Hardware AMD RX 480. What are your thoughts?

[DiscostewSM]

After hearing/reading about it, I was thinking of getting one. I currently run an Nvidia 560 Ti in my system from 2011, but since then, I have done various upgrades, like to an i7 4770K and whatnot. The video card is pretty much the only thing left to upgrade. I'm not looking for "best-of-the-best", but something that'll last me for a good while, and with the RX 480 being only $200 (not taking into account variations from suppliers), it seemed almost too good to be true.

What does everyone else think about AMD's reveal here?

 

[Fazana]

Gonna wait until we see the 1060 proper until I make any judgements, though if it's anything like it has been the past 2 gens, the 480 should crush the 1060.

 

[Armadillo]

Wait for benchmarks.

If it lives up to the expectations and leaked benchmarks and is >970/390 performance for $200, then it should be a great card, but I would wait to see if it actually performs as expected before buying.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Wait for benchmarks.

If it lives up to the expectations and leaked benchmarks and is >970/390 performance for $200, then it should be a great card, but I would wait to see if it actually performs as expected before buying.

That pretty much what I'm waiting on, but considering what I'm running (which runs hot and loud even with trying the Dead by Daylight beta on lowest settings), I will need to upgrade to something better soon. It's on my radar for the time being.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Gonna wait until we see the 1060 proper until I make any judgments

Same here. I would use the AMD cards just because of how cheap they are, but I'm dualbooting OS X and would like to be able to use my graphics card on that partition as well.

I guess time will tell as to whether or not Apple will use AMD in their next Mac Pro (but I somehow doubt it)

 

[Fazana]

OSX and Driver support are two things that do not go in the same sentence when you're describing what OSX has.

 

[Armadillo]

I guess time will tell as to whether or not Apple will use AMD in their next Mac Pro (but I somehow doubt it)

http://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/40835-all-apple-2016-laptops-come-with-amd-gpus

Seems like Polaris will be in the full lineup of apple refreshes.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

http://www.fudzilla.com/news/graphics/40835-all-apple-2016-laptops-come-with-amd-gpus

Seems like Polaris will be in the full lineup of apple refreshes.

WELL HOT DAMN LOOKS LIKE THIS GUYS GOIN' POLARIS

 

[endoverend]

If it's really 80% of the power of the 1070 for half the price then I'm there. But otherwise, yeah, wait for benchmarks.

 

[Fazana]

From what I hear, the 480 will be pretty much 970 level, so I don't think it'll be near 75% of the 1070. Especially since the 1070's direct competitor will be the 490, which I think will be Vega.
Course, that's all speculation, I could be completely off, though seeing what what we've seen on Green's side, like the 1080 and 1070, I wouldn't be surprised if it was pretty close to the actual result.

 

[DiscostewSM]

From what I hear, the 480 will be pretty much 970 level, so I don't think it'll be near 75% of the 1070. Especially since the 1070's direct competitor will be the 490, which I think will be Vega.
Course, that's all speculation, I could be completely off, though seeing what what we've seen on Green's side, like the 1080 and 1070, I wouldn't be surprised if it was pretty close to the actual result.

I thought I read that the RX 480 was close to or possibly beat an GTX 980 (not Ti). Maybe I misread.

 

[Fazana]

Could be. Rumours I've read said 970, but being rumours were probably wrong. I haven't actually really looked around so there's probably also rumours saying it's 980 level. (I hope not my 980 will feel extremely underwhelming)

 

[Armadillo]

I thought I read that the RX 480 was close to or possibly beat an GTX 980 (not Ti). Maybe I misread.

Leaked bench puts the 8GB model on par with a 980.

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/11263084/3dm11/9468744#

At this point, it's all speculation.

We have AMD saying it's to bring VR to mainstream, and min specs for that are 970/290 and a leaked bench that puts it against a 980.

All that can really be said right now based on what we have, is it's going to be somewhere between 970/390 and 980/390X performance.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Leaked bench puts the 8GB model on par with a 980.

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/11263084/3dm11/9468744#

At this point, it's all speculation.

We have AMD saying it's to bring VR to mainstream, and min specs for that are 970/290 and a leaked bench that puts it against a 980.

All that can really be said right now based on what we have, is it's going to be somewhere between 970/390 and 980/390X performance.

That's funny. It's listed as Generic VGA in that benchmark.

 

[Armadillo]

That's funny. It's listed as Generic VGA in that benchmark.

I think generic is just for anything 3dmark doesn't recognise.

67DF:C7 is confirmed as the rx 480

http://videocardz.com/60819/amd-radeon-rx-480-confirmed-as-polaris-67dfc7

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

Not gonna lie, if it really comes close to 390/970 performance at $200 and only around half the power draw, I'll be mildly disappointed that I paid $250 for a 390 just five months ago. I have serious doubts about 980-level performance, though.

 

[Joe88]

just wait for reviews later this month, nda is still in effect so won't be seeing anything except fake benchmarks
right now its presumed to be 980/390X power for $200 is pretty impressive
don't know the heat output though

 

[Fazana]

just wait for reviews later this month, nda is still in effect so won't be seeing anything except fake benchmarks
right now its presumed to be 980/390X power for $200 is pretty impressive
don't know the heat output though

150W prob means it'll be pretty reasonable

 

[endoverend]

If it really ends up as 980 performance then that's awesome, you can buy one now for a really good build for cheap and then just upgrade with another one in a year or so.

 

[DiscostewSM]

To continue with this discussion, let's say I will get one no matter what. Now, there's the reference model by AMD themselves that would come in 4GB and 8GB flavors at $199 and $229 respectfully. These are coming out first, with custom ones by partners later on that do their own things, like a backplate heatsink, variation in cooling, etc for a premium price (however extra that would be). AMD says that they've got the cooling down compared to previous attempts with their reference cards, but I dunno. We'll have to wait and see.

Going by partners, I keep reading that for AMD's GPUs, the two that seem to be preferred are either XFX or Sapphire. The former used to do a lifetime warranty (which now is only through Best Buy if I'm not mistaken), while Sapphire has better cooling and possibly increased/stable clockspeeds. What choice in graphics AiB (add-in-board) partners do you all prefer if not the default reference model?