TheOverclocker Issue 39 | Page 24

AMD RX480 LN2 Overclocking WITH THE CURRENT CROP OF GPUS ON THE MARKET. OVERCLOCKING HAS BECOME RATHER EXPENSIVE IN COMPARISON TO THE CLOCK SPEEDS THAT WE WERE PREVIUSLY ABLE TO ACHIEVE OR PERHAPS PERFORMANCE GAINS THAT CAME FROM IT. FORTUNATELY WE HAVE THE RX480 It may not be a great GPU and it does have very low overclocking limits, However, it is affordable and with the elmore eVc tool it is easy as pie to overclock. So in the meantime, if you're bored of GTX 900 overclocking, perhaps you would consider going over to the AMD side of things. Yes, it isn't a worthwhile high end GPU to overclock, but the RX480 has proved to be relatively, or more accurately ridiculously easy to overlock. With some basic tools and freely available software, you’re pretty much ready for LN2 overclocking even with the normal/reference board. Of course having a partner card is better, if only because it’s VRM is wired in a more sensible manner, but the fact remains that you can have plenty of fun with the regular board as well. (see, 24 The OverClocker Issue 39 | 2016 ASUS STRIx RX480 video here by Buldzoid) If you do go with a partner card try the STRIX and you'll have little to no worries concerning any potential power draw problems. Potential, because even when using the reference card as I used with the eVc controller, it was simple and straight forward. Maxing out the card took minutes rather than hours. How you go about using the eVc tool is pretty easy and has been detailed here along with specifics on how to overclock the RX480 using this tool in particular. This of course was the chosen method at first and with a 2nd run I relied strictly on software. What must be said is that, while there are many more steps required to use the eVc tool, it is in general the more effective way of controlling the RX480’s behaviour. This is simply because the less AMD software you have to rely on, the better of you’ll be, especially when dealing with voltage which can be rather problematic when dealing with the RX480.