Whilst my machine has been out of action waiting various bits and pieces I have been using my daughters system and it is a cracking little machine for what she needs, handles light gaming etc quite well (clearly with managed expectations on IQ and Resolution) but using it on my screen it can only do 1080 via HDMI, to get 4k for desktop use I need to get a GCN based APU which comes with a marginally stronger CPU and updated PCI express to 3.0 etc. I almost pushed fire on one of those then thought you know what the £130 I would blow on that buys a lot of GPU (compared to what would come in the A10 78x0 APU) so it probably makes more sense to do that. Choices in budget seem to be 1050Ti (low end) and RX470 (high end), the RX470 seems the clear leader in performance terms but it is a small case and I am not sure it will fit, I recently ditched a load of 290s in anticipation for the 1080Ti/Vega in my main machine and I would of put one in here but the card was an inch bigger than her lovely pink vinyl wrapped case and she only has a 430w PSU which might mean the 470 is out of the question, typical recommendation is 500w PSU. Due to the age of a chip it is only running then on PCI Express 2.0 and of course the CPU is weak even when overclocked (think I have the CPU upto 4.8Ghz ) but I don’t think it going to be a problem, if we have been fine with an APU for 2 years anything else is better. So the question, does running a dedicated GPU disable the onboard, I would like to free up shared RAM and keep the CPU cooler. Are there better GPU options that are less than 25cm long than don’t need a hardcore PSU RX470 appears to want a 500w min…..Argh and don’t cost more than £150. Are all PCI Express 3.0 cards backwards compatible with PCI Express 2.0? Cheers Sandy
OCUK currently have deal on the RX480 which puts it inthe rx470 price range: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-40x-as.html Looking at the specs of the card the length is 242mm so it would be a tight fit. https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b3849/asus-dual-rx-480-oc-4-gb Someone with more knowledge can back me up but I doubt you will need any more than 400w for a single gpu and that cpu. The recommended psu wattage is often over specced and the OCUK description of the card (which is more power hungry than an rx470) states a minimum of 350w. PCI-3.0 GPUs are backwards compatible with PCIE-2.0. You should be able to just disable the onboard graphics in the uefi/bios when you boot up with the dedicated gpu.
That's quite a tasty GPU for the dough, Good Shout I better measure the space in the case to confirm specs aren't lying
Consider that bought, it comes with Doom which I was going to pick up at some point, I'll pop it in my machine until I get the lay of the land with respect to new cards coming out and it can go in her machine later, will then make a nice little back up machine for me, I'm not doing this selfishly at all
Annoyingly looking for 480 reviews I just found this same card for £155 delivered http://www.awd-it.co.uk/asus-radeon-dual-rx-480-gddr5-4gb-oc-vr-gaming-graphics-card.html Though doesn't appear to have the game pack in.
Unless it is some random unbranded junk psu that came for free with a case it will be more than sufficient for a RX470 / RX480.
No, I generally buy good hardware even when I buy low end, she only has an APU as I repurposed my old HTPC that no longer got used as smart TVs took over and turned it into a personal machine so my daughter could learn to use something that wasn't tablet based, its actually running a Corsair CS450M. It should be fine, casting my mind back I recall when I was debugging what was dead in my main rig after spilling tea on it having the guts out of her machine to test my parts and actually 3dmark benched my Radeon 290 on that board with that PSU and it did not die so a 480 should be OK. Fear the power of the mighty A10 with 290. Completely forgot I did this, so I already knew the answers to my questions....Doh 3dmark compare iGPU vs 290
The RX480 looks like a tidy card for £155 particularly for 1080p which is what it will end up being used on, not so hot for my 4k screens with 4Gb but certainly better than an APU could muster, will tide me over for a bit, stupid Nvidia not releasing the Ti in January like they were supposed too After converting my 290s back to air for testing after the tea incident there was no way I was building them back into the loop not when an upgrade was due as I lost one and a 3770k in the process, plus my ears couldn't tolerate the 290s on the reference air blowers when gaming 480 vs 290x vs gtx1060 290 performance for not a lot of dough
Well card arrived and I managed to squeeze it in, performs better than the 290 but I cannot turn the fan speed down, its lock at 3500rpm so it is going to have to go back
I'll give that a bash in a sec, just doing a driver wipe and resinstall of drivers but it has done the same in two machines.
No joy, tried wattman, msi after burner, and of course the software that comes with the card nothing will stop it from running the 2 fans maxed out. The whole reason I got rid of the 290s was fan noise, the stock cooler on this dual fan 480 is probably quite quiet if there was fan control, at 100% quiet it is not, I could feel my blood starting to boil and the urge to kill people who tried to speak to me was strong with this thing whirring in the background I can see the court case now, judge asks why'd you do it, my only defence would be, the Radeon drove me too it, I'd of course be let off because everyone knows the score when it comes to out of control AMD blowers Cracking performance from it though even though it is pared to the A10. I wonder if it could be a BIOS incompatibility both machines are oldish at about 4-5yrs, one z77 that hasn't had a new BIOS since 2013 and a A88 something or other which I did put the latest BIOS on, with most cards you switch the machine on and they go full speed for a sec and quieten down, this did not.
just a little update to this, RMA'd the card and got a new one, it was a fault, the new RX480 all works fine in both machines and the fans on this Asus Dualie aren't that intrusive at all, at idle I think they switch off, when gaming they now ramp up to about 2300 rather than the flatout 3600 and whilst it is not quiet by any stretch, it is a pitch I can live with unlike the blowers on the old 290s I just got rid off. I may pop it out and see if I can improve its thermal ability with some new paste as I do on my laptops to give it more headroom whilst I use it temporarily before I build new GPUs into my rig and pass it on to my daughter, just trying to decide if I stick with my 3570K or jump on a Ryzen/7700K to close the box back up for a few years.
Glad to hear you got it sorted. The rx480 is a great card, mine are both reference coolers running stock at the moment but I can't wait to finalise my watercooling to oc and see what they can do!
I tried some OC on it just because I can't help myself but could get no more than 1350 core and 1900 RAM, to be honest the RAM may go higher, I didn't try too hard and actually put it back to stock as it's not really the focus of this card, it's just in to allow me to play some RTS and driving Sims whilst I hold out for AIB Ti and water coolers, also allows me to see the what the full Ryzen line up might be like and allow its BIOS issues stabilize so I pick suitable DDR4.
