AMD RX 4xx Discussion Thread

wotzgoingon

The different manufacturers bring out reference models with their name.

Like I have a Gigabyte reference R9 290.

Richard tea

wotzgoingon wrote: »

The different manufacturers bring out reference models with their name.

Like I have a Gigabyte reference R9 290.

OK so are they available to order now?

Venom

Richard tea wrote: »

OK so are they available to order now?

Nope.

There are two type of cards, reference like the 480 on sale at the moment and which is currently being reviewed and AIB versions that have better cooling, are quieter and have more overclocking potential.

MSI for example, will sell a reference 480 card with some MSI branding stickers on it for €270 but will also sell an AIB version of the card like a 480 Gaming X with a much better cooler and out of the box performance for around €300ish. It's the AIB version you want from the like of MSI, Asus, Evga ect.

ED E

Have to say, this is perfect for my new box. Currently on an old 7870 and this will be plenty of an upgrade for the price of a nice SSD.

EoinHef

AMD's reference coolers arent great,really should be holding off for the partner cards.

e_e

RX 480 is instantly available and I'm still waiting on my GTX 1070 that I ordered almost 3 weeks ago to ship from Amazon. :P

Fair dues to anyone getting it, the 480 looks like a great card.

killanena

Where is the best site for us Irish these days to order a single computer component? I used hardwareversand back in the day but i heard they are got untrustworthy. I've been putting off getting a new card for awhile and i believe now is the time with the RX 480 out.

Pushtrak

killanena wrote: »

Where is the best site for us Irish these days to order a single computer component? I used hardwareversand back in the day but i heard they are got untrustworthy. I've been putting off getting a new card for awhile and i believe now is the time with the RX 480 out.

The major ones I see mentioned all the time are Mindfactory, Overclockers and Scan. I myself ordered from Mindfactory (1070) though while it was supposed to ship out today, I saw it was put back a week.

Digital Solitude

Not mind factory for single components anyways, €30 shipping wipes most savings

Try geizhals.EU, add it to a wish list and it'll give you the cheapest store

BloodBath

If AMD make driver improvements as significant as they did with the 28nm GCN architecture then I'd expect an average of 20-30% improvement in performance over the next couple of years.

Remember when the 7970 launched it was trailing well behind the 680 only to fly ahead of it after driver improvements.

Knocking it's temps and overclocking on a reference board and cooler is kinda pointless as well. Wait for decent AIB's before you doom it.

Venom

There could be some serious power issues with the 480 pulling substantially more power from the PCI-E slot than is recommended and might lead to motherboards going boom!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4qfwd4/rx480_fails_pcie_specification/?st=iq1k2rp7&sh=a21ee641

If this is true it could be a very serious issue.

Digital Solitude

Unlikely to ruin a motherboard according to the OP

Is that going to be fixable through software?

ahnowbrowncow

I wouldn't buy one without an eight pin connector anyway

Venom

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Unlikely to ruin a motherboard according to the OP

Is that going to be fixable through software?

Maybe undervolting/downclocking the GPU chip via a bios update but that would negatively effect performance and prevent overclocking I would imagine.

Venom

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

I wouldn't buy one without an eight pin connector anyway

The problem seems to be the cards pulling to much power from the PCI-E slot instead of the power connector which would not be that big an issue so having an eight pin connector might not help.

EoinHef

Had a look at a few reviews there,have to say its a little disappointing imo,it certainly only competes with a 970 and doesnt beat it. Hopefully driver improvments will get more out of it over time but who knows.

The reference cooler looks shocking,OC3D tore one down and the heatsink is literally just a crappy looking block of aliminium with a copper insert,looks like someone made it in their garage. Temps look very high aswell so definitely waiting for the AiB cards looks a must really. Hopefully help with temps and maybe allow a bit more overclocking.

B00MSTICK

I'm pretty much OK with the 970ish performance as I do think it will improve with driver updates but the OC potential of the reference card (based on the reviews) makes me sad.

Few places have replaced the stock HSF with aftermarket parts such as the Accelero mono and still weren't able to push it far without it dying.
One did manage to get it to ~1400 but the other 3 topped out at ~1325 at a maximum and not in all cases.

Still we'll see what the better cooled/powered AIBs throw up.
GTX1060 also looks to be getting released in the next few weeks so we'll be keeping a close eye on that too.

chrismon

B00MSTICK wrote: »

I'm pretty much OK with the 970ish performance as I do think it will improve with driver updates but the OC potential of the reference card (based on the reviews) makes me sad.

Few places have replaced the stock HSF with aftermarket parts such as the Accelero mono and still weren't able to push it far without it dying.
One did manage to get it to ~1400 but the other 3 topped out at ~1325 at a maximum and not in all cases.

Still we'll see what the better cooled/powered AIBs throw up.
GTX1060 also looks to be getting released in the next few weeks so we'll be keeping a close eye on that too.

It will be very interesting to see how the 1060 performs and is priced .
Can't wait to get a new card very soon!

HowAreWe

wait... so everyone has been turned off the 480?

The price for an 8GB one on overclockers is so tempting at €266.

Xenoronin

I wouldn't say that. It's more, that the reference model sucks. We kinda expected it, but hoped for more. It almost looks like AMD just threw their hands up in the air and decided "Well the cooler sucks, but no one will buy the reference model anyway".

HowAreWe

Xenoronin wrote: »

I wouldn't say that. It's more, that the reference model sucks. We kinda expected it, but hoped for more. It almost looks like AMD just threw their hands up in the air and decided "Well the cooler sucks, but no one will buy the reference model anyway".

Ah I get ya, I guess I'll wait another while.

ahnowbrowncow

EoinHef wrote: »

Had a look at a few reviews there,have to say its a little disappointing imo,it certainly only competes with a 970 and doesnt beat it. Hopefully driver improvments will get more out of it over time but who knows.

The reference cooler looks shocking,OC3D tore one down and the heatsink is literally just a crappy looking block of aliminium with a copper insert,looks like someone made it in their garage. Temps look very high aswell so definitely waiting for the AiB cards looks a must really. Hopefully help with temps and maybe allow a bit more overclocking.

It beats the reference 970 by about 5%. Most reviews have been using factory oc'd 970s.

EoinHef

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

It beats the reference 970 by about 5%. Most reviews have been using factory oc'd 970s.

Thats what its up against though really,nobody should be buying a reference 970 at this point so comparing it to one is not really relevent IMO.

€200-€250 is a nice price point for the card but with 970's approaching that and the 1060 still to come id still be on the fence about it.

Its such a let down to see the same crappy reference cooler used again by AMD,its like they just dont care at this point. With an overclock on the card and the power limit increased the card was hitting 90C+ in the OC3D review.

Considering the reference design is the first card to be released and tested,you would think that they would make a little more effort but i suppose they had a price point to reach. Hopefully 3rd parties do a lot better job.

Redfox25

EoinHef wrote: »

Thats what its up against though really,nobody should be buying a reference 970 at this point so comparing it to one is not really relevent IMO.

€200-€250 is a nice price point for the card but with 970's approaching that and the 1060 still to come id still be on the fence about it.

Its such a let down to see the same crappy reference cooler used again by AMD,its like they just dont care at this point. With an overclock on the card and the power limit increased the card was hitting 90C+ in the OC3D review.

Considering the reference design is the first card to be released and tested,you would think that they would make a little more effort but i suppose they had a price point to reach. Hopefully 3rd parties do a lot better job.

They probably dont have the money/time to sort that out and tbh alot of people who will buy this will never OC it and will likely not notice the heat too much.
1080p gaming will not stress the card out too much in most titles at 60hz and for this its a solid enough offering. Would be nice if it was a little cheaper but that will happen once the 1060 is ready to be sold. I imagine that the AIB partners will have a much better cooler and power connection planned.

Cuddlesworth

Redfox25 wrote: »

I imagine that the AIB partners will have a much better cooler and power connection planned.

If they were not aware of the power issue, then its possible that redesigning a PCB to take additional power was not high on most AIB partners radar. This could be a huge mistake for AMD. Without this issue, a 4gb AIB card was a solid pick at around the 220 mark and the 8gb looked to be worthy of attention too.

Redfox25

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

If they were not aware of the power issue, then its possible that redesigning a PCB to take additional power was not high on most AIB partners radar. This could be a huge mistake for AMD. Without this issue, a 4gb AIB card was a solid pick at around the 220 mark and the 8gb looked to be worthy of attention too.

I would hate to be that guy who's job it was to check this and sign off on it at AMD. I suspect a firing will take place soon.

Slutmonkey57b

If the anandtech preview is correct in suggesting that power draw had been affected by a software bug somewhere, that's either encouraging or discouraging depending on how you look at it; discouraging because they're still not solving their software flakery or encouraging because a driver update could transform these cards.

I'm not too worried about whether it manages to beat a 970 (mainstream gaming at 1080 being the target market), the challenge for AMD this round was whether they'd be able to solve their power and heat problems. The answer seems to be "mostly" rather than "totally" and the pre launch leaks showed a card with a bit more performance at a lower price.

I don't see the card as a flop, more that the hype train was giving an impression of a "don't bother looking elsewhere" hit-for-six card over the last couple of weeks and we haven't quite got that.

1060 might be a spoiler or might not arrive in any sort of volume...

Venom

Redfox25 wrote: »

They probably dont have the money/time to sort that out and tbh alot of people who will buy this will never OC it and will likely not notice the heat too much.
1080p gaming will not stress the card out too much in most titles at 60hz and for this its a solid enough offering. Would be nice if it was a little cheaper but that will happen once the 1060 is ready to be sold. I imagine that the AIB partners will have a much better cooler and power connection planned.

Go check out the OC3D video if you haven't already, to see how shockingly bad the cooler design is as in a square lump of metal on top of the chip bad. The previous videos there show the innards of the MSI Gaming X which is an aftermarket cooler but shows how basic the stock AMD cooler is.

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

If they were not aware of the power issue, then its possible that redesigning a PCB to take additional power was not high on most AIB partners radar. This could be a huge mistake for AMD. Without this issue, a 4gb AIB card was a solid pick at around the 220 mark and the 8gb looked to be worthy of attention too.

AIB partners tend to mostly just redesign the PCB's of top tier GPU's for their super extreme badass mofo overclocked to the max boards which carry a rather high premium. Would it be worth the cost for a budget card?

Redfox25 wrote: »

I would hate to be that guy who's job it was to check this and sign off on it at AMD. I suspect a firing will take place soon.

AMD could be in a world of hurt over this. Failure to adhere to the PCI-E standard means they can't claim the 480 is compliant with it and could face fines, import restrictions and possible law suits.

Venom

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

If the anandtech preview is correct in suggesting that power draw had been affected by a software bug somewhere, that's either encouraging or discouraging depending on how you look at it; discouraging because they're still not solving their software flakery or encouraging because a driver update could transform these cards.

I'm not too worried about whether it manages to beat a 970 (mainstream gaming at 1080 being the target market), the challenge for AMD this round was whether they'd be able to solve their power and heat problems. The answer seems to be "mostly" rather than "totally" and the pre launch leaks showed a card with a bit more performance at a lower price.

I don't see the card as a flop, more that the hype train was giving an impression of a "don't bother looking elsewhere" hit-for-six card over the last couple of weeks and we haven't quite got that.

1060 might be a spoiler or might not arrive in any sort of volume...

I wouldn't consider playing catch up to a 2 year card almost on performance and nowhere near on power draw and heat output all while using what should be a more advanced manufacturing process, anything remotely like a success.

If the 1060 offers 980 levels of performance which seems a reasonable expectation for $250-300, AMD is in a world of pain.

Cuddlesworth

Venom wrote: »

I wouldn't consider playing catch up to a 2 year card almost on performance and nowhere near on power draw and heat output all while using what should be a more advanced manufacturing process, anything remotely like a success.

If the 1060 offers 980 levels of performance which seems a reasonable expectation for $250-300, AMD is in a world of pain.

If they can produce it in volume and get that level of performance, then yes it would.