Gigabyte Radeon RX 460 WindForce 2X OC 2GB Review

The Card

Gigabyte will be producing two SKUs for the RX 460; one with 2GB of GDDR5 and another 4GB one. We've been given the 2GB one which has an MSRP of £120, while the 4GB card will sell for £135. Both cards come pre-overclocked and fitted with Gigabyte's WindForce 2X cooler.

Unimposing is a suitable way of describing this card. It's only 190mm long and otherwise conforms to standard dual-slot dimensions so the number of systems into which it won't fit is very low.


Physically, Gigabyte has stuck to the reference design – you get one apiece of HDMI, DisplayPort and dual-link DVI-D, and the company has chosen not to add a PCI-E power connector, and this is true also of the 4GB SKU. Again, this maximises system compatibility – hopefully AMD doesn't run into any more trouble about exceeding the power limit of the PCI-E bus.

One other thing to note is that this card doesn't even use the full number of pins on the PCI-E slot – this is a PCI-E 3.0 x8 device. That will still be more than enough bandwidth to feed this card, however.


The boost clock speed has been set to 1,212MHz, a measly 1 percent increase that is really only there so that Gigabyte can market it as overclocked – the memory runs at the stock speed of 7Gbps. Gigabyte's Xtreme Engine Utility software will allow for precise control of clock speeds.


The cooling system is naturally more simple than we're used to seeing. Four screws secure the heatsink to the GPU, and this is the only component that is cooled directly. The memory chips and VRMs may receive some airflow from the fans, but otherwise they're left exposed. Nonetheless, the heatsink is sizeable for a GPU this small. Note that hot air from the card will be exhausted in all directions, mostly recirculating back into your chassis.

The heatsink is cooled by a pair of 11-blade 80mm fans that use Gigabyte's unique blade design that promises additional airflow over standard designs. They also sport the 3D Active Fan features, which means they're semi-passive and will turn off completely once the GPU is cooled to a certain level.


The PCB is even smaller than the cooler – just 160mm long. It's built using Gigabyte's Ultra Durable components and has a 4+1 phase power configuration, a small upgrade over the reference 3+1 design.

Specifications

• Graphics processor AMD Radeon RX 460, 1,212MHz boost
  
• Pipeline 896 stream processors, 56 texture units, 16 ROPs
  
• Memory 2GB GDDR5, 7Gbps effective
  
• Bandwidth 112GB/sec, 128-bit interface
  
• Compatibility DirectX 12, Vulcan, OpenGL 4.5
  
• Outputs/Inputs 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x Dual Link DVI-I, 1 x HDMI 2.0b
  
• Power connections N/A
  
• Size 190mm long, 111mm tall, dual-slot
  
• Warranty Three years