AMD Radeon RX 480 Graphics Card Roundup

By Igor Wallossek
published

1080p Game Benchmarks

We test every card after a suitable warm-up period to avoid unfair differences in boost frequencies. All benchmarks are run six times; the first one is used to get the GPU hot again.

These cards are all press samples operating at the same settings as retail models in our best effort to ensure one vendor doesn't get a leg up on another using non-representative clock rates.

The following two pages cover the resolutions we consider relevant to AMD's Radeon RX 480: 1920x1080 and 2560x1440. Our benchmark suite includes games known to favor AMD and Nvidia, demonstrating the full range of potential performance differences.

For Honor

Grand Theft Auto V

Mafia 3

Sniper Elite 4

Watch Dogs 2

The Witcher 3


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Igor Wallossek
38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • alchemy69
    Not sure where you found a reference card for $180 but it sure as Hell wasn't Amazon.
    Reply
  • artk2219
    You can find them on Newegg for around that much pretty often. Also the R9 Fury is a hell of a mixed bag, Some games its matching a 1070, others its below the 480. Weird.
    Reply
  • techy1966
    I only ask because I have 2 390x cards and I get way better results than yours does here and yes with crossfire off mine is getting better results granted it is overclocked @1236mhz. Heck I just played watch dog 2 single card mode and got always above 60 fps here that card is getting 45 fps..just saying is all. Nice write up though. Just noticed GTA numbers as well and was WTH why is their 390x card sucking so much must be old old drivers I 'm sorry but even with crossfire off my numbers at 1080p are way higher maxed out. I do know I can beat a 480 in everything and slaughter it in crossfire will Vega ever get here already or do I have to slide over to the green team lol.
    Reply
  • envy14tpe
    Hmmm. Is the 580 coming out soon?
    Reply
  • bakko88
    Realy? Where fuck is it the gtr?
    Reply
  • shrapnel_indie
    HIS has been missing from the U.S. Market for a few years now. As to noise, Yes we can measure it, and determine a loudness level, but tolerance is dependent on the individual as always. I still question the price links used as some are unrealistically high compared to the market Amazon competes in (Mail-Order.)

    Was the latest driver used? Was the BIOS updated in every card?
    Reply
  • digitalgriffin
    I am a bit perplexed as to why you love the ASUS Strix so much with a 6 pin power connector. Either it's pulling too much power over the PEG, or pulling too much power over the 6 pin. It really needs an 8 pin connector to stay in spec.
    Reply
  • Nate_K
    WOW! HIS is making cards again?
    Reply
  • blppt
    "Also the R9 Fury is a hell of a mixed bag, Some games its matching a 1070, others its below the 480. Weird."

    The newest generation AMD cards (Polaris) are apparently designed to handle heavy Tessellation better than previous gens, so my guess is that would be the circumstances in which the RX480 beats the Fury. I would say it was the extra 4GB of frame buffer space, but we've seen that the HBM often negates that RAM shortage in many benchmarks.
    Reply
  • NewbieGeek
    Hmm. Interesting article. Personally never had temperature issues with my Sapphire Nitro rx 480 8gb. Maybe Tom's is defective? Mine runs at 1330mhz core 2020mhz ram without drops, even during intense gaming... And I've got a custom fan curve making the card quieter than stock...
    Reply