AMD's Radeon RX 480 is reportedly overdrawing power from the PCIe slot

Personally I think this is all a non-issue which is why I didn't update my review to include this info.

I just received an update directly from AMD: "As you know, we continuously tune our GPUs in order to maximize their performance within their given power envelopes and the speed of the memory interface, which in this case is an unprecedented 8Gbps for GDDR5. Recently, we identified select scenarios where the tuning of some RX 480 boards was not optimal. Fortunately, we can adjust the GPU’s tuning via software in order to resolve this issue. We are already testing a driver that implements a fix, and we will provide an update to the community on our progress on Tuesday (July 5, 2016)."

Good all I saw last night was people raging that AMD hadn't made the statement yesterday when they said they would (even though they didn't). Are you gonna re-benchmark a few tests after the software fix? I helped a friend under volt his over remote PC last night, since he has a cheaper board, we didn't see much performance loss, but temps and overall power usage seemed to go down a good bit.
 
You're reading stuff into my comment that wasn't there. I was complaining about bad journalism, making this a card specific issue when a minimal amount of research shows plenty of cards draw more than 75W average power or the quoted acceptable spikes of 95W.

Is it a problem in practice? I've no idea, but if so it's a problem with multiple board designs and not the RX 480 reference board alone.

"Yup, not even a mention of the Asus GTX 960 Strix from a couple of years ago which was spiking to 250W+ power draw from the PCI-E slot"

I think I nailed it. ;)
 
Good all I saw last night was people raging that AMD hadn't made the statement yesterday when they said they would (even though they didn't). Are you gonna re-benchmark a few tests after the software fix? I helped a friend under volt his over remote PC last night, since he has a cheaper board, we didn't see much performance loss, but temps and overall power usage seemed to go down a good bit.

This is a bit different that undervolting. AMD won't be reducing the power draw of the card, just ensuring that more than 75w isn't being drawn from the slot. It still has headroom with the PCIe connector.
 
Woo, performance loss directly from updated drivers, everyone's favorite!

Should've been an 8 pin reference.
 
Woo, performance loss directly from updated drivers, everyone's favorite!

Should've been an 8 pin reference.

Why performance loss?
Guessing they are presuming capping the power draw means lowering the perf. What else would it mean? (Serious question)

Edit: Missed Evernessince's post. If they can do that, sounds fine.

Anyway, the retail cards should be what people look out for. It isn't ideal that the reference card has a flaw like this but I'd be picking a vendor card with 8 pin power to have peace of mind.
 
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The only one comment I've read so far about this issue killing a mobo was from some doink who was using 3 RX480's for mining in a **** old mobo which was 1st gen PCIe 2.0 with a not very good power plain design (24pin + 4 pin atx power) it cooked his 24 pin mobo power connector but then that was his fault... My point is don't use this card on a shitty cheapo mobo and you'll be fine
 
The only one comment I've read so far about this issue killing a mobo was from some doink who was using 3 RX480's for mining in a **** old mobo which was 1st gen PCIe 2.0 with a not very good power plain design (24pin + 4 pin atx power) it cooked his 24 pin mobo power connector but then that was his fault... My point is don't use this card on a shitty cheapo mobo and you'll be fine


millions of oem cheapo mobo's out there .how is some person who doesn't read reviews suppose to know this.?
and lots of peops using these for mining no surprise there.This should have been fixed inhouse .not later after selling several million cards to unsuspecting peops.I hope it works out for us fanboys sake.and the people who bought on impulse. and an asus RIVE, which I also have is not a cheapo mobo.
 
Can everyone please look at the context of the over draw of power and the fact that this was occurring in 4K gaming which no one will ever do.

This is only 5w on average and should have never reached the level it did on Reddit as it is not going to kill your card or mobo, this isn't the first time is has occurred in a GPU where drivers or firmware will correct with a small tweak.

Before complaining more about the fact that this is only a 6 pin connect remember that this card is a reference card and not a custom from MSI etc which will come with an 8 pin connector.......... Guessing people are just upset as they did not apply any commonsense when buying this card and just wait 4 weeks for aftermarket cooler versions
 
we continuously tune our GPUs in order to maximize their performance within their given power envelopes and the speed of the memory interface, which in this case is an unprecedented 8Gbps for GDDR5.
This is the same unprecedented 8Gbps memory that the GTX 1070 launched with almost 3 weeks earlier. :D AMD PR fella should invest in a dictionary
 
we continuously tune our GPUs in order to maximize their performance within their given power envelopes and the speed of the memory interface, which in this case is an unprecedented 8Gbps for GDDR5.
is "unprecedented 8Gbps..." already trademarked by NVidia? ;) and yes, I agree with you that amd pr division should have used other adjectives to describe its products...
 
This just requires driver fix. Nothing compared to Nvidia's GTX970 fiasco that never got fixed. And Nvidia still sells GTX 970 as 4GB card, so AMD's Q/A is miles ahead Nvidia's.

I know what you mean, they could have atleast put it as a 9GB card. Nvidia's 970 also didn't suffer from anything besides people who's history was a bit sketchy.
 
All the Amd fanboys are doing over on that other site is trashing the thread with, but, but, but ,the 960,but, but, but, the 950 , iv'e read the reviews no issues with the cards mentioned only the 960 strix by ASUS and that wasn't even the same issue,

."Electrical Karate Chop" RoTf,lmFao ,the stuff people come up with...,
 
On this site, no matter what thread, its, but,but,but ,970.but, but, but, 970,give that one a rest would you ,please,it causes no issues anywhere on any review ,the only issue's with the 970 is its NVIDIA's,and which ever other issue your minds can come up with. its still the most utilized GPU on steam.the R480 will not change this..

BTW. has anyone done any excessive 4k on a 970 just to see if they can create an issue with the 3.5 gig frame buffer? I know my 1600p can use over 3 gig in BF4 on ultra settings.
 
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Does tweek the neurons for distant past review drivers providing surprising results on benchmarks, then the real drivers that users needed for something Besides benchmarks came out and benchmark results fell -- many reviewers would not test the power draw, and Most reviewers will have a top Q mobo, so if the review cards wiggle the hardware limits, would anyone notice?
well, Yeah.. they did. Hope reviewers update their scores/results with the New drivers, lest the 'pop' review board results continue to be posted forever in comparison graphs.
 
millions of oem cheapo mobo's out there .how is some person who doesn't read reviews suppose to know this.?
and lots of peops using these for mining no surprise there.This should have been fixed inhouse .not later after selling several million cards to unsuspecting peops.I hope it works out for us fanboys sake.and the people who bought on impulse. and an asus RIVE, which I also have is not a cheapo mobo.


Yeah I know but how many of those are going to buy an RX480 I would hazard a guess of not very many at all and even if the did I would probably say their system wouldn't stat because they've bought a cheapo low wattage PSU to go along with their cheapo mobo
 
millions of oem cheapo mobo's out there .how is some person who doesn't read reviews suppose to know this.?
and lots of peops using these for mining no surprise there.This should have been fixed inhouse .not later after selling several million cards to unsuspecting peops.I hope it works out for us fanboys sake.and the people who bought on impulse. and an asus RIVE, which I also have is not a cheapo mobo.


Yeah I know but how many of those are going to buy an RX480 I would hazard a guess of not very many at all and even if the did I would probably say their system wouldn't stat because they've bought a cheapo low wattage PSU to go along with their cheapo mobo

this is just the card they would buy 200 bucks.sounds reasonable for my cheap box. don't think big highend gpu will work and too much money anyway.
so just about any that buy a new oem box such as a dell or an HP.doesn't like the gt720 or what have you or onboard and opens the box .lo and behold I have a pci-e slot and there is a 6 pin plug on the oem psu.I don't know shite but that tells me that I can put some sort of upgrade in here .look the new radeon 480 is out and the little shop I know of has a couple ,gets one and it works /works for a while /or not enough juice to make it work/has to find out the hard way,

was me a long time ago, IBM Aptiva E3N AMD K6 266/300 ,opens it up has a pci slot and an ISA slot,I still have a 4 meg ISA card here somewhere. and the rest of the system..My first retail RADEON ,by ATI,a pci 32 meg ALL in Wonder.now I have still the 64 meg AIW that came later..and the Remote .

Sorry, point is, there's a billion OEM boxes all over the planet that have a pci-e slot and a 6 pin plug on a crappy psu.most oem buyer ,have no clue.I deal with lots of them in NFLD, the phone company gives away a box to get you to hook up to the internet,well they used to anyway, lots of those cookie cutter boxes..many don't even know that a full size card won't fit..
 
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BTW. has anyone done any excessive 4k on a 970 just to see if they can create an issue with the 3.5 gig frame buffer? I know my 1600p can use over 3 gig in BF4 on ultra settings.

In the latest Hitman at 1080p with everything turned up it hits the 3.5GB limit pretty easily when playing in DX11, the best part is when playing in DX12, somehow it is able to use all 4GB of the cards memory and this is still only at 1080p resolution. So far this is the only DX12 game I have so I can't provide any other comparisons for the DX12 VRAM usage. Nevertheless I find this a very interesting result, kinda funny considering all the AMD trolls use the VRAM issue as a negative and the DX12 performance, but in reality DX12 allows full utilization of the VRAM.
 
BTW. has anyone done any excessive 4k on a 970 just to see if they can create an issue with the 3.5 gig frame buffer? I know my 1600p can use over 3 gig in BF4 on ultra settings.

In the latest Hitman at 1080p with everything turned up it hits the 3.5GB limit pretty easily when playing in DX11, the best part is when playing in DX12, somehow it is able to use all 4GB of the cards memory and this is still only at 1080p resolution. So far this is the only DX12 game I have so I can't provide any other comparisons for the DX12 VRAM usage. Nevertheless I find this a very interesting result, kinda funny considering all the AMD trolls use the VRAM issue as a negative and the DX12 performance, but in reality DX12 allows full utilization of the VRAM.

your gonna burn ,for that.. lol, do you hear bubbles popping...

I read that when you exceed the 3.5 gig ,the other .5 gig of vram mysteriously comes on to compensate.I guess I read wrong,but that the full 4 gig is there in DX12 is very interesting..
you had to find that out the Hardway .and you use that much vram at 1080p? wow.demanding game.
 
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your gonna burn ,for that.. lol, do you hear bubbles popping...

I read that when you exceed the 3.5 gig ,the other .5 gig of vram mysteriously comes on to compensate.I guess I read wrong,but that the full 4 gig is there in DX12 is very interesting..
you had to find that out the Hardway .and you use that much vram at 1080p? wow.demanding game.

Seriously, I could care less at this point and nobody should really take their opinions seriously either anymore. The VRAM issue to me is a moot point at best, I have yet to run in to any real issues caused by it, some people like to pretend it's a big deal, but those same people think other vendors are the only options despite other serious downfalls that they can't accept. But hey, Nvidia sells the 970 as a 4GB card and it's not so make a huge deal out of it and so on...
 
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