Just phoned them up The civ 6 code comes with the game as well nothing about the battlefield 1 code though, This is the cheapest ive seen and ive been watching closely on these cards for a month.
All comments (62)
ShroomHeadToad
8y 17d1#1
Nice find.
Conall122
8y 17d#2
does it come with the civ vi promotion?
JimBobJr to Conall122
8y 17d#4
Wouldn't bet on it but who knows, maybe
malachi
8y 17d#3
Only free delivery for certain members
JimBobJr to malachi
8y 17d#5
True but then again 20 posts on a forum (easily done in an hour) isn't hard work to save £11 or so
ShroomHeadToad
8y 17d#6
Use the cheapest "Collect from local shops" option £4.79.
mattyboy01
8y 17d3#7
Just phoned them up The civ 6 code comes with the game as well nothing about the battlefield 1 code though, This is the cheapest ive seen and ive been watching closely on these cards for a month.
BetaRomeo
8y 17d#8
Includes Civ VI? Bargain! This is the price we've been waiting for since launch!
informant2014
8y 17d#9
Very good price for the card shame about delivery charges, and with it being AMD it will get better over time as they will eventually optimise drivers and find the true performance, whereas Nvidia put out optimised drivers straight away, so their cards can't really go much further.
mattyboy01 to informant2014
8y 17d#10
delivery is £5 local pickup, i got the insurance thing as well for extra £6.50, my order only came to £220 thats the best i've seen for this card, apart from the reference cards the 'blower fan' type ill post back if it turns out to actually be a brick with a sticker on it
BetaRomeo to informant2014
8y 17d#51
No, no, no, that's not how optimisation works. It doesn't depend on the brand. It depends on the underlying architecture of the GPU, as well as the way games are constructed.
AMD used the same architecture from 2012 through to 2015, and, basically, it wasn't a great match for DX11 games (to put it simply, they eschewed stacking). That's why a 290 was soundly beaten by the 970 at launch, but this year they're roughly equal - they always had similar power under the hood, but it's taken years for AMD to work around its unsuitability for the way games were programmed.
The 480 also doesn't use stacking - so there isn't any further optimisation to be done there. Those optimisations are already done.
Finding the "true performance", as you quite accurately put it, still depends on the silicon itself. The R9 series was always running below its potential, until arguably this year. The RX series? Well, the 480 isn't a high-end card. It's always going to be limited by those 32 ROPs, fewer texture units and stream processors, and the underlying limits of the relatively poor memory compression.
Will we see the 8GB 480 catch up to the 6GB 1060? Well, there's probably even less room for improvement on the 1060 ("Maxwell die-shrink" is an overstatement, but not libelously inaccurate), but it remains to be seen if there's anything left to be wrung out of the 480's silicon.
eggmanpete
8y 17d#11
Where does it mention Civ 6 is included. Not all retailers are part of the Free Civ 6 promotion...
mattyboy01 to eggmanpete
8y 17d#17
i phoned them up to ask, the guy said on the phone it does come with it but lets see, Not BF1 though i think.
balvi
8y 17d#12
lovely price, i did bought one from amazon this morning for 239 .. oh dear, not sure if worth the hassle. . .
nellygtfc
8y 17d#13
The price is awesome if like mentioned someone rang up and it includes Civilisation 6 free! I doubt this deal will be beat.
Sapphire aren't the best for warranty if anything goes wrong, plus you're dealing with Scan, so expect to be waiting 28 days+ Still a great deal though.
richibm
8y 17d#14
HOT!
The_Hoff
8y 17d1#15
Where is Nate? Every AMD thread needs a Nate!
RedRain
8y 17d#16
hmm this or 1070
eggmanpete
8y 17d#18
Yeah I noticed the website has been changed now too!
swiftez
8y 17d#19
Many people online says the RX480 Nitro+ runs hotter than other manufacturers like MSI, XFX etc
mattyboy01 to swiftez
8y 17d#23
it does yes, the best PCBs are XFX GTR edition and the asus strix the msi gaming runs cool aswell, only thing i like about the sapphire is the components on the PCB there better quality overall in my opinion, plus the VRM's have a highier thermal limit of 125 degrees vs 90 compared to most of the other cards. Depends if your doing 4k gaming or not, if not then go for 1060 or 480/70 no point in the extra £200, the 1070 would last a long time though i guess.
Matty1234
8y 17d#20
I'm a bit baffled at the moment with all the product line ups. I currently have a 4gb r9 290. The only card that seems like a significant upgrade looks to be the gtx 1070. Is this 480 worth the upgrade or will I only see marginal gain?
dr_raff to Matty1234
8y 17d#22
Ditto. Someone please answer this question
jsty3105 to Matty1234
8y 17d#26
Google graphic card tier list. There's one on Tom's Hardware that's a good guide for you
DavidP789
8y 17d#21
Will this run 1440p at 60hz ?
rich2086
8y 17d1#24
Was considering a 1060 6gb version but this has caught my attention. Which is better for oculus rift?
It's a pity the old forums went bye bye (or something). I used to have an account but now it looks like I dont so I had to sign up for a new one.
rev6
8y 17d#30
Now I'm tempted.
Lustral
8y 17d#31
If this was the 1342Mhz version i would have brought it straight away. However this SKU is for the slightly slower clocked at 1306Mhz on the GPU. Still a bargain though
rev6 to Lustral
8y 17d#48
36MHz shouldn't make or break this deal to be honest.
rev6
8y 17d1#32
Bring it where?
Lustral
8y 17d#33
Eh ?
neiiilers
8y 17d#34
Hi guys. First time builder here. How do I know which case to buy or processor or psu? I'm sorry if this is a silly question.
If tridef wouldn't add £30 to the cost I'd be all over this
notos
8y 17d#49
I have a 290 4GB also, and reviews seem to put the 480 and 470 a bit either side of the 390, which as you may know, is essentially as slightly overclocked version of the 290. The additional ram isn't really an issue at 1080 resolution so if that's your resolution stick with the 290. If you're running 1440 resolution then a Fury or 1070 may be better suited.
BetaRomeo
8y 17d#50
I wouldn't recommend "upgrading" from a 290 to any of those.
The 290 is roughly as fast as a 970, which is roughly as fast as a 470 (or a 480 on a sunny day), and the 1060 is roughly as fast as a 980. The benchmarks may throw up different numbers, but to the end user they'd all be much the same. A 1070 is the minimum needed to have a good, appreciable boost over the 290.
Syst3mzero
8y 17d#52
the good? the price
the bad, its the slower one of the 8gb nitro+ cards
the ugly? oh man AMD drivers have been nightmarish with my Sapphire Nitro+ 8gb (1342mhz version).
I have never really had AMD Driver issues that I couldn't solve by rolling back a version and waiting for the next release, but every version causes a bug with fan speeds, what happens is a driver issue while playing video can randomly register a sudden 280°c for a split second and the fan suddenly ramps to 100% and gets stuck there even though the temp then registers correctly at say 25°c.
Luckily its half resolved now, it registers a sudden spike in temp and it spins up but now it spins back down 99% of the time.
The card is actually runs quite cool idle and video playback about 25-26°c in a room at 18°c.
Gaming I haven't had it over 64°c and most things at HD and close to max gfx setting it handles at under 55°c.
I did drop the overclock from 1342 to 1334 and add a custom curve which hits 13% fan at 31°c and 35% at 58°c 95% at 80°c to achieve these temps and my case is made of some nice thick aluminium which helps
So overall good card but sudden fan whoosh for a second now and again when playing VIDEO (no problems idle/gaming/web)
TL:DR.... if this was TL:DR for you then don't buy the card. you may have to spend lots of time looking into getting this card to behave and you hate reading.
rev6 to Syst3mzero
8y 17d#53
That sounds like a BIOS issue. Have you checked for an updated BIOS for your GPU?
Syst3mzero
8y 17d#54
Yup, pretty much everything has been tried apart from AMD pulling their finger out their donkey. AMD even tried blaming it on motherboard bios so I have tried 3 different versions of that too, Reinstalls windows/drivers all the usual.
The biggest improvement I made other than the slowly improving drivers is when I switched link state power management off. it shouldn't make a difference really but before I disabled that it used to boost fans when coming out of sleep.
AMD denied this helps however it does as after I suggested it to a few guys in a forum they said they had fewer issues of mad fan boosts and they had different cards (but still oc rx480s) and mobos.
Like I said though its now more a momentary fan glitch during video playback that fixes its self and the card works fine during gaming and everything else now.
brandy360
8y 17d#55
sold out?
chickey999
8y 17d#56
Back in stock again, they seem to be releasing limited batches.
paulod
8y 17d#57
Ordered last night but didn't realise it was a pre-order, anybody know how you will stand with the MSI promotion?
It's still showing delivery on monday though
Sorry wrong thread
informant2014
8y 17d#58
Yes yes yes, I could explain in a tech way, but your explanation is for people who write code, My explanation is for most people who buy graphics cards.
BetaRomeo
8y 17d#59
Your explanation was wrong, full stop. The fact that AMD have been able to improve their architecture over the last four years was because it was the same architecture, and it was so poorly optimised to begin with.
The idea that AMD, or any brand, can simply endlessly improve their hardware - as you imply - is sheer nonsense. Moreover, relating it to brand rather than architecture demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what optimisaton is.
It may have been "aimed at people who buy graphics cards", but that doesn't mean it isn't complete rubbish apparently based on misinterpretations of the tech.
informant2014
8y 17d#60
So the fact that we speak of two architectures AMD GCNx / Nvidia Maxwell/Pascal (do I need that in a sentence) You say I speak brand, Brand would be Asus. Saphire, XFX, etc Designer is AMD, Nvidia etc . AMD compute performance has been superior for a long time. Nonsense is the sheer thought that a designer cannot improve upon a design of hardware or software as we would say evolve to a better design with new ideas. Such evolution of design can be found in things such as Crt screens/LCD screens/ Oled screens/ landline phones / mobile phones / smartphones. Caves/ timber built homes/ brick built homes/ fossil fuels/ solar power I could give further evidence of how designers have endlessly improved their hardware. If you can not endlessly improve upon what you are doing, you are not trying or you are dead. In two years time we will see which hardware design was better AMD or Nvidia, my money is on AMD.
BetaRomeo
8y 17d#61
You just gave a lot of examples of hardware being replaced by designers, not improved (and certainly not improved through software, ad infinitum!). Do I need to explain the difference?
Although based on what you're saying, you're absolutely right - AMD wouldn't be so stupid as to replace their old design with another unoptimised architecture that will take four years to reach its potential, would they? It seems like you've accidentally shot yourself in the foot on that point.
I've provided an actual technical explanation behind the fact that there's not much more to squeeze out from the 480. I dumbed it down as far as I could, but you don't need to be a coder to understand it. I can't code for toffee! I just did my dissertation on 3D rasterization (so, technically, I'm quite literally qualified to discuss this!).
Your idea that AMD will be able to optimize Polaris just because they've been optimizing their old design for four years is the equivalent of saying that because it's been Monday for 23 hours already, it's going to keep being Monday for another 23 hours. It shows a completely fallacious (or farcical - take your pick) reasoning - it simply ignores the idea of what "Monday" (or "optimisation") is. What's next? You're immortal, just because you've never died before?
Worship some glorious magical wellspring of impossible never-ending software optimization of fixed hardware if you like, but please don't make ridiculous promises to other people based on your fanciful, baseless, nontechnical faith.
informant2014
8y 17d#62
What I would then suggest is that you stay on at college/ uni as rasterization hardware takes up about 3-5% of gpu resources and you may find yourself obsolete. Polaris is GCN A house is a house mud, wood or brick, the rest of your statement is just Crayola. And again I reaffirm my point the RX480 is better suited now and for the next 2 years than the 1060.
Opening post
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All comments (62)
AMD used the same architecture from 2012 through to 2015, and, basically, it wasn't a great match for DX11 games (to put it simply, they eschewed stacking). That's why a 290 was soundly beaten by the 970 at launch, but this year they're roughly equal - they always had similar power under the hood, but it's taken years for AMD to work around its unsuitability for the way games were programmed.
The 480 also doesn't use stacking - so there isn't any further optimisation to be done there. Those optimisations are already done.
Finding the "true performance", as you quite accurately put it, still depends on the silicon itself. The R9 series was always running below its potential, until arguably this year. The RX series? Well, the 480 isn't a high-end card. It's always going to be limited by those 32 ROPs, fewer texture units and stream processors, and the underlying limits of the relatively poor memory compression.
Will we see the 8GB 480 catch up to the 6GB 1060? Well, there's probably even less room for improvement on the 1060 ("Maxwell die-shrink" is an overstatement, but not libelously inaccurate), but it remains to be seen if there's anything left to be wrung out of the 480's silicon.
Sapphire aren't the best for warranty if anything goes wrong, plus you're dealing with Scan, so expect to be waiting 28 days+ Still a great deal though.
Depends if your doing 4k gaming or not, if not then go for 1060 or 480/70 no point in the extra £200, the 1070 would last a long time though i guess.
The 290 is roughly as fast as a 970, which is roughly as fast as a 470 (or a 480 on a sunny day), and the 1060 is roughly as fast as a 980. The benchmarks may throw up different numbers, but to the end user they'd all be much the same. A 1070 is the minimum needed to have a good, appreciable boost over the 290.
the bad, its the slower one of the 8gb nitro+ cards
the ugly? oh man AMD drivers have been nightmarish with my Sapphire Nitro+ 8gb (1342mhz version).
I have never really had AMD Driver issues that I couldn't solve by rolling back a version and waiting for the next release, but every version causes a bug with fan speeds, what happens is a driver issue while playing video can randomly register a sudden 280°c for a split second and the fan suddenly ramps to 100% and gets stuck there even though the temp then registers correctly at say 25°c.
Luckily its half resolved now, it registers a sudden spike in temp and it spins up but now it spins back down 99% of the time.
The card is actually runs quite cool idle and video playback about 25-26°c in a room at 18°c.
Gaming I haven't had it over 64°c and most things at HD and close to max gfx setting it handles at under 55°c.
I did drop the overclock from 1342 to 1334 and add a custom curve which hits 13% fan at 31°c and 35% at 58°c 95% at 80°c to achieve these temps and my case is made of some nice thick aluminium which helps
So overall good card but sudden fan whoosh for a second now and again when playing VIDEO (no problems idle/gaming/web)
TL:DR.... if this was TL:DR for you then don't buy the card. you may have to spend lots of time looking into getting this card to behave and you hate reading.
The biggest improvement I made other than the slowly improving drivers is when I switched link state power management off. it shouldn't make a difference really but before I disabled that it used to boost fans when coming out of sleep.
AMD denied this helps however it does as after I suggested it to a few guys in a forum they said they had fewer issues of mad fan boosts and they had different cards (but still oc rx480s) and mobos.
Like I said though its now more a momentary fan glitch during video playback that fixes its self and the card works fine during gaming and everything else now.
It's still showing delivery on monday though
Sorry wrong thread
The idea that AMD, or any brand, can simply endlessly improve their hardware - as you imply - is sheer nonsense. Moreover, relating it to brand rather than architecture demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what optimisaton is.
It may have been "aimed at people who buy graphics cards", but that doesn't mean it isn't complete rubbish apparently based on misinterpretations of the tech.
Although based on what you're saying, you're absolutely right - AMD wouldn't be so stupid as to replace their old design with another unoptimised architecture that will take four years to reach its potential, would they? It seems like you've accidentally shot yourself in the foot on that point.
I've provided an actual technical explanation behind the fact that there's not much more to squeeze out from the 480. I dumbed it down as far as I could, but you don't need to be a coder to understand it. I can't code for toffee! I just did my dissertation on 3D rasterization (so, technically, I'm quite literally qualified to discuss this!).
Your idea that AMD will be able to optimize Polaris just because they've been optimizing their old design for four years is the equivalent of saying that because it's been Monday for 23 hours already, it's going to keep being Monday for another 23 hours. It shows a completely fallacious (or farcical - take your pick) reasoning - it simply ignores the idea of what "Monday" (or "optimisation") is. What's next? You're immortal, just because you've never died before?
Worship some glorious magical wellspring of impossible never-ending software optimization of fixed hardware if you like, but please don't make ridiculous promises to other people based on your fanciful, baseless, nontechnical faith.