[ProclusLycaeus]

I'm surprised to see with all the RX 480 talk today, this isn't even in the rumors section.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/4qg4p7/rx_480_fails_pcie_specification/
Quote:

With Tom's Hardware reporting that the RX 480 draws (substantially) more than the 75W allowed from the motherboard (for example, the PCI Express high-power card spec allows a maximum of 66W to be drawn from the 12V pins of the PCI Express slot, and the RX 480 averages 79W from the 12V lines alone) AMD seems to be violating the PCI Express(R) spec.

According to the licensing contract for the spec, if they do not fix this within 3 months, AMD will NOT be able to call the card a PCI Express card. If they do, they face not only litigation, but if my understanding is correct an action before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the importation of the card as counterfeit goods. You might think the PCI-SIG will give AMD a pass, but if they do, they risk loosing the trademark entirely. An unforced trademark gets invalidated. The SIG won't let that happen.

If true, this could be a huge issue and may cost AMD a lot of money they don't have. I would imagine to correct the issue, they would either that to intentionally gimp the BIOS, do a recall and put an 8-pin connector on it, or something. Again, if true, this would make the 3.5GB issue the nVidia 970 had look tiny. Especially since there is a potential to cause damage to motherboards.

 

[ProclusLycaeus]

AMD apparently is looking into the issue, and it isn't just one person who is seeing this.
Quote:

Great question and I am really glad you asked.

We have extensive testing internally on our PCIE compliance and RX480 passed our testing. However we have received feedback from some of the reviewers on high current observed on PCIE in some cases. We are looking into these scenarios as we speak and reproduce these scenarios internally. Our engineering team is fully engaged.

 

[one-shot]

The hype train fell of the tracks. When the 1080 consumes marginally more power than the 480, the hype train is off the tracks and out of steam. I've been planning on getting a 480 for months. As it stands now, I'll get a 1060 or more likely a 1070 when they are available for prices closer to MSRP.

 

[mr. biggums]

where the cards overclocked when the power overdraw happened this simply could be a case where amd shipped a product that falls within spec but users being users pushed the product out of spec it's not amd's fault. If it's a case where the card "turbo's" up and the the draw is observed, then amd could just push out a new driver with a software clock limiter for the user's to circumvent as always.

The second update from AMD seems to indicate it might just be a batch of cards being the issue but this will be interesting to keep an eye on.

 

[raghu78]

This is a big problem for AMD Rx 480 especially when it comes to OEM systems which have cheap PSUs and motherboards. I don't know how AMD can keep messing up product launches like this. God they never learn.

 

[Wiffinberg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr. biggums

where the cards overclocked when the power overdraw happened this simply could be a case where amd shipped a product that falls within spec but users being users pushed the product out of spec it's not amd's fault. If it's a case where the card "turbo's" up and the the draw is observed, then amd could just push out a new driver with a software clock limiter for the user's to circumvent as always.

The second update from AMD seems to indicate it might just be a batch of cards being the issue but this will be interesting to keep an eye on.

This, it would be good to know

 

[motoray]

Why the heck would they not put a 8pin on there.

 

[tkenietz]

So if it were a case of drawing within spec while at stock clocks, but out of spec when oc'd, who would liability fall on with the overclocked reference cards that were released?

 

[BradleyW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by motoray

Why the heck would they not put a 8pin on there.

They tried to look all cool and hip with a 6 pin. Really an 8 pin is needed for a modern somewhat efficient GPU!

 

[brucethemoose]

This smells like a bad design decision to me.

Cheap 6-pin power input, cheap heatsink... maybe someone at AMD was trying to cut manufacturing costs, but cut out a little too much. Or maybe it was a miscommunication, with the shipping cards using far more power than expected.

Maybe the review cards were funky. Maybe it was some of each.

_______________________________

Either way, a ton of 3rd party cards will ship with 8 pin connectors on custom PCBs anyway. Hell, it might be like the 6850, where we didn't see any reference cards/PCBs out in the wild.

 

[sugarhell]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4qfwd4/rx480_fails_pcie_specification/d4sy0c3?st=iq1h7s14&sh=c0e237e4

 

[tkenietz]

Really the card never pulls under 150w at load so it would obviously be out of spec on pcie slot or 6pin to begin with. Really really makes no sense to not have 8pin

 

[umeng2002]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sugarhell

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4qfwd4/rx480_fails_pcie_specification/d4sy0c3?st=iq1h7s14&sh=c0e237e4

Somewhat of a B.S. excuse by AMD.

Most reviewers don't even bother to test for this kind of thing. Most don't have the equipment or knowledge to.

 

[fatmario]

Wait for Aib card

Source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N-rjhS_cJg

First picture of custom sapphire 480

 

[naz2]

what the heck is that gap doing between the bracket and the shroud?

 

[Radnad]

Well at least there doesn't seem to be an issue with only 6.5gb of the 8gb being utilized, so that's a plus so far.

 

[Diffident]

According to the review on Techspot, the RX 480 draws just as much power as a 970...I don't know about all 970's but mine has a 6 pin and 8 pin.
Quote:

So here we see when playing The Witcher 3 that the RX 480 consumed the same amount of power as the GTX 970 and only slightly less than the GTX 1070. It also used slightly more than the R9 380 and quite a bit more than the GTX 960. I'm not sure how I feel about this result.

Interestingly, in Just Cause 3 the RX 480 consumed more power than the GTX 1070 and slightly less than the GTX 970. Given that it was on average 34% slower than the GTX 1070, the fact that it uses a similar level of power is disappointing.

 

[Heuchler]

With peak loads up to 155 watts (!) Is at risk, although due to the short intervals, the hardware is not directly



Could be a BIOS or WattMan issue or something wrong with their testing equipment at Tom's Hardware.

 

[jmcosta]

Quote:

We skipped long-term overclocking and overvolting tests, since the Radeon RX 480's power consumption through the PCIe slot jumped to an average of 100W, peaking at 200W. We just didn't want to do that to our test platform.

lol wait for premium cards

 

[aweir]

Someone at AMD didn't do their homework. This card should've had an 8 pin or 6+6 pin power connector(s).