[Computerbase]Which RX 480 partner card is the best?

[PontiacGTX]

Eight partner cards against the reference design

For comparison, eight partner cards have been found in the editorial team. All four exclusive board partners from AMD are present, with PowerColor and XFX being equally double. In addition, cards from Asus, Gigabyte, HIS and Sapphire are also tested. These were limited to models with a 8,192 MB storage, which now must be clearly preferable . The price range of the graphics cards is around 250 euros to 290 euros.

The counterparties

The Asus Radeon RX 480 Red Devil and the Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro + OC have already been tested separately by ComputerBase, the tests are linked to the list. The remaining five models, on the other hand, appear for the first time.

Asus Radeon RX 480 Strix OC
Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 G1 Gaming
HIS Radeon RX 480 IceQ X² Roaring Turbo
PowerColor Radeon RX 480 Red Devil
PowerColor Radeon RX 480 Red Dragon
Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro + OC
XFX Radeon RX 480 GTR Black Edition
XFX Radeon RX 480 RS
AMD Radeon RX 480 reference design

guarantee

All partner cards represented in the article offer a guarantee of at least two years without additional costs. In most cases the guarantee is handled by the dealer. PowerColor as well as XFX also offer the possibility to be entrusted directly with the processing in the guaranty. This is also limited to Sapphire, where the manufacturer only assumes the warranty if the dealer refuses to do so due to a radiator change, for example. There are no outstanding guarantees like EVGA or Zotac as an exclusive partner of Nvidia.

Source

 

[SlickR12345]

For pure performance the Sapphire basically drew with HIS, so if anyone wants performance as the primary focus those are the two cards to get. Why didn't they test the MSI card? That card easily wins number 1 for best looking. Love and black and red and stylish cooler design!

 

[GaiaHunter]

I'm pretty happy with the Red Devil - it is very quiet and with the "unlocked bios" it sits @1330 Mhz core.

 

[happy medium]

Without reading the article I'm gonna guess Asus and Powercolor.

edit:
Powercolor and Gigabyte?
I thought people said the Gigabyte card sucked?

 

[Rifter]

Without reading the article I'm gonna guess Asus and Powercolor.

edit:
Powercolor and Gigabyte?
I thought people said the Gigabyte card sucked?

Yeah i herd the gigabyte was not so good either, but newer reviews seem to think the opposite.

All i know is my MSI Gaming X is rocking along nicely.

 

[USER8000]

The Red Dragon only uses a single six pin power connector unlike other AIB RX480 cards.

 

[kawi6rr]

I don't think people said the Gigablyte card sucked but that it wasn't the fastest 480 and clearly this article proves that. But as a whole it's a great card.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I guess it depends what people are looking for with the card.
In the article they want balanced noise, performance out of the box (easy/mild overclock) and power consumption.
If someone is looking for extreme OCing, I'm sure other cards will be the choice.

 

[MadOver]

Had a chance to try that Red Devil and was dead quiet, I had to put my finger at the fan to make sure they were spinning, cutting myself in the process

 

[bononos]

It looks like the cards with heatsinks that had copper cores weren't thermally throttled (at 80C) like the Powercolor/ Gigabyte G1 but they were held back by power throttling.

 

[daxzy]

They missed the MSI RX 480, which is arguable (and we can continue to argue since they missed it) the best.

 

[raghu78]

They missed the MSI RX 480, which is arguable (and we can continue to argue since they missed it) the best.

yes. MSI Rx 480 Gaming seems to have the best cooler amongst all of the AMD AIB partner Rx 480 models.

 

[daxzy]

yes. MSI Rx 480 Gaming seems to have the best cooler amongst all of the AMD AIB partner Rx 480 models.

The MSI Gaming X compared to the Gigabyte G1, which somehow won second place:

The MSI at gaming load is 8C cooler.
The MSI at gaming load runs about 90MHz core faster (1303MHz vs 1216MHz) at stock.
The MSI at gaming load is 1W lower.
They have the same gaming load noise (38 dBA @ 0.75m)

I only skimmed the review, but if the G1 got second place, I shudder to think of where the other RX 480's are at.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/msi-radeon-rx-480-gaming-x-review,1.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/gigabyte-radeon-rx-480-g1-gaming-review,1.html

 

[Tweak155]

Speaking of PowerColor... $165 for the 4gb, wow:

https://slickdeals.net/f/9498892-powercolor-red-dragon-radeon-rx-480-4gb-for-164-99?src=pdw

 

[alexruiz]

I have used a few of them (Powercolor Red Devil and Red Dragon) MSI Gaming-X , Asus Strix and Sapphire nitro oc+

I agree on the ratings they assigned, the red devil is simply a better all around card than the others tested.
The red dragon is specially appealing. Despite being the cheapest, it is very well made, and it even has a backplate. The card feels very solid.
I am personally a Powercolor fan, so seeing these kind of results validates my preference.

However, despite being the best of the ones tested, the red devil is not the best RX 480.
The MSI Gaming is the best. It is faster, every bit as quiet, and visually more imposing. The MSI gaming X is, however, the most expensive of the bunch.