ASUS ROG STRIX RX480
RRP : $ 249.99 | Website : www . asus . com
Test Machine
• INTEL Core i7 6900K
• CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM SE 3200 C14
• ASUS Rampage V 10 Edition
• SAMSUNG PX941 512GB
• CORSAIR AX1500i
• Windows 10 x64 ( 1003 BIOS )
Yes , it ’ s not new and sure we ’ ve covered the RX480 in the last issue , but quit whining . This happens to be the best of the entire lot . Especially when it comes to the electronics and the design . Seeing as it ’ s the APEX of ( see what I did there ?) the RX480 , it does deserve a review on its own . Besides , it ’ s not as if there ’ s
34 The OverClocker Issue 40 | 2017 anything newer than this on the market . For that we have to wait a few more months .
With that out the way , so what is it about the RX480 , or rather this particular model that makes it worth its $ 280 price tag ? In fact , given that the ROG STRIX GTX 1060 costs just $ 40 more , is it a worthwhile investment buying the RX480 instead of the 1060 ?
Well , compared to a ‘ normal ’ GTX 1060 it most certainly is . As you can see in the benchmark results it pulls out ahead in most tests across all resolutions . Against perhaps the GTX 1060 STRIX , it could lose out by a few FPS , but once again . Is that small margin worth eh extra $ 40 ?
Well it depends really . See , the GTX 1060 will consume
less power than the RX480 for sure and by and large run a few degrees cooler . If that sort of thing is important to you then you have no choice but to opt for the GTX 1060 . There ’ s also the issue of drivers as well . Before anyone states that AMD has made significant strides and are on par with the competition . The truth is there were some issues experienced during the testing of this graphics card . All of them related to the driver at the time . Of course , things could have , or almost certainly have improved since the time of testing . However , one can only test hardware as it is at the time . At that time , the GTX 1060 was just an easier graphics card to live with as there was no instability or anomalies in the