XFX RX 480 GTR Black Edition Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Price

Currently, the XFX RX 480 GTR Black Edition costs £259.99 including shipping. This is a very reasonable price point given the 8GB of GDDR5 memory although there are some cheaper alternatives which have been discounted due to the Black Friday phenomenon. For example, the PowerColor Red Devil RX 480 8GB can be acquired for £229.99 and sports a similar specification. Saying that, the XFX model is more suitable for smaller builds and utilises higher quality components.

Overview

From a visual standpoint, the graphics card isn’t particularly inspiring to look at and tends to evoke a rather muted response. On the other hand, the neutral black design makes the product suitable for almost every kind of PC build and the likelihood of other components clashing with the colour scheme is slim. Therefore, I think the GPU’s understated aesthetic is a wise choice and you can’t expect anything too elaborate around the £250 price bracket. Of course, you can add a more ostentatious touch using the optional LED fans. These fans dramatically change the graphics card’s styling and I’d thoroughly recommend buying a set which complements your build’s theme.

XFX’s toolless fan mounting mechanism deserves a lot of praise and the uncoupling process is very reliable. All you have to do is gently press two plastic catches and lift the fans upwards. The lack of screws or force required means it’s easy for anyone to clean the fans or request replacements. As a result, the RMA process should be quicker, and cheaper because some manufacturers ask the end-user to ship the whole card at their expense.

On another note, XFX employed a substantial cooling solution which revolves around four copper composite heat pipes and a surprisingly large heatsink. Furthermore, a thermal pad was deployed to directly cool the VRMs and memory which should lead to a longer lifespan. Also, the stock fans can shift a good amount of air due to the open design and angled blades. Despite the budget focus, XFX didn’t scrimp on the power design and included low-noise XL inductors. Once powered on, the cooling arrangement is flawless and maintained an average load temperature under 70C. Not only that, the noise output remained exceedingly low and greatly exceeded my expectations.

In terms of overclocking, the graphics card paints a fairly mixed picture. Firstly, the core overclocking was decent and I managed to achieve a stable 1375MHz figure without a huge voltage increase. Initially, I aimed for 1400MHz but this wasn’t possible with the sample sent for review. Nevertheless, 1375MHz is a great result, especially when you consider the core clock didn’t deviate whatsoever. Unfortunately, the memory overclocking leaves a lot to be desired and the GPU struggled to reach 2050MHz. To put this into context, some RX 480s can achieve 2220-2250MHz.

The XFX RX 480 GTR Black Edition performs brilliantly in a wide range of demanding titles and competes with the ASUS STRIX GAMING GTX 1060 OC rather well. Throughout the benchmarking procedure, the graphics card maintained a smooth frame rate alongside a 1080P monitor and the drops were fairly small. This creates a less jarring user experience and helps the frame rate to appear smoother. When modern APIs are deployed, the GPU often has a decent advantage over rival NVIDIA solutions. Once the resolution is increased to 2560×1440, the performance doesn’t drop too much and the majority of games remained perfectly playable. This is a staggering achievement for a graphics card costing just over £250. Evidently, the RX has a wonderful price to performance ratio and is a great alternative to the GTX 1060.

Pros

• Dual BIOS
• Extremely quiet
• Fantastic toolless fan replacement system
• Great build quality
• Neutral design
• Optional LED fans transform the product’s appearance
• Potent factory overclock
• Premium components
• Stellar performance up to 2560×1440
• Superb cooling hardware

Cons

• Limited memory overclocking
• More expensive than the PowerColor Red Devil RX 480 8GB

“The XFX RX 480 GTR Black Edition is an affordable solution which doesn’t sacrifice on performance and can uphold a really enjoyable user experience. Not only that, it’s cool, quiet and has an innovative fan system designed to make the RMA process more convenient.”

XFX RX 480 GTR Black Edition Graphics Card Review

Thank you XFX for providing us with this review sample.