AMD Releases Statement On Radeon RX 480 Power Consumption; More Details Tuesday
by Ryan Smith on July 2, 2016 5:05 AM EST
Following up on this week's Radeon RX 480 launch, there has been some questions raised about the power consumption of the card. This is after some sites whom directly tap the power rails feeding the card discovered that at least some of their samples were pulling more than the standard-allowed 75W over the PCIe slot and/or 6-pin PCIe external power connector.
To that end, it would appear that AMD's staff is working weekend duty, and they have just sent over the following statement.
As you know, we continuously tune our GPUs in order to maximize their performance within their given power envelopes and the speed of the memory interface, which in this case is an unprecedented 8Gbps for GDDR5. Recently, we identified select scenarios where the tuning of some RX 480 boards was not optimal. Fortunately, we can adjust the GPU's tuning via software in order to resolve this issue. We are already testing a driver that implements a fix, and we will provide an update to the community on our progress on Tuesday (July 5, 2016).
If some of the data is to be believed, these cards are exceeding 150W total at times, which would mean there is either something causing them to run in the wrong power state, or they are just outright exeeding their power limit and need to be throttled back. As we don't do per-rail testing I don't have anything meaningful to add at this second, but it will be very interesting to see how AMD responds next week.
Update 07/06: AMD has since released their status update, which you can find here.
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fanofanand - Tuesday, July 5, 2016 - link
The 750ti was popular because you could put one in any system regardless of the PSU because it didn't need external power connectors. That is literally the only reason. Not that it was a bad card, but that is why it sold so well and for so long.Michael Bay - Sunday, July 3, 2016 - link
>muh future dx12 gaemzI love it when desperate fanatics like you try to feed us the same AMD marketing bullshit only you gobble. We want to play here and now, honey, and AMD just doesn`t deliver.
Morawka - Sunday, July 3, 2016 - link
on a 16nm process and Nvidia did it on 28nm Planar transistors. That should tell you something right therebill4 - Saturday, July 2, 2016 - link
Huh? RX 480 is literally TWICE as fast as the GTX 960, Nvidia's only competition in the 199-249 range...kinda weird to say it's walking a bang/buck tightrope1060 will change all that, but it isn't out yet. Also, if Nvidia try to get away with something like 249 for the 3GB 1060, which shouldn't even exist...then they are a joke. And knowing Nvidia, you know they have a good chance to try to do that (and their hordes of fanboys will pay more for less product just to help Nvidia line it's coffers, it's happened many times in past)
Also I find all the sudden concern about efficiency funny. Pretty clear all the fanboys are suddenly so worried about efficiency when Nvidia has an edge there. A GPU's job is to run games not conserve watts. If you want to conserve watts go run an IGP, it'll blow away any Nvidia card in conserving watts.
As long as a card is under 300 watts (just because that seems to be the reasonable limit) I really could care less how many watts it uses, it doesn't affect me in the slightest (assuming the cooling is good and fans are quiet, which is a matter if engineering). What matters is price and performance, and RX 480 blew away Nvidia there, until further notice.
D. Lister - Saturday, July 2, 2016 - link
@bill4You have absolutely no idea what's going on or what they're talking about in this article, do you?
I'll drop a hint for your convenience... this is NOT about power efficiency at all. This is about poor load-management, which can result in this GPU unevenly stressing the system to the point where your hardware, mainly the motherboard, can get damaged in such a way that you would not be able to claim your warranty.
Now if you wish to continue your ranting, please go right ahead - it may not quite help your agenda, but at least it is entertaining.
Shodoman - Sunday, July 3, 2016 - link
@D. ListerYou should read the previous comments, the discussion derailed towards this subject.
Please do keep your composure, you sound awful when you're heated up.
D. Lister - Sunday, July 3, 2016 - link
"...you sound awful when you're heated up."(wow, sounds like a regular reader... how flattering :D)
You're too kind, I can actually appear to be awful even when I'm not heated up. What is important is that we recognize our failings and work on them. :P
"You should read the previous comments, the discussion derailed towards this subject."
Oh I'm sorry, didn't mean to stumble into the path of your attempted derailment of the topic. Please go right ahead. I will try to keep out of your way.
Geranium - Saturday, July 2, 2016 - link
That's why we see watercooling on efficient NVIDIA card.Yojimbo - Saturday, July 2, 2016 - link
So does them adjusting the GPU's tuning software invalidate the benchmarks published pre-adjustment?Gigaplex - Saturday, July 2, 2016 - link
Any form of driver update will invalidate benchmark results.