AMD RX 480 Graphics Card

[RedBreastGaming]

Interesting story from WCCF Tech:

http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-4gb-cards-8gb-unlockable-bios-update/

TL;DR - Basically, the initial 4GB cards are actually 8GB cards with a BIOS for only 4GB.

[GT_Dave]

Interesting story from WCCF Tech:

http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-4gb-cards-8gb-unlockable-bios-update/

TL;DR - Basically, the initial 4GB cards are actually 8GB cards with a BIOS for only 4GB.

I've been reading about that too, very interesting. Last week AMD commented on it basically saying that they had sent 8GB variants to reviewers but provided 2 BIOS' for them to flash between, 1 of which disabled 4GB of vRAM and that's where the story started. AMD at the time also stated that the 4GB cards sent to retail were just that (4GB).
Interesting to see if there is any truth in this.

I'm more interested in trying to figure out why the RX 480 is so much slower than the GTX 1070 though.

On paper, the RX 480 is a match for or beats the GTX 1070 in everything apart from clock speed. Given the architecture size difference (14nm (AMD) vs 16nm (nVidia)), the RX 480 should also be slightly more power efficient too, but it isn't... Why?

Absolutely nothing about the RX 480s performance makes sense.

The other thing that's bothering me is the Compute Units (CUs) on the RX 480, 36 on the 480. I can't find any information about the GTX 1070 and CUs, I have found mention of nVidia stripping CUs right back to the bare minimum to focus on raw graphic power. Is this the difference?
Anyone know anything about what I'm trying to make sense of?

I'll be honest, I jumped on the hypetrain for the RX 480, in-fact, I was driving the damn thing, but this isn't what I/we were expecting and I've ended up like many AMD fans, massively disappointed. So much so, I very nearly bought a GTX 1070 yesterday, still thinking about it now actually.

[bo0td-]

I very nearly bought a GTX 1070 yesterday, still thinking about it now actually.

If you're serious about this... just do it... the 480 is still a good card for those on a tight budget, but if you have the money for the 1070 you won't regret it. You mention recording every time we discuss specs, you'll fall in love with Shadowplay (called Share if you run the Beta, and you should).

If you do, I'd recommend an EVGA version. I've seen nothing but praise for the customer service. So many good stories over the years that I wouldn't buy anything else.

[GT_Dave]

If you're serious about this... just do it... the 480 is still a good card for those on a tight budget, but if you have the money for the 1070 you won't regret it. You mention recording every time we discuss specs, you'll fall in love with Shadowplay (called Share if you run the Beta, and you should).

If you do, I'd recommend an EVGA version. I've seen nothing but praise for the customer service. So many good stories over the years that I wouldn't buy anything else.

I'm on the fence at the moment, I've heard a lot of good things about Shadowplay but also a fair bit of bad and nVidia has apparently got a habit of making their cards perform worse over time with driver updates, especially on their "Gameworks" titles.
If I do go the FTX 1070 route, I'll most likely go ASUS, I have an ASUS R9 270 at the moment which has never skipped a beat, it's quiet and appears to be well made. ASUS cards also comes with a subscription to x-split which I get along with really well.

I don't know though, there is something that doesn't add up for the RX 480 and the Polaris architecture. Guess I'm still hoping for that AMD surprise bombshell that will change the gaming world.... otherwise known as a miracle

[bo0td-]

The bad you hear about Nvidia and AMD is usually from fans of the other side, lol.

My own experience of Shadowplay (Nvidia Share) is minimal performance impact (I genuinely don't notice any difference between on and off), I have flashback recording bound to Alt + F1, so never miss anything, Alt + F9 for recording on n off, and then F12 (same as Steam) reserved for screenshots, so I get a Steam screenshot and the higher quality Shadowplay version... Alt + Z brings up the Share interface, where I can upload screenshots to Imgur whilst in game... They used to fail after each reboot, which required me to logout of Imgur, and then back in - they have fixed this in the new version.

Share interface also has Twitch and YouTube logins, but I've not used either. I don't stream, and I edit my videos in Movie Studio Platinum.

Has overlays for recording status, FPS, viewers, and mic... privacy control is an option that allows you to record desktop.

One thing I don't use is the one-click game optimisation, we have very different ideas of optimised.

[GT_Dave]

 Oh god what have I done!

[bo0td-]

Oh god what have I done!

Made the only realistic choice based on the current GPU market. You're gonna be very happy!

[Crow]

I got a 1080 and I also bought the nvidia 3d vision 2 which is better than I thought it would be. I have a new build (July) and new monitor as well and some add on's, lol.

It works well enough but the only real problem is viewing 3d videos on youtube, as I can't with nvidia 3d vision 2. I think you can download the videos then watch them through your 3d movie software (which I have) but that defeats the object of having youtube no?

I'm sure there is a way I just ain't found it yet.