The Upcoming AMD RX 480 Graphics Card, Pictured

We are less than a week away from the launch of AMD’s RX 480 GPU, and Tom’s Hardware is already testing out the RX 480 and preparing a review. Although we can’t tell you anything new, we are allowed to show you a few images of the RX 480 reference card to whet your appetite.

From the first image, you can see that the GPU has a single six-pin PCI-E power connection. Because the RX 480 requires just 150 W of power, the power from the PCI-E slot and the six-pin connection are adequate to keep the card running. This version of the RX 480 may have limited overclocking headroom, however, so if you plan to overclock the RX 480, you probably want to hold off for AMD’s partners to release custom board designs of the GPU.

Looking at the back of the card, you can see that it is relatively short, just slightly longer than the PCI-E x16 connection itself. The reference card’s blower-style cooler makes the GPU considerably longer than the PCB.

The RX 480 will officially launch June 29. Stay tuned for our full review.

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Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
  • DookieDraws
    Nice looking GPU. I hope it performs very well.
    Reply
  • dudmont
    I think even the most devoted Nvidia fanboy is hoping that it performs well, if only for the sake of AMD and competition.
    Reply
  • Gargamel Shmidth
    I can tell you, you will be surprised how well it performs !
    I have some info from German site forums.
    R390X/980 -> prepare to be punished by RX480 8GB...
    Reply
  • Chookpoo
    Its a worry they don't seem to want any full reviews out before release? Something to hide?
    Reply
  • techy1966
    Awe it's such a wee wittle card makes my 2 Sapphire 390x cards look very very large..lol I see no reason for me to upgrade to this card or cards except maybe to save on the power bill a bit and make some room in my system case...lol

    I am not sure how you edit a comment from here but I wanted to add to my last comment this. The truth of the matter is I think Nvidia pretty much surprised AMD with the 1080 and 1070 series cards because I do not think AMD thought Nvidia would be fool enough to run the new cards at pretty much their max clock speeds with little headroom left for any overclocking. I am sure if AMD wanted to they could have been just as crazy & clocked the RX 480 into a R9 490 at least & traded blows with at least the GTX 1070. BUt they choose the smarter path and are now going to target what was going to be their new highend card to replace the fury but instead choose to keep things chill and go for the more traveled mid ranged market and hopefully they make a fist full of money by doing this and get into a better position business wise. I also have a sneaking thought of that Microsoft may have had some dealings in this because of the revised xbox one 2.0 because 2304 cores seems like a really weird place to leave off with for the core count. I think we might find MS got the full chip for their new revised xbone 2.0 that is just my theory anyways if the xbone 2.0 does indeed have more cores then we know I was on the right path because we know MS is not likely to want to clock the hell out of the GPU to get that 6 Teraflops from it like AMD has done some what with the RX480 @1266MHz to get 5.5 Teraflops time will tell I guess because as it stands AMD has no option for a RX480x GPU if this is indeed the full Polarus 10 chip just saying.

    Mod Edit: Added comment to your previous comment like you wanted. :)
    Reply
  • bit_user
    18170206 said:
    I can tell you, you will be surprised how well it performs !
    From the leaks I've seen, it's still slower than the GTX 1070, though it's also quite a bit cheaper. I think its main competition will be the GTX 1060.

    18170239 said:
    Its a worry they don't seem to want any full reviews out before release? Something to hide?
    No, it's standard for manufacturers to impose a moratorium on all the press to whom they provide pre-release samples. That's why all the reviews seem to magically appear on the same day. Breaking the moratorium could mean no more pre-release samples, or worse.

    The point of this is so that sites like Toms can provide quality reviews that aren't overly rushed, yet are still timed within a certain window of street availability.
    Reply
  • pingu_Z
    I am still using a GTX 670 and it is only this past year where it hasn't been able to preform at 1080p the way I want. This would probably be a fine upgrade to replace that.
    Reply
  • TechyInAZ
    In many ways, this is like the next generation of GTX 750 ti. It's extremely power efficient, very tiny (PCB wise...expect even smaller aftermarket coolers), and is incredibly powerful.
    Reply
  • thor220
    18170176 said:
    I think even the most devoted Nvidia fanboy is hoping that it performs well, if only for the sake of AMD and competition.

    I wish that were true but I've encountered far too many of these fanboys over the last few months, they don't really care. These are the people who bought the Titan X when it launched only to be trumped 2 weeks later by the 980 Ti for $400 less and still defend Nvidia. These are the people who buy into the whole "founders edition" crap that Nvidia has going on with the 1070 and 1080. Nvidia really boned it's board partners by marking the founders edition up by $100 and selling it themselves instead of through their partners. Great way to make money, piss of your fans, and screw your board partners all at once.
    Reply
  • therealduckofdeath
    I swore that I'd never go back to AMD last year when I switched to the GTX 960, because of their annoying driver update regime....
    I guess I have a future in politics, because my body is ready for this card! :D
    Reply