Wednesday, July 6th 2016
AMD Updates its Statement on Radeon RX 480 Power Draw Controversy
AMD today provided an update on how it is addressing the Radeon RX 480 power-draw controversy. The company stated that it has assembled a worldwide team of developers to put together a driver update that lowers power-draw from the PCIe slot, with minimal performance impact. This driver will be labeled the Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1, and will be released in the next 2 days (before weekend). This fix will be called the "Compatibility" toggle in the Global Settings of the Radeon Settings app, which will be disabled by default. So AMD is giving users a fix, at the same time, isn't making a section of users feel like the card has been gimped with a driver update. The drivers will also improve game-specific performance by up to 3 percent.The statement by AMD follows.
We promised an update today (July 5, 2016) following concerns around the Radeon RX 480 drawing excess current from the PCIe bus. Although we are confident that the levels of reported power draws by the Radeon RX 480 do not pose a risk of damage to motherboards or other PC components based on expected usage, we are serious about addressing this topic and allaying outstanding concerns. Towards that end, we assembled a worldwide team this past weekend to investigate and develop a driver update to improve the power draw. We're pleased to report that this driver-Radeon Software 16.7.1-is now undergoing final testing and will be released to the public in the next 48 hours.
In this driver we've implemented a change to address power distribution on the Radeon RX 480 - this change will lower current drawn from the PCIe bus.
Separately, we've also included an option to reduce total power with minimal performance impact. Users will find this as the "compatibility" UI toggle in the Global Settings menu of Radeon Settings. This toggle is "off" by default.
Finally, we've implemented a collection of performance improvements for the Polaris architecture that yield performance uplifts in popular game titles of up to 3%. These optimizations are designed to improve the performance of the Radeon RX 480, and should substantially offset the performance impact for users who choose to activate the "compatibility" toggle.
AMD is committed to delivering high quality and high performance products, and we'll continue to provide users with more control over their product's performance and efficiency. We appreciate all the feedback so far, and we'll continue to bring further performance and performance/W optimizations to the Radeon RX 480.
77 Comments on AMD Updates its Statement on Radeon RX 480 Power Draw Controversy
I read 3%.. 3% of what? Seems deliberately vague.
So basically they get to loose what % to gain 3%? lol..
I think this is going to hurt the card.
"In this driver we've implemented a change to address power distribution on the Radeon RX 480 - this change will lower current drawn from the PCIe bus.
Separately, we've also included an option to reduce total power with minimal performance impact."
So am I misunderstanding this?
That to me says, it WILL affect performance if you use that toggle..
Otherwise, why stress "with minimal performance impact"?
"should substantially offset the performance impact for users who choose to activate the "compatibility" toggle."
Clear as day.. Using that toggle, will affect performance.
"substantially offset"? How can you get a "substantial" number from 3%?..
Seems they are referring to something else, again intentionally vague..
Something just doesn't add up to me.. Why put something in that will decrease performance? Seems like a necessary evil, to offset the overdraw problem, that they can't fully fix.
My point being. It could increase 3%, but drop 6% from the "fixes".
So potentially, you lost 3% and gained nothing. I hope that's not the case but I don't trust vague explanations.
But let's not burn AMD to the stake just yet and wait to see what's the impact of their fix first.
We still do not know how the base fix will improve the power distribution and the 3% performance gain on "some titles" should be on top of the current performance if you chose not to enable the lower power mode.
Driver improvements come on all cards, those are secondary and not even worth mentioning imo..
That's a diversionary tactic, to draw attention away from the base loss of performance, these cards will likely get...
When they use words like "Substantial" you may need to be concerned... Because that generally means something took a substantial hit.
And now we wait for benches.. Fingers crossed. I hope it's not bad for ATI users.
once new driver is out i think wizzard will re-test the card and we'll know all ,power draw from pcie , performance loss/gain...
If a fuse was used, it would simply blow at some point and would need to be replaced. Apart from interrupting usage (gaming or otherwise), you'd have to have a stock of fuses to hand. Unacceptable.
The other option is OCP (over-current protection) which is already present for USB ports on better motherboards, to prevent damage from shorted pins on the USB port due to damage, for example. But USB is easier to deal with as there's not much room for variance in power draw, plus you can individually switch off certain hubs as opposed to the entire system, thus leaving some of the unaffected USB ports functional and the system running.
An OCP circuit for the PCI-E slot power would need to be very robust and able to allow for transient spikes but react to subtle overdraws meaning it would have to be a DSP + precise measurements tool, which even the $600+ motherboards don't have for CPU VRM monitoring (hence the usage of multimeters and the exposed measurement points for OC-ers).
The whole issue was raised exactly because the motherboard is obligated to deliver as much current as is asked of it, until it gives out and breaks. Or until something else relying on +12V being supplied by the motherboard stops accepting the lowered voltage due to increased current draw, eventually.
I feel I need to stress that the issue as it is without being fixed wouldn't cause any damage in the short term, that's for sure (assuming only one card is used). Multiple cards without an additional power connector on the board itself or given enough time (perhaps on the order of years of usage, it's really hard to say but wouldn't be less than a couple of months given no preexisting problems) with a single card, issues should realistically arise.
Either way, it's much more prudent and pragmatic to simply adhere to the spec.
Is it so had to stop speculating and wait a few days for a retest instead? Yeah, well, when I have to choose between slightly less performance and running my motherboard outside specs, I have no option. But maybe it's just me.
They could just enable this by default, work a bit harder on drivers and negate the "loss" entirely by introducing huge gains. Not sure why they even made it optional. But I guess they want to give users options, which is fine as well.
However, when MSI and Asus sent samples for review running at tens of MHz higher than the retail cards, they were called out for it. By going outside specs, AMD is essentially doing the same, so they deserve the same treatment.
And now, let's just sit back and see how this unfolds.
The toggle is off by default, so reviewers would have to re-run the card not in the default setting, which they never do. But no doubt they will this time because of the beatup around this issue
Like I said from the start this whole issue is a beatup. AMD is saying what I said, they are confident the power draw will not damage hardware.
Hardware specs are waaaay on the conservative side. Thats why we can overclock the crap out of our computers and not do damage. The PCI-E spec is designed to handle more than 75 Watt reference spec. Much more. Same with the 6 pin and 8 pin plugs, they can handle double the power of the spec.
If people think an extra 10% or 15% is going to destroy a motherboard, they have no idea how things work.
Plus the board is designed to provide the 75W to ALL slots, so the same way we daisy chained HDD power to graphics cards and fans, the board daisy chains power meaning in some they are rated to provide a minimum of 4X 75W or more.
How many times does it need to be repeated that (according to the OP) this is separate from the "low power mode" option?
1) a fix that will limit PCIe power to <75w. The card will draw the rest from the 6 pin connector. No performance lose should occur.
2) a toggle that will limit the power draw to 150w total. This will likely lower performance but it's manageable if you undervolt the card.
Thankfully for AMD the VRM controller allows for this fine grained control, otherwise they would be in a lot of trouble
The only sane thing to do is make the thing draw 150W as advertised.