Saturday, July 2nd 2016
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
It's a good reason to wait for 480 AIBs though.They said it should be out by 7th, did they change their stance?I'm pretty sure they boosted 480 at the last minute.
Raja expected Pascal to come at least several months later.
If not 1070/1080, RX 480 would look pretty impressive even at 980Mhz (what Sony PS4k is allegedly using)
You need to realise hardware and software are intertwined on many platforms,intel and nvidia inclusive so a driver Will be fine ty very much.
EDIT: Or this one that says about frequent power shutdowns with older mobos:
No boos and hisses for the GTX 950 SE, or 750Ti (let's not mention 960 Strix with it's "only a 6-pin connector") since those cards have much higher power spikes than that of the RX 480?
Why did no one inquire if those cards were PCI-SIG certified?
These cards are typically mounted in lower cost basic mainboards as low tier card users aren't likely to spend on high performance mobos; why are there no danger warnings, or reports of mainboards getting blown open from these cards?
This card is targeted towards a mainstream market that could probably care less, and are ignorant of the fact. We're talking about a 1080p $199/249 performance/per dollar beast... Not a 290x or 390x or Fury.
Mainstream consumer sees 8.9 review score, for $199/249 it's a pretty obvious choice.
-Plus, on the video i put at #184, go at 27:10 and watch their comments for the GTX 960 power output as well.
I imagine like has been said AMD bumped card voltage to increase yield size for a known popular card and it exceeded spec because of it.Do you have an older motherboard?
Similar to the SMC on a Macbook, or the fan control on the eVGA ACX where it turns off at low temperatures. Having a card able to manage itself is key to ensuring reliability. eVGA GPUs are preferred for my configuration currently because they primarily use the pcie plugs instead of the slot for power.
In general though (not directed at cdawall), just because people care about this issue does not automatically mean we're all nvidia fanboys and want the RX480 to fail and to burn down AMD's offices etc etc. It's a new precedent because the issue was detected with THIS card. It's not like everyone was reporting it for all the cards and now suddenly we care. Since the issue has gained some publicity however, it should ensure that manufacturers ensure future cards stay within spec, which won't be a bad thing for consumers. I for one hope the fix is easy and sales aren't affected to any great extent. Competition is always good for the consumer ;)
960 does not present the same issues the rx480 did.
- not in Windows = No 3D acceleration = no load on GPU = FINE
- Basic Display Driver = No 3D acceleration = basic load on GPU, well within specs = FINE
- Full fixed driver = 3D Acceleration = full load with 150W actual limit or redistributed load to 6pin = FINE
Please do tell me what scenario is not covered. And if you think BIOS has it's mind of its own, this is AMD we're talking about. They made the GPU's and they made the BIOS. Don't you think they know what overrides what?
There are also Linux users using non-proprietary blobs that provide basic acceleration. If a system fires up any compute, you could run into problems, especially considering it's likely to beat any game power draw.
I don't have any evga 'gaming' software' to run, I don't have GPU-z to tweak things, I have strictly the on card BIOS to control cooling of the ACX2.0 fans. If it were driver controlled thinking it was a blower, the 'off' feature at low load/temperatures wouldn't function.
An RX480 trying to pull >75w through my pcie slot would actually start causing stability problems if it doesn't actually cause any physical mishaps from the overcurrent, as is very well documented in eGPU setups already.
Edit: On a side note, this is why the 'bullshit' reviewer bios fiasco is also very important to me. I can't necessarily take advantage of an overclock if it's not preset.
If the 960 Strix does not concern you, than the RX 480 is just fine and dandy.