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ASUS RX 480 STRIX OC 8 GB Review

Name: ASUS RX 480 STRIX OC 8 GB
Brand: ASUS

W1zzard

on Jul 21st, 2016,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: ASUS

(198 Comments) »

Introduction

AMD's Radeon RX480 Series was released in late June and is the company's first graphics card based on its new "Polaris" GPU architecture, and its first chip built on the 14 nanometer FinFET process. It is also the first AMD GPU made at GlobalFoundries, which is a deviation from the year-long relationship with TSMC.

The silicon driving the RX 480, which is based on "Polaris," is codenamed "Ellesmere" and is externally referred to by AMD as "Polaris 10". Polaris 10 on the Radeon RX 480 comes with 2304 shaders enabled, 144 texture units and 32 ROPS that are connected to a 256-bit wide memory bus with 8 GB GDDR5 memory.

In this review, we are taking a first look at a custom-design Radeon RX 480 version. This one is by ASUS. The ASUS STRIX series is well known and covers pretty much every segment of the graphics card market. ASUS uses a dual-slot, triple-fan thermal solution with heatpipes that make direct contact with the GPU.

For this generation of STRIX cards, ASUS has included RGB lighting, which includes a backlit ASUS ROG logo they integrated into the backplate.

We are reviewing the RX 480 STRIX OC Gaming today, an overclocked version of the regular RX 480 STRIX that's also available, which uses the same design but comes at reference clocks of 1266 MHz.

Exact pricing is unknown. Graphs in the review use an estimated price of $259, which is $20 more than the 8 GB RX 480 reference-design price.

Radeon RX 480 Market Segment Analysis
	Radeon R9 390	GeForce GTX 970	Radeon RX 480	ASUS RX 480 STRIX	Radeon R9 290X	Radeon R9 390X	GeForce GTX 980	GeForce GTX 1060	Radeon R9 Fury	Radeon R9 Fury X	GeForce GTX 980 Ti	GeForce GTX Titan X	GeForce GTX 1070
Shader Units	2560	1664	2304	2304	2816	2816	2048	1280	3584	4096	2816	3072	1920
ROPs	64	56	32	32	64	64	64	48	64	64	96	96	64
Graphics Processor	Hawaii	GM204	Ellesmere	Ellesmere	Hawaii	Hawaii	GM204	GP106	Fiji	Fiji	GM200	GM200	GP104
Transistors	6200M	5200M	5700M	5700M	6200M	6200M	5200M	4400M	8900M	8900M	8000M	8000M	7200M
Memory Size	8 GB	4 GB	4 GB / 8 GB	8 GB	4 GB	8 GB	4 GB	6 GB	4 GB	4 GB	6 GB	12 GB	8 GB
Memory Bus Width	512 bit	256 bit	256 bit	256 bit	512 bit	512 bit	256 bit	192 bit	4096 bit	4096 bit	384 bit	384 bit	256 bit
Core Clock	1000 MHz	1051 MHz+	up to 1266 MHz	up to 1310 MHz	1000 MHz	1050 MHz	1126 MHz+	1506 MHz+	1000 MHz	1050 MHz	1000 MHz+	1000 MHz+	1506 MHz+
Memory Clock	1500 MHz	1750 MHz	2000 MHz	2000 MHz	1250 MHz	1500 MHz	1750 MHz	2002 MHz	500 MHz	500 MHz	1750 MHz	1750 MHz	2002 MHz
Price	$260	$265	$199 / $239	unknown	$270	$310	$360	$249 / $299	$530	$600	$440	$1150	$379 / $449

Packaging

You will receive:

Graphics card
Driver CD + documentation
ASUS wristbands
World of Warships coupon

The Card

ASUS has once again completely changed the looks of their cooler for this generation, giving it a more plain look that relies on RGB LEDs to provide color. On the back, you will find a sturdy metal backplate with RGB lighting on the ROG logo. Dimensions of the card are 30.0 cm x 13.0 cm.

The RGB colors can be adjusted via software. It's also possible to adjust the color according to the GPU's temperature.

Installation requires two slots in your system.

Display connectivity options include a DVI port, two HDMI ports, and two DisplayPorts. Note that one DisplayPort has been switched to HDMI. ASUS says this is to cater to users who are looking to either run two VR headsets or a VR headset and a TV off their graphics card. It's also good to see ASUS include a DVI connector, something the reference design lacks.

The HDMI port is now version 2.0b, and DisplayPort has been updated to 1.3 HBR3/1.4 HDR ready, which enables support for 4K @ 120 Hz and 5K @ 60 Hz, or 8K @ 60 Hz with two cables. GPU accelerated encoding is now supported for H.264 at up to 4K30, and HEVC is supported at up to 4K60. Accelerated decoding is supported for HEVC at up to 4K60 Main-10, VP9 is supported at up to 4K, and H.264 works at up to 4K120.

AMD CrossFire has been running over the PCI-Express bus for a few generations now. The Polaris Series is no different. CrossFire is supported at up to 4x configurations.