaulting to too high voltages for stock clocks, at each power state.

Other things I've noticed, fanspeed on auto is worst than on manual. It heatsoaks due to slow ramping, and it gets to around 83C with 2200 RPM and stays there. On manual setting, I just set the temp target max 80 and target 80, and it ramps up a lot quicker, reaching around 1800 RPM to get ~78C. Basically, it's quieter & cooler with your own temp target of 80C.

And this card is absolutely not noisy at all. It was barely noticable above my other case fans even at 2200 RPM.

Thanks for the feedback. My reference 480 should be arriving this week but I'm tempted to block the shipment and wait for the aftermarket cards instead. I'll either do that or just add it to one of my miners. I like the idea of replaceable ball bearing fans like the Sapphire card has and I'll be using the card for 1440P gaming with Freesync so having some overclocking headroom would be nice.

 

[Bacon1]

Okay, here's the stock clocks @ 1050mV.

Note a drop of around 25W, avg power of the GPU goes from ~125W @ stock volts -> 100W via GPU-Z.

AMD's power management is not doing a good job at all if it's defaulting to 1150mV for these cards.

My 2x RX 480s came in today. Some preliminary testing and brief conclusion.

Stock voltage definitely too high for stock clocks.

It had 1150mV @ stock clocks. At everything auto, it was boosting to around 1190mhz during benchmarks.

Not even 1266mhz boost clocks.

I manage to get it stable at 1100mV, but actually OC to 1.3ghz.

It was stable at this clockspeed at +5% power target. At default power target, it was hovering around 1288mhz.

Both card behave similarly, the 2nd one would tolerate lower at 1085mV @ 1.3ghz, but I saw artifacts in the benches, so I bumped it up to 1100mV.

My conclusion is AMD's power management is fail because it's defaulting to too high voltages for stock clocks, at each power state.

Other things I've noticed, fanspeed on auto is worst than on manual. It heatsoaks due to slow ramping, and it gets to around 83C with 2200 RPM and stays there. On manual setting, I just set the temp target max 80 and target 80, and it ramps up a lot quicker, reaching around 1800 RPM to get ~78C. Basically, it's quieter & cooler with your own temp target of 80C.

And this card is absolutely not noisy at all. It was barely noticable above my other case fans even at 2200 RPM.

Thanks for the testing and info, looks like all they need to do is tell Wattman to cut down on some power and the cards will run excellently.

How are the temps in CFX between the two? Top card get much hotter?

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I'm in a similar situation as piano man: like to double performance for $200 but my 7950 has been trucking like a champ. What the 480 does do is make me feel comfortable pushing the OC on my card to the limit. It burns out and I have an excellent replacement for a reasonable price...

 

[NTMBK]

why would 170 watt be an issue? do you run your pc on a OEM lvl 400 watt psu?

It's a HTPC Compact case, so cooling is a concern.

 

[Yakk]

Looking really good for 480 AIB cards indeed. Can't wait to replace my venerable 280x cards and pass them on to another rig since they are still quite capable and well supported by AMD.

 

[boozzer]

It's a HTPC Compact case, so cooling is a concern.

if others can stick a 980 reference into one, you shouldn't have any concerns

 

[Nhirlathothep]

don t buy rx 480, it s a total fail:


amd 390 8gb is always more performing and costs the same!

careful!

 

[Silverforce11]

http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-rx-480-undervolting-performance_183699

^ These guys did proper testing with charts and all, it shows exactly as I've said in the earlier post.

Reference voltage is way too high, it's causing clock throttling in default stock as well as exceeding 150W limit. They found a 10-30W drop depending on the game while performance increased just by under-volting.

 

[Silverforce11]

Thanks for the testing and info, looks like all they need to do is tell Wattman to cut down on some power and the cards will run excellently.

How are the temps in CFX between the two? Top card get much hotter?

Temps are the same since I set manual 80C target. The bottom card stays around 1900 RPM while top card 2100 RPM.

This is still in the quiet range. Though my MB has a nice gap between the two cards.

In terms of %, I guess it's around 40-45% fanspeed. It doesn't get noisy until 60%.

This is literally AMD's best reference blower so far, it's a shame they ruined the overall package with such high default voltage. But that's a simple fix users can do in Wattman if they are interested in the RX 480.

 

[sze5003]

Temps are the same since I set manual 80C target. The bottom card stays around 1900 RPM while top card 2100 RPM.

This is still in the quiet range. Though my MB has a nice gap between the two cards.

In terms of %, I guess it's around 40-45% fanspeed. It doesn't get noisy until 60%.

This is literally AMD's best reference blower so far, it's a shame they ruined the overall package with such high default voltage. But that's a simple fix users can do in Wattman if they are interested in the RX 480.

Will the next driver update fix this voltage issue? I imagine the aib models may come already tweaked with this?

 

[Sonikku]

Do you think the 480 will be quiet under load in my padded r4 case once the overvoltage thing is reduced? I'm hoping for slightly lower temps.