RX 480 compatibility with 970 Pro3 R2.0

Hi there.

I plan on getting a reference RX 480. I also have to upgrade my PSU because a CM 430 will not be enough for the 480. So I plan on getting a high-quality 550w PSU (another $60 to the upgrade  ) will hopefully offset any issues that might arise from pairing the RX 480 with my Mobo.

I'm glad (in a way) that this issue was identified by one or more PC hardware review websites.

AMD has acknowledged the situation, and according to this statement from AMD, they will release a driver update to fix it:

"As you know, we continuously tune our GPUs in order to maximize their performance within their given power envelopes and the speed of the memory interface, which in this case is an unprecedented 8 Gbps for GDDR5. Recently, we identified select scenarios where the tuning of some RX 480 boards was not optimal. Fortunately, we can adjust the GPU's tuning via software in order to resolve this issue. We are already testing a driver that implements a fix, and we will provide an update to the community on our progress on Tuesday (July 5, 2016)."

https://www.techpowerup.com/223833/official-statement-from-amd-on-the-pci-express-overcurrent-issue

I still wonder if this has been completely sorted out yet. Seems to be a bit early to say so IMO.

That is, is every 480 from every manufacture identical in its GPU voltage settings? I read that some 480's were set to a 1.3V GPU voltage, when it "should be" 1.15V.

Does the excessive power draw from the PCIe slot happen with stock, out of the box settings, or does this happen only if the 480 is over clocked?

How can any manufacture insure that every owner of a 480 will use the updated driver, once it is available? Will the first driver update be all that is needed, or will another be released with an additional fix?

Now I've jumped on the FUD train!   Or is it just reality?

jerbeck, I should have been more sympathetic to your question, even if it is difficult to try to answer.

In general, do we think that ANY mother board manufacture would (want to) tell us, "Yes, the PCIe slot on this board was designed to just meet the specification, but anything beyond it will release the blue smoke".

Your question is if a board will not meet the PCIe power specification. While it would be the right thing to do, I can't imagine any manufacture would want to admit to that, or would do so, particularly before any of their boards were damaged.

I don't know either way about your board. I've looked at it as much as I can in pictures, and all I can tell you is this:



The first PCIe x16 slot (PCIE2) has two solid capacitors right next to it, right by the area where the power connections are in the PCIe slot. All the power connections in a PCIe slot are only in that small area above the notch in the connector on a video card, etc. There are five +12V connections in that area, that is the standard and all that is available. We can see this is not a high power delivery design, which is why many video cards will have the extra six and eight pin power connectors.

In case you don't know, those capacitors are used to filter the power, and provide an extra burst of power if it is needed. That is a standard power supply design, and the more capacitors used in a power circuit, the better it is for supplying power.

IMO, to see those capacitors in that area is a good sign that the PCIe x16 slot will meet the PCIe specification. There are quite a few similar capacitors on the board farther away from that PCIe x16 slot, so IMO the two capacitors right next to that slot must be for the power supply to that slot.

We won't always find capacitors like that right at the location where power will be drawn from the board. Those capacitors are not being used to create the +12V supply to the PCIe x16 slot, they are extra capacitors to improve the +12V supply to that slot. The more power supply capacitors being used, the better.

So it has been established that the new RX 480 can draw (or attempt to) more power from the PCIe slot than the maximum power specification of a PCIe x16 slot.

The PC Perspective article that PetrolHead gave us links to, is the best one I've seen about this topic, so thanks for that!

Their power usage testing methodology is the best I've seen so far, and in general they seem to know what they are doing, which really matters in a situation like this. Reviews or testing that are less technical and less detailed than this don't provide us with the reality of the situation. Yes it is more complex, but this is not a simple question.

Which is why simply asking "will my board be damaged" will not have a simple yes or no answer. Frankly, if someone wants to keep it simple and ignore the important details, to be safe, the simple answer is, it is possible.

The amount of power drawn beyond the PCIe specification varies depending upon multiple things, including the game being played. Not a surprise IMO, but an example of a non-hardware factor that matters.

Reading through different discussion forum threads on this topic, the opinions range from it is not an issue, to certain death for a board. I would NOT suggest looking to a forum post for a simple answer to this question. If the post has data to back it up, as PetrolHead's does, then it is worth using to make your own decision.

Some of you may know that ASRock includes an extra power connector on some of their boards, that is used to provide extra power to the PCIe x16 slots. That was no doubt added to compensate for the (only) two +12V pins on every ATX 24 pin connector, that must provide +12V power to the entire board, except for the CPU that has its own +12V source from the PSU.

Yet another detail that matters, and usually we can do nothing to compensate for this limitation. If your ASRock board has the extra power connector for the PCIe x16 slots, I would urge you to use it if you are using a RX 480. Better safe than sorry.

No, it wouldn't. If anything it could make it worse. The issue is that the card tries to draw more power from the slot than the slot is rated to provide. When this happens extra heat is generated which can cause failures in the capacitors and power circuits for the slot. 

Edited by Xaltar - 06 Jul 2016 at 1:53am