Graphics Where are all the AMD GPU reviews ?

Hi guys,

I'm in the market for a new GPU next month and i thought, what better place to come to help me make that decision than bit-tech

Now here i ran in to a bit of an issue to make my informed choice. The reviews on bit-tech at the moment are stacked massively towards the Nvidia camp. I don't mean the reviews are biased as they certainly are not but see below for the quantities of reviews.

Nvidia
4x 1060
2x 1070
3x 1080

AMD
1x 480 (stock - no 3rd party reviews)
1x 470
1x 460

I'm not saying this is some mass conspiracy that bit-tech are Nvidia fanboys, i guess what im trying to say is review some more AMD cards please so i can make an informed choice

Im actually looking at either a 8GB RX480 or a 6GB 1060 and its a tough choice when bit-tech reviews show overclocked 1060 against a stock reference 480!

oo i game at 1080p by the way and my budget is around the £250 ish mark

 

If you want right now and for right now then 1060 6gb. If you want more into the future with DX12 and Vulkan 8gb 480.

The Sapphire Nitro is about the most popular card as it's the best all rounder (not perfect mind) at the best price. None of them are perfect though but they get more expensive from there on.

Personally speaking I would look for a second hand 980ti. They were selling brand new last week on OCUK for £300, so should fit into your budget.

 

im not into 2nd hand cards as i tend to keep my cards for a long time (3 to 5 year cycles) so the warranty is appreciated.

 

Then the 480 may have the legs based on DX12/Vulkan and the extra 2gb VRAM.

 

Add £100.
Get a GTX 1070.

 

you mean increase my budget nearly 50% for 1080 gaming ?

 

im thinking maybe opt for the RX480 4GB on a short timescale

The £40 jump in cost for the RX480 8GB just doesnt seem worth it

£200 now then swap again in 2-3 years seems better value.

for reference im using a 7950 and most stuff i play is ok not maxed settings but med-high on everything with 40+FPS

 

Thing is, I reckon by the time DX12 is mainstream, it'll be time to upgrade. Took long enough for DX11 after all! You have a good point about Vulkan, but I'm concerned about whether or not it'll be pushed to the sidelines in the future. I hope not, because Doom runs well on it - better than OpenGL anyway!

Initially I was going to chastise supermuchurios for his response, but then I realised he kind of has a point if you're going to make the card last more than 3 years.

Edit: ...and you replied in the meantime . Yeah, £200 for a 480 is hard to knock. 4GB should be good for a while yet, certainly 2 years as you intend.

 

yeah its a fair point as it certainly would last me a while but i feel its a bit wasted on 1080 and i don't think i can stomach £380 on a GPU

Looking at the RX480 4GB vs 8GB there is sub 5% difference between them and a 20% increase in cost.

Im really tempted to grab the 4GB Nitro+ version for £200 on scan then upgrade again in 2+ years when DX 12 becomes the norm

 

The fact for 3 of the latest titles 4gb is not enough suggests otherwise. Dues ex / forza horizon 3 / Doom all require more than a 4gb card to run the highest settings. The 480 8gb can do so in all 3 titles, the 4gb cannot, can't physically enable the settings requires more than 4gb Vram

 

Adam has already implied that he doesn't care about running things at the highest settings - my 'old' 970M with 3GB was happy playing modern games at 1080p with reduced settings (mainly AA).

At the risk of getting hounded by angry forumites, the 1060 3GB can be had for £185...though the extra £15 for the extra GB VRAM and better performance of the 480 is more than certainly worth it.

 

what FPS does the 8GB version get ? on those settings cause if there not playable then its mute point.

I also dont tend to play FPS or the latest AAA titles. I prefer my strategies, RTS, RPGs etc

I think the most demanding game i have is probably fallout 4

 

In which case, you may appreciate this:

 

took the plunge bought the RX480 4GB

got the Sapphire NITRO+ one on scan for £199.99

Looking at several different websites and their benchmarks 4GB vs 8GB shows a sub 5% difference. if you push the memory at bit more the difference is almost zero for anything in 1080.

 

just seen yet another review for 1080 on bit-tech and i forgot to mention the Titan X.

guys - are you just not receiving AMD review samples ?

 

I think it's mostly that this is an enthusiast community which leads more to the high end eye candy, mid range is definitely an option but the focus atm is 1070 and 1080, AMD don't really have an option at that level

 

If you plan on playing the best graphical games on ultra settings, then yes.

 

Problem is doing more than one review per AMD gpu would result in very boring reviews as there aren't really any with a relevant oc from the manufacturers and the coolers are just copy pasted from other cards.

Take the 1080 Strix review from today for example, that card has an 11% factory oc, so it actually performs differently from the stock model, but the different AMD cards are all so similar in clock speeds between different aftermarket versions based on the same gpu that the test results would be an assortment of equal graphs and the cooler performance can be extrapolated from the Nvidia equivalents anyway.

 

Guru3d had a post on there forums regarding this, they have recieved every nvidia card to test and have done so. AMD cards are supplied by the 3rd party manufactures usaully just the best card from the product stack is tested.

Palit has 9 versions of the 1060 , 1070 , 1080 available to buy, They have reviewed all 9 versions.

 

Install the Sapphire TRIXX software after you get the card, it gives you a lot of options to overclock and monitor the card.
First thing I did was change the fan curve, automatic one does have fan stop, but it does tend to get a bit loud when the fans start to ramp up.
Either use fixed rpm (27% works for me in terms of noise and max temp was 69, but your mileage may vary) or a custom curve.