Tag Archives: Radeon RX 480

AMD Radeon RX 580 Performance Comparison

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The gaming enthusiast community may be eagerly waiting for AMD Vega to arrive, but AMD breathed life into the AMD Polaris microarchitecture with a refreshed line-up, which they called the AMD Radeon RX 500 Series. Headlined by the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon), the Polaris Refined series is basically an overclocked version of the Radeon RX 400 series.

AMD is pitching the Radeon RX 500 Series as a great upgrade option for gamers with 3 years or older systems, with the introduction of 27 new graphics cards. But just how much faster is the new Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) compared to its predecessor, the Radeon RX 480, and the NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards? Let’s find out in this performance comparison!

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Radeon RX 580 Specification Comparison

Here are the specifications of the five graphics cards in this performance comparison :

Specifications	GeForce GTX 1050 Ti	Radeon RX 480	Radeon RX 580	GeForce GTX 1060	GeForce GTX 1070
Texture Units	48	144	144	80	120
ROPs	32	32	32	48	64
Core Speed	1290 MHz	1120 MHz	1257 MHz	1506 MHz	1506 MHz
Boost Speed	1392 MHz	1266 MHz	1340 MHz	1708 MHz	1683 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (Max)	61.9 GT/s	182.3 GT/s	193.0 GT/s	136.6 GT/s	202.0 GT/s
Pixel Fill Rate (Max)	44.5 GP/s	40.5 GP/s	42.9 GP/s	82.0 GP/s	107.7 GP/s
Memory Bus Width	128-bits	256-bits	256-bits	192-bits	256-bits
Graphics Memory	4 GB GDDR5	8 GB GDDR5	8 GB GDDR5	6 GB GDDR5	8 GB GDDR5
Memory Speed	1752 MHz	1750 MHz	2000 MHz	2000 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory Bandwidth	112 GB/s	224 GB/s	256 GB/s	192 GB/s	256 GB/s
TDP	75 W	150 W	185 W	120 W	150 W

Further Reading On The Radeon RX 500 Series

Further Reading On AMD Vega

Next Page > Benchmarking Notes, 3DMark Benchmark Results

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Benchmarking Notes

Our graphics benchmarking test bed has the following specifications :

Operating System : Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit

Processor : AMD Ryzen 7 1800X processor running at 3.6 GHz

Motherboard : AORUS AX370-Gaming 5

Memory : 16 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000 memory (dual-channel)

Storage : 240 GB HyperX Savage SSD

Monitor : Dell P2415Q Ultra HD Monitor

We used the GeForce driver 382.05 for the NVIDIA graphics cards, and Radeon Software 17.5.1 for the AMD graphics cards.

Note that we do not actually have any Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) graphics card. We simulated the Radeon RX 580 by overclocking the Radeon RX 480 graphics card according to AMD’s specifications for the Radeon RX 580.

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3DMark DirectX 12 Benchmark (2560 x 1440)

3DMark Time Spy is the DirectX 12 benchmark in 3DMark. It supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading.

The AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was just 1% faster than the Radeon RX 480 in this DirectX 12 benchmark. It was 69% to 76% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and just 3% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060.

3DMark (1920 x 1080)

For Direct 11 performance, we started testing the graphics cards using 3DMark at the entry-level gaming resolution – 1920 x 1080.

At this resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was virtually neck-to-neck with the GeForce GTX 1060. It was 62% to 69% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

3DMark (2560 x 1440)

We then took 3DMark up a notch to the resolution of 2560 x 1440. Let’s take a look at the results!

At this higher resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was about 1.5% faster than the Radeon RX 480. With its much higher pixel fillrate, the GeForce GTX 1060 pulled away with a 6% average performance advantage.

3DMark (3840 x 2160)

This is torture, even for the GeForce GTX 1070!

At this resolution, the GeForce GTX 1060 was still 5% to 7% faster than the Radeon RX 580 (Amazon), which was itself 61% to 65% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

Next Page > Ashes of the Singularity & Total War: Warhammer Benchmark Results

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Ashes of the Singularity (1920 x 1080)

We tested Ashes of the Singularity in the DirectX 12 mode, which supports the Asynchronous Compute feature. We started with the full HD resolution.

The AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was just 1% faster than the Radeon RX 480, and 3.7% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060.

Ashes of the Singularity (2560 x 1440)

We then took Ashes of the Singularity up a notch to the resolution of 2560 x 1440. Let’s see how the cards fare now…

At this higher resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was 1.5% faster than the Radeon RX 480, and 2.3% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060. It was also 63% to 70% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

Ashes of the Singularity (3840 x 2160)

Finally, let’s see how the cards perform with Ashes of the Singularity running at the Ultra HD resolution of 3840 x 2160.

The AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was virtually tied with the Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 1060 at this resolution. They were all about 67% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and 26% slower than the GeForce GTX 1070.

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Warhammer (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by Total War : Warhammer‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

At this resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was 1.5% faster than the Radeon RX 480, 6.5% faster than the GeForce GTX 1070, 13% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060, and 80% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

Warhammer (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by Total War : Warhammer‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

When the resolution increased to 1440p though, the GeForce GTX 1070 pulled away and was 24% faster than the Radeon RX 580. The average frame rate of the Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was just 1.5% faster than the Radeon RX 480, but it also delivered a significantly higher minimum frame rate.

Warhammer (3840 x 2160)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by Total War : Warhammer‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

At this ultra high resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was now 3% faster than the Radeon RX 480. It was also 5% and 82% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 and the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti respectively.

Next Page > The Witcher 3 & For Honor Benchmark Results

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The Witcher 3 (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in The Witcher 3.

The AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was 4% faster than the Radeon RX 480 at this resolution, putting it neck-to-neck with the GeForce GTX 1060.

The Witcher 3 (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in The Witcher 3.

At this higher resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was essentially between the Radeon RX 480 and the GeForce GTX 1060 in performance, with a 4% difference either way. It was also 78% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, but 27% slower than the GeForce GTX 1070.

The Witcher 3 (3840 x 2160)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in The Witcher 3.

The 4K resolution in The Witcher 3 is really tough on graphics cards, virtually halving their frame rates. The AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was, again, between the Radeon RX 480 and the GeForce GTX 1060 in performance, with a 4-5% difference either way. Only the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 was able to deliver an average frame rate above 30 fps.

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For Honor (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by For Honor‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

At 1080p, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was exactly between the Radeon RX 480 and the GeForce GTX 1060 in performance, with a 4% difference either way. It was also 56% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, but 31% slower than the GeForce GTX 1070.

For Honor (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by For Honor‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

Yet again, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) maintained its position between the Radeon RX 480 and the GeForce GTX 1060 in performance, with a 4% difference either way.

For Honor (3840 x 2160)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by For Honor‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

At this ultra high resolution, the GeForce GTX 1060 finally pulled away, with a 7% performance advantage over the Radeon RX 580 (Amazon), which was 3% faster than the Radeon RX 480. Only the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 was able to deliver an average frame rate above 30 fps.

Next Page > Mass Effect: Andromeda Benchmark Results, Our Verdict

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Mass Effect: Andromeda (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in Mass Effect: Andromeda.

At this entry-level gaming resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was no faster than the Radeon RX 480. They were both 9% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060 and 45% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

Mass Effect: Andromeda (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in Mass Effect: Andromeda.

With the jump in resolution, the Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was just 1.5% faster than the Radeon RX 480. They were both 13% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060 and 48% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

Mass Effect: Andromeda (3840 x 2160)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in Mass Effect: Andromeda.

At this ultra high resolution, the Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) was now 2% faster than the Radeon RX 480. They were both 13% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060 and 53% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. Only the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 was able to deliver an average frame rate above 30 fps.

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Our Verdict On The Radeon RX 580

It’s pretty obvious from our benchmark results that the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) is just a slightly faster version of its predecessor, the Radeon RX 480. That is no slight, as the Radeon RX 480 is a fast graphics card. In fact, it was so fast that NVIDIA was forced to introduce the GeForce GTX 1060 at a lower price point to compete.

The Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) reused the Polaris 10 GPU from the Radeon RX 480, running it and the GDDR5 memory at a 9% and 14% higher clock speeds respectively. However, it only delivered an performance boost of between 1.5% and 4%.

Obviously, you wouldn’t upgrade to the Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) if you already own the Radeon RX 480, or GeForce GTX 1060. But it would make for a great upgrade if you are using an older, slower graphics card. That is precisely why AMD is targeting the Radeon RX 500 Series at gamers with 3 years or older graphics cards.

Here is the key takeaway point from all these benchmarks. Like its predecessor, the Radeon RX 480, the AMD Radeon RX 580 (Amazon) is designed for 1440p gaming. With some tweaks to the graphics settings, you should have no problem achieving an average frame rate of 60 fps at that resolution.

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Don’t forget to check out our other articles on AMD Radeon graphics technologies :

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The GeForce GTX 1050 & 1050 Ti Performance Comparison

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On 20 October 2016, NVIDIA officially launched the new GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards. Built around the new NVIDIA GP107 GPU, the two new GeForce cards are designed for entry-level and eSports gaming at very attractive price points of US$99 and US$139 respectively. But just how fast are they? Find out for yourself in our GeForce GTX 1050 & GTX 1050 Ti performance comparison!

The Graphics Cards Compared

In this comparison, we will take a look at six different graphics cards launched in 2016 – 3 from AMD, and 3 from NVIDIA. We will pit the GeForce GTX 1050 against the Radeon RX 460, and the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti against the Radeon RX 470 (Review). We also included the higher-end Radeon RX 480 (Review) and GeForce GTX 1060 (Review) in this comparison.

Specifications	Radeon RX 460	GeForce GTX 1050	GeForce GTX 1050 Ti	Radeon RX 470	Radeon RX 480	GeForce GTX 1060
Texture Units	56	40	48	128	144	80
ROPs	16	32	32	32	32	48
Core Speed	1090 MHz	1354 MHz	1290 MHz	926 MHz	1120 MHz	1506 MHz
Boost Speed	1200 MHz	1455 MHz	1392 MHz	1206 MHz	1266 MHz	1708 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (Max)	67.2 GT/s	54.2 GT/s	61.9 GT/s	154.4 GT/s	182.3 GT/s	136.6 GT/s
Pixel Fill Rate (Max)	19.2 GP/s	46.6 GP/s	44.5 GP/s	38.6 GP/s	40.5 GP/s	82.0 GP/s
Memory Bus Width	128-bits	128-bits	128-bits	256-bits	256-bits	192-bits
Graphics Memory	4 GB GDDR5	2 GB GDDR5	4 GB GDDR5	4 GB GDDR5	8 GB GDDR5	6 GB GDDR5
Memory Speed	1750 MHz	1752 MHz	1752 MHz	1650 MHz	1750 MHz	2000 MHz
Memory Bandwidth	112 GB/s	112 GB/s	112 GB/s	211 GB/s	224 GB/s	192 GB/s
TDP	75 W	75 W	75 W	120 W	150 W	120 W
Current Price	US$ 99	US$ 99	US$ 139	US$ 169	US$ 239 (8 GB)	US$ 249

Benchmarking Notes

Our graphics benchmarking test bed has the following specifications :

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Operating System : Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit

Processor : Intel Core i7 6700K processor running at 4.0 GHz

Motherboard : ASRock Z170 Extreme4

Memory : 8 GB DDR4-2133 memory (dual-channel)

Storage : 240 GB HyperX Savage SSD

Monitor : Dell P2415Q Ultra HD Monitor

We used the GeForce driver version 375.63 for the three NVIDIA graphics cards, and the Radeon Software 16.9.2 driver for the three AMD graphics cards used in our tests.

Okay, let’s get on with the GeForce GTX 1050 & 1050 Ti performance comparison!

Next Page > 3DMark DirectX 12 & Direct 11 Benchmark Results

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3DMark DirectX 12 Benchmark (2560 x 1440)

3DMark Time Spy is a new DirectX 12 benchmark that supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading.

The GeForce GTX 1050 is virtually equivalent to the Radeon RX 460 in performance, with the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti delivering 23% better performance. The Radeon RX 470 was 60% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and twice as fast as the GeForce GTX 1050.

3DMark (1920 x 1080)

For Direct 11 performance, we started testing the graphics cards using 3DMark at the most common gaming resolution – 1920 x 1080.

The GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti did better in DirectX 11. In this test, they were 17.6% and 27.4% faster than the Radeon RX 460 respectively.

The Radeon RX 470, on the other hand, was now 48% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and 67% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050.

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3DMark (2560 x 1440)

Then we took 3DMark up a notch to the resolution of 2560 x 1440. Let’s take a look!

Surprisingly, the GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti did even better at this resolution. Despite having only 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, the GeForce GTX 1050 was 24% faster than the Radeon RX 460. The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti was now 34% faster than the Radeon RX 460.

They also edged a little closer in performance to the Radeon RX 470, which was now 47% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and 60% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050.

3DMark (3840 x 2160)

This is torture, even for the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and the GeForce GTX 1070!

It is definitely a very, very bad idea to play any game at this resolution on the GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti. Especially the GeForce GTX 1050, which only has 2 GB of memory. In this resolution, the Radeon RX 460 (which has 4 GB of memory) was actually 7% faster! The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti was now 33% faster than the Radeon RX 460.

The Radeon RX 470 was now 49% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, and twice as fast as the GeForce GTX 1050.

Next Page > Ashes of the Singularity & Warhammer Benchmark Results

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Ashes of the Singularity (1920 x 1080)

We tested Ashes of the Singularity in the DirectX 12 mode, which supports the new Asynchronous Compute feature. We started with the full HD resolution.

The GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti were 6% and 17% faster than the Radeon RX 460 respectively. All three delivered playable frame rates of over 30 fps at this resolution.

Ashes of the Singularity (2560 x 1440)

We then took Ashes of the Singularity up a notch to the resolution of 2560 x 1440. Let’s see how the cards fare…

Only the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti was fast enough to deliver a playable frame rate above 30 fps at this resolution. The Radeon RX 460 was actually slightly (2%) faster than the GeForce GTX 1050, probably due to its larger memory size.

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Warhammer (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by Total War : Warhammer‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti were 2% and 15% faster than the Radeon RX 460 respectively. All three delivered playable frame rates of about 40 fps at this resolution.

Warhammer (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by Total War : Warhammer‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

The GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti did better at this resolution, coming in 9% and 20% faster than the Radeon RX 460 respectively. Only the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti delivered (barely) playable frame rates at this resolution.

Next Page > The Witcher 3 & Fallout 4 Benchmark Results

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The Witcher 3 (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in The Witcher 3.

The GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti did well in this game, coming in 17% and 32% faster than the Radeon RX 460 respectively. The two new GeForce cards delivered reasonably playable frame rates.

The Witcher 3 (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in The Witcher 3.

The GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti maintained their performance advantage over the Radeon RX 460, but their frame rates were poor. Definitely not a good idea to play The Witcher 3 at 1440p with these cards.

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Fallout 4 (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in Fallout 4.

The GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti performed very well in Fallout 4, both delivering 20% better performance than the Radeon RX 460. This is the perfect resolution for all three cards.

Fallout 4 (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in Fallout 4.

Surprisingly, the GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti extended their lead over the Radeon RX 460, with 22% and 24% better performance respectively. Both new GeForce cards actually delivered playable frame rates at this resolution.

Next Page > Our Verdict, Lowest Prices

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Our Verdict

Hitherto, AMD had a real advantage in the entry-level and eSports gaming market with their Radeon RX 460 and Radeon RX 470 graphics cards. Priced at US$109 and US$179 respectively (at launch), they were much more affordable options for gaming at 1080p or lower resolutions.

That changed with the launch of the GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards.

The GeForce GTX 1050 was targeted squarely at the Radeon RX 460, with the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti offering slightly better performance and more graphics memory for those who can afford an extra US$40.

AMD is cognisant of the danger the new GeForce cards pose. So they preemptively slashed the prices of their Radeon RX 460 and Radeon RX 470 cards to make them more competitive. Did they succeed?

GeForce GTX 1050

Both the GeForce GTX 1050 and the Radeon RX 460 are priced at US$99. However, the GeForce GTX 1050 either matches the Radeon RX 460 in performance, or outperforms it by up to 22%. It does this despite having only 2 GB of memory.

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So if you are looking for a graphics card at the US$99 price point, the obvious choice is the GeForce GTX 1050.

GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is roughly 10-15% faster than the GeForce GTX 1050, and has twice as much graphics memory. However, that is a limited advantage since it is still best used for 1080p gaming.

If you can cough up the extra US$40, you might as well cough up an extra US$30 to get the newly-repriced Radeon RX 470. That will buy you 45-70% better performance, enough for 1440p gaming.

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AMD Doubles Down On mGPU Frame Pacing

Adding to Radeon Software Crimson Edition’s enhancements for DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and DirectX 11, Radeon Software 16.9.1 enables multi-GPU frame pacing support to DirectX12 on all GCN-enabled GPUs and AMD A8 APUs or higher with GCN.

Frame pacing delivers consistency by increasing smoothness in gameplay. In multi-GPU (mGPU) configurations, GPUs render alternating frames and push each frame to your screen. Each render can be created at various speeds causing differences in frame time. With frame pacing enabled, frames are distributed evenly, i.e. with less variance between frames, creating liquid smooth gameplay. For more details, please watch the following video:

Radeon Tech Talk: DirectX 12 mGPU Frame Pacing

A number of games currently take advantage of frame pacing in DirectX 12. Total War – Warhammer, Rise of the Tomb Raider™ and the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark also show smoother run-throughs.

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Let’s look at the some real-life scenarios:

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AMD Radeon RX 480 CrossFire Performance Comparison

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You have seen our Radeon RX 480 review, so today, we are going to take a look at its CrossFire performance. For the uninitiated, that’s two Radeon RX 480 graphics cards running together.

You may recall that when Chief Architect of the Radeon Technologies Group, Raja Koduri, first revealed the Radeon RX 480, he made a startling claim that two Radeon RX 480 cards only utilized 51% of their processing capabilities to beat the GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card.

That was later clarified by Robert Hallock as a CPU-limited result. He also revealed that two Radeon RX 480 cards will deliver 83% better performance than a single Radeon RX 480 card.

Today, we are going to check out those claims in a variety of benchmarks and games. Let’s get down to it!

The Graphics Cards

Specifications	Radeon R9 380	Radeon RX 480	GeForce GTX 1060	GeForce GTX 980 Ti	GeForce GTX 1070	Radeon RX 480 CrossFire
Textures Per Clock	112	144	80	176	120	288
Pixels Per Clock	32	32	48	96	64	64
Clock Speed	970 MHz	1120 – 1266 MHz	1506 – 1708 MHz	1000 – 1075 MHz	1506 – 1683 MHz	1120 – 1266 MHz
Texture Fill Rate	108.6 GT/s	161.3 – 182.3 GT/s	120.5 – 136.6 GT/s	176.0 – 189.2 GT/s	180.7 – 202.0 GT/s	322.6 – 364.6 GT/s
Pixel Fill Rate	31.0 GP/s	35.8 – 40.5 GP/s	72.3 – 82.0 GP/s	96.0 – 104.5 GP/s	96.4 – 107.7 GP/s	71.7 – 81.0 GP/s
Graphics Memory	4 GB GDDR5	8 GB GDDR5	6 GB GDDR5	6 GB GDDR5	8 GB GDDR5	16 GB GDDR5 (8 GB effective)
Memory Bus Width	256-bits	256-bits	192-bits	384-bits	256-bits	256-bits x 2
Memory Speed	1425 MHz	1750 MHz	2000 MHz	1752.5 MHz	2000 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory Bandwidth	182.4 GB/s	224.0 GB/s	192.0 GB/s	336.5 GB/s	256.0 GB/s	448.0 GB/s
TDP	190 W	150 W	120 W	250 W	150 W	300 W

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Benchmarking Notes

Our graphics benchmarking test bed has the following specifications :

Operating System : Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit

Processor : Intel Core i7 6700K processor running at 4.0 GHz

Motherboard : ASRock Z170 Extreme4

Memory : 8 GB DDR4-2133 memory (dual-channel)

Storage : 240 GB HyperX Savage SSD

Monitor : Dell P2415Q Ultra HD Monitor

We used the GeForce driver version 372.54 for all three NVIDIA graphics cards used in our tests.

We used the Radeon Software 16.8.2 driver for the AMD graphics cards used in our tests. In addition, we enabled the Compatibility Mode for the Radeon RX 480 cards to ensure that they keep to their rated 150 W TDP.

Next Page > 3DMark DirectX 12 and DirectX 11 Benchmark Results

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3DMark DirectX 12 Benchmark (2560 x 1440)

3DMark Time Spy is a new DirectX 12 benchmark that was released just days ago, just in time for this review. It supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading.

In this DirectX 12 benchmark, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was 93% faster than the single Radeon RX 480. Very impressive. This allows the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire to beat the GeForce GTX 1070 by 33%. This gives the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire a slight (5.7%) price-performance advantage over the GeForce GTX 1070, albeit at twice the power consumption.

3DMark (1920 x 1080)

For Direct 11 performance, we started testing the graphics cards using 3DMark at the most common gaming resolution – 1920 x 1080.

At this relatively CPU-limited test, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was 95% faster than the single Radeon RX 480. It was also 31%-35% faster than the GeForce GTX 1070, 79-86% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060.

Note that the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire ended up about 12% slower than both the GeForce GTX 1070 and the GeForce GTX 980 Ti in the Combined Test, probably because it was CPU-limited.

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3DMark (2560 x 1440)

Then we took 3DMark up a notch to the resolution of 2560 x 1440. Let’s take a look!

As the higher 1440p resolution, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was 96% faster than the single Radeon RX 480. However, its performance advantage over the GeForce GTX 1070 and GeForce GTX 1060 dropped to 27% and 74% respectively.

At this point, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire loses its price-performance advantage over the GeForce GTX 1070. However, it still maintains a comfortable price-performance advantage over the GeForce GTX 1080.

3DMark (3840 x 2160)

This is a torture test, perfect for comparing the GeForce GTX 1070 and the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire.

At the 4K resolution, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was 23% faster than the GeForce GTX 1070, and 73% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060. If we had a GeForce GTX 1080, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire would likely be slightly faster, with a significant price-performance advantage, albeit with significantly higher power consumption.

Next Page > Ashes of the Singularity, Total War: Warhammer Benchmark Results

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Ashes of the Singularity FAILED!

We tested Ashes of the Singularity in the DirectX 12 mode, which not only supports the new Asynchronous Compute feature, but is necessary to support the CrossFire mode for the two Radeon RX 480 cards.

Unfortunately, Ashes of the Singularity kept crashing whenever multi-GPU mode was enabled. There was simply no way to get it to run reliably, even though we tried 3 different driver versions.

As our GeForce GTX 1070 review shows, we have no issues running it with single graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA. It only failed when multi-GPU support was enabled. We will update this section when we finally get CrossFire mode running on Ashes of the Singularity.

Warhammer (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by Total War : Warhammer‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

Looks like CrossFire isn’t working in Total War : Warhammer. The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was actually 6.5% slower than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card. It was just slightly faster than the GeForce GTX 1060.

Warhammer (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by Total War : Warhammer‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

At the higher 1440p resolution, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was 7.7% slower than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and 3.7% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060.

Warhammer (3840 x 2160)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, recorded by Total War : Warhammer‘s internal DirectX 12 benchmark.

At the 4K resolution, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was 4.9% slower than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and 6.9% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060. It would definitely be a good idea to disable CrossFire mode when you play Total War : Warhammer.

Next Page > The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 Benchmark Results

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The Witcher 3 (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in The Witcher 3.

The CrossFire mode worked in The Witcher 3 though. The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire achieved an average frame rate in excess of 100 fps. That makes its 59% faster than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, 49.6% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060, and 5% faster than the GeForce GTX 1070.

The Witcher 3 (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in The Witcher 3.

The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire maintained its performance lead at the 1440p resolution. It was 59% faster than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, 47.8% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060, and 5.6% faster than the GeForce GTX 1070.

The Witcher 3 (3840 x 2160)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in The Witcher 3.

The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire increased its performance lead at the 4K resolution. It was now 64.4% faster than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, 52.3% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060, and 8.9% faster than the GeForce GTX 1070.

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Fallout 4 (1920 x 1080)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in Fallout 4.

CrossFire did not work in Fallout 4, at least not in 1080p. The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was actually 2.7% slower than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and 16% slower than the GeForce GTX 1060.

Fallout 4 (2560 x 1440)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in Fallout 4.

At the higher 1440p resolution, the CrossFire mode finally kicked in. The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire actually became 24% faster than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and 9.6% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060.

Fallout 4 (3840 x 2160)

This chart shows you the minimum and maximum frame rates, as well as the average frame rate, that FRAPS recorded in Fallout 4.

Amazingly, when we hit 4K, the CrossFire mode really showed its mettle. The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire was now 62% faster than the single Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and 43.2% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060.

The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire even edged out the GeForce GTX 1070, and beat the GeForce GTX 980 Ti by 8.7%.

Next Page > Radeon RX 480 CrossFire Performance Summary, Our Opinion

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Performance Summary

Here is a summary of our benchmark results. We highlighted the benchmarks in which the CrossFire mode worked (in green), and when it didn’t work (in red).

Benchmarks	Radeon R9 380	Radeon RX 480	GeForce GTX 1060	GeForce GTX 980 Ti	GeForce GTX 1070	Radeon RX 480 CrossFire
Time Spy (1440p)	Slower by 65.1%	Slower by 48.2%	Slower by 45.8%	Slower by 36.5%	Slower by 24.8%	Baseline
Fire Strike (1080p)	Slower by 64.0%	Slower by 48.8%	Slower by 45.2%	Slower by 28.7%	Slower by 25.1%	Baseline
Fire Strike Extreme (1440p)	Slower by 63.4%	Slower by 49.0%	Slower by 42.4%	Slower by 25.1%	Slower by 21.2%	Baseline
Fire Strike Ultra (2160p)	Slower by 61.2%	Slower by 48.3%	Slower by 42.1%	Slower by 22.5%	Slower by 18.8%	Baseline
Ashes of the Singularity	–	–	–	–	–	Failed
Total War: Warhammer (1080p)	Slower by 26.1%	Faster by 7.0%	Slower by 0.5%	Faster by 30.7%	Faster by 36.1%	Baseline
Total War: Warhammer (1440p)	Slower by 26.4%	Faster by 8.4%	Faster by 3.9%	Faster by 40.3%	Faster by 43.8%	Baseline
Total War: Warhammer (2160p)	Slower by 29.4%	Faster by 5.1%	Faster by 7.5%	Faster by 48.6%	Faster by 51.0%	Baseline
The Witcher 3 (1080p)	Slower by 57.6%	Slower by 37.2%	Slower by 33.1%	Slower by 8.0%	Slower by 4.8%	Baseline
The Witcher 3 (1440p)	Slower by 57.0%	Slower by 37.2%	Slower by 33.1%	Slower by 7.8%	Slower by 5.3%	Baseline
The Witcher 3 (2160p)	Slower by 57.5%	Slower by 39.2%	Slower by 34.4%	Slower by 10.2%	Slower by 8.1%	Baseline
Fallout 4 (1080p)	Slower by 20.5%	Faster by 2.8%	Faster by 19.1%	Faster by 27.8%	Faster by 29.6%	Baseline
Fallout 4 (1440p)	Slower by 41.7%	Slower by 19.6%	Slower by 8.7%	Faster by 16.7%	Faster by 22.6%	Baseline
Fallout 4 (2160p)	Slower by 54.3%	Slower by 38.1%	Slower by 30.2%	Slower by 8.0%	Slower by 1.1%	Baseline

Our Opinion

The Radeon RX 480 CrossFire showed great promise in the 3DMark benchmarks. It was able to deliver 93% to 96% better performance than a single Radeon RX 480 graphics card.

The actual boost in frame rate was smaller, of course, due to CPU limits. But it proved to be faster than the GeForce GTX 1070 by 15% to 18% in DirectX 11, and 26% in DirectX 12. Very impressive.

Unfortunately, we do not have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 in our benchmark suite, but we know that it is roughly 20%-25% faster than the GeForce GTX 1070. So we can guesstimate that the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire will be slightly faster than the GeForce GTX 1080 in DirectX 12, and slightly slower in DirectX 11.

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From a price-performance perspective, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire ties with the GeForce GTX 1070, if we only take into account the 3DMark results. It loses out to the GeForce GTX 1070 when it comes to actual games, particularly in games that don’t work well or at all with CrossFire.

As you can tell from the table above, the reliability of the CrossFire mode is still quite iffy. That is really too bad, because the 3DMark results show that the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire has great potential, particularly in DirectX 12.

If AMD can get the CrossFire mode to work in all games, the Radeon RX 480 CrossFire is a great alternative to the GeForce GTX 1080. It offers equivalent performance at a 20% discount (US$478 vs. US$599), albeit with much higher power consumption (300W vs. 180W).

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The Radeon Technologies Group’s First Year Achievements

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On September 9, 2015, AMD spliced off their Radeon graphics team into a separate Radeon Technologies Group. They also promoted Raja Koduri to Senior Vice President and Chief Architect of the new Radeon Technologies Group, reporting directly to AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su.

It has now been a year since Raja Koduri took the helm of the newly-formed Radeon Technologies Group. Chris Hook, Senior Director of Global Marketing and Public Relations, Radeon Technologies Group, gave us a run-down of what the Radeon Technologies Group accomplished in just 12 months.

Then Raja Koduri, Senior Vice President and Chief Architect, Radeon Technologies Group, gave us a 40 minute Q&A session – a rare opportunity as you can imagine. Check out the full Q&A session below!

Now, join us for a quick tour of their achievements in the first year! If you would like to peruse the slides from the presentation, you can check them out here. [adrotate banner=”5″]

The First Year Of The Radeon Technologies Group

Right after its formation, the Radeon Technologies Group dove straight into the melee, delivering the Radeon Software Crimson Edition in November 2015, and then launching GPUOpen in December 2015.

Then in March 2016, they released their first Vulkan-capable driver. They followed that up with the launch of the AMD Radeon Pro Duo graphics card.

Their efforts culminated in the AMD Polaris launch during Computex 2016.

A month later, they launched the AMD Radeon Pro family, featuring the Radeon Pro WX series and the Radeon Pro SSG.

Finally, AMD announced in August that the AMD FreeSync technology is now available in just over 100 gaming monitors.

Next Page > The Radeon Technologies Group First Anniversary Presentation Slides

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Here are the presentation slides used by Chris Hook, Senior Director of Global Marketing and Public Relations, Radeon Technologies Group, during his presentation :

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GIGABYTE RX 480 G1 GAMING Launched

Taipei, 19 July 2016 – GIGABYTE, the world’s leading gaming hardware brand, today announced the launch of Radeon RX 480 G1 GAMING graphics cards that come in variants of 4GB (RX480G1 GAMING-4GD) and 8GB (RX480G1 GAMING-8GD) of GDDR5 memory.

Based on the latest Polaris architecture with groundbreaking 14nm FinFET technology, the power-efficient GIGABYTE RX 480 G1 GAMING cards up the ante with the cherry-picked GPU core, WINDFORCE dual-fan cooler and RGB illumination, delivering exceptional performance and value with style to gamers looking for smooth gameplay at superior frame rates, as well as those wishing to enter the world of VR for the first time.

GIGABYTE RX 480 G1 GAMING

Taking advantage of the renowned WINDFORCE 2X cooling system, the GIGABYTE RX 480 G1 GAMING ensures cool and quietness when taking on the most graphics-intensive game titles. Two 90mm fans paired with three composite copper heat pipes which directly touch the GPU keep the card cool for extra overclocking headroom. The airflow is enhanced by the unique blade fan design to increase the cooling capacity by 23% while reducing turbulence to a minimum.

The cards also feature silent semi-passive cooling as the fans remain off at idle or low loads, offering a complete silent, interruption-free experience during light gaming. The Fan Stop indicator provides a user-friendly, instant display of the fan status.

Forged with top-notch GPU cores through the very own GPU Gauntlet Sorting technology, the GIGABYTE RX 480 G1 GAMING provide excellent power switching and thermal efficiency. The cards are further backed by a 6+2 power phase design for load balance that effectively extends the stability and longevity with lower component temperature. It ultimately allows greater overclocking capability, reinforcing higher, stable boost clocks at heavy load. In case of any power abnormality, the smart power indicator could immediately bring the issue to the gamer’s attention.

The outlook of the GIGABYTE RX 480 G1 GAMING follows the latest G1 GAMING aesthetics with the angular shroud design highlighted by orange accents. The cards bring life to PC builds with their full-spectrum RGB lighting. Gamers could enjoy maximum freedom to choose the right scheme for their gaming rigs with 16.8M customizable color options and numerous lighting effects with the software. The graphics cards also come with a metal back plate, keeping a clean look, whilst adding rigidity to the structure and protection of delicate PCB components.

Complementing the GIGABYTE RX 480 G1 GAMING series is XTREME Engine, the newly developed utility software. Via its redesigned, intuitive interface, clock speeds, voltage, fan profiles, power target, and RGB illumination could be easily managed and customized. With a simple click of the OC Mode button built in the XTREME Engine, gamers can easily overclock the card for an instant gaming performance boost.

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