GIGABYTE Launches RX 480 G1 GAMING Graphics Cards

GIGABYTE, the world’s leading gaming hardware brand, today announced the launch of Radeon™ RX 480 G1 GAMING graphics cards that come in variants of 4GB (RX480G1 GAMING-4GD) and 8GB (RX480G1 GAMING-8GD) of GDDR5 memory. Based on the latest Polaris architecture with groundbreaking 14nm FinFET technology, the power-efficient RX 480 G1 GAMING cards up the ante with the cherry-picked GPU core, WINDFORCE dual-fan cooler and RGB illumination, delivering exceptional performance and value with style to gamers looking for smooth gameplay at superior frame rates, as well as those wishing to enter the world of VR for the first time.

Taking advantage of the renowned WINDFORCE 2X cooling system, the RX 480 G1 GAMING ensures cool and quietness when taking on the most graphics-intensive game titles. Two 90mm fans paired with three composite copper heat pipes which directly touch the GPU keep the card cool for extra overclocking headroom. The airflow is enhanced by the unique blade fan design to increase the cooling capacity by 23% while reducing turbulence to a minimum. The cards also feature silent semi-passive cooling as the fans remain off at idle or low loads, offering a complete silent, interruption-free experience during light gaming. The Fan Stop indicator provides a user-friendly, instant display of the fan status.

Forged with top-notch GPU cores through the very own GPU Gauntlet Sorting technology, the RX 480 G1 GAMING provide excellent power switching and thermal efficiency. The cards are further backed by a 6+2 power phase design for load balance that effectively extends the stability and longevity with lower component temperature. It ultimately allows greater overclocking capability, reinforcing higher, stable boost clocks at heavy load. In case of any power abnormality, the smart power indicator could immediately bring the issue to the gamer’s attention.

The outlook of the RX 480 G1 GAMING follows the latest G1 GAMING aesthetics with the angular shroud design highlighted by orange accents. The cards bring life to PC builds with their full-spectrum RGB lighting. Gamers could enjoy maximum freedom to choose the right scheme for their gaming rigs with 16.8M customizable color options and numerous lighting effects with the software. The graphics cards also come with a metal back plate, keeping a clean look, whilst adding rigidity to the structure and protection of delicate PCB components.

Complementing the RX 480 G1 GAMING series is XTREME Engine, the newly developed utility software. Via its redesigned, intuitive interface, clock speeds, voltage, fan profiles, power target, and RGB illumination could be easily managed and customized. With a simple click of the OC Mode button built in the XTREME Engine, gamers can easily overclock the card for an instant gaming performance boost.

For more details about GIGABYTE RX 480 G1 GAMING graphics cards, please visit:

8GB: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5956

4GB: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5957

AMD Releases Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1 To End Power Draw Issue

AMD finally releases its new Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1 as promised to finally put an end to the power draw issue as it is now within the 75W PCI SIG standard recommendation. 

tomshardware.com has conducted a series of test in their test labs and the results obtained are pretty much the same as what AMD has claimed 2 days ago. If you're a AMD Radeon RX 480 owner, click on the icon below to get to the driver download page:

NVIDIA To Launch GeForce GTX 1060 6GB On July 19th For $249

NVIDIA today announce the availability of its GeForce GTX 1060 on July 19th with 6GB variant to start at $249 for custom design from AiB partners and $299 for Founders Edition. 

As direct competitor to the AMD Radeon RX 480 that is currently the best value graphics card money can buy as claimed by many reviewers after its launch, the GP106 Pascal architecture based GPU features 1280 CUDA cores, 8000MHz GDDR5 memory on 192-bit bus, as well as GPU Base Clock of 1506 MHz that goes up to 1708 MHz via GPU Boost 3.0 technology as what NVIDIA has claimed, is as capable as a GeForce GTX 980 but sips only a mere 120W from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. 

The GeForce GTX 1060 also boasts a 15% better performance on stock speed,  40% better power efficiency, and up to 25% better VR performance thanks to NVIDIA's Simultaneous Multi-Projection technology, seemingly better than the RX 480 in many ways except for its multi-GPU configuration. 

Earlier Batches of AMD RX 480 4GB Confirmed To Be Rebadged 8GB

Alleged claims on the early batches of AMD 4GB RX 480 are actually 8GB has been confirmed by wccftech.com today as they have successfully flashed their retail XFX RX 480 4GB to unlock all available memory to a whopping 8GB in total.

From the screenshot above, you can see the GPU-Z screenshot showing before and after wccftech got their XFX RX 480 4GB flashed to a 8GB that includes an additional speed boost to the memory clock. This is of course, made possible if the 4GB card itself is confirmed to have 8GB memory and do in mind that you're taking a risk that could render the card a paperweight if it is flashed with an incompatible BIOS.

If you're into BIOS flashing, backing up the original BIOS is mandatory and Keith May from wccftech.com suggest that backing up the original BIOS has to be done using ATIwinFLASH from techpowerup.com as backing up the BIOS with GPU-Z will result in a corrupt 128kb file and not the full 512kb BIOS file. 

(Source: wccftech.com)

Reduced PCIe Power Draw and 3% Performance Improvement: AMD To Release New Driver For RX 480 In The Next 48 Hours

The recent controversial PCIe power draw issue on the RX 480 has caused quite a stir among the PC enthusiasts community after several claims on RX 480 not meeting the bar for PCIe compliance testing with PCI-SIG which could potentially get your motherboard fried. AMD today published an update on the PCIE power draw issue with a promised new driver - Radeon Software 16.7.1, to get the issue fixed in the next 48 hours. 

AMD claimed that the new driver is meant to address the overall power distribution on the RX 480 to reduce the current drawn from the PCIe slot down to a level below the PCIe slot limit to prevent potential damage caused by over drawing power from the PCIe slot. An optional “Compatibility Mode” that will addresses the overall power draw of the RX 480 is introduced as well, meant to reduce the total power draw according to your system with minimal impact to the overall performance.

Theoretically, reducing power draw will causes the graphics card's performance to drop but AMD seems to be very confident with its new driver as the company promised an improvements of up to 3% in popular game titles.

AMD Radeon 4GB RX 480 Are Actually 8GB And Can Be Unlocked

As the AMD fans scratches their head waiting for the fix from AMD, a new rumor suggest that the AMD Radeon 4GB RX 480 are actually 8GB and can be unlocked via BIOS update. Do note that the trick will only work (hopefully) for the early batches that actually comes with 8GB memory and the BIOS is what's stopping it from accessing that extra 4GB. While there are no exact figures on how many pieces of these 8GB being sold as a 4GB, it is confirmed that AMD suffered quite a huge loss losing $30 for each card sold. 

For curious owner who wants to give this Easter egg a shot, do it at your own risk. As far as we can tell, there isn't anyone who can actually provide a working BIOS that won't get that card of yours killed. That's right, you are taking the risk that could render your RX 480 useless if things gone horribly wrong.