How memory (frequency) starved is Polaris?

[realibrad]

Synthetic benchmarks are NOT real world examples of how overclocking works. That said, how many reviews did you actually read that included overclocking? You apparently missed these two, which posted abysmal results.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/27.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_radeon_r9_rx_480_8gb_review,35.html

In fact, searching the web for legitimate RX 480 reviews that included OCing, the ONLY favorable one I found was eurogamer and they didn't account for fan speed when they overclocked vs. stock. Most sites didn't or haven't yet done OCing scores while some sites say Wattman just crashed left and right.

Do you mean to say that synthetic benchmarks do not linearly correlate to in game performance? That is true. A 10% increase in synthetic benchmark scores does not mean 10% higher fps in games. Its also true that you can have a lower score vs another card in a synthetic benchmark and have higher fps.

So, are you trying to say that a boost in the power of a card does nothing? It would sure seem that synthetics point to performance even if its not linear so I am not sure what you point is.