AMD Responds to High Power Consumption Issues RX 480

AMD has responded to complaints from users that the RX 480 video card consumes too much power. The company recognizes the problems, and states that they can be solved with a better adjustment via a software update.

A statement about the RX 480 was given to several media outlets, including Ars Technica. According to AMD, the tuning of the video card is ‘not optimal’ in some tested scenarios. Furthermore, the company gives few details, but probably refers to the high energy consumption, which mainly occurs under load. A software update that has already been developed should fix the problems, and AMD promises to come up with more information about the rollout on Tuesday. Whether that update will affect performance is unknown.

Recently it appeared that the power consumption of the RX 480 exceeds the limits set for PCI-e slots in some cases. For example, Tom’s Hardware noted that the average consumption over the PCI-e slot under load was higher than the set limit of 75 watts. At some peaks, the load on the PCI-e slot even exceeded 150 watts. The average power consumption of the total video card was on average around 164 watts, with peaks around 300 watts.

AMD introduced the RX 480 video card early last month, the first in the series to feature the Polaris architecture. According to AMD, the card is fast enough to run virtual reality games.