AMD Radeon RX 460 Review

Ashes of the Singularity, Doom, GTA V & Hitman

Ashes of the Singularity – DX12

Sapphire’s overclocked Nitro RX 460 operates at a maximum boost clock 16% higher than Gigabyte’s overclocked HD 7790. It also boasts twice the GDDR5 memory operating at 7 Gb/s (versus the older Radeon’s 6 Gb/s memory). Yet, RX 460 enjoys an almost 32% average frame rate advantage. Then again, AMD did tell us that improvements to its fourth-gen GCN design have up to a 15% impact on their own.

The tuned RX 460 behaves a lot like Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 760 in this benchmark. Unfortunately, those are no longer available, so we can’t compare their value. But the GeForce GTX 750 Ti is still available in limited quantities, and it sells for around $120. That’s a 32% performance lead in favor of AMD for $10 less.

Doom - Vulkan

AMD’s GCN architecture looks even better in Doom, using the game’s High quality preset. The Radeon RX 470 we just reviewed naturally takes a commanding first-place finish, and it’s followed by the RX 460.

Sapphire’s RX 460 sample now leads the HD 7790, which also boasts 896 Stream processors, 56 texture units, and 16 ROPs, by about 38%. It’s an astounding 80% faster than Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 750 Ti, too. Again, that card is more expensive than AMD’s suggested price (although the Sapphire card we’re testing will likely cost more).

GTA V – DX11

Though AMD fares well in AotS (DX12) and Doom (Vulkan), its performance in GTA V (DX11) isn’t as impressive, even if there are still interesting results to report on.

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 950 closes much of the gap with Radeon RX 470, though it still can’t catch the 4GB Polaris-based card. Radeon RX 460 leads the HD 7790 by 23% (more in-line with its clock rate and memory bandwidth advantage than the last two games we benchmarked). An average frame rate 12% higher than Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 750 Ti cements RX 460’s strong showing in Grand Theft Auto, particularly since the GTX 750 Ti costs more.

Hitman – DX12

Switching back to DirectX 12, the Radeon RX 460 again leaps ahead of several more expensive graphics cards. Simultaneously, it establishes a 40% lead over the Radeon HD 7790 and a 65% advantage over Nvidia’s still-available GeForce GTX 750 Ti.


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Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
  • chaosmassive
    oh, you already such small chip
    why is that disabled CU?
    Reply
  • gdmaclew
    Just curious as to why you are showing a link to Newegg for the AMD FX-8370 at $169.99? The actual price for that CPU at Newegg has been $189.99 for the past week.

    Edit: Should have thanked the authors for their excellent review first. Well done.
    Reply
  • AndrewJacksonZA
    Thanks for the review Chris and Igor, I've been waiting for this one! Nicely structured, logical, easy to follow. :-)

    I agree with your conclusion: I've been looking for a replacement for my 6670 1GB DDR3 that I picked up in 2012 for $65 and this looks good. I was, however, expecting to see a MSRP of between $85 and $100.

    Thanks again,
    Andrew
    Reply
  • CaptainTom
    CURB STOMP!

    Very relieved this performed better than those leaked benchmarks. So it is indeed a 70w 7870 for $110.

    The are already sold out btw lol
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    The only one available is a Sapphire RX 460 and it is $170 on Amazon (it's also on Newegg but is sold out). So the RX 460 is being priced what the RX 470 was supposed to be. And the RX 470 is being priced what the RX 480 was supposed to be.

    Am I the only one having trouble figuring out where this sits performance-wise? It seems to be all over the place from game to game. CaptainTom, not sold out yet, 12 in stock https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-NITRO-Graphics-11257-02-20G/dp/B01J1M4HDS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470662745&sr=8-2&keywords=rx+460

    Also, these Asus coolers suck. I'm definitely not going to be recommending any Asus card this generation.
    Reply
  • rush21hit
    This is it. For an entry-level and low powered $100 card at this caliber nVidia can't touch this. This is the winning chip.

    If there will ever be cutdown 1060 with 3B as planned, knowing nVidia, it won't even come near this price.
    Reply
  • AndrewJacksonZA
    18404296 said:
    Am I the only one having trouble figuring out where this site performance-wise?
    I think that there's one very big thing that the RX 460 has in it's favour over it's older brethren: the new APIs.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    18404342 said:
    This is it. For an entry-level and low powered $100 card at this caliber nVidia can't touch this. This is the winning chip.

    If there will ever be cutdown 1060 with 3B as planned, knowing nVidia, it won't even come near this price.

    The 1060 is whoppingly better. Why would it ever come to this price? Pinch me also if you honestly see an RX 460 for $110.
    Reply
  • envy14tpe
    Major gap between 470 and 460. Kinda weird. I was expecting more from the 460.
    Reply
  • AndrewJacksonZA
    18404369 said:
    18404342 said:
    This is it. For an entry-level and low powered $100 card at this caliber nVidia can't touch this. This is the winning chip.

    If there will ever be cutdown 1060 with 3B as planned, knowing nVidia, it won't even come near this price.

    The 1060 is whoppingly better. Why would it ever come to this price? Pinch me also if you honestly see an RX 460 for $110.
    I think rush21hit was talking about the rumoured 3GB 1060 which was supposed to be "severely cut down," to put it mildly, not the real, actual 1060 which is in a whole different class. One can almost buy 3x 460s for 1x 1060.

    Having said that... Let's just wait for the 1050 and 1040 to drop before we declare an absolute winner in this price segment, shall we? But right now, you are correct rush21hit, Nvidia has nothing to compete in this price range. I look forward to seeing the changed Best Graphics Cards for the Money article. ;-)
    Reply