Saturday, July 2nd 2016
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Official Statement from AMD on the PCI-Express Overcurrent Issue
AMD sent us this statement in response to growing concern among our readers that the Radeon RX 480 graphics card violates PCI-Express power specification, by overdrawing power from its single 6-pin PCIe power connector and the PCI-Express slot. Combined, the total power budged of the card should be 150W, however, it was found to draw well over that power limit.
AMD has had out-of-spec power designs in the past with the Radeon R9 295X2, for example, but that card is targeted at buyers with reasonably good PSUs. The RX 480's target audience could face troubles powering the card. Below is AMD's statement on the matter. The company stated that it's working on a driver update that could cap the power at 150W. It will be interesting to see how that power-limit affects performance.
AMD has had out-of-spec power designs in the past with the Radeon R9 295X2, for example, but that card is targeted at buyers with reasonably good PSUs. The RX 480's target audience could face troubles powering the card. Below is AMD's statement on the matter. The company stated that it's working on a driver update that could cap the power at 150W. It will be interesting to see how that power-limit affects performance.
"As you know, we continuously tune our GPUs in order to maximize their performance within their given power envelopes and the speed of the memory interface, which in this case is an unprecedented 8 Gbps for GDDR5. Recently, we identified select scenarios where the tuning of some RX 480 boards was not optimal. Fortunately, we can adjust the GPU's tuning via software in order to resolve this issue. We are already testing a driver that implements a fix, and we will provide an update to the community on our progress on Tuesday (July 5, 2016)."
358 Comments on Official Statement from AMD on the PCI-Express Overcurrent Issue
Anyways enough this is not what the forums for, please be more constructive and just PM me were i can just ignore you for taking out of your butt without effecting anyone else.
GTX 950 running at stock, i.e. how 100% of users will use it: adheres to the PCIe spec
GTX 950 overclocked, i.e. how a small % of users will use it: may violate the PCIe spec
RX 480 running at stock, i.e. how 100% of users will use it: violates the PCIe spec
RX 480 overclocked, i.e. how a small % of users will use it: violates the PCIe spec, probably even more
Simple numbers say that since far fewer people overclock GTX 950 than run RX 480 at stock, far fewer people will encounter issues with PCIe slot draw. Not to mention that overclocking voids your warranty anyway, so only you are responsible if your PC catches fire while you're overclocking a GTX 950. But if you're running an RX 480 at stock and it causes your PC to catch on fire, the only one to blame is the manufacturer... i.e. AMD.
Oh, and we already know that R9 295 X2 plays fast and loose with the PCIe power spec - I called AMD out on that too, BTW - but that's far less of a problem because there are so few 295s and the majority of people running them will have overspecced systems anyway.
What it boils down to is simply that if AMD hadn't been cheap f**ks and tried to shave 2 cents off the BOM by using a 6-pin connector instead of an 8-pin, they wouldn't be having this problem. That's an absolutely indefensible case of cutting corners. And personally that's why I'm so upset, because AMD has, once again, ruined what could've been a great product launch with their own incompetence. Like I said in the review thread, they never learn. That's where most of the concern comes from, because the low cost of the RX 480 means it's often likely to be paired with a cheap motherboard. Think of internet gaming cafes in Asia that are going to be buying these cards by the truckload - how high quality and well ventilated do you think those systems will be?
Funny how you get upset for products you will never buy from a company that you hate because it represents the competition to the company you love. In fact Nvidia fanboys are more upset than RX 480 owners themselves.
Additionally, here's a quote from low-power GTX950 review by @W1zzard :www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_950/21.html
With maximum consumption of 76W and peak at 79W, which in the worst case scenario puts it at 5% over spec in short peaks, and 1.3% over spec overall (which is well within an error margin for such measurements).
Overclocking may increase the peak consumption values, but overall max won't change, because the card will throttle to stay within 75W limit.
It's not about who's defending who, it's about speculation versus facts and numbers. Even if Raja Koduri himself says that "RX480 is fine, trust me", I won't believe it because there are at least several equally reputable and less reputable people who clearly displayed the opposite by running an experiment and sharing their results with public.
AMD's attempt to save money by using a 6-pin power connector instead of an 8-pin, possibly endangers my system.
What you say about NVidia,- (*although i totally disagree with you, because they made a fantastic GPU with +50% performance of a FuryX/980Ti, and you are still complaining!! )-, affects only the GPU itself, and it doesn't places in jeopardy my system.
You might enjoy taking risks about your motherboard's endurance and longevity, but personally, as i said before, i didn't pay near 600€ (*for top-notch PSU / UPS / surge protectors etc), only to let AMD's GPU to destroy my system from the inside !!:mad:
semiaccurate.com/2016/07/01/investigating-thermal-throttling-undervolting-amds-rx-480/
50% performance over GTX 980Ti? I think GTX 980Ti owners will want to say something here. The same can be said for Fury X owners in DirectX 12 games.
And don't worry. The UPS probably will survive.
100% performance at 75W. At that review W1zzard overclocks the card and gets 20% extra performance. Not just higher clocks. 20% extra PERFORMANCE.
Now tell me. How much extra power consumption do you need for that extra 20%? 0 Watts? 5 Watts? 10 Watts? 20 Watts? And don't tell me about throttling. Throttling doesn't increase performance by 20%.
You see, there are many things that the press will not tell you. You just learned about the PCIe bus power draw because the RX480 is an AMD card. If it was an Nvidia card, you wouldn't have known about it.
2. When something gets out of spec, then i don't need neither AMD's or your's or anybody else's reassurance. Out of specs means by default: possible danger for my system!!
3. I'm allergic to the word "will" . First they must fix it and then we are going to evaluate the results.;)
This particular card is a horrid idea for you because even after the software limits the PCIe draw it will still smoke your 10+ year old motherboard, which wasn't even high end 10+ years ago.
...and this:
...and about 28 more reasons in my office - I fix this stuff occasionally, if you know what I mean.
Now, if it came to defensive insults, what makes you a specialist in this area?
P.S. Boards are not for sale! Can trade a Z77 for cheap air conditioning :toast:
LOL
We need to make a webdrama outta this. It will be pure golden.
I have not seen anything concrete that shows that an 8-pin would decrease the draw on the PCIE slot, as my understanding is that is regulated by the GPU itself.
In all seriousness, here is what it boils down to:
1: AMD decided to put a 6 pin instead of an 8 pin reference to look lower power instead of being smart and letting us have the clocking and less problems.
2: AMD needs to release a driver fix to stop the card from overdrawing from the PCIE and either change it to the 6 pin or limit it.
3: Even if you buy this card, your not going to kill your motherboard with it unless you have the most basic/cheap motherboard possible and even then I would be skeptical.
Fact is this should not be a problem but it is. Is it a big problem that is going to result in dead motherboards? No because motherboards especially in this day and age are pretty tough even on the cheap side. I have overloaded a motherboard's PCIE's before, it takes alot to actually do some damage to it. But the fact is AMD was beyond foolish to not only not put an 8 pin, but to let this pass through like this instead of allowing the 6 pin to take the brunt. PSU's in this day and age have an 8 pin minimum even on the most cheap entry level one you would want to buy to support your gaming rig (Speaking ~500watt). Either way though, this does not ruin the card or the value of what your getting, but it definitely makes after market variants look alot more appealing.