There is no reason to pay full price for a Radeon RX 480 graphics card. It seems there is almost always a model on sale, though with rumors of an AMD RX 500 series refresh right around the corner, who knows how long that will be the case. In the meantime, we continue to see deals on RX 480 cards. The latest is for a custom Windforce model from Gigabyte (GV-RX480WF2-4GD). Newegg has it marked down to $190, plus there is a $20 mail-in-rebate available.
Gigabyte’s card sticks to AMD’s reference clocks—1,120MHz core and 1,266MHz boost. This one also features 4GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. What’s different from the reference design is the Windforce 2X cooling system. There are two 90mm fans with triangle edges blowing air onto the card. Gigabyte says its special fan design results in 23 percent more airflow than traditional fans.
Underneath the shroud is a large aluminum block with heatpipes running through. The copper heatpipes make direct contact with the GPU. The added cooling should allow for some overclocking. The same goes for the card’s 6+2 power phase design, which makes the MOSFET work at a lower temperature to provide more stable voltage.
