GPU RX 480 or wait for GTX 1060
- Thread starter iCherishMeli
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If you're building mini-ITX you'll have to wait since the reference RX 480 is 240mm. We'll see what the non-reference AIBs are like. Sadly RX 480 power consumption is higher than I would have expected - about the same as a GTX 970 (which you *can* get w/ plenty of mini-ITX options), but if you're considering waiting, why not just wait a few weeks and see what the AIBs and the 1060 actually looks like (there have been zero official details on the 1060 released so I'm not sure what kind of answer you're looking for there).
Wait for the 1060. The RX480 reviews so far say it cant overclock at all, so I am getting the impression that AIB's on the 1060 will probably put it ahead of the RX480. Hopefully the AIB's on the RX480 can correct the OC situation.
The GTX 1060 isn't available yet and neither are the specs, so it might be better, it might be worse. Considering the price-gouging going on with the GTX 1070 and 1080 and the on-average higher price you pay with Nvidia, t The RX480 is an OK card but I would wait for the custom cards so you can have a better performing and more quiet card. Maybe by then the GTX 1060 will have shown it's face, but it remains to be seen if it will be available in enough volume.
The RX 480's power consumption habits are questionable, at least to me. AIB's will have to release their own cards with better power management and cooling/overclocking headroom. Currently the GTX 970 comes closest to it in performance, and would probably match it if overclocked, and I'm expecting that the 1060 would perform similar to that.
Interestingly, undervolting the RX 480 seems to not only increase performance by about 5%, but also lowers power usage by 33 watts. It'll definitely be interesting to see how non-reference AIBs perform...
I hope this is good news for partner cards! Too bad the new Sapphire shroud is kind of ugly (at least IMO!) 
I hope this is good news for partner cards! Too bad the new Sapphire shroud is kind of ugly (at least IMO!)
GPU shrouds tends to be fugly with the last 2 generations of cards. Gamurz editions with extra fat shrouds, aggressive colours and disco ball lighting. I want classic, mat / satin black look back so badly
Good:
Ass:
Of course, that only involves myself ... tastes, colours ...
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@IntoxicatedPuma: the black version at least is a big improvement over the silver.
One other interesting thing to point out powerwise I think are GamerNexus' system-level power measurements (their testbed is an i7-5930K CPU/X99 system I believe). The 480 and the 1070 are both "150W TDP" cards. Reference 970s are I believe supposed to be 170W TDP, but the EVGA SSC edition (which a lot of reviewers have been using) is 200W+.
Note that the 1340MHz overclock adds another 80W to the power usage. If we mark the standard card at 150W, that means the OC is pulling 230W through PCIe + 6pin.
One other interesting thing to point out powerwise I think are GamerNexus' system-level power measurements (their testbed is an i7-5930K CPU/X99 system I believe). The 480 and the 1070 are both "150W TDP" cards. Reference 970s are I believe supposed to be 170W TDP, but the EVGA SSC edition (which a lot of reviewers have been using) is 200W+.
Note that the 1340MHz overclock adds another 80W to the power usage. If we mark the standard card at 150W, that means the OC is pulling 230W through PCIe + 6pin.
Indeed ! Lets not forget the trend of expanding the GPU well outside the PCIe card spec in every dimension. I'm predicting by 2020 we'll have cards that will need a tower case with the motherboard on the bottom floor and the card vertically. For the three 200mm fans, 5kg heatsink and 30 heatpipes each 50cm long.GPU shrouds tends to be fugly with the last 2 generations of cards. Gamurz editions with extra fat shrouds, aggressive colours and disco ball lighting. I want classic, mat / satin black look back so badly
Even when I WAS building ATX systems, I still found the custom GPU boards and coolers to be obnoxiously huge.
This isn't the best information. If you turn the power limit up in AMD's Wattman tool to around 20-50% you will achieve stable over clocks UP TO 1360Mhz over the base clock of 1120Mhz (+20% increase). Early reviewers failed to do this because the Wattman tool was new at the time of testing and they weren't sure how to use it. You have to find the sweet spot for your particular silicon. I'd say go with the 480 because you don't have to wait. I just got two in today and I'm waiting on one more to show up.
I think we're getting a pretty good idea that the reference 480 board performs poorly from an OC perspective. A couple points of interest:
- Gamersnexus replaced the reference cooler and got great temperatures but did not get much on the clock even hitting 190W+ to the GPU (probably about 230W for the board)
- People have started picking apart the VBIOS - interestingly, the TDP is 110W and TDC is 107A for the GPU, both seem sort of low?
- The Saphire Nitro is coming out very soon at ~$275 and w/ 1325-1350MHz clocks, and the Powercolor DEVIL is reportedly clocking about 1.4GHz so I guess we'll see soon what's what.
- Buildzoid (Actually Hardcore Overclocking) started doing some volt-modding today and livestreamed a firsthand look at the board (semi-interesting about 50min in, pretty entertaining stuff) Summary: ref board 6pin totally out of spec, wired as an 8pin! the mod he did during the livestream was to bridge the power planes to draw from the 6pin so that it probably brings the PCIe draw into spec (maybe) - by default half the vcore VRMs pull from PCIe; ultimately requires software voltage control (which exists) to OC
Have you seen pictures of the 1060?? Definitely has the LOOK of an FE to me! Lets hope they skip the FE this time for the sake of more cards in stock for once!
As stated by others, there are some very good AIB cards coming that we all hope to fix the power issues that these cards are generating. The Nitro, Strix, and Devil should all over clock well if they are revised correctly to divvy up the wattage properly (8 pin pcie). I have a feeling that the RX 480, in its early infancy, is just scratching the surface! It's an exciting time to see what these non-reference cards will be able to do!
As stated by others, there are some very good AIB cards coming that we all hope to fix the power issues that these cards are generating. The Nitro, Strix, and Devil should all over clock well if they are revised correctly to divvy up the wattage properly (8 pin pcie). I have a feeling that the RX 480, in its early infancy, is just scratching the surface! It's an exciting time to see what these non-reference cards will be able to do!
lolol, $299 for a FE apparently: http://videocardz.com/61917/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-to-cost-249-299-usd
(that being said, I'm personally pretty excited about the 1070s coming in laptops starting next month. If there are VR capable thinner 14/15s and if there are still no Polaris 10 portables in sight, I will probably end up paying the several $k premium to get one of those)
RX480 still wins on:
Dun expect non-FE for $249, it'll be the same than the 1070/1080. Custom cooler version will cost as much or more than the FE models.
- Compute performance: 5.8 TFLOPS vs 4.4 TFLOPS
- Max memory: 8GB vs 6GB
- Memory bus width: 256 bits vs 192 bits
- Memory bandwidth: 256 GB/s vs 192 GB/s
- Price: $239 vs $299
Dun expect non-FE for $249, it'll be the same than the 1070/1080. Custom cooler version will cost as much or more than the FE models.
No point comparing paper specs without actual performance numbers. We've seen how that played out with the RX 480 (e.g. compute performance being 5.8TFlop to the 980Ti's 5.6 TFlop, but actual game performance being rather far behind).
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