[Update] AMD Released Radeon RX 480 Driver Fix with 3% faster performance And/or Reduced power consumption

[AlTech]

Update 1: 

The driver is officially out and can be downloaded from the following URL

 

http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/gpu_displays/amd_release_radeon_software_16_7_1_driver_for_the_rx_480/1

Compatibility mode transfers power consumption considerably from the motherboard to 6 pin power connector and with it turned off it increases performance and transfers power.

 

Original Article:

AMD is releasing their RX 480 driver tomorrow (July 7th) which will reduce power consumption on the PCI-E bus and it will increase performance by 3%.

 

Quote

Following AMD’s

initial response last Saturday, it has just published an update regarding the RX 480’s PCIe power draw. In its latest update on the matter, the company promised a new driver due to launch within the next 48 hours. The new driver promises to directly reduce current drawn from the PCIe slot.

Additionally, the company is also introducing a new optional “Compatibility” profile which reduces the card’s overall power consumption. This is, we expect, will likely work by reducing the card’s operating voltages. Which resulted in significant power efficiency and some modest performance improvements when we attempted it. We highly recommend checking out our detailed article discussing it if you want to learn more.

The company’s new solution baked into the driver to reduce the current drawn from the PCIe slot is meant to address the card’s PCIe power draw directly. Reducing it down to a level below the 75W PCIe slot limit. The optional “Compatibility” profile on the other hand is meant to address the card’s overall power draw, pushing it firmly below the 150W TDP – thermal design power – of the card. Furthermore, AMD is promising to deliver new gaming specific performance optimizations with the new driver. With promised performance improvements of up to 3%.



Read more: http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-power-update/#ixzz4De1RqJFX

 

What do you guys think?

[ivan134]

3 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

AMD is releasing their RX 480 driver tomorrow (July 7th) which will reduce power consumption on the PCI-E bus and it will increase performance by 3%.

 

 

What do you guys think? Is this good? Is this kinda silly that AMD had to fix an issue related to power consumption on their most efficient GPU ever?

Im not sure I understand your question. What do you mean is it good that they're fixing something?

[AceTaker]

I'm just happy that they're working on fixing it, I don't want it to become a thing where I'm in a fanboy argument, and they're like "At least Nvidia doesn't release cards with PCIE power problems!" I would absolutely HATE that to happen..

[AlTech]

2 minutes ago, ivan134 said:

Im not sure I understand your question. What do you mean is it good that they're fixing something?

Some might argue that this is unacceptable and that it should have been fixed before shipping the product to customers.

[Valentyn]

6 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Some might argue that this is unacceptable and that it should have been fixed before shipping the product to customers.

I dunno man, my GTX 470 never got "fixed", still running at around 90+ Degrees on a stock cooler and guzzling power.

 

Personally I don't care too much about this issue, especially now that a fix is announced for the next 48 hours.

NVIDIA have had drivers that outright killed cards, from power to fan issues; so an AMD driver that lower power draw/ balances it better and gives a performance increase within a week of launch is nice.

[Nineshadow]

3%?

Srsly, they actually measured it?

[imreloadin]

1 minute ago, Nineshadow said:

3%?

Srsly, they actually measured it?

My guess that is to get people who didn't care about the PCI-E aspect to update their driver.

[Windows7ge]

I remember seeing a video online where someone was running tests and his rig would shutoff durring bench marking testing the 480. Kinda shows that AMD doesn't bother to test their cards with older hardware to see how the card might affect a broader scope of equipment.

[Valentyn]

3 minutes ago, Nineshadow said:

3%?

Srsly, they actually measured it?

They always do; both AMD and NVIDIA state in new driver releases the percentage of performance increases in current games.

 

It's a practice that's taken place for years now.

[typographie]

Well, it's good that they've acknowledge it as a problem and are addressing it, of course. But from what I've read the real "fix" would've been to use an 8-pin connector instead of 6-pin. And that seems to be the way the third-party cards are shaping up. It seems like AMD was more worried about their reputation on internet forums than they were to provide adequate power deliver to their reference card, and that's the sad part of this.

 

Edit:

It probably bears mentioning that it's not going to be "3% performance boost and reduced power consumption." It sounds like it will be one or the other. The "fix" has two modes: the first shifts a lot of the power delivery burden off of the PCIe bus to the 6-pin connector, which may then run slightly out of spec (though apparently a good PSU can handle that). The second is a compatibility mode which reduces overall power consumption to levels that the PCIe bus and a 6-pin connector can deliver in-spec, but may reduce performance.

http://techreport.com/news/30352/radeon-software-16-7-1-addresses-rx-480-power-draw-concerns

[AlTech]

3 minutes ago, Nineshadow said:

3%?

Srsly, they actually measured it?

Apparently

 

 

[imreloadin]

15 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

AMD is releasing their RX 480 driver tomorrow (July 7th) which will reduce power consumption on the PCI-E bus and it will increase performance by 3%.

 

 

What do you guys think? Is this good? Is this kinda silly that AMD had to fix an issue related to power consumption on their most efficient GPU ever?

No I prefer it when companies leave things in a semi-broken state... seriously what kind of question is that? Also I'm not sure why you keep wording everything in either a click-baitey or somewhat demeaning way, it's getting old honestly. You've had several topics recently like this.

[AlTech]

2 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

No I prefer it when companies leave things in a semi-broken state... seriously what kind of question is that? Also I'm not sure why you keep wording everything in either a click-baitey or somewhat demeaning way, it's getting old honestly. You've had several topics recently like this.

Click bait description? This is a first.

 

The question was supposed to provoke a though on whether the RX 480 was still worth considering despite all of it's short comings.

[LAwLz]

Sounds good.

Looking forward to seeing their claims tested in independent review tests. If they manages to fix the issue, reduce power consumption AND increase performance in a single driver update, which took them like a week to make, then it makes me wonder why they didn't do that from the start. Would have made the card look better at release.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, LAwLz said:

Sounds good.

Looking forward to seeing their claims tested in independent review tests. If they manages to fix the issue, reduce power consumption AND increase performance in a single driver update, which took them like a week to make, then it makes me wonder why they didn't do that from the start. Would have made the card look better at release.

Power consumption should only be reduced over the PCI-E Bus. Nothing more/less on the power consumption front.

 

I'm sure most don't care about 3% faster performance.

[Trixanity]

I'll just leave this here:

 

Looks like hype is back on the menu, boys!

[Suika]

20 minutes ago, AceTaker said:

I'm just happy that they're working on fixing it, I don't want it to become a thing where I'm in a fanboy argument, and they're like "At least Nvidia doesn't release cards with PCIE power problems!" I would absolutely HATE that to happen..

I can't imagine any reasonable member of the green team saying that, not with the shit NVIDIA has done.

[imreloadin]

2 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Click bait description? This is a first.

 

The question was supposed to provoke a though on whether the RX 480 was still worth considering despite all of it's short comings.

You know it's your titles that you've had recently that have been pure click bait, don't try to act ignorant of that fact.

 

If that's the question you were trying to ask then why didn't you just ask it that way? Oh yeah because you're really trying to start a flame war yet again....

[ivan134]

21 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Some might argue that this is unacceptable and that it should have been fixed before shipping the product to customers.

"Some"

You sound like fox news 

[imreloadin]

2 minutes ago, Suika said:

I can't imagine any reasonable member of the green team saying that, not with the shit NVIDIA has done.

You'd be surprised lol, this is the internet after all

[AlTech]

3 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

You know it's your titles that you've had recently that have been pure click bait, don't try to act ignorant of that fact.

 

If that's the question you were trying to ask then why didn't you just ask it that way? Oh yeah because you're really trying to start a flame war yet again....

My title was actually biased towards AMD................ IT was me being nice to AMD for a change.

[KillDog]

I sincerely hope AMD clear the mess they've made, with this driver fix, and do not repeat their mistakes while launching VEGA.

[imreloadin]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

My title was actually biased towards AMD................ IT was me being nice to AMD for a change.

Hence why I said RECENTLY and not this one.....

[ace_cheaply]

Well, if the 480 was 4% faster than the 970 on average before, it should be 7% faster now to go with the adherence to pci-e specs. I still want to see some 1400+ mhz aib cards and the 1060 benches before I buy mine.  But hopefully by EOL the 480 WILL be as fast as a stock 980. 

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, ace_cheaply said:

Well, if the 480 was 4% faster than the 970 on average before, it should be 7% faster now to go with the adherence to pci-e specs. I still want to see some 1400+ mhz aib cards and the 1060 benches before I buy mine.  But hopefully by EOL the 480 WILL be as fast as a stock 980. 

Most AIBs have fixed the issue by providing an 8pin power connector instead of a 6 pin.