Who bought/is buying a Radeon RX 480?

[IEC]

I realize that reference cards should all be the same being that they should all be manufactured in the same plant, use the same chips, memory, etc but so far only the powercooler cards I have are finicky although it's out of a fairly small sample size of 20 cards.

You're not the only one who has noticed this, though. My single DOA card was a Powercolor, and the remainder require more voltage (about +30mV) than all my other cards (Sapphire, MSI) to maintain the same clocks.

Could be random chance, as my sample contains only 4 Powercolor cards.

 

[YBS1]

YBS1, first thank you for the work and info posted on this forum concerning your watercooling of the RX 480. The "headroom" for overclocking appears limited and brings into question the "bang for the buck" question.

Though the price for an EK waterblock for the GTX1080/980TI SC and RX480 is very close, the cards themselves have a large difference in price.

Other than a gpu water block, I have most of the custom gear to turn the 6700k rig into a complete water cooled system. I think I'm going to stay stock on the GPU considering the limit on OCing.

The EK block certainly makes it a poor value proposition, I thought this as well when I decided to go with the XSPC, adding a $117 block to a $240 card puts it far too close to the price of a GTX 1070 for anyone who is brand agnostic. Now that's not to say I don't think the market exists for the EK version, it's certainly a more aesthetically pleasing choice and frequently people are building watercooled setups with that as a primary goal. However seeing that I paid 215 for the 8GB card and the XSPC block was only about 65 that puts it in a fairly comfortable pricing middle, I was going to slap a waterblock on whatever GPU I put in this thing anyway, be it a $199 card or a $1200 card so the less expensive XSPC was a fantastic choice to come along for me.

The cooling and unlocked BIOS certainly gave me some sizable headroom over a bog standard reference card, I can't imagine I'll get much further than where I currently stand though (1426) without running possibly questionable voltages. Now if this additional 100MHz actually translates into anything tangible in real world use, probably not what one would notice. I can certainly do it far more quietly than a standard card though, to me that's the bonus more than the oveclocking headroom. I'll be honest with you, I don't even game on this pc. It's hooked up to the TV and serves as an HTPC. It's built out like it is simply because I like to play with new stuff and I wanted it to be beyond satisfactory should it be pressed into duty if my primary setup ever went "man down".

 

[YBS1]

I'm not really sure where this thing is going to run out of legs at yet....GTX 1060 whaaaaa?
1440/2250
Compare Link

 

[SketchMaster]

This guy built a "cheap" Hybrid RX 480 using a FrostFlow 240G and got some good results with an unlocked BIOS to up the volts, though I'm not comfortable with his passive cooling of the VRMs with those tiny HS...

At 1470MHz (1.256v) the RX480 goes toe to toe with a GTX 1060 @ 2107. I'd take it with a grain of salt since I'm not sure how reputable he is. If it's accurate, it means the RX 480 actually scales pretty good with faster cores speeds. If this is a preview of the RX 490 then we should see some crazy enthusiast projects in the next year.

Does this mean the RX 480 could be a win? I'm not sure. The GTX 1060 6GB is still going north of $250 at the moment, some AIB cards are going for $300+. Keep in mind you're Spending $300+ on an OC AIB 1060 or building a Hybrid RX 480 for the same price, that's ~$100 away from a GTX 1070 which will stomp on both those cards. Maybe once the market stabilizes you can get an AIB RX 480 for the same price as an AIB GTX 1060.

Not trying to poop on YBS1's setup at all. If anything I'm really enjoying the work he's shared with us, it's really cool stuff! Just saying that if you're looking for the best perf/$, a RX 480 is in a fuzzy spot at the moment. The market is all over the place, so most of these cards miss on their promise of great gaming performance for less than $250.

 

[ScottAD]

In stock on NewEgg for about an hour now.

https://m.newegg.com/Product/index?...a LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=6202798

 

[Sonikku]

Anyone paying $285 for a 480 is crazy.

 

[sze5003]

My buddy wants me to build him a 1080p gaming PC and I just saw the 480 prices. I put together a build for him using a 1060 since it was cheaper and money is an issue otherwise I would have picked a nitro 480.

He's still on the fence about ordering everything but I agree, at $280 and tax it's getting up there.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Anyone paying $285 for a 480 is crazy.

Miners can probably justify it, gamers not so much.

 

[Oyeve]

Paid 239 for my 8gb 480 on release day. Loving it. I cant believe these are still sold out at most places.

 

[Rifter]

Ill just be happy if amazon US ever ships my card. There are Canadian retailers finally taking pre orders for the Nitro saying stock will be in in a few weeks im seriouly thinking about cancelling with amazon and getting it local. Which would be very strange as Video cards are usually available in the US a good month or two before canada, i think amazon just really dropped the ball on this one.

 

[SketchMaster]

You're STILL waiting?!

I would have raised hell by now.

 

[Rifter]

You're STILL waiting?!

I would have raised hell by now.

I almost went postal when i emailed them a few days ago to ask about status and they told me they wernt even sure they are getting more instock......

Thats when i started to look into how far behind Canadian retailers were and found out that in a few weeks i can probably get one in Canada.

 

[SketchMaster]

At this point, is it even worth getting a Ref card? Will Canada be getting AIB cards soon?

Edit: Holy crap... I just checked and saw how overpriced those things are up there.

 

[Ranulf]

Ill just be happy if amazon US ever ships my card. There are Canadian retailers finally taking pre orders for the Nitro saying stock will be in in a few weeks im seriouly thinking about cancelling with amazon and getting it local. Which would be very strange as Video cards are usually available in the US a good month or two before canada, i think amazon just really dropped the ball on this one.

The Amazon model isn't the OC one, last I saw. The clocks on it are 30-40mhz slower or something. I'm thinking thats why its not back in stock, may never be. Two more days and it will be a month since I "pre-ordered". Not sure why Sapphire would even bother with a stock nitro and an OC nitro. $270 vs $290 though.

 

[Stuka87]

My buddy wants me to build him a 1080p gaming PC and I just saw the 480 prices. I put together a build for him using a 1060 since it was cheaper and money is an issue otherwise I would have picked a nitro 480.

He's still on the fence about ordering everything but I agree, at $280 and tax it's getting up there.

How is a 1060 cheaper? I paid 239 for my Nitro+, you cannot get any 1060's for that price.

 

[Stuka87]

The Amazon model isn't the OC one, last I saw. The clocks on it are 30-40mhz slower or something. I'm thinking thats why its not back in stock, may never be. Two more days and it will be a month since I "pre-ordered". Not sure why Sapphire would even bother with a stock nitro and an OC nitro. $270 vs $290 though.

I canceled my Amazon pre-order and just bought from NewEgg, had the card for over a week now.

 

[sze5003]

How is a 1060 cheaper? I paid 239 for my Nitro+, you cannot get any 1060's for that price.

At the time you bought yours yes it was $239. When I was putting together the build a few days ago the 8gb 480 he wanted, I found in newegg was $279. The 1060 gigabyte model was listed at $10 less.

 

[Ranulf]

Yeah, I'll have to keep an eye out on NE for it. Missed it yesterday.

 

[RussianSensation]

Yeah, I'll have to keep an eye out on NE for it. Missed it yesterday.

Newegg U.S. stock is ample right now, but AIB prices are too high imho.

Asus ROG Strix OC = $300
XFX RS dual fan = $270
PowerColor RED DEVIL = $270
PowerColor RED DEVIL OC = $280
MSI Gaming 4GB for $250 and 8GB for $290

Jet.com also has some great discounts. For 1st time customers, you can take up to $30 off for up to 3 orders (so $90 off) with code TRIPLE15. Or you can also get $30 off one time with SHOP15 or 15TODAY. They also provide an additional discount when buying 2 cards at a time.

RX 480 also swept the 1060 in DE:MD before DX12 patch. If this repeats in the major DX12 titles slated to be released in the next 3 months, it will make it almost impossible to recommend the 1060. Doom and DE:MD are huge wins as people buy 2016 cards to play next gen/modern titles.

 

[YBS1]

I think I found the sane voltage limit for my card. 1460Mhz seems to be the end of the road with reasonable voltage ~1.255, 1470 runs for a bit at 1.28v with some very mild throttling (flickering down to 1466 on occasion) before eventually artifacting and gently crashing back to desktop with "driver stopped responding". I may be approaching the power limit anyway as @1470 is the first time I've seen it throttle at all and it's not from temps.

 

[IEC]

Jet had the XFX Dual Fan at $237 each for 2 using the SHOP10 first-time customer code. Shipped within a few hours (probably from Newegg).

Powercolor Red Devil (both variants) are in stock at Newegg but haven't been listed on Jet yet.

Availability of aftermarket cards seems to be getting better but volumes will need to pick up for pricing to fall in line.

 

[Ranulf]

Newegg U.S. stock is ample right now, but AIB prices are too high imho.

I wouldn't say ample but yeah, my search has been half hearted lately because all of this gen is overpriced dreck. Almost picked up a MSI variant the other day.

 

[daperl]

The Amazon model isn't the OC one, last I saw. The clocks on it are 30-40mhz slower or something. I'm thinking thats why its not back in stock, may never be. Two more days and it will be a month since I "pre-ordered". Not sure why Sapphire would even bother with a stock nitro and an OC nitro. $270 vs $290 though.

I pre-ordered two days after you. I took the $50 off by registering for the VISA so in my mind I'm getting the 8GB card for $219. I'm not in a hurry and I'm kind of curious how this thing will play out, but I agree with you: It sure does seem that these cards will never exist.

 

[Rifter]

The Amazon model isn't the OC one, last I saw. The clocks on it are 30-40mhz slower or something. I'm thinking thats why its not back in stock, may never be. Two more days and it will be a month since I "pre-ordered". Not sure why Sapphire would even bother with a stock nitro and an OC nitro. $270 vs $290 though.

yeah any way you look at it amazon completely dropped the ball. Will be cancelling tonight.

 

[Bacon1]

yeah any way you look at it amazon completely dropped the ball. Will be cancelling tonight.

You guys should contact support and see if they can ship you another card for the same price.