AMD plans to solve Radeon RX 480 PCI Express software issues

The new Radeon RX 480 in the Polaris family has had a tough start in the market. The loudest discussions, however, are not about performance or pricing, but concern problems with power consumption via PCI Express.

Several independent testers report that reference copies of the Radeon RX 480 exceed the maximum limit of the PCI Express port, which in theory can interfere or in extreme cases damage other components. The behavior has forced SweClockers to withhold the “Good Product” award while waiting for more information.

As you know, we continuously tune our GPUs in order to maximize their performance within their given power envelopes and the speed of the memory interface, which in this case is an unprecedented 8Gbps for GDDR5. Recently, we identified select scenarios where the tuning of some RX 480 boards was not optimal.

Fortunately, we can adjust the GPU’s tuning via software in order to resolve this issue. We are already testing a driver that implements a fix, and we will provide an update to the community on our progress on Tuesday (July 5, 2016).

Now, however, it seems that a solution is near. In a statement, AMD confirms the problem, where the company itself has identified scenarios where some Radeon RX 480s work out of specification due to “non-optimal settings”.

According to the announcement, adjustments can be made via software, where an updated driver that solves the problems is already undergoing internal tests. AMD promises to return with more information early next week.