MSI Radeon RX 480 Gaming X Caught on Camera

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 07/09/2016 08:03 AM | source: | 21 comment(s)

The RX 480 has been for sale for over a week now, but surprisingly we have seen very little custom boards. As one of the first MSI has now released official photos of its Gaming X version, the Twin Frozr cooler VI looks identical to other cards with the same suffix.

In addition to the cooler, we also have a photo of the PCB which shows an 8-pin PEG power connector tied to a a 4 + 2 - phase VRM. Of course, the other side of the card covered with a black backplate. Display outputs are provided in the form of the standard three HDMI and DisplayPort outputs though MSI there added an additional DVI connection.

It is expected the MSI Radeon RX 480 Gaming X 8GB will be available at the end of July , along with custom models of the competition.

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CPC_RedDawn
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#5303341 Posted on: 07/09/2016 07:50 AM

That looks like an 8pin connector too

labidas
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#5303377 Posted on: 07/09/2016 09:45 AM

bet it clocks the same as ref.

Anarion
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#5303387 Posted on: 07/09/2016 09:56 AM

bet it clocks the same as ref.

Well, it has worse VRM for the GPU than ref so I doubt it will do any better. Cooling is obviously better but I don't think that is the biggest problem. The chip is already running near its max.

Fox2232
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#5303389 Posted on: 07/09/2016 10:03 AM

Well, it has worse VRM for the GPU than ref so I doubt it will do any better. Cooling is obviously better but I don't think that is the biggest problem. The chip is already running near its max.

Just by looking at those pictures, can you tell us how many Amperes are there for GPU?
Or at least what is rating of those VRMs?

I can say that PCB is bit too large and has way too much empty space. But I can't tell you if it has more stable power delivery than reference.

Bleib
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#5303402 Posted on: 07/09/2016 10:18 AM

Well, it has worse VRM for the GPU than ref so I doubt it will do any better. Cooling is obviously better but I don't think that is the biggest problem. The chip is already running near its max.

Depends on the mosfets used, the original ones are extremely overspecced for the card:

"We’d like to add one other short note. We’ve read here and there that AMD is using a much larger MOSFET than would be necessary on the low side (GPU side) with the MDU1511. The argument is that this results in massive overclocking potential.

This component is capable of handling up to 100A, which means that every phase could be pushed to extreme limits, beyond 100W.

The reason that AMD chose this particular MOSFET is probably completely different, though: it has a very low internal resistance of just 2.4 m***8486;. This minimizes loss in the power converters, resulting in both a cooler card and a lower power consumption. "
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-480-power-measurements,4622-2.html

100A!
___
To me this MSI looks very "sexy".
___
Also, cards with better cooling do overclock better:
http://oc.jagatreview.com/2016/06/teaser-overclocking-amd-radeon-rx480-ke-1-4ghz-dengan-cooler-3rd-party/

As the original cooler is, well, quite awful.

EdInk
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#5303413 Posted on: 07/09/2016 10:44 AM

The RX480 ref 6-pin (3x 12v, 3x GND) is already wired like an 8 pin (3x 12v, 3x GND, 2x sense pins) connector as it doesn't use a sense pin rather that's grounded. Typical 6 pin is 3x 12V, 2x GND, 1x Sense

I doubt the partner cards will have any significant advantage here coupled with the 4+2 phase VRM

BrimStone101
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#5303508 Posted on: 07/09/2016 02:57 PM

From what ive seen the polaris gpu gives back 100% of what you put into it,
The clock speeds seem to walk hand in hand with the power usage,
you dont get anything for free with this gpu,
If you overclock this it will get hot but it will return performance.
I think its better left alone and dont overclock it at all because right now its hitting the sweet spot in performance and price.

cowie
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Joined: 2005-03-30

#5303522 Posted on: 07/09/2016 03:42 PM

Well, it has worse VRM for the GPU than ref so I doubt it will do any better. Cooling is obviously better but I don't think that is the biggest problem. The chip is already running near its max.

I had a lot of ref cards(NVidia mostly) that at same voltage and cooling that would out clock customs.
its still luck of the draw.but out of 5 or 6 7970's a ref pos was the best. better then matrix lightning all of them and 150 bucks cheaper
why do you think they can get away with these lower rated power circuitry?
the boards are low power they don't need beefy parts

millibyte
Senior Member

Posts: 1151
Joined: 2009-06-20

#5303524 Posted on: 07/09/2016 03:53 PM

Depends on the mosfets used, the original ones are extremely overspecced for the card:

"We’d like to add one other short note. We’ve read here and there that AMD is using a much larger MOSFET than would be necessary on the low side (GPU side) with the MDU1511. The argument is that this results in massive overclocking potential.

This component is capable of handling up to 100A, which means that every phase could be pushed to extreme limits, beyond 100W.

The reason that AMD chose this particular MOSFET is probably completely different, though: it has a very low internal resistance of just 2.4 m***8486;. This minimizes loss in the power converters, resulting in both a cooler card and a lower power consumption. "
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-480-power-measurements,4622-2.html

100A!
___
To me this MSI looks very "sexy".
___
Also, cards with better cooling do overclock better:
http://oc.jagatreview.com/2016/06/teaser-overclocking-amd-radeon-rx480-ke-1-4ghz-dengan-cooler-3rd-party/

As the original cooler is, well, quite awful.

Agreed, I love the look of these MSI Gaming cards. Looking forward to reviews of these aftermarket cards.

Noisiv
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Joined: 2010-11-16

#5303532 Posted on: 07/09/2016 04:25 PM

I had a lot of ref cards(NVidia mostly) that at same voltage and cooling that would out clock customs.
its still luck of the draw.but out of 5 or 6 7970's a ref pos was the best. better then matrix lightning all of them and 150 bucks cheaper

HAAA!
Been telling this for years.
Even if I didn't have nearly as much experience.

But noooooo Saphire/MSI/Asus experts running their 27.3 MHz overclock keep telling me ref=pos.
At least with ref you get what you paid for, and you know exactly what you're getting. At least till RX 480 :bang:

eclap
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#5303537 Posted on: 07/09/2016 04:59 PM

3rd party cards are all about cooling and noise. Rest of it is mostly a silicon lottery.

PrMinisterGR
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#5303539 Posted on: 07/09/2016 05:05 PM

The PCB looks like a cut down version of another PCB, with mosfets and chokes missing. Do we know of off what it's based on?

0blivious
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#5303608 Posted on: 07/09/2016 07:52 PM

It looks like the same cooler and backplate as my 1070. It's nearly silent at load and keeps mine nice and cool. And aesthetically, nice looking (subjective, of course).

If I were getting a 480, this one would be at/near the top of my list.

INSTG8R
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#5303638 Posted on: 07/09/2016 08:56 PM

The PCB looks like a cut down version of another PCB, with mosfets and chokes missing. Do we know of off what it's based on?

Totally thinking the same thing. Recycled for sure. Glad I wasn't the only one seeing that.

Loophole35
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Posts: 9414
Joined: 2011-09-21

#5303640 Posted on: 07/09/2016 08:59 PM

Probably from the 380x or 370?

EDIT: just google image searched and its not from either of those. May be a new PCB just didn't need the extra.

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