AMD Radeon RX 460 review: An appealing, affordable graphics card - hamiltonnesecale

At a Glance

Expert's Valuation

Our Verdict

While we heartily recommend the Radeon RX 460 in general, XFX's customized 4GB edition isn't persuasive at this price point.

Best Prices Nowadays

$150

Not everybody inevitably a $600 graphics card. Heck, not everybody needs a $200 graphics card.

While gorgeous games grab the biggest headlines, the games that attracter massive crowds and televised tournaments keep going out-of-the-way much modest computer hardware. Yes, I'm talking about e-sports. Conference of Legends, Counter-Fall upon: Global Sickening, Dota 2, and even Overwatch are eating the gaming world, and a large part of their success is their ability to keep going pretty much any hardware you throw at IT—symmetrical dirt-cheap PCs powered by AMD APUs.

But while gaming on integrated graphics is emphatically possible, it requires sense modality compromise. Hitting oily-smooth 60 frames per second often requires dialing down the resolving or art settings even in less-strenuous DirectX 9-based e-sports games. That's where AMD's refreshing Radeon RX 460 ($109 and finished) comes in.

AMD's placement the Radeon RX 460 as an affordable solution for e-sports gamers WHO want to blow past not vindicatory 60 frames per second, but 90 fps with High settings at 1080p answer without breaking the bank. That's indefinite hell of a step upbound! Information technology's no more coincidence that this card is launching the very same day that Dota 2's mammoth $20 million The Worldwide 2016 tournament kicks off.

What's more, the RX 460's unique blend of features could hold information technology a viable alternative to the fabled GTX 750 Ti in home theatre PCs or power-constrained computers.

Can the reality live up to the hype? Get's pitch in.

Meet the Radeon RX 460

As a graphics card devoted to e-sports and entry-equal gambling, the Radeon RX 460 sports much more modest internals than the Radeon RX 480 ($200 and heavenward happening Newegg) or even the Radeon RX 470 ($180 and up on Newegg).

amd radeon rx 460 specs — The Radeon RX 470's acknowledgment specifications.

The RX 460 features a severely cut-down version of AMD's new 14nm Polaris GPU, with half as many ROPs and less than half American Samoa many compute units and stream processors as the RX 470. The most affordable model packs 2GB of Ram—though 4GB versions wish also be gettable—over a smaller 128-bite memory bus.

This South Korean won't be a span burner, in other words. But the conservative design non only allows AMD and its partners to offer the Radeon RX 460 at an low-cost price, it also reduced the TDP of the reference version to a mere 75 watts—David Low enough that it lav be powered solely away your motherboard's PCIe slot, without any extra power connectors whatever. That makes the RX 460 a possibly persuasive option as an upgrade for prebuilt queen-size corner machines (from Dell, HP, et cetera) that lack extra power connectors. It could also power a kick-hindquarters small class-factor internal-theater Personal computer, especially since the Radeon RX 460 supports HDMI 2.0b and high-dynamic range video.

Further reading: Every Radeon RX 460 you can buy

In theory, leastways. The likes of the RX 470—and very unequal the RX 480—the Radeon RX 460 is launching with a full set out of customized partner cards rather than cite models alone, with a wide array of overclocks, customized coolers, and (sometimes) sextuplet-pin power connectors. Such of the initial batch of disposable RX 460s seems to lean into providing a amend e-sports have rather than fulfilling the needs of downhearted-superpowe machines.

amd rx 460 streaming — The Polaris GPU's encoding capabilities.

Another one of the Polesta GPU's brand-new tricks lends itself comfortably to e-sports, actually. The RX 460 (and its pricier relatives) support H.264 video streaming at up to 120 fps at 1080p, which means you'll constitute able to watercourse your games to Flip easily.

AMD sent us an XFX Radeon RX 460 for valuation ($150 for this 4GB model happening Newegg; a $120, 2GB version is also available on Newegg). It's a tralatitious ample-length, double-slot graphics card as opposed to the Radeon Nano-esque RX 460 reference point design, complete with a six-pin might connecter to help fuel its modest 20Hz overclock, to 1,220MHz. Notably, that's a true on-card overclock—you don't motivation to install any extra software to enable it, unlike with many graphics cards from other manufacturers.

XFX put the extra length to good use. The XFX Radeon RX 460 features a pair of small mid-sized fans sitting atop a basic aluminium heatsink. Those fans have some nifty tricks up their sleeves, too. They accelerate Oregon slow down supported load, the whole way down to passing completely idle (and implicit) when you aren't gaming. They're also held in place by brackets that can atomic number 4 squeezed and released exploitation your fingers alone, making it dead-simple to replace the fans if 1 dies—though you'll still need to deal with the wiring conjunctive the fan to the graphics card.

The XFX Radeon RX 460's fans can easy be popped out without duplicate tools.

Beyond the HDMI 2.0b port, you'll also find lone DVI-D and DisplayPort 1.4 connections, the latter of which supports resolutions far on the far side what you'll realistically use this card for in a gaming PC. The 4K support whitethorn come up in handy with a home theater PC, however.

As a Polaris-based card, the XFX Radeon RX 460 also delivers features like Set up Rate Target Control, H.265 encoding and decryption, the in-device driver Radeon WattMan overclocking tool, glorious FreeSync support, and dedicated asynchronous shader computer hardware that tin can improve functioning in next-gen, "close to the metallike" DirectX 12 and Vulkan play APIs.

Now that the introductions are impermissible of the way, let's honkytonk into the playfulness stuff.

Next page: Test system details and e-sports discussion

Our test system

We tested the XFX RX 460 on PCWorld's dedicated graphics card benchmark system. I know, I know, it's non the rather system a card like this would normally slot into, but we like to test all graphics cards in the same system to keep variables to a minimum. Our testbed's loaded with high-end components to avoid potential bottlenecks in other parts of the machine and show untied artwork performance. Key highlights:

Intel's Core i7-5960X ($1,016 on Amazon) with a Corsair Hydro Serial publication H100i closed-loop water cooler ($97 on Amazon).
An Asus X99 Deluxe motherboard ($360 on Amazon ).
Corsair's Vengeance LPX DDR4 retentivity ($65 on Newegg), Obsidian 750D sounding-tower case ($155 happening Amazon), and 1,200-W AX1200i power supply ($308 on Amazon).
A 480GB Intel 730 series SSD ($248 along Amazon).
Windows 10 In favor ($199 on Amazon).

We're be indentation XFX's $150 Radeon RX 460 4GB against the old workhorse EVGA GTX 750 Ti ($110 on Newegg, $90 after rebates), which is still so fashionable that it wasn't retired when Nvidia rolled knocked out the GeForce GTX 950—which we'll also Be testing, in the mannikin of the EVGA GTX 950 SSC ($150 on Newegg). Sadly, we don't have an older Radeon R7 360 to test due to the unorthodox launch of the Radeon R300 serial, and the Radeon R7 350 was only launched in Asian markets. Merely those two Nvidia cards should shine a distinct light on the RX 460's relational operation.

We benchmark every secret plan exploitation the default graphics settings unless otherwise illustrious, with all vendor-specialised limited features—such atomic number 3 Nvidia's GameWorks effects, AMD's TressFX, and FreeSync/G-Sync—disabled. For this unveiling-level posting, we ill-used our standardised 1080p solving benchmarks, but also tested each bet on with medium artwork settings enabled to see how they run with artwork dialed back. Information technology's a more realistic histrionics of how these card game would personify used in the substantial world.

Merely basic, let's do something completely other!

Test 1: E-sports

AMD's billing the Radeon RX 460 as an e-sports-centric card, so why not divert from our standard GPU review computer programing and talk more or less the card's performance in those games?

Rather than rill a gamut of benchmarks in lengthy e-sports matches, I loaded up Counter-Strike: Global Rank, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Overwatch and just patently played. I set the graphics options for apiece gamy to Up settings, then unleashed my innate noob skills on the unsuspecting masses, keeping an centre on the FPS counter in the corner wholly the while.

Indeed, all game sailed swimmingly past 90 Federal Protective Service in general with the XFX Radeon RX 460. League never faltered. Dota 2 stayed above 110 fps in the huge majority of lot—without the beta Vulkan mode enabled—though IT sometimes dipped into the high 90 fps range when a multitude of characters were battling onscreen. CSGO always cleared 150 fps, and Overwatch ran like butter. Delicious, clarified butter.

Every game performed like a chomp and looked absolutely gorgeous, even when accomplish got hot and heavy along-screen.

To put that in linear perspective, Here's a chart from our look at e-sports operation on an APU-powered budget organisation that AMD designed in conjunction with the Fnatic occupational group gaming team. The graph shows how each game runs at 1080p resolution, and then lists a forward entry that shows what settings we needed to nerf in order to coax the games into hitting 60 fps. Sometimes it required descending the overall resolution, and other multiplication we needful to subjugate in-game graphics settings. On several occasions we had to get along both.

Wave arrivederci to all of that with the RX 460. If you're looking to supercharge your performance in e-sports games, AMD's new card delivers decidedly.

Onto the regular benchmark suite!

Next varlet: The Division

Test 2: The Division

The Division, a tierce-person shooter/RPG that mixes elements of Destiny and Gears of War, kicks things off with Ubisoft's new Anemone quinquefolia engine.

Now that we're done with e-sports, you'll find that to the highest degree of these traditional games require falling the graphics settings down to medium to hit sufficient frame rates. But that's okay! We'ray just disagreeable to see how removed you keister push this posting if you decide to expand beyond e-sports.

The overclocked, power-bolstered 4GB RX 460 falls a little behind the more potent GTX 950 in The Division, but delivers a massive 20 percent Sir Thomas More performance at Medium settings than the GTX 750 Ti, which draws its carrying into action entirely through a PCIe slot along your motherboard. On the other hand, you'd anticipate to see that—the GTX 750 Ti is terminated ii long time old.

Next page: Gunman

Essa 3: Hitman

Shoote's Glacier engine heavily favors AMD ironware. It's no surprise; Hired gun's a flagship AMD Gaming Evolved title, complete with a DirectX 12 mode that was patched in after the game's launch.

Important bank bill: Hitman automatically caps the game's Texture Upper-class, Shadow Maps, and Shadow Resolution at medium on cards with 2GB of onboard retentivity, meaning the EVGA GTX 950 and 750 Ti can't be tested as High or Ultra settings. As such, we exclusive tested the game at Medium settings for this compare. Also, while the 4GB XFX Radeon 460 tested nowadays could run the higher detail options, the 2GB reference reading would be similarly restricted.

The limited graphical pizzazz and memory in these cards prevent whatsoever of them from seeing a major boost by flipping the DX12 electric switch. That said, both the GTX 950 and the RX 470 flirt with the 60 fps gold standard at Metier settings, with the GTX 750 Ti over again left-wing in the dust.

Next varlet: Rise of the Tomb Raider

Test 4: Rise of the Grave Raider

Whereas Hired gun adores Radeon GPUs, Rise of the Tomb Raider performs more better on GeForce cards. Information technology's also the single most drop cloth-dead gorgeous PC pun I've ever laid my eyes happening.

We only tried the spunky's DirectX 11 mode, as we haven't had a chance to reevaluate the gamy's DirectX 12 enhancements now that single patches have been released to make its once-shaky implementation.

Rear of the Tomb Looter is a memory-modifier game, which resulted in some periodic heavy stuttering on the 2GB GTX 750 Ti and GTX 950 at the Very High graphics preset. The XFX RX 460 ran more smoothly with its larger 4GB memory buff. Under that intense preset, all three ran smoothly.

The Radeon RX 460's lead over the GTX 750 Ti is nerfed in this Team Green-canted mettlesome, but it still maintains a sound 12-per centum lead at Medium settings. The EVGA GTX 950 opens a larger lead here, though—once again, Rise of the Tomb Looter loves Nvidia. At nearly 40 FPS, many people could cope playing RoTR on High settings along AMD's new humiliated-budget competitor, especially if aided by a FreeSync monitor.

Succeeding page: Far Cry Primal

Test 5: Far Cry Primal

Far Cry Primal is yet another Ubisoft game, but it's powered past a different engine thanThe Partition—the current version of the long-running and well-respected Dunia engine.

The RX 460 keeps a conformable 10- to 15-pct star o'er the GTX 750 Si here, with the gap widening between the two the higher you tug the graphics settings. At Culture medium settings, AMD's new card also pulls neck opening-and-neck with the GTX 950 and pushes unsuccessful in excess of 45 FPS.

Next page: Ashes of the Singularity

Test 6: Ashes of the Uniqueness

Ashes of the Singularity, running on Oxide's custom Element locomotive, was an earliest color bearer for DirectX 12, and many months subsequent IT's still the premier game for seeing what next-gen graphics technologies have to offer. (It's a fun time period strategy game, too!) The performance gains it offers with DX12 over DX11 are middle-opening—especially when running on Radeon cards.

Unfortunately, those beautiful performance gains aren't seen with any of these cards. While the RX 460 gains a approximately 10-percent boost in theory, that only slightly stretches the frame rate actually. Once again, DX12 does nothing for these card game' modest graphical capabilities and specific memory capacities. (DX12 adores having more than 2GB of Drive to play with.)

Once again, the RX 460's results fall in between the two Nvidia cards. No of them pitch great frame rates, to embody honest, but the RX 460's 32 fps in DX12 is unquestionably playable in a slow-paced time period strategy gamey like this—albeit with a top-of-the-line processor, which nobelium doubt affects results in a CPU-centric lame like this. You'd probably want to drib inside information to even bring dow levels in a casebook rig.

Close page: 3DMark

Test 7: Synthetic benchmarks

We also tested the RX 460 and its rivals using 3DMark's highly redoubtable DX11 Fire Strike polysynthetic benchmark, which runs at 1080p, as well arsenic its spic-and-span Time Stag benchmark, which tests DirectX 12 performance at 2560×1440 resolution.

Like I said in the introduction: No of these are barn burners. But every bit matter-of-course if you've been paying tending to the echt-humankind execution results gum olibanum off the beaten track, the RX 460 splits the remainder 'tween the two Nvidia card game.

Close page: Power and heating system

Psychometric test 8: Tycoo

We examine power subordinate load by plugging the entire system of rules into a Watts In the lead meter, running the intensive Division benchmark at 4K resolution, and noting the bloom power draw. Idle power is measured after sitting on the Windows screen background for three minutes with nary extra programs or processes functional.

AMD's Polaris GPU grants Radeon nontextual matter cards a huge step forward in magnate efficiency, but it still isn't as lean as Nvidia's chips. The overclock and excess tycoo connector see XFX's Radeon RX 460 sipping exactly as often power as the GTX 950, while the power connector-less GTX 750 Atomic number 2 comes in a ladened 30W as. That said, the total system power consumption subordinate load with all of these card game installed stayed far below 200W at peak. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Essa 9: Heat

We quiz high temperature during the same intensive Division benchmark, past running SpeedFan in the background and noting the maximum GPU temperature once the foot race is over. All tercet of our test samples use custom-built coolers; there's non a various reference design in the mix.

Completely of these cards run cool thanks to the sparse innards of their GPUs, with the GTX 750 Ti organism the standout. The 64 point Celsius maximum temperature of the RX 460 means it should be just fine equal in cramped cases, though.

Close paginate: Nether argumentation

Bottom line

While the Radeon RX 470's placement is downright baffling, the Radeon RX 460 achieves everything AMD set out to do. This affordable card gives e-sports games a tremendous shot in the arm over integrated graphics, brings every last the red-brick technologies stormy through Polaris GPUs pile to entry-level price points, and finally gives AMD a echt GTX 750 Ti competitor. Reference, might connector-less versions of the RX 460 would be a slayer selection for transforming a power-small big-box PC into a decent gaming machine.

In theory, at least. Because the XFX card that AMD provided for review is a supercharged, supercharged-up 4GB variation of the Radeon RX 460, we can't real beryllium sure how a 75W reference variation performs. I'd imagine information technology wouldn't Be a heavy decrease, especially in e-sports games. The XFX Radeon RX 460 we tested has only a 20MHz overclock.

Though I didn't trial run a reference RX 460, I feel unadventurous saying that if you're in the securities industry for a canonical artwork card that lacks additional power connectors, AMD's current card is the clear choice over a GTX 750 Si. The Radeon RX 460 non only outpunches its low-supercharged competitor in terms of sheer execution, it's infused with the latest and greatest ecosystem technologies, ilk HDMI 2.0b, gamy-dynamic range TV, holy async compute hardware, and H.265 encryption and decoding. The deuce-asset-year-old GTX 750 Atomic number 2 lacks wholly of that.

Plus, shamefaced cards like these pair wonderfully with an AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync reminder, which sync the refresh rates of your display and GPU to eliminate tearing and stuttering. FreeSync monitors don't express the powerful terms premium that G-Sync monitors demand. You stern pick rising a 22-inch 1080p FreeSync monitoring device for American Samoa piffling as $130 on Amazon, or a unpleasant-imperviable 144Hz 1080p FreeSync display for $209 on Amazon. And if you've only got a 60Hz monitor, using AMD's Frame Rate Target Insure to limit the frame rate of e-sports games to 60 fps would result in fifty-fifty lower temperatures and power usage.

That suggestion is treated somewhat away the appearance of some nether-top executive 75W GTX 950 art cards in Recent months, which also support HDMI 2.0. Those appear to represent phasing out of the commercialise, though some models bottom standing beryllium establish for $120 operating theater less after rebates.

Further reading: Every Radeon RX 460 you can buy

Simply what about computer storage mental ability? The Radeon RX 460 comes in deuce variants, a 2GB model and a 4GB theoretical account. More specifically, the custom XFX design now costs $120 with 2GB of memory, or $150 with 4GB. If e-sports is your core focus, stick to the 2GB model. All the most popular e-sports games are organized to use subordinate 2GB of memory, and the price is right on the cheaper XFX Radeon RX 470 model, with a reasonable $10 markup for the usance cooler and performance-boosting extras.

The 2GB XFX Radeon RX 460 earns our buying recommendation; the 4GB edition doesn't.

Only consider the 4GB Radeon RX 460 if you want the potential to play traditional games like the ones in our test entourage, albeit at modest graphical fidelity. That same, XFX charges a steep-sided price premium for the extra memory electrical capacity. We've detected from other manufacturers that plan on charging $120 for their custom 4GB RX 460 models, and even less for 2GB variants, though we haven't had a chance to test those rivals yet.

If you'ray willing to spend $150 along a art add-in, you'll get more oomph from a GeForce GTX 950, or much more oomph from a Radeon R9 380, which was a $200 graphics card out of the logic gate but stern now often be found for $155 or less along Newegg later on rebates. Each those step-up options are limited to 2GB memory capacity, and the R9 380 demands two six-pivot power connectors and much more Energy overall, but they still outpunch the 4GB XFX RX 460 past a healthy margin for around the same price. The GTX 950 eve uses roughly the same sum of power as the six-pin-enhanced XFX Radeon RX 460, and can often glucinium found for RX 460-storey prices after rebates.

The 2GB Radeon RX 460 is clearly the Henry Sweet smirch for these XFX models, and the one that outdo fits the card's intended purpose. It's hard to recommend the 4GB XFX Radeon RX 460 given its high cost in a price-sensitive market segment, even though it's a fountainhead-designed lineup overall.

In the end, the Radeon RX 460 provides AMD with something it hasn't had in age: an affordable, power-efficient nontextual matter card perfect for e-sports and home theater PCs. Polesta is paying off big-time. Though Nvidia leave no dubiousness set up a GeForce touch to this when the time comes, I imagine AMD's going to deal bucketloads of RX 460s about the globe.

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Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/415944/amd-radeon-rx-460-review-an-affordable-graphics-card-with-bleeding-edge-tech.html

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