I finally caught the elusive and rare RX 480

[jacktesterson]

Just went to Newegg.ca randomly and boom, a 8GB PowerColor in stock. I only needed the 4GB model since I game at 1080p, but I eat the extra for the availability...

I recently built my budget system to game, and after hitting the purchase button I learned about the RX 480.

I ended up with a GTX 950. It will be going back.

Funny as I had a Stock tracker set to alert me and I actually saw it before I got the alert. Life is random.

 

[Deders]

You will find that cranking the detail up in some games will use more than 4GB even at 1080p.

 

[3DVagabond]

You will find that cranking the detail up in some games will use more than 4GB even at 1080p.

Please! It'll be fine for 1080.


OP, You might check and see if it unlocks. So far I haven't heard that there's been any 4Gb chips available and the are still forced to use 8Gb chips.

 

[Deders]

Please! It'll be fine for 1080.


OP, You might check and see if it unlocks. So far I haven't heard that there's been any 4Gb chips available and the are still forced to use 8Gb chips.

I think you misread the OP, he'll be getting the 8GB model.

Whilst 4GB is fine for the majority of current games, and there is some debate as to how much of the data is necessary for the scene and how much is leftover/pre-empted cache, there is a trend (especially with DX12 games and some console games) that shows that not only will games use more than 4GB, but that the official requirement to max out some games is over 4GB.

Doom, Mirror's edge, GTAV come to mind. Tomb Raider in DX12 eats up Vram.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Some games will use all the available vram. Doesn't mean you'd actually notice if it had less.

 

[Deders]

Some games will use all the available vram. Doesn't mean you'd actually notice if it had less.

But in a few games you can make a noticeable difference by cranking up the detail to the point that it does need more than 4GB.

 

[Erenhardt]

Damn. I shouldn't cancelled 2 out of 3 480s from my order.

 

[3DVagabond]

I think you misread the OP, he'll be getting the 8GB model.

Whilst 4GB is fine for the majority of current games, and there is some debate as to how much of the data is necessary for the scene and how much is leftover/pre-empted cache, there is a trend (especially with DX12 games and some console games) that shows that not only will games use more than 4GB, but that the official requirement to max out some games is over 4GB.

Doom, Mirror's edge, GTAV come to mind. Tomb Raider in DX12 eats up Vram.

Unless some game is artificially limited purely to make 4GB cards look bad, 4GB is more than enough for 1080.

 

[Deders]

So the extra data in doom and mirrors edge is artificial?

I remember being in the right side of this debate when most people were insisting that 2GB would be enough not so long ago.

 

[3DVagabond]

So the extra data in doom and mirrors edge is artificial?

I remember being in the right side of this debate when most people were insisting that 2GB would be enough not so long ago.

If we were talking 2GB I'd agree with you. We'll just agree to disagree.

 

[jacktesterson]

I've been out of the loop with PC Gaming for a little while... I bought a 2GB GTX 950 thinking it'd be fine for 1080p... but the first game I installed (GTA 5) and I'm ram limited.

So I wanted to return it anyways for a 4GB Card... but I went with the 8GB.

I plan to keep this card longish term for 1080p so maybe 8GB was the better move anyways. Still, in Canada, the 8GB model is $40-50 more.

It's shipping today.

 

[IEC]

4GB is acceptable if you are okay lowering literally 1 setting in Doom or in the new Mirrors Edge.

Personally, I think we'll see the benefit of 8GB vRAM sooner than people anticipate, but that we're still two years out from truly "needing" >4GB vRAM. Need being defined as you can't play a game at ultra/high settings without serious compromises.

Right now? I don't need to make any serious compromises with my 4GB Fury. By the time I do, there will be big Pascal and big Vega.

 

[Deders]

This is basically what I was saying, now he has an 8GB card, there will be (and currently are) situations where he'll be able to make use of more than 4GB.

 

[Rifter]

This is basically what I was saying, now he has an 8GB card, there will be (and currently are) situations where he'll be able to make use of more than 4GB.

I agree. When i bought my 460's everyone said 1GB was enough for 1080P, some people even thought the 768MB was enough. And the 1GB was enough for 2-3 years then i had to start turning down settings, which is the same situation the people who buy the 4GB now will find themselves in in 3 years im sure.

 

[Sonikku]

Damn. I shouldn't cancelled 2 out of 3 480s from my order.

People like you are the reason I'm still kicking around a 7770. :'(

 

[jacktesterson]

Next goal is to save for the i7 upgrade. I had a limited budget, needed a complete system that could game on day 1, and wanted Skylake. I considered trying to go used, but I really wanted a low power system. (IE Maxwell + Skylake) I ended up going with the RX 480. I did primarily own AMD GPU's in the past.

I'm playing on a 60" 1080p Plasma TV. It's basically an HTPC that can game with an Xbox One controller. It also serves as a media server / storage for the household.

I do wish I had gone with a better motherboard, Ram and PSU, but It was a tight budget. I was going to build with a G4400 to start and almost did but the" online store" screwed up my first 2 orders due to a recent sales tax rate change in my province. They gave me $25 off my order and free express shipping for the week + delays it caused... and I upped the CPU to the i3-6100 in the order that finally worked.

I used to Overclock a lot too, but I've lost interest. I just want quiet, bland, boring but fast. It's probably why I drive a Ford Taurus SHO. As we age we just want things to work. I've also gone from Windows/Android geek to a Mac OSX / Iphone guy. Man life is strange.

 

[nerp]

Next goal is to save for the i7 upgrade. I had a limited budget, needed a complete system that could game on day 1, and wanted Skylake. I considered trying to go used, but I really wanted a low power system. (IE Maxwell + Skylake) I ended up going with the RX 480. I did primarily own AMD GPU's in the past.

I'm playing on a 60" 1080p Plasma TV. It's basically an HTPC that can game with an Xbox One controller. It also serves as a media server / storage for the household.

I do wish I had gone with a better motherboard, Ram and PSU, but It was a tight budget. I was going to build with a G4400 to start and almost did but the" online store" screwed up my first 2 orders due to a recent sales tax rate change in my province. They gave me $25 off my order and free express shipping for the week + delays it caused... and I upped the CPU to the i3-6100 in the order that finally worked.

I used to Overclock a lot too, but I've lost interest. I just want quiet, bland, boring but fast. It's probably why I drive a Ford Taurus SHO. As we age we just want things to work. I've also gone from Windows/Android geek to a Mac OSX / Iphone guy. Man life is strange.

You're on a similar path I recently took. I had i3-6100 with GTX950. Upgraded to i7-6700 (non K OMGzbbq) and GTX1070 on the way. The 480 will be a beast and don't be hard on your i3 just yet - still an amazing chip and faster/as fast as i5s and i7s from not that long ago in pretty much every game. Your spiffy 480 will be ready to crush GTAV.

I'm similar in that I don't want to tinker around with overclocking, but I want fast and efficient. No lights, windows, custom mods, etc. But power.

In all honesty, the GPU totally is the right thing to upgrade first. The CPU won't make as much a difference as you'd expect in many cases, but the i7 (i regret not getting the K a little) is a beast of a chip.

I love my iPhone but ugh, not a fan of mac OSX. I went all mac a few years ago and tried to love it but I could never jive with the disjointed user interface, strange quirks and other forced conventions, especially behavior when multiple apps and windows from the apps are spread around. Stuff always getting trampled, opening up in the wrong spot, not remembering view settings, and on and on. I'm constantly trying to figure out WTF my kid or wife did to make the iMac upstairs do something completely inexplicable. Apple loves to suddenly give you strange dialog boxes where each option seems like a drastic change and there's no way to back out. "Click OK if you want Apple to convert your user profiles into iCloud keychain lockboxes. Pressing cancel will delete your entire user history." stuff like that. What? Log off iCloud. It just slides back over when you close the menu. Go back. Slide it back to off. It slides back. Wait, I have to sign out somehow else? I do that. Now I'm getting messages all over the crap. WTF. Windows 10 is so much better. Finally back in a fully Windows environment for my work and it's like remarrying that hot ex wife when she was having some mental problems and you both needed a break and things are actually good now and the sex is better than ever.

I still love my iPhone. That just works. Don't plan on using it for music, so that basically keeps me from having to deal with iTunes, Apple Music and all their other services, which I don't use.

 

[funks]

For 1080P gaming, seems like the RX470 (4GB) is the best deal. Jet.com been getting the RX470's in stock, they currently have the Sapphire Nitro+ RX470 (100407NT+4GOCL) , the MSI Radeon RX 470 (RX 470 GAMING X 4G) , the reference looking Sapphire RX 470 (100407-4GOCL). Basically with the TRIPLE15 coupon, and no tax, cheapest way to get the cards (165$ to around 180$ shipped)

This has been an expensive quarter - lol. I purchased two GTX1070's (one for my main rig, and the other for my living room VR rig). Then bought the Nitro+ RX470 for my son's rig (1080P gaming for him). Upgraded my living room VR rig from AMD FURY NANO ->1070, my main rig from AMD 7950 -> 1070, and my son's rig from NVIDIA 750TI -> RX470

Maybe a good thing for AMD to win the Mid-Range tier - under 250$ TIER! I think the Miner's are going after the RX480's instead of the RX470's hence we have more supply for the later. With an awesome RX470 for 1080P, and ZEN coming out, I hope Gabe Newell's dream of STEAM machine's don't die

Valve needs to come up with a REFERENCE STEAM machine and a 4GB RX470, ZEN CPU, and 8 GB of RAM for under 500$ is that ticket! Considering the new consoles (Scorpio, Neo) are pretty much at that spec, the REFERENCE steam machine should be a good porting to target!

AMD and Valve's vision are in alignment regarding SteamOS - AMD is gung-ho pensource with their Linux Drivers and Vulkan needs a PUSH! If Valve can contribute, then it's a win for everyone.