Introduction & Overview

AMD's Radeon RX 480 launched last June (if you missed our in-depth AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB Review, be sure to check it out). In the months that followed, we covered new GPUs and embarked on a sequence of in-depth round-ups across Nvidia's Pascal architecture. We always planned to circle back on Polaris, though.

This proved more difficult than we anticipated, as availability from AMD's board partners started off spotty. Fortunately, supply improved and mainstream enthusiasts now have plenty of options to choose from. Some models sport AMD's reference cooler, while others employ custom thermal solutions. Some models come with 4GB of GDDR5 memory and others wield 8GB. Some models sell for as little as $175; the top end spans beyond $260. Now it's our job to figure out which designs work better than the rest.

AMD Radeon RX480 (Reference)

Asus RX 480 Strix

HIS RX 480 IceQ X² Roaring Turbo View Site

At launch, the Radeon RX 480 8GB trailed just behind GeForce GTX 970, and later came to follow after the GeForce GTX 1060. But back then, most of our benchmarks were DirectX 11-based. The introduction of newer titles optimized for DirectX 12 painted Polaris in a more attractive light. Today, the two cards trade blows, with AMD's solution generally selling at a lower price.



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But this round-up definitely isn't a comparison between Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 1060. In this piece, AMD's Radeon gets the spotlight. Our aim is to explore, in detail and with a great many measurements, the differences between individual implementations of AMD's Radeon RX 480.

As always, there's very little each manufacturer can do to affect core and memory clock rates. But the opposite is true when it comes to their interpretations of power limits, on-board components, and cooling. That's where we'll focus most of our time and equipment. In fact, we'll present data with these cards on an open test bench and in a closed chassis. In some cases, the differences are significant!

At least for the time being, we have five cards to discuss. More are on their way, and we have updates coming for some of our other round-ups as well.



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AMD RX480 Reference Conserves space and lightweight Direct heat dissipation Not too loud, even under load Relatively economical Sufficient gaming performance Needs an driver option to avoid exceeding PCIe slot's current specification

Asus RX 480 Strix Barely audible, even under load Attractive price, in spite of factory overclock Good gaming performance Balanced overall concept Relatively long Cooling of memory modules could be improved

HIS RX 480 IceQ X² Roaring Turbo Visit Site Acceptable noise level Well-built cooler Good gaming performance Eye-catching exterior Exceeds PCIe slot's current specification by more than reference design Unfit for older motherboards

MSI RX480 Gaming X 8G Very good cooler Relatively quiet, so long as the airflow is sufficient Good gaming performance Balanced overall design Requires a well-ventilated case Manual rework of the fan curve needed Power limit is set too high

Sapphire RX480 Nitro+ No price information Check Amazon 142 Amazon customer reviews ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Modest dimensions Good gaming performance Undersized cooler Much too loud Clock rate drops under sustained workload



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