Official AMD Polaris Review Thread: Radeon RX 480, RX 470, and RX 460

[garagisti]

apologies if ive missed it - but from a forward thinking perspective, how many games being tested have leveraged Dx12/ Vulkan?

in all this noise, im wondering if the true strength of the cards hasnt actually been touched yet?

Most reviews aren't talking about DX12 games, infact as was pointed out earlier in the thread, no one tried out Forza 6 : Apex, which is a free to play dx12 game. Shows what many of the reviews are worth really, but that is my humble opinion.

 

[selni]

if 480 AIB can equal or beat 980 performance, it will become a 240$ mid range card, no longer a mainstream part. it will become king under 300$

It already is surely even though it doesn't beat a 980. Before the 1060 release (and depending on the pricing there anyway) there's really nothing else other than the 480 you could recommend under the 1070 atm other than second hand cards.

 

[selni]

apologies if ive missed it - but from a forward thinking perspective, how many games being tested have leveraged Dx12/ Vulkan?

in all this noise, im wondering if the true strength of the cards hasnt actually been touched yet?

To be blunt there's still not really very many useful DX12 tests you could run.

Ashes is probably the best implementation and that's hamstrung by being essentially a tech demo. The engine will turn up in future stardock titles but performance characteristics may be a bit different (it's really obviously compute limited with resolution and AA settings etc barely even mattering - presumably due to art/model detail).

RotTR's DX12 implementation is slower than 11 if you have a reasonably fast CPU. Hitman is a disaster of a title - both technically (apparently cleaned up a bit now?) and commercially. Quantum break on PC was another disaster. Forza 6 is great but runs well on anything and is more of a preview/experiment than a full game. Running out of titles here...

TW:Warhammer, DX4 and BF are DX12 titles worth watching for this year, so there's some hope of some decent implementations at least.

 

[at80eighty]

Most reviews aren't talking about DX12 games, infact as was pointed out earlier in the thread, no one tried out Forza 6 : Apex, which is a free to play dx12 game. Shows what many of the reviews are worth really, but that is my humble opinion.

yes i wasnt able to find much on it, so i thought i missed something. the card has a few aspects that does merit critique - power draw seems to be something that is unclear & all over the place right now.

but the campaign of consistent complaining from certain posters who threadcrap like clockwork in here gets tiring - ive stopped coming here as a regular because they seem to go on unchecked. i dont believe it's balanced to criticise a card whose architecture isnt geared for the past.

hopefully Ryan's is able to provide a deep dive that tests in DX12 / Vulkan environments + 4k & some VR to get a better picture of what AMD intended with their new architecture - if it's still disappointing then, then it's fair to question the cards true value.

till then, all this noise really needs to just stop or be dealt with in a firmer manner

 

[IEC]

yes i wasnt able to find much on it, so i thought i missed something. the card has a few aspects that does merit critique - power draw seems to be something that is unclear & all over the place right now.

but the campaign of consistent complaining from certain posters who threadcrap like clockwork in here gets tiring - ive stopped coming here as a regular because they seem to go on unchecked. i dont believe it's balanced to criticise a card whose architecture isnt geared for the past.

hopefully Ryan's is able to provide a deep dive that tests in DX12 / Vulkan environments + 4k & some VR to get a better picture of what AMD intended with their new architecture - if it's still disappointing then, then it's fair to question the cards true value.

till then, all this noise really needs to just stop or be dealt with in a firmer manner

HardwareCanucks did a summary of its DX12 results:

 

[at80eighty]

Thanks IEC. just checked HWC's review out

Moving on to DX12 and we see AMD’s new architecture really coming into its own against the NVIDIA cards. It absolutely demolishes the GTX 970 across the board (even in NVIDIA-friendly games like Tomb Raider) and even manages to run circles around that once-expensive GTX 980. These tests show Maxwell’s performance in current DX12 applications is nothing short of embarrassing and proves this architecture simply wasn’t designed with these types of workloads in mind

it would appear that a smart bet would be to wait and watch as the cards mature w/drivers (never AMD's strength), instead of hyperbole about their strategy by going against soon-to-be antiquated standards.

at this price point, the cards seem (imo) strongly recommendable for upgraders / new PC gamers in the mid-price bracket

 

[Elixer]

They better shift Vega to TSMC.

Would Lisa put all their eggs in one basket with only using GloFlo?
I think she is much smarter tech wise than most and I am betting when issues popped up at GloFlo, she would be making the decision that would be best for AMD, not GloFlo, but, it all comes down to $$$, could they afford the cost of having multiple teams on each node?

From the Pcper stream, Raja was saying they had Polaris 11 up first to fill OEM deals that had to be met. It wasn't mentioned what process they used, but, it makes sense that they used 14nm LPE instead of 14nm LPP.
I don't think we will get solid numbers for those chips until back to school season starts.
Not to mention the console deals, there is no way they would accept anything less than what the specs called for.

So, unless Vega was already using TSMC, it is far too late to do anything if Lisa chose to only use GloFlo.

Another possibility could be the 14nm tech itself. It is fine for mobile & small chips like that, but, once it goes above a certain size, it is bad news.
Case in point, the only other known dual sourced chip was done by Apple, and look at the size of that chip.

AMD's is more than double that size at 232mm^2.

I can't find another company that has a bigger die size using Samsung's tech, so, it is a big unknown.

On paper, it all looks good...
I am looking forward to see what Chipworks finds out about the 480, they have one on order..
http://semimd.com/chipworks/

Tom finished up with a plug for the new AMD Radeon 480 GPU, fabbed on the GF 14LPP process (we have one on order!), and a wrap-up of the above.

 

[Bacon1]

damn bacon, resize those images, there is no need for 4k images

haha not my images, from hardware unboxed, luckily you can view them without expanding to full size

Are there any more reviews that check undervolting? I'd like to see power consumption in more GPU intensive games.

Yeah computerbase did here: https://www.computerbase.de/2016-06...el_potenzial_fuer_undervoltage_bei_der_rx_480

They found that it ran faster and cooler with undervolting, even while OCing. The tested bios/drivers is obviously set too high for some reason.

Most reviews aren't talking about DX12 games, infact as was pointed out earlier in the thread, no one tried out Forza 6 : Apex, which is a free to play dx12 game. Shows what many of the reviews are worth really, but that is my humble opinion.

Yep sad that no one used Apex + PresentMon to test. Yes its a very optimized game, but they could have done 1440p / 4k testing at least. Its uncapped framerate now with the patch last month or so.

 

[atticus14]

and watch as the cards mature w/drivers (never AMD's strength)

I would say mature drivers are one of AMDs greatest strengths. Their gains over time can be quite substantial.

 

[at80eighty]

atticus14 you are correct. I (meant to but) did not qualify my statement more specifically - their drivers at release typically see a much greater range of improvement over time

my observation (and im open to correction) is that they still need to work on the maturity of drivers at the initial release candidate stage to put their products in a better light from the very beginning, which helps their public narrative & thus sales

 

[Silverforce11]

The biggest test for AMD GPUs in DX12 will be BF1.

Also the new TW: Warhammer DX12 patch just landed. I wonder how those real in-game results look like. Top seller on Steam for the past entire month so it's a huge game.

 

[Bacon1]

The biggest test for AMD GPUs in DX12 will be BF1.

Also the new TW: Warhammer DX12 patch just landed. I wonder how those real in-game results look like. Top seller on Steam for the past entire month so it's a huge game.

Yep its 20th most poplular game on steam for current playing.

I'm surprised that no sites test Warframe since it is one of the best looking games out there with tons of cool effects and gameplay as well. It is #12 most played and always in the top 20.

 

[sirmo]

This guy got a stable 1380Mhz clock by replacing the cooler:

source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4qojcg/rx480_and_my_experience_with_temps_and/

Which puts it basically on par with gtx980 stock.. I am guessing the AIB versions should perform well, and possibly do even better with the power limits increased.

 

[IEC]

The biggest test for AMD GPUs in DX12 will be BF1.

Also the new TW: Warhammer DX12 patch just landed. I wonder how those real in-game results look like. Top seller on Steam for the past entire month so it's a huge game.

Racan just created a thread for it:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2478953

 

[TrantaLocked]

How much will after market 480s cost?

 

[Elixer]

How much will after market 480s cost?

Most likely $20-$40 premium over reference, but could be more depending on the cooler.

 

[TrantaLocked]

Most likely $20-$40 premium over reference, but could be more depending on the cooler.

Not sure I'm a fan of a $270 480. Technically would be the better buy over a 970 especially if OC is guaranteed 1400MHz+, but it's no longer a significant value.

Also, what are the latest rumors on 470 release date? Nothing yet? Can AMD release soon to compensate for all of us getting <redacted> over by the entire internet lying to us about the 29th release date?


cussing is not alllowed in the technical forums
Markfw900

 

[sirmo]

Not sure I'm a fan of a $270 480. Technically would be the better buy over a 970 especially if OC is guaranteed 1400MHz+, but it's no longer a significant value.

Overclocked rx480 beats the overclocked 970.. also there is the whole 3.5Gb vs 8gb of VRAM.

 

[TrantaLocked]

I wasn't aware of that so that's good, will be even better with after market. Again, the 480 will still be the better buy at $270 but the earth shattering value will be nearly diminished.

AIBs = better OC and temps, drivers will increase performance a bit, 480 prices may slowly go down. It will only become a better card as time goes by from today.

 

[Ranulf]

Not sure I'm a fan of a $270 480. Technically would be the better buy over a 970 especially if OC is guaranteed 1400MHz+, but it's no longer a significant value.

Also, what are the latest rumors on 470 release date? Nothing yet? Can AMD release soon to compensate for all of us getting fucked over by the entire internet lying to us about the 29th release date?

I dont see how you can say the 970 is a good buy at that price. Maybe with a free game or two. Long term, 2-3 years the 480 is the better bet, especially with the more ram. Not that I am a fan of a $270 480 custom card either.

 

[AtenRa]

Vulkan favoring GCN is irrelevant. It is really easy to favor one brand over the other just by the selection of games to test.

AotS may favor AMD card, but is it a good game to bench to remain impartial? If you are picking it to counter balance games that favor NVIDIA, then you are just trying to skew the results towards AMD.

I am okay with the games TPU picks because they tend to represent popular games that can push graphics and that most people will buy or hear about. You can nitpick all you want about most of them being Gameworks titles, but what would be the point of including a title like AotS when only a handful of people bought it only for benchmark purposes? (last I checked, there were 149 players online, and the sp campaign is rather lacking). I rather have a selection of AAA titles that I will play regardless of which brand they favor.

AoTS is not the only DX-12 game currently available, there are other games that can easily be included in reviews.


Ashes of The Singularity
Gears Of War
Rise Of The Tomb Rider
HITMAN
Total War : Warhammer
Quantum Brake
Forza Motorsport 6 : Apex (Free)

And more are coming in 2016

 

[beginner99]

Where I think the real criticism and concern belongs is what this means for their process going forward--does it actually mean anything for future Polaris chips, Vega, Zen? is this 14nm FinFet "garbage" when it comes to power, is it a GloFo issue? There's a lot of ideas about this floating about and considering that some cards seem to be performing on all levels as they are expected to, while others certainly are not--it's just too early to say what the problem is.

Exactly. The news doesn't bode well for vega and Zen if they use Glofo aswell. IMHO Zen is confirmed to be GloFo. Don't know about Vega.

 

[AtenRa]

yes i wasnt able to find much on it, so i thought i missed something. the card has a few aspects that does merit critique - power draw seems to be something that is unclear & all over the place right now.

but the campaign of consistent complaining from certain posters who threadcrap like clockwork in here gets tiring - ive stopped coming here as a regular because they seem to go on unchecked. i dont believe it's balanced to criticise a card whose architecture isnt geared for the past.

hopefully Ryan's is able to provide a deep dive that tests in DX12 / Vulkan environments + 4k & some VR to get a better picture of what AMD intended with their new architecture - if it's still disappointing then, then it's fair to question the cards true value.

till then, all this noise really needs to just stop or be dealt with in a firmer manner

Well this is from the AMD review guide but it should be very close to reality.

RX 480 is a $199/239 card positioning to replace the R9 380/X, GTX 960 and lower. In DX-12 games it is faster than GTX 970/980 at half the MSRP.

 

[3DVagabond]

After the number 9, which indicates that RX 490 will be, there is: >256 bit/4K.

So RX 490 may have wider memory bus, than 256 bit.

Could be Vega w/HBM, or could be GDDR5(X)? If it needs more bandwidth than GP104 though that's a positive sign.

 

[Silverforce11]

Don't expect too much for the custom RX 480 cards, the tests show it's vram bandwidth bottlenecked as performance scaled very well with just memory OC.

Unless custom cards can get GDDR5X, even IF they clock it to 1.6ghz, I don't expect performance to scale much beyond 1.4ghz.