and Vulkan . Right now , we have no native DX12 or Vulkan titles , but the RX480 does benefit immensely from being run within these APIs and performance may lean towards the RX480 and against the GTX 1060 in future . As to whether that potential advantage will make the games playable at the time and not so on the GTX 1060 remains to be seen .
If you ’ re looking to buy now , the equivalent GTX 1060 would be slightly faster ( i . e . a STRIX model .) However , I ’ m unsure if the $ 40 extra is worth it and as such I ’ d have to recommend the R480 STRIX . Moreover , if you ’ re at all considering doing some extreme overclocking with your graphics card , then definitely buy the STRIX RX480 . You ’ ll get a lot further than you will than with any GTX 1060 that you can easily buy off the shelves .
Ultimately the ROG STRIX RX480 is the best expression of the RX480 on the market and this is the one you most likely want to get if you ’ re in the market .
[ The Overclocker ]
Summary
ASUS has taken a graphics card which AMD has effectively wrung the most out of and managed to squeeze out a little more with some common sense , a better design aesthetically , electrically and of course via a significantly better heatsink . It looks the part and performs like it to . While it is not a celebrated GPU , it is one that offers immense value for money and will only continue to get better in the immediate future . As far as RX480 graphics cards are concerned , there aren ’ t any better ones than this one .
Would you buy it ?
Yes
Issue 40 | 2017 The OverClocker 37