XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB Black Edition vs. XFX Radeon R9 290X 8GB Black Edition

[Phaewryn]

I'm a slow builder, I'd picked out a XFX Radeon R9 290X 8GB Black Edition card for my build (a year ago or so), but now they are all gone, so how does the XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB Black Edition card compare? Good drop in replacement? Better? Worse? In any ways different in any inferior manner? Or should I wait for the "next big thing" that is coming soon for the $200-$325 price range? (Only interested in AMD cards)

I'm mostly interested in XFX brand (because you can convert them to water-cooling without voiding your warranty), only AMD cards, and they have to be BLACK with minimal color accents (and absolutely no blue or green). I'm aiming for "black edition" components, it's a theme on this build.

It's going on a ga-z97x-ud5h-bk (black edition, gigabyte) board (and needs to match pretty). There's a i5-4690K running 3.5 GHz in it. I don't have any specific needs (I don't play the newest games, nor have huge monitors). I do need to do video editing in Movie Maker, and need to be able to stream live.

Opinions/Advice and/or links to places that have compared those cards appreciated (please refrain from advising me to choose NVIDIA). I'm at a set limit of $350 maximum, prefer closer to $300, and would be really happy at $250 (unless it comes with water cooling, in which case I can go a bit higher).

 

[Rabmac]

The RX 480 is the better of those two cards. However, if you are getting one you only need the 4GB version as there is little to no difference between it and the 8GB version.

 

[Phaewryn]

The RX 480 is the better of those two cards. However, if you are getting one you only need the 4GB version as there is little to no difference between it and the 8GB version.

How odd. I was going for the 8GB option because I had read that many of the newer games REQUIRE 8GB in order to play, and the trend would be that more and more would be doing so as time went on. I do not plan to update this system for many years after building it, so I wanted to be sure it was up to spec enough to last about a decade (which seems to be my typical time frame on upgrades). I figured, I MIGHT decide I liked playing games between now and a decade from now, and wanted to be sure to build well enough to accomplish that if desired.

 

[spdragoo]

The RX 480 is the better of those two cards. However, if you are getting one you only need the 4GB version as there is little to no difference between it and the 8GB version.

How odd. I was going for the 8GB option because I had read that many of the newer games REQUIRE 8GB in order to play, and the trend would be that more and more would be doing so as time went on. I do not plan to update this system for many years after building it, so I wanted to be sure it was up to spec enough to last about a decade (which seems to be my typical time frame on upgrades). I figured, I MIGHT decide I liked playing games between now and a decade from now, and wanted to be sure to build well enough to accomplish that if desired.

I have yet to hear of any games that "require" 8GB of VRAM. Now, maybe they mean you need that much VRAM to get a playable FPS at extremely high resolutions (i.e. 2160p), or if you're going to play it on multiple monitors (i.e. triple 5760x1080 setup)...or maybe if some game designer decided to use uncompressed 4K textures for every video setting. But no, 8GB is nowhere near a VRAM requirement for any games.

 

[Phaewryn]

I got that from reading various gpu reviews online, such as:
http://techreport.com/blog/28800/how-much-video-memory-is-enough
Many forum/reddit discussions on the subject say it is expected that 8GB vram is the next thing, and it may be required more and more, and since I'm building a machine for a decade of service, I just want to be sure it's going to carry over for the next 5-10 years. I could theoretically fit 27x47 inches of screen in my desk space, I want to be prepared for if I decide to invest a few thousand in a huge monitor (or 3) on a whim in 5 years.

 

[Greeko85]

Vram usage can vary between games-at 1080p most games would struggle to get close to the 4gb mark but there are some that will exceed it greatly. For example Shadow of Mordor @1080p with ultra textures takes around 4.5gb, rise of the tomb raider (dx12) at 2560x1080 (ultrawide) has hit 7.5gb on my 390 and even gta V can at times go well past the 4gb mark. I can't say if that is going to be a trend for games to follow but if the price difference between the 4gb and 8gb variants is small then I don't see no reason as to why not play it safe and go for the 8gb one.

 

[Rabmac]

The Rx 480GB is designed for gaming at 1080p, yes the extra VRAM will help if you play at higher resolution but I reckon you would be better with the GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 if you want to play at higher resolutions as you will have to dial down the quality with this card.

Here are some benchmarks comparing the 4GB and 8GB card: http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2503-amd-rx-480-4gb-vs-8gb-benchmark-is-it-worth-it

I should also mention that some of the 4GB cards actually have 8GB of VRAM and you just need to flash the BIOS to access the extra 4GB.

My final point is that this card won't last you 10 years if you want to maintain high FPS and graphics quality, I reckon 2-5 years at best.

 

[Phaewryn]

The Rx 480GB is designed for gaming at 1080p, yes the extra VRAM will help if you play at higher resolution but I reckon you would be better with the GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 if you want to play at higher resolutions as you will have to dial down the quality with this card.

Here are some benchmarks comparing the 4GB and 8GB card: http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2503-amd-rx-480-4gb-vs-8gb-benchmark-is-it-worth-it

I should also mention that some of the 4GB cards actually have 8GB of VRAM and you just need to flash the BIOS to access the extra 4GB.

My final point is that this card won't last you 10 years if you want to maintain high FPS and graphics quality, I reckon 2-5 years at best.

I'm not a serious gamer, so I am sure that the 4GB vram is plenty, I just don't want to run into a limitation in 5 years that I could have prevented simply by choosing an 8GB vram card. The only game I play is Rising World on steam. I just want to be sure that no matter what Red throws into the game (it's still in development) I can play it at MAX settings with no issues. I want all the flashy light reflections and all the grass textures, etc. I doubt Red plans to add THAT much to the game, but give him 5 years, and maaaaybe.

I'm not buying nvidia. They annoyed me in 2011. Companies that annoying me lose my business.

 

[Rabmac]

You will be lucky if this card lasts 5 years unless you don't mind compromising on the graphics quality. If you want a card that will last at 1080p (will be overkill just now) then you should be looking at the GTX 980Ti, GTX 1070 or GTX 1080.

 

[Phaewryn]

You will be lucky if this card lasts 5 years unless you don't mind compromising on the graphics quality. If you want a card that will last at 1080p (will be overkill just now) then you should be looking at the GTX 980Ti, GTX 1070 or GTX 1080.

I wont buy nvidia. Hopefully AMD will make something better within the time period before I need it. Like I said, I do not think Red is going to go THAT crazy building this game.