ASUS ROG Strix RX 480 8GB, Strix Gone RX 480! (ROG STRIX-RX480-8G-GAMING)

Final Thoughts

Overall we were quite happy with the “mainstream” performance of the ASUS ROG Strix Gaming RX 480 8GB and we aren’t sure we would classify it mainstream at all. It flts more in the lower tier enthusiast class than mainstream which makes our mouths water for upcoming higher tier Polaris cores. he pricing on the RX 470 models and RX 480 models (in general not limited to ASUS) are a little muddy. The RX 270’s have most of the hardware a RX 480 has and the RX 470 runs about $250 (Luxury models) and the RX 480’s run about $300 (again Luxury models) and the RX 480 only performs a few FPS ahead of the RX 470 4GB we tested.

The pricing on the ASUS ROG Strix Gaming RX 480 8GB runs $299.99 (NewEgg, at the time of publish Amazon was out of stock) and it runs great and there’s enough features that there’s no buyers remorse over performance but don’t expect a magnificent OC. The reality here is that the ASUS ROG Strix Gaming RX 480 8GB runs well enough without an OC that you don’t really need it.

We like the three Wing Blade fan setup, the Aura Lighting, the hefty quality feel of he GPU and the sturdy backplate. We tested the ASUS fan connect and indeed the video card did make efficient use of the PWN fans we had attached and gameplay at 1440p was spectacular. Gaming at 1080p was fast smooth and frankly the ASUS ROG Strix Gaming RX 480 8GB was just overkill at 1080p. Now when we moved to 4K (the card wasn’t really designed for 4K) we got in the 26 – 28 FPS range with max graphical settings so a person could make do at 4K with graphics turned down a bit but we did notice a little lag in Ashes Of The Singularity in huge battle scenes. Most games at 4K we played easily with reduced settings but you would probably be better served with a couple of RX 470 8G in Xfire if you want to reliably game at 4K using the RX 4xx series cards.

There’s a lot to love about the ASUS ROG Strix Gaming RX 480 8GB and the only down side was no voltage control on WattMan or GPU Tweak II so if you don’t mind screaming gaming at 1330 MHz and leaving the OCing for the score hungry OCers the ASUS ROG Strix Gaming RX 480 8GB will serve you well and with all the luxury features you won’t miss the minor boost overclocking provides.