The large Radeon RX480 test roundup (Update)

Endless Roundup and Depth Testing Many will of course wonder why we made the roundup for the Radeon RX480 only now, or why we did the roundup for the Radeon RX480. have begun. But firstly, we have fundamentally changed the division of labour within the editorial office, as well as new... Apart from the fact that AMD appears at the front in the alphabetically sorted order, we also deliberately put the reference map of the Radeon RX480 first. Although these cards always have to fight with their reputation, worse than Boardp... Better to be really big and just do nothing wrong! The Asus RX480 Strix is not only an impressive visual appearance with three fans, but also a very successful compromise of reason and performance. Why we use this as an introduction to... Noun est Omen? With the Roaring Turbo, HIS performs well at GPU clock speed, but the fans will certainly get a lot to do. In the end, the fearful question remains whether the roaring is now based on performance, noise or ... MsI relies on tried-and-tested radiator technology for the RX480 Gaming X 8G and remains reasonably true to itself. With the clock, the predetermined 1303 MHz sets the boost to a good, but not the highest possible factory overclocking. Additionally... One thing you have to leave Powercolor: you are often pleasantly surprised. Instead of smashing the last spark of efficiency out of the Polaris 10 card, like many others, the Red-Devil has really found a really successful compromise, the Ell... The Sapphire RX480 Nitro+ was one of the first cards to be available relatively shortly after launch, albeit initially in fairly manageable quantities. Compared to the simpler (and slightly newer) Nitro, it also offers a wide-world... With the XFX RX480 GTR Black Edition (BE) we are now testing a card that is almost identical to the HIS RX480 IceQ X2 Roaring Turbo. The biggest difference is in the radiator cover and the installed fans, as well as a slightly different firmware. mal... Introduction We test all cards generally in closed housing and in completely warmed up condition to eliminate unfair differences in boost clock. In addition, all benchmarks generally run with six runs - the first of which is always... Power consumption First of all, we compare all graphics cards in direct comparison in a gallery in terms of power consumption in the main areas of gaming loop, stress test and idle, all of which are in exactly this order as balk... Summary In general, even after the test, exactly the same as we wrote in the introduction applies. Whoever buys a Radeon RX480 will certainly have its legitimate reasons for doing so. But while the differences between the individual...

Noun est Omen? With the Roaring Turbo, HIS performs well at GPU clock speed, but the fans will certainly get a lot to do. In the end, the fearful question remains whether roaring now refers to performance, noise or perhaps even both. As a warning already in the product designation, it would be at least unique. After all, HIS offers 1338 MHz as a factory overclocking and it will be interesting how well this clock can be kept later even under a decent load.

After the restructuring, HIS is now a brand of Pine, which also includes XFX. That's why it will come as no surprise if we keep looking at parallels to XFX's sister card. Despite everything, this card is not a 1:1 copy, but takes out some individual freedoms, even if resources and production come from a single source.

1. External appearance and key data

At 906 grams, the card is not lightweight, but it still remains well below one kilo. With a true installation length of 28.9 mm (slot panel outside to rear edge radiator cover), a mounting height of 13.5 cm (upper edge slot to top edge radiator cover), and a mounting depth of 3.5 cm, it is a true dual slot card.

The backplate also requires a further 0.5 cm of installation depth on the back, which must be taken into account in ITX projects and CPU tower coolers. From a purely visual lynot, the map shows a rather striking but also polarizing design.

The radiator cover made of light metal is haptically fine, even if the installation depth is inflated unnecessarily. The card could be almost two centimetres shorter and thus fit in significantly more housing. If you take a closer look at the gold-colored application, you will also see a stylized, roaring lion. Good or bad omen? We'll see.

In contrast to older HIS cards, the slat orientation is unfortunately vertical again, which significantly heats the motherboard below the cards and does not help to transport any warm exhaust air at the end of the card. At the top, an illuminated HIS logo and the 8-pin PCIe power supply connector dominate the image.

The end of the card shows us three of the four 6 mm heatpipes. The slot panel is equipped as standard in class and carries a DVI-D port, three connectors for the DisplayPort 1.4 and an HDMI 2.0 output in addition to an air opening stylized as the HIS logo. In between there are other small air openings, which have a rather decorative character.

2. Board layout and power supply

If we remove the backplate and the cooler, we can take a look at the board. HIS has left it to the left when positioning the GPU and is therefore more orientated towards the reference layout. The overlong board therefore shows on the other side, in addition to the other larger voltage converter blocks, a rather wide-ranging component assembly, whereby the board could have been significantly shorter without need.

In terms of memory, his, like the reference, uses the K4G80325FB HC25 to set eight 1GB DDR5 modules from Samsung. This consumer memory is specified for operating temperatures of up to 85°C and is operated on this card with 2000 MHz.

The GPU relies on six individual phases provided by an IR 3567 from International Rectifier. The connection to the controller chip is generated at each phase via a CHL 8510 as a gate driver, which controls the relevant MOSFETs of the control circuit.

The actual tension conversion then takes place on the high-side via an IRD 6811 and on the low-side via an IRF 6894. The advantage of the MOSFETs in the metal package is the significantly better coolability, however, the housings are not insulated, so you have to pay attention to possible short circuits when cooling.

The coils used rely on normal, encapsulated ferrite coils, which have been shed in a thin-walled housing. The quality should be rated as rather average, because vibrations are quite audible and measurable as a subtle snoring.

In the case of memory, one relies on a more conservative solution, whereby a phase on the right side of the board must suffice. A second voltage converter, which at first glance is similarly designed, then supplies the peripherals and the controllers. With the APW 8722, these two voltage converters are each based on a simple buck controller, which drives an SM4377 on the high-side, as well as two SM4373s on the low-side, all three of which come from Sinopower as well as the Buck controller.

3. Power consumption and compliance

The power consumption of this factory overclocked map is far above what we could measure for the reference design. The almost 20 watts in the idle are actually no longer up-to-date, but are due to the generously sized voltages and the high idle clock of at least 300 MHz.

In the gaming loop, the card reaches almost 200 watts and is thus already 30 to 40 watts above the reference card, while the Torture loop then measured 215 watts. Much more is not possible, whereby the peak values represent only short moment values, which do not have to be used as a guideline for the power supply measurement, but show that one should pay attention to a qualitatively appropriately equipped secondary side of the power supply (low Impedance Caps).

The two graphs that follow illustrate the course over 2 minutes each in the gaming loop and in the Torture test, on which the respective calculation of the average power consumption is based.

Let's now turn to the evaluation of the flowing currents and they (unfortunately) really have it in them. First, we can take a look at the current flows of the individual supply rails corresponding to the diagrams above.

What we see definitely cannot please in this form. If we remember the launch article for the Radeon RX480, the non-standard load of the 12V has just been set. mainboard connection ensured that AMD had to improve by means of a driver trick. But what we had to measure with this map clearly eclipses this imbalance!

With more than 7 amps, the card exceeds the maximum current on this rail on the motherboard set by the PCI SIG to 5.5 amps by almost 30%! Even if current mainboards with the fourth connection, which is actually designated as a reserve pin, can better split the current flow, this card is definitely not recommended for upgraders without a precise knowledge of the installed hardware.

4th. Cooler structure and temperatures

The cooling concept is simple and conservative. HIS relies on a backplate insulated with foil inside, which has not been included in the cooling concept and serves only for stabilization and optics.

The storage is not cooled via the heat sink, but a separate, smaller cooling frame below the actual cooler. Whether and how the concept works in this way, we will see in a while.

The cooler itself consists of a copper heat sink for the GPU, in which a total of four 6mm heatpipes were pressed, which are made of sintered composite material and in which no nickel plating has been used. While the heat sink on the back is firmly connected to one part of the slat cooler via a plate and is supported by a curved heatpipe, the other three heatpipes transport the waste heat towards the end of the map.

The cooling performance is quite neat, because in the gaming loop the maximum clock of 1338 MHz is kept quite constant and only sporadically breaks down by a few MHz. The reasons for this are due to the power limit, which already starts to take hold in some places with a very high gaming load.

Let us now consider the temperatures not as a curve, but check what consequences the load leaves on the board. With an open structure of just under 67°C and almost 70°C in a closed housing, the voltage converters are even cooler than the CPU, which brings it to 70°C or 73°C. The memory is in the middle of the warmest module, so that everything here acts in the deep green area.

In the stress test, we measure 72°C or a plentiful 74°C for the voltage converters. The CPU is still well in the race with a plentiful 73°C in the open setup. In the closed structure, we can see that the coolers are already turning so high that the board on the base is connected to approx. 76°C is at least 3 Kelvin below the temperature at the GPU diode, which is already quite neat at 79°C.

The cooling is therefore perfectly fine even in the closed housing, at least as far as the measured values are concerned.

5. Fan speeds and noise emission

But what do the fans have to do to ensure these temperatures? Due to the rotor geometry and the number of blades, the two 92mm fans are designed for static pressure, as the radiator fins are quite tight. In order to reach the respective temperatures, the speed must also be correspondingly high.

With approx. 3000 rpm in a closed housing, these speeds are abundantly high, whereby the approx. 2500 rpm in the free construction are not exactly simplish. This also has a direct effect on the pressure level. The noise emission in gaming is almost 41 dB(A), which is not overly loud, but is already clearly audible. However, approx. 200 watts of waste heat are transported away, which puts this into perspective.

The sound spectrum is rather inconspicuous, with slightly lower-frequency bearing noises (approx. 350 Hz) and of course the fan noise (2.5 to 4.5 KHz) dominate somewhat. Measurable were also available at approx. 16 KHz higher frequency converter noises, which are then hardly or not perceived at all by the human ear.

6. Intermediate conclusion

The HIS RX480 IceQ X2 Roaring Turbo itself is not a bad implementation of the Radeon RX480, but it definitely suffers from the inappropriate division of the voltage converter phases, which result in an almost 30% higher current flow at the mainboard slot than the PCI SIG as the standard maximum Specified. The problem has been known since the launch of the reference card and it is therefore all the more surprising that one carelessly adds one more and tramples on existing specifications so much.

The cooling performance is quite confident, especially since the fans still act acoustically in a tolerable frame despite higher speeds. Even the very stable clock, which can be kept almost consistently, would actually be worth a recommendation, if it weren't for the annoyance with the permanent overload.

However, we cannot recommend this card without restriction, but point out that when used, care must be taken that the motherboard used uses all four instead of the three standardized pins for the power supply. If you can't really make sure you do this, you'd better think twice or look for alternative cards right away.

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