AMD Radeon RX 460 Review: Polaris on a budget

[Steve]

The new Radeon RX 460 is also being unveiled by board partners which means it should be available immediately. We have the Sapphire Nitro RX 460 OC 4GB on hand for testing, so let's discuss what AMD hopes to achieve with the RX 460 before we get to the benchmarks.

We knew going into this review that Polaris 11 would be much smaller than Polaris 10, which is a bit confusing given the naming scheme. Products based on the Polaris 11 die will also be turning up in ultra-portable devices as the power draw is expected to be very low and we'll look at that shortly.

On the desktop, AMD hopes to capture the entry level eSports market by providing acceptable 1080p performance in titles such as CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch and Rocket League, for example.

Read the complete review.

 

[Evernessince]

Well, looks like the RX 460 really disappoints. AMD really needs to figure out overclocking on their cards, the fact that it has been nearly non existent for two generations is hurting them.

 

[deemon]

Well, looks like the RX 460 really disappoints. AMD really needs to figure out overclocking on their cards, the fact that it has been nearly non existent for two generations is hurting them.

I'd rather see AMD cards perform at stock clocks better, than hope for some absurd overclocking possibility.

 

[Yattaro]

Why not show benchmarks for the R7 360 in the list? After all it's the direct predecessor (and also my current GPU) and was an incredible budget buy for its time (I got mine for $100).

 

[Edin Hidic]

Did anyone else notice the Card appearing to have a PCIe x8 Pin-out on a PCIe x16 PCB?
I've seen videos of people making gaming Machines on a budget out of old server hardware and the main problem most of them encounter is PCIe x8 Slots instead of PCIe x16 Slots.
If you used a tool, and cut off the extra PCB on the slot, you could use this card without sacrificing bandwidth on those budget builds.

 

[Kenrick]

A great card for that price and 60+ fps for e-sport games like CS:GO, DOTA and LoL and capable for demanding games and great for those making a living as system builders and hopefully retailers will stick to the MSRP.

Nvidia should counter this asap maybe with GTX 1050/1040 but they are untouchable in enthusiast market and doing good with 1060 so still a good business for them.

This year's card releases are really great for consumers. I hope no rebadges to confuse ordinary people and use current architectures in cards.

and I just hope Hardreset wont compare performance of video cards to car's emission testing.

 

[Evernessince]

I'd rather see AMD cards perform at stock clocks better, than hope for some absurd overclocking possibility.

That's part of the problem though, AMD cards don't clock high. If the 400 series could clock as high as Nvidia has their 10000 series it would be whooping some butt. AMD has barely been able to raise clocks speeds since the 7000 series and haven't really made up for it with efficiency. Some improvement in energy efficiency and slightly better performance per stream processor is not good enough.

This card is the new budget king but only until Nvidia releases it's pascal low end. The GTX 1050 will likely be faster and use less power than the RX 460. If the GTX 1050 is priced $125 or less it'll be a better buy then this card.

 

[ET3D]

The comparison to the 7790/260x was a good one. It certainly added value to the article for me, compared to reviews on other sites. Pity it was limited, I would have liked to see if there are games where the difference is significant.

Would be great if you could get a 2GB RX 460 card and run both chip and RAM at the same speed as the 260x, for a real comparison. Lossless image compression is a feature that wasn't in GCN 1.1, and should have some effect.

 

[CaptainTom]

I'd rather see AMD cards perform at stock clocks better, than hope for some absurd overclocking possibility.

That's part of the problem though, AMD cards don't clock high. If the 400 series could clock as high as Nvidia has their 10000 series it would be whooping some butt. AMD has barely been able to raise clocks speeds since the 7000 series and haven't really made up for it with efficiency. Some improvement in energy efficiency and slightly better performance per stream processor is not good enough.

This card is the new budget king but only until Nvidia releases it's pascal low end. The GTX 1050 will likely be faster and use less power than the RX 460. If the GTX 1050 is priced $125 or less it'll be a better buy then this card.

The 1050 will be a $150 RX 470 competitor. It's the 1040 that will combat the 460.

 

[Evernessince]

The 1050 will be a $150 RX 470 competitor. It's the 1040 that will combat the 460.

Thanks for the tip. If the 1050 is going against the 470 that doesn't leave it much to go on. If they cut it down too much it will be in the middle of the RX 470 and 460 but at a higher price.

 

[Burty117]

and I just hope Hardreset wont compare performance of video cards to car's emission testing.

Where is the old rascal? I'm sure it'll be worth a chuckle or two xD

 

[Steve]

and I just hope Hardreset wont compare performance of video cards to car's emission testing.

Where is the old rascal? I'm sure it'll be worth a chuckle or two xD

Retired for now. It will probably take the Vega release later this year to bring him back online. Bigger and badder than ever!

 

[Kingdede]

Sir, here in Indonesia I can find PowerColor RX 460 RED DRAGON 2GB DDR5 for USD 110, what should I do?
Wait for GTX 950 (now USD 135) to drop pricing or get RX 460?

 

[Evernessince]

Sir, here in Indonesia I can find PowerColor RX 460 RED DRAGON 2GB DDR5 for USD 110, what should I do?
Wait for GTX 950 (now USD 135) to drop pricing or get RX 460?

You should just pick up the RX 460. Even if the 950 did drop to the same price as the RX 460 it is a slower, less power efficient card, and the RX 460 will likely see performance increases all this year thanks to driver updates. This is aside from the RX 460 having the DX 12 and Vulkan performance advantage. Unless you think you can wait till whenever the GTX 1050 comes out.

 

[gazmatic]

But a machine with a 470. Haven't regretted it yet. The cheapest 1080 I've seen costs over $600... Yeah... I'll stick with my 470. I am waiting for Zen to go full red.

 

[ddferrari]

Sir, here in Indonesia I can find PowerColor RX 460 RED DRAGON 2GB DDR5 for USD 110, what should I do?
Wait for GTX 950 (now USD 135) to drop pricing or get RX 460?

You should just pick up the RX 460. Even if the 950 did drop to the same price as the RX 460 it is a slower, less power efficient card, and the RX 460 will likely see performance increases all this year thanks to driver updates. This is aside from the RX 460 having the DX 12 and Vulkan performance advantage. Unless you think you can wait till whenever the GTX 1050 comes out.

Where's this DX 12 advantage that AMD fans keep blabbing about? This review had the GTX 1060 ($250) and the RX 480 8GB ($240) in the lineup, and the 1060 won in three (Total War, Tomb Raider, Ashes) out of the four DX 12 titles.

 

[Evernessince]

Where's this DX 12 advantage that AMD fans keep blabbing about? This review had the GTX 1060 ($250) and the RX 480 8GB ($240) in the lineup, and the 1060 won in three (Total War, Tomb Raider, Ashes) out of the four DX 12 titles.

Tomb Raider doesn't have good DX 12 support and it's an Nvidia sponsored game. Also note that only 1080p is tested here, which is what the 1060 accels at.

Now I think you were asking a loaded question, if you look at the graphs it's easy to see that AMD cards are gaining much more from proper DX 12 and Vulkan than Nvidia cards. This effect is less pronounced on lower ends cards but has been proven to give up to a 45% increase in performance on the Fury X. The more shaders the card has the more it can take advantage of Async compute.

 

[Nima V]

I'd rather see AMD cards perform at stock clocks better, than hope for some absurd overclocking possibility.

That's part of the problem though, AMD cards don't clock high. If the 400 series could clock as high as Nvidia has their 10000 series it would be whooping some butt. AMD has barely been able to raise clocks speeds since the 7000 series and haven't really made up for it with efficiency. Some improvement in energy efficiency and slightly better performance per stream processor is not good enough.

This card is the new budget king but only until Nvidia releases it's pascal low end. The GTX 1050 will likely be faster and use less power than the RX 460. If the GTX 1050 is priced $125 or less it'll be a better buy then this card.

How this card can be new budget king when GTX 950 is faster and cheaper?

 

[Evernessince]

How this card can be new budget king when GTX 950 is faster and cheaper?

Do you have any proof of either of those claims?

I have proof of mine
http://pcpartpicker.com/search/?cc=us&q=gtx+950

The 950 loses in power consumption, performance, price, and future proofing.

 

[Nima V]

Do you have any proof of either of those claims?

I have proof of mine
http://pcpartpicker.com/search/?cc=us&q=gtx+950

The 950 loses in power consumption, performance, price, and future proofing.

Did you even looked at the video you linked?! That overclocked 4GB 140$ RX460 in that review is slower in most of the benchmarks and GTX 950 is cheaper too, it's available for as low as 99$ after rebate at newegg.

 

[Evernessince]

Did you even looked at the video you linked?! That overclocked 4GB 140$ RX460 in that review is slower in most of the benchmarks and GTX 950 is cheaper too, it's available for as low as 99$ after rebate at newegg.

I think you are the one who didn't.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...BESTMATCH&Description=gtx+950&N=-1&isNodeId=1

There is no GTX 950 anywhere near $99 even after a rebate. Stop blowing smoke.

 

[Nima V]

I think you are the one who didn't.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...BESTMATCH&Description=gtx+950&N=-1&isNodeId=1

There is no GTX 950 anywhere near $99 even after a rebate. Stop blowing smoke.

This GTX 950 is 95$ after rebate plus a free game.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126100&cm_re=gtx_950-_-14-126-100-_-Product
Please stop blowing smoke and don't waste my time.

 

[Evernessince]

This GTX 950 is 95$ after rebate plus a free game.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814126100&cm_re=gtx_950-_-14-126-100-_-Product
Please stop blowing smoke and don't waste my time.

1st, that rebate expires shortly. Unlikely that you will be able to redeem it in time

2nd, you are taking an example of one gtx 950 and applying to every 950. One 950 is at that price on a limited time sale in only one flavor.

3rd, that is an ITX downclocked version. Not only is the cooling worse but it's slower than every other 950.

 

[sardoq]

Good afternoon, temgo a hp (X3B14AV) envy curved all in one, I bought it for my home for its benefits, brings a graphic card AMD Radeon RX 460 (Discrete / Hybrid) its more exact specifications are:

Graphics Card Manufacturing - Powered by AMD
Graphics Chipset - Radeon (TM) RX 460 Graphics
Deviced ID - 67EF
Vendor ID - 1002
Sub SYstem ID - 826A
SubSystem Vendor ID - 103C
Revision ID - C5
Bus Type - PCI Express 3.0
Current Bus Settings - PCI Express 3.0 x8
BIOS Version - 015,050,000,000
BIOS Part Number - BR18048.002
BIOS Date - 2016/11/23 06:40
Memory Size - 4096 MB
Memory Type - GDDR5
Memory Clock - 1500 MHz
Core Clock - 977 MHz
Total Memory Bandwidth - 96 GByte / s
Memory Bit Rate - 6.00 Gbps
OpenCL ™ API Version - 2.0

Can I overclocking this card with the method you show?