Help with making sense of VERY high ASIC quality - RX480

[SunnyNW]

I have recently purchased a reference RX 480. It has replaced a HIS IceQ 7850, with ASIC quality of about 75% I believe (could have been 85% I'm having a hard time remembering), which overclocked to 1200mhz from the stock 860mhz.

Checking GPU-Z shows ASIC quality of 92.6% for the RX 480. Which, according to their database, is higher than 99.1% of similar gpus.

Now what does this mean in terms of voltage/efficiency, overclocking, etc? It seems reference 480s do not overclock much over the stock boost clock, I believe 1350mhz is about as high as anyone can get on air.

I have not done any overclocking testing and am not too interested as I dont believe the extra power consumption is worth it for the, in my opinion, minimal gain in performance.
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But I am very curious to know what this means for the gpu. Even though I think it wont overclock much would it still be the best overclocker out of reference designs or would it just be one of the most efficient reference cards? I mainly ask because I was contemplating on getting an AIB 480 for hopefully lower operating temperature and maybe increased overclocking potential. Would this particular 480 that I have be a good candidate to sell to a miner, or maybe someone else interested because of the ASIC quality?

I have read posts about gpu ASIC quality on reddit and such but concrete and comprehensive information has seemed to elude me. I've read that the ASIC quality in GPU-Z is to be interpreted differently depending on gpu manufacturer. Can you guys please help me make sense of this?

 

[.vodka]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1561372/hawaii-bios-editing-290-290x-295x2-390-390x

Thanks to The Stilt we can get an idea of what this means. Section "What is ASIC quality?", relevant parts quoted:

The Lkg value is the fused LeakageID of the GPU. Convert it to decimal and divide by 1023, you´ll have the GPU-Z ASIC "quality". Higher LeakageID (or ASIC "quality") means higher leakage, which is bad unless you´re running on custom water cooling or LN2.

High ASIC "Quality" (Leakage) = Lower operating voltage, larger current draw, hotter, less energy efficient (due higher losses)

Low ASIC "Quality" = Higher operating voltage, lower current draw, cooler, more energy efficient

Unless you are using LN2 you definitely want the leakage to be as low as possible. Even under LN2 the high leakage characteristics are only desired because the difference in voltage scaling. All ASICs despite the leakage have some sort of design specific absolute voltage limit. The low leakage ASIC might run into this limit prior reaching the maximum clocks.

You have a GPU that's good for LN2 runs, and should benefit from watercooling (the better you cool it, the higher it'll clock). Problem is, the reference RX480 board isn't that good at OCing... you're better off undervolting as much as you can and enjoying what you have.

 

[SunnyNW]

So I think I got it backwards.

So this is one of the WORST RX 480s out there?

 

[laamanaator]

So I think I got it backwards.

So this is one of the WORST RX 480s out there?

Sadly, yes But as suggested, you should try to under-volt it. By under-volting you reduce the power and thus, heat generated by the card, allowing it to run at/near its maximum boost clock (1266MHz).

 

[3DVagabond]

Supposedly a higher asic will be more efficient but doesn't O/C as well with extra voltage as a lower asic chip. I've seen w1zzard basically compare asic quality with chip leakage. Higher asic = less leakage. Typically higher leakage means you can dump higher voltage into the chip (assuming you can cool it) and get higher clocks. I've actually seen absolutely no correlation between asic quality and performance, power usage, voltage requirement, O/C'ing ability, etc...

 

[Silverforce11]

Supposedly a higher asic will be more efficient but doesn't O/C as well with extra voltage as a lower asic chip. I've seen w1zzard basically compare asic quality with chip leakage. Higher asic = less leakage. Typically higher leakage means you can dump higher voltage into the chip (assuming you can cool it) and get higher clocks. I've actually seen absolutely no correlation between asic quality and performance, power usage, voltage requirement, O/C'ing ability, etc...

That was what we thought, but the Stilt says it's the opposite for AMD GPUs. Higher ASIC = worse overclocking on air, but better on water/LN.

Either way, I wouldn't OC beyond 1350mhz anyway on the reference blower. Anything above 1300mhz and it starts to get loud.

My samples are decent, I run 1.3ghz with a small undervolt. It's power usage is actually the same as the stock settings which throttles down to 1190mhz.

 

[bystander36]

I have a question on the score. I'm showing a negative number. Is the score the OP giving actually -92%? If so, that is a very low number, not high.

 

[thesmokingman]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1561372/hawaii-bios-editing-290-290x-295x2-390-390x

Thanks to The Stilt we can get an idea of what this means. Section "What is ASIC quality?", relevant parts quoted:



You have a GPU that's good for LN2 runs, and should benefit from watercooling (the better you cool it, the higher it'll clock). Problem is, the reference RX480 board isn't that good at OCing... you're better off undervolting as much as you can and enjoying what you have.

Those two quotes are contradictory.

That was what we thought, but the Stilt says it's the opposite for AMD GPUs. Higher ASIC = worse overclocking on air, but better on water/LN.

I dunno, my experience has not mirror'd this change in definition. It really comes down to what one thinks the % that gpuz spits out. That's really all it comes down to.

 

[SunnyNW]

I have a question on the score. I'm showing a negative number. Is the score the OP giving actually -92%? If so, that is a very low number, not high.

No, there is no negative sign.

 

[bystander36]

No, there is no negative sign.

Looking around, it seems the new Pascal cards are not read properly by GPU-Z. It doesn't affect your score.