RX 480 foreign media evaluation: finally expecting

The RX480 was officially lifted yesterday. For this year's AMD product, AMD has made great efforts. What about its energy? Let's take a look at how some foreign media are talking about it.  

 

Continue to update GCN framework

 

The first is the basic data of some RX 480 and Polaris 10 :

Core frequency: 1120-1266MHz

Stream Processor: 2304, a total of 36 computational units

Memory frequency: 8GHz (8GB) / 7GHz (4GB)

Bandwidth: 256GB/s

ROPs: 32

Design power consumption: 150W

 

The 5.7 billion transistor size, 230mm^2 core area, compared to the previous 6.2 billion transistors and 438mm^2 hawaii core size, it achieved a similar transistor size in the case of an area reduction of about 45% , GF The 14nm process process has played a significant role this time.

From the official data of AMD , the basic architecture of this generation of GCN remains unchanged. Each computing unit contains 64 shaders ( also known as sp) . Each 16 shaders form a vector unit. The unit is equipped with a 64KB shared memory, and each computing unit is additionally equipped with a 16KB L1 cache.

Comparing the core architecture of the fury X , the main calculation unit CU , now the new Polaris 10 and the FURY X in the calculation unit ratio, the sp division approach, remain consistent. ROP aspect decreased, with a 32 ROP, hawaii relatively reduced by half.

 

We have all already known about the video memory. GDDR5 is still used in video memory , not the higher frequency GDDR5X . This may have a certain relationship with the production of GDDR5X . However, GDDR5 uses high-frequency video memory up to 8GHz this time , which is not a small help to the performance of the graphics card.

 

Materials and workmanship:

This time the graphics card body is only 18cm , and the extra part is all part of the heat sink. This structure has been used in the previous GTX670 and GTX760 public editions, as for AMD is the first time.

To open the cover, just open the 6 screws on the side to remove the cover. Turbo fans According to Tomshardware analysis, the maximum speed can reach 5000RPM .

8GB GDDR5 , Samsung Memory, IR3567M Power Supply PWM Chip, AMD 's old partner. Several foreign media here have expressed some surprises at AMD's continued use of the PWM power supply scheme that was in use since R9 290 . Because AMD did not follow Nvidia 's footsteps. The number of power supply phases is 6+1 . Each of them said that this seems to be a little more.

 

Game performance: With the 970 draw, some can fight 980

 

For gamers, the most concerned is the performance of the game. As the main dessert-level graphics card now, how can the performance of the RX 480 be competitive with current mainstream graphics cards?

 

The test structures for games conducted by Tomshardware , hardocp and anandtech are as follows:

 

DX12 games: Singularity ashes

This phase of the game has always been for AMD graphics card is better, so here RX 480 or 970 can beat get a good result, but it is slightly inferior to R9 390.

 

Tomb Raider 10 :

The RX 480 still has the capital to compete with the 970 in this game . However, in anandtech 's tests, the RX 480 4GB score was slightly inferior to the 8GB score.

 

GTA5 :

Obviously, under the resolution of 1440p , the RX 480 is more suitable for the operation of the GTA 5 , and the gap with the 970 is much smaller than that at the 1080p .

 

Sorcerer 3 :

The Wizard 3 , the performance of the RX 480 can basically catch up with the 970 to maintain a very small gap. And from the existing test results, the RX 480 is more suitable for playing at a resolution of 1440p .

 

From the comprehensive evaluation of most games , the performance of the RX 480 in the game is basically 970. There will be a certain gap between the RX 480 and the GTX 980. However, this gap is just like the difference between 970 and 980. It is not particularly large.

 

Power consumption, temperature, noise;

 

Due to the use of a 14nm process, the RX 480 has significantly reduced power consumption and consumes only 150W of design power . The public version of the graphics card still maintains the use of turbo cooling.

The typical standby power consumption of the whole machine is 80w , and according to the test of tomshardware , the standby power consumption of the single card is about 16w ;

But anandtech here comes a problem; in the windows 10, RX power consumption 480 than in windows 8.1 below so high 3-5w, and may be issues related to driving. To eliminate this driver problem, anandtech believes that its standby power consumption should be almost the same as that of the GTX 970 .

In a typical game environment, such as the subway tested here: the last light, the measured power consumption is 164w . This power consumption is similar to the thermal design power provided by amd itself.

 

In terms of temperature, the temperature limit set by the RX 480 is 90 degrees. Can it be touched during actual operation?

Although AMD ’s turbofans have been criticized for a long time, due to this new process and small area packaging, the temperature of the game and the test can be maintained at approximately 80 degrees, and the temperature is too high for the original R9 290X . The situation of down-clocking is much better. Tomshardware said it is more stable than nvidia 's 10x0 series cards.

The frequency in the game can basically keep above 1200MHz without any problem. The furmark baking machine has a much lower frequency, but this is almost impossible to meet in daily use.

In terms of sounds, Tomshardwar said that at the end of the day, they did not receive a hair dryer. Under full load, the sound of the entire graphics card is still within an acceptable range.

 

For the price of 255 dollars RX 480, various is how you see it?

 

Tomshardware : "Ultimately, we got a video card with a very low power consumption of 240 yuan , which is based on the R9 290 and R9 390. Compared with the GTX 970 with 280 US dollars , there is more video memory. This is almost like R9. The 390 is a specification that can hardly be described as a revolution because you still need to spend $ 600-800 more on VR devices, but we still appreciate this smaller, faster, quieter, cooler and cooler graphics card. Save money on models. The 4GB model is not very far from performance, and you can look forward to this more cost-effective graphics card."

 

Anandtech : " Compared to the previous mainstream models GTX960 and R9 380 , it has a performance increase of about 45%-70% , but the mainstream graphics card market has not been updated for 18 months . This performance of the RX480 is not yet a Great update."

 

"But this time AMD 's release of the RX 480 put AMD in a good position. They finally returned to the mainstream market. The RX 480 is also a good product that demonstrates the Polaris architecture. AMD still needs to put in some ways Nvidia kept behind, but now they can sit down and enjoy another successful release."

 

Hardocp : " AMD needs an absolute victory. We hope to see the AMD victory. This victory is good for all gamers and enthusiasts. It can drive innovation, but also can drive competitive pricing. AMD successfully brought may be a new line of GPU's good for everybody, whether past GPU is going to do the development, AMD's RX 480 is a capable graphics card has provided a R9 390 and GTX 970 performance level of 199-239 dollars in the price segment. ”

 

"We hope that AMD will continue to maintain a relatively advanced level this year."