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What is the best AMD Radeon RX 480 card?

8

Options
Considered

59

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Recs.

Feb 21, 2023

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

8 Options Considered

Best AMD Radeon RX 480 card	Price	Release Date	Memory Type
-- Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 480 4GB	$229.99	-	-
-- Asus RoG Strix Radeon RX 480 8GB OC Edition	$299.99	-	-
-- PowerColor Radeon RX 480 Red Devil 8GB	$269.99	Jun 29th, 2016	GDDR5
-- Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8GB	$299.99	-	-
-- MSI Radeon RX 480 Gaming X 8GB	$279.99	-	-

Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 480 4GB

Top Con

Power hungry

If you plan to overclock this card you should expect around 180W (almost 200W sometimes) power drawn. See More

Top Pro

Factory overclock provides noticeable performance increase

The 8% increases in both clock speed and boost speeds that have been applied to the Nitro+ RX 480 card results in a slight, but noticeable performance increase. In 3D Mark Fire Strike for example, a reference RX 480 scores 12245 points while this Sapphire card achieves a score of 13298, an 8.5% performance increase. In Ashes of the Singularity at 1080p, the Sapphire Nitro+ achieves an average FPS of 49.3 compared to a reference card with 43.6 average frames per second (+ 13%). In Dirt Rally, also tested at 1080p resolution, the Nitro+ OC 8 GB achieves an average of 85 FPS compared to the reference card's 75 FPS, a 13.33% improvement. A slight performance boost can also be seen in Grand Theft Auto V, with 75 average FPS versus 72 frames per second for the reference RX 480 (+ 4.2%). See More

Top Con

4GB version not that good.

RX 480 with 4GB VRAM have lower clock speed,the less VRAM make it not future-proof. See More

Top Pro

Fans can easily be removed and replaced

The fans that are placed on the Nitro+'s cooler are easily replaceable. You just have to unscrew a single screw and the fan will pop out of the cooler. This makes it a lot easier to clean the graphics card and get rid of dust, but it also allows you to replace them in an instant in case a fan is faulty. See More

Top Con

Produces the same amount of noise as a reference RX 480 under load

Although Sapphire has equipped this Nitro+ graphics card with their own cooler and claims a "10% lower noise production", there is no noticeable improvement under full load. As seen in this graph, the maximum sound production of the Nitro+ OC (measured while running Furmark) is 35.2 decibels (A). While this is fairly quiet, it is the exact same amount of noise produced by a reference RX 480. Testing was done at the 75° Celsius temperature setting. See More

Top Pro

BIOS switch is located on the card

The Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 has two built-in BIOS settings: one for a more silent operation and a boost mode. You could adjust the GPU settings to achieve similar results in the drivers and additional software, but there's a handy physical switch located on the graphics card itself which makes for an effortless switch. See More

Top Con

Very warm idle temperatures

This Nitro+ RX 480 card idles around 50 degrees Celsius which is much higher than other cards. While nowhere near a dangerous temperature, this means that the fans will be spinning more often than other RX 480s, thus producing more noise than alternative options. However, it should be mentioned that for as long as the temperatures are below 52 degrees Celsius, the fans won't start spinning. See More

Top Pro

8-pin power connector allows for plenty of headroom

A reference RX 480 is equipped with a 6-pin power connector, but the power limit of the 6-pin connector has proven to be an issue for the RX 480 cards, as the total power consumption is sometimes higher than specified. The Nitro+ uses an 8-pin connector to help solve this issue. Although an 8-pin connector requires more power than a 6-pin connector, this effectively eliminates all concerns about the RX 480's power consumption and distribution and allows plenty of headroom for overclocking the card even further. See More

Top Pro

Equipped with two HDMI connectors, better suited for VR

Sapphire has made a slight adjustment to the available connectors of the RX 480. Instead of going with the regular combination of 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI and 1x DVI-D, Sapphire has opted for 2x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI and 1x DVI-D instead. The additional HDMI connector is particularly useful when using the card in combination with a VR headset such as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, which require two HDMI ports. Connecting a VR Headset doesn't require an adapter. See More

Top Pro

Features some adjustable RGB lightning

On the top of the card, the Sapphire logo is outfitted with a couple of RGB LED's that are configurable via Sapphire's software. This allows you to customize the look of the graphics card, which can be useful if your setup is built with a specific color scheme in mind. You can also choose to disable these LED's entirely. See More

Top Pro

Fans stay off when idling, keeping the card super quiet

The Dual-X cooling system uses 2 95mm fans which are accompanied by an array of heatpipes. The heatpipes alone work well enough so that the fans can stay off until an internal temperature of 52 Celsius is reached - at which point the fans will kick on. See More

Top Pro

Good price for performance

And the price keeps dropping. See More

Top Pro

Slightly better cooling results than some other RX 480 cards

The cooler of the Nitro+ OC performs well and better than a reference RX 480. Under idle - despite the semi-passive cooling system - maximum temperature recorded in this test was 29°C, which is one degree lower than a standard RX 480. In a full-load test, a target of 75° C was set in the drivers. The Nitro+ card is able to maintain this temperature without an issue at 74 degrees C, while a reference RX 480 heats up even further at 83° C. See More

Top Pro

Good for a crossfire config

Top Pro

Uses a semi-passive cooling solution for silent operation in idle

When the Nitro+ RX 480 OC has a temperature lower than 60° C, the fans of the cooler will not spin up because they're semi-passive. This allows for essentially silent operation when the card isn't working hard and doesn't need to be cooled. See More

Top Pro

Good for overclocking

A crossfire overclock can increase the power output by 10%. See More

Asus RoG Strix Radeon RX 480 8GB OC Edition

Top Pro

Semi-passive cooling under idle

The ROG Strix card doesn't produce any noise at all under idle or overall less intensive situations, as the card uses semi-passive cooling under 60 degrees Celsius. This results in a completely inaudible operation at low temperatures when the extra power isn't needed. See More

Top Con

Slight factory overclock isn't really noticeable

ASUS has only slightly adjusted the card's Boost Clock from 1266 MHz to 1310 MHz (+ 3.5%), while the normal GPU Clock and the Memory Clock haven't been increased at all. This small factory overclock evidently also results in a rather small performance increase that isn't really noticeable. As seen in this Fallout 4 test at 1080p resolution, the ROG Strix achieves an average FPS of 94.9, while a reference RX 480 only scores a little bit less at 93 average frames per second, a 2% increase. Although the Strix version is indeed faster than a reference RX 480 cards, other RX 480 models in the same or lower price category are equipped with better factory overclocks. See More

Top Pro

3 year warranty is longer than what the competition offers

ASUS has equipped its ROG Strix RX 480 card with three years of warranty, which is a step-up compared to the more usual 1-year or 2-year warranties that are provided on most other RX 480 cards. See More

Top Con

Quite long, won't fit in smaller cases

The ROG Strix cooler ASUS has used is equipped with three fans which makes the card longer than reference RX 480. The length measures at 11.73 inches (298 mm), which is significantly longer than the usual 9.5 inches (241 mm). Smaller enclosures will have trouble fitting the card comfortably and in some cases adjustments will have to be made such as removing an HDD bay. See More

Top Pro

Equipped with two HDMI connectors, better suited for VR

ASUS has made a slight adjustment to the available connectors of the RX 480 ROG Strix. Instead of going with the regular combination of 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI and 1x DVI-D, they have opted for 2x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI and 1x DVI-D instead. The additional HDMI connector is particularly useful when using the card in combination with a VR headset such as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, which require two HDMI ports. Connecting a VR Headset won't require an adapter. See More

Top Pro

Features adjustable RGB lightning

The exterior of the ASUS GeForce RX 480 8 GB OC features some RGB lights and you can adjust the color of these lights via the included software package. This allows you to customize the look of the graphics card, which can be useful if your setup is built with a specific color scheme in mind. You can also use the RGB lights to reflect the temperatures of the card. See More

PowerColor Radeon RX 480 Red Devil 8GB

Top Pro

Decent cooling results which prevents throttling

The cooler of the Red Devil card performs well, both in idle and full load situations. The maximum temperature measured in idle was 37 degrees Celsius, which is an excellent result. Keep in mind that the fans don't spin up at all while idling which makes the result even more impressive. The hottest temperature measured under full load using stock fan settings was 76 degrees Celsius, a difference of seven degrees compared to a reference RX 480. Lower temperatures not only ensure a longer lifespan, but it also prevents throttling. Throttling is the phenomenon where the card gets too hot and clocks itself down in order to stay cool, effectively sacrificing performance. Due to the Red Devil's decent cooling results, this should never occur. See More

Top Con

Very cheap PCB components

The components used in the PCB are really cheap. The VRM is rated at 46 amps (25 degrees Celsius) and 34 amps (80 degrees Celsius). For comparison, the reference RX 480 is rated at 66 amps (25 degrees Celsius) and 50 amps (80 degrees Celsius), which is significantly better. PowerColor has stated to not run Furmark on this card, because it just can't handle it without breaking. For full details, this YouTube video by Actually Hardware Overclocking breaks down the problem. See More

Specs

Release Date:Jun 29th, 2016

Memory Type:GDDR5

Memory Size:8 GB

Memory Clock:2000 MHz

Top Pro

Very quiet operation even under heavy loads

The combination of the three fans of the Red Devil's cooler result in an extremely quiet operation. In idle situations, the card will not produce any noise at all because the fans only start spinning at 60 degrees Celsius. Even under full load, the RX 480 Red Devil is barely audible with 38 measured decibels (A). This makes the Red Devil a lot quieter than a reference RX 480 at 42 dB(A). Because the decibel scale is logarithmic (every 10dB is effectively a doubling of the sound) the difference is certainly noticeable. See More

Top Con

This longer card won't fit in smaller cases

The maximum length of the PowerColor RX 480 Red Devil is 12.2 inches (310 mm), which is significantly longer than the reference 9.5 inches (241 mm). The additional length may cause installation issues in some smaller enclosures. See More

Top Pro

Very little added power consumption

Because the Red Devil card is outfitted with a large cooling system and only slightly clocked higher, it's reasonable to think that the power consumption would also be higher. Luckily, the difference is very minimal. As seen in this graph, the card is measured to have a maximum power consumption of 168 Watts which is only two Watts higher than a reference RX 480. See More

Top Con

GPU Clock hasn't been improved

Although the Red Devil 8 GB is equipped with an impressive cooling solution, the card only received a 5% Boost Clock overclock, while the GPU Clock has remained the same. This is a missed opportunity, as many other third-party RX 480 cards have received a GPU Clock improvement, improving their performance when compared to this RX 480. See More

Top Pro

Good overclocking potential

You can easily overclock the RX 480 Red Devil with additional boosts for the Boost Clock, GPU Clock and even the Memory Clock, especially considering the latter two haven't been overclocked by PowerColor. In this particular situation, a maximum boost clock of 1375 MHz (+ 45 MHz) and Memory Clock of 9000 MHz (+ 1000 MHz) was achieved with very few issues, and the temperature limit was set at 83 degrees Celsius in this case. Further overclocking of the card can increase performance beyond what factory settings would allow. In this case, the overclocked Red Devil card scores 4802 points in 3D Mark: Time Spy, while the same card using stock speeds only scores 4441 points. The overclocked card offers an improvement of a little over 8%. See More

Top Pro

BIOS switch located on the card

The PowerColor Radeon RX 480 Red Devil has two BIOS settings: Silent and OC, which provides the Boost Clock. The card has the OC setting in place out of the box. You could adjust the GPU settings to achieve similar results in the drivers and additional software, but there's a handy physical switch located on the graphics card itself which makes for an effortless switch. See More

Top Pro

8-pin power connector allows for plenty of headroom

A reference RX 480 is equipped with a 6-pin power connector, but the power limit of the 6-pin connector has proven to be an issue for the RX 480 cards, as the total power consumption is sometimes higher than specified. The Red Devil 8 GB uses an 8-pin connector to work around this issue. Although an 8-pin connector requires more power than a 6-pin connector, this effectively eliminates all concerns about the RX 480's power consumption and distribution and allows plenty of headroom for overclocking the card even further. See More

Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8GB

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Top Pro

Very high clock speeds means better performance than other RX 480s

The clock speeds on the Sapphire Radeon RX 480 8GB are the second highest available - just barely behind the Asus RoG Strix RX 480. Clocking in at 1267MHz for base clock, and 1342 for boost clock it offers very high speeds compared to Gigabyte and XFX's RX 480 offerings which both are well below 1300MHz boosted speeds. See More

Top Con

Very noisy fan

The fan on the Sapphire Radeon RX 480 is very loud when maxed out- 43.7dB(A) which is roughly equivalent to the sound made by bird calls. Compared to other RX 480 cards, this one is the second loudest (just behind the Sapphire Nitro+ which is significantly louder at 48dB(A)). Other cards, such as the MSI Radeon RX 480 are as quiet as 31dB(A) - which is almost silent in comparison (less than half as loud as this card at 31dB(A)). See More

Top Pro

Decent cooling keeps the RX 480 fairly cool

Under a very heavy load, the Sapphire RX 480 heats up to a maximum of 76 degrees Celsius. This is average temperatures for RX 480s, but it is still cool enough to run well without throttling even though it runs warmer than other chips like the GTX 1060. See More

Top Con

Fan is always spinning, even in idle

Even when idling, the cooling fan still spins in this Sapphire RX 480. It remains fairly quiet at just 33.5dBA, but it spins nonetheless which some of the other graphics cards don't do (at least until temperatures reach around 60 Celsius - then their fans will kick on). See More

MSI Radeon RX 480 Gaming X 8GB

Top Pro

8-pin power connector allows for plenty of headroom

A reference RX 480 is equipped with a 6-pin power connector, but the power limit of the 6-pin connector has proven to be an issue for the RX 480 cards, as the total power consumption is sometimes higher than specified. The RX 480 Gaming 8 GB uses an 8-pin connector and although an 8-pin connector requires more power than a 6-pin connector, this effectively eliminates all concerns about the RX 480's power consumption and distribution. It also allows plenty of headroom for overclocking the card even further. See More

Top Con

Higher price tag due to low availability

The manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) is only $269.99, although it is nearly impossible to find this 8GB RX 480 card at that price. High demand has caused the price to go up, although since launching the prices aren't as high as they once were. See More

Top Pro

Features adjustable RGB LED lightning

The exterior of the MSI Gaming X 8 GB features some LED lights (the shards surrounding the cooler) which are color-adjustable to any RGB color via MSI's included software package. This allows you to customize the look of the graphics card, which can be useful if your setup is built with a specific color scheme in mind. See More

Top Con

Factory overclock doesn't impress

Although MSI has factory overclocked the RX 480 Gaming X's boost clock, the normal GPU Clock and Memory Clock haven't been increased. For a card in this price category, these factory overclocks aren't as impressive as some other RX 480 cards. See More

Top Pro

Equipped with two HDMI connectors, better suited for VR

MSI has made a slight adjustment to the available connectors of the RX 480 Gaming. Instead of going with the regular combination of 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI and 1x DVI-D, they've opted for 2x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI and 1x DVI-D instead. The additional HDMI connector is particularly useful when using the card in combination with a VR headset such as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, which require two HDMI ports. Connecting a VR Headset won't require an adapter. See More

Top Pro

Good overclocking potential

The MSI Gaming X RX 480 allows for further overclocking and is optimized for use with MSI's own Afterburner software. In this particular case, a maximum boost clock of 1370 MHz was achieved (over a reference 1267 MHz, an 8% increase) and a memory clock of 9000 MHz (compared to the original 8000 MHz (+ 12.5%). This resulted in a score of 4796 in the 3D Mark Time Spy benchmark and some performance improvements in games as well. In Hitman for example, an overclocked MSI Gaming RX 480 achieves an average framerate of 64 FPS, while the same card without overclocks achieves an average of 57 frames per second. See More

Top Pro

Suitable ports for VR headsets

MSI has made a slight adjustment to the available connectors of the RX 480 Gaming. Instead of going with the regular combination of 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI and 1x DVI-D, they have opted for 2x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI and 1x DVI-D instead. The additional HDMI connector is particularly useful when using the card in combination with a VR headset such as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, which require two HDMI ports. Connecting a VR Headset won't require an adapter. See More

Top Pro

Great cooling system prevents throttling

The RX 480 8 GB Gaming X features MSI's Twin Frozr IV cooler which results in low temperatures for the GPU. When idling, the GPU heats up to 37 degrees Celsius at stock speeds. Although this may sound a little on the higher side, the cooler does not spin up at all until it reaches 60° C. In full load situations, a maximum temperature of 73 degrees C is reached, which is still 9 degrees lower than a reference RX 480. Lower temperatures not only allow a longer lifespan for the graphics card, but it also prevents throttling. Throttling is the phenomenon where the card slows itself down (it reduces the clock speed) in order to cool down and prevent overheating, effectively sacrificing performance. This never occurs with the Gaming X card. See More

Top Pro

Adjustable RGB LED lightning makes your card look even cooler

The exterior of the MSI Gaming X 8 GB features some LED lights (the shards surrounding the cooler) which are color-adjustable to any RGB color via MSI's included software package. This allows you to customize the look of the graphics card, which can be useful if your setup is built with a specific color scheme in mind. See More

Top Pro

Most affordable 8GB card

The RX 480 comes in two sizes - 4GB of 8GB. The 8GB cards are all more expensive than the 4GB cards, and this MSI Gaming X card is the cheapest priced 8GB card. Especially if you want to run a multi-monitor setup (or even just a single very high resolution display), the extra VRam will help out a lot. See More

Top Pro

Quietest RX 480 when under a full load

MSI's TwinFrozr cooler (exact same one used on the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X) is accompanied by 3 heatpipes, and together this cooling system remains extremely quiet even when under a fully stressed load. It only measures 31dBA when fully stressed. The idle noise is slightly on the louder side at 29dBA - it's truly amazing how quiet this card remains when under a full load. See More

MSI Computer Radeon RX 480 Gaming X 4GB

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Top Pro

Good performance relative to other RX 480 cards

The clock speeds are above average, which will increase performance over what the other cards can provide. The base clock speed is 1266MHz, and the boost is 1316MHz. It is faster than the significantly more expensive Gigabyte AMD Rx 480 8GB, but is just a touch slower than the Asus Dual-Fan Edition and Sapphire RX 480 8GB cards. See More

Top Con

Low memory clock means slower performance

MSI have stuck with the default RX 480 memory clock speed of 7GHz on this card while virtually every other RX 480 card has been overclocked to 8GHz. This means that the card's read speeds are slower, and will decrease the performance of this card. See More

Top Pro

Stays fairly cool even when pushing it hard

The highest temperature recorded on this RX 480 Gaming X card is 73 degrees Celsius. This is just below average for other RX 480 cards, and is low enough that thermal throttling shouldn't be an issue (generally 80 degrees Celsius is considered throttling territory). See More

Top Con

Low memory speed compared to other RX 480 cards

Most of the RX 480 cards have a memory clock speed of 8GHz, while the Radeon RX 480 4GB card only has a memory clock speed of 7GHz. This means the card's speed at which it can read RAM storage is limited, which can cause bottlenecking in some cases. See More

Top Pro

Almost silent fan, even when under a load

Under 60 degrees Celsius, this MSI Computer Radeon RX 480 Gaming X 4GB card doesn't run it's fans which means that it runs completely silent until you start pushing it. Under a full load, it measures in at 38dB(A)s which is extremely quiet for such a powerful graphics card. See More

XFX RX 480P8DFA6 8GB

Top Pro

Fairly quiet in operation compared to other RX 480 cards

While under a heavy load, the XFX RX 480 runs at around 37dB(A). This is quieter than most other RX 480 cards, but is still a bit louder than the leading MSI RX 480 Gaming X which runs around 31dB(A). Having quiet operation doesn't mean much in terms of performance, however it does mean that it runs quieter, and thus you'll be able to enjoy your gaming in peace. See More

Top Con

Poor performance compared to other RX 480 cards

The clock speeds out of the box haven't been changed at all from the reference design. All of the other custom RX 480 chips have increased at least the boost clock which leads to slightly better performance in games. As such, compared to the other RX 480 chips this XFX card will have the worst in-game performance. See More

Top Con

Only 1 HDMI port requires a dongle for VR headsets

The RX 480 is one of the most affordable graphics cards capable of running VR through a headset such as the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. However, this particular graphics card only has 1 HDMI port when high-end VR headsets require 2 HDMI ports. This means that you will need to use a dongle if you plan on using this for VR. Many of the other RX 480 cards already have 2 HDMI ports, which alleviates this issue. See More

Top Con

Warmest RX 480 currently on the market, and might throttle performance

The XFX RX 480 is the hottest current RX 480 card when put under a full load. It runs up to 82 degrees Celsius, which is 6 degrees warmer than the next RX 480 (and a whopping 14 degrees warmer than the Asus Strix RX 480, which runs at 68 Celsius). In this range, the XFX card may thermal throttle, which will slow the card down so it doesn't overheat - at the cost of reduced performance. See More

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