HIS Radeon RX 480 IceQ X2: Roaring Turbo Performance Review

HIS, the internationally acclaimed brand of graphics cards, has released the ‘Roaring’ series for Radeon RX architecture. HIS RX 480 IceQ X2 looks stunning with blue fan blades and stripes. The metallic fan shroud creates strong KING LION image and offers stronger protection both on fansink and components at the rear of PCB. Let’s head straight to specifications first.

HIS RX 480 IceQ X2 Specifications

	HIS RX 480 IceQ X2 Roaring Turbo	AMD RX 480	AMD RX 470	GeForce GTX 1060
GPU	Polaris 10 XT	Polaris 10 XT	Polaris 10 PRO	GP106-400
CUDA Cores	2304	2304	2048	1280
Boost Clock	1338 MHz	1266 MHz	1206 MHz	1506 MHz
Memory Clock (Effective)	2000 MHz (8 GHz)	2000 MHz (8 GHz)	1650 MHz (6.6 GHz)	2002 MHz (8 GHz)
Memory Configuration	8GB GDDR5	8GB GDDR5	4GB GDDR5	6GB GDDR5
Memory Bus Width	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	192-bit
TBP/TDP	150W+	150W	120W	120W
Power Connectors	8-pin 1x HDMI 2.0 3x DisplayPort 1.3 1x DVI-I DL	6-pin 1x HDMI 2.0 3x DisplayPort 1.3	6-pin 1x HDMI 2.0 3x DisplayPort 1.3	6-pin 1x HDMI 2.0 3x DisplayPort 1.3 1x DVI-I DL

As you can see, the card offers 8GB GDDR5 memory with memory clock at 8Gbps. It has a 256-bit memory interface with Display Port 1.4 and HDMI 2.0b offering 4096×2160 resolution at 60Hz. Featuring an 8-pin power socket and optimized for DirectX 12, the card delivers premium VR and Gaming Experiences beyond HD. The OC clocks are tuned and tested and run at 1288MHz, while the base clock runs at 1120MHz and the boost clock at 1266MHz. In the product box, you get the HIS Graphics Card with Driver Disc, quick installation guide, and the 8-pin power cable.

Performance Review

The author of video cards has done a detailed performance review of this card. Below are the details of the testing platform –

Component	Provided by
CPU : Intel Core i7 6800K @ 4200 MHz
CPU Cooler : NZXT Kraken X61	NZXT
Motherboard : ASUS X99-A II
Memory : G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 3200 MHz 16-18-18-38-2N	G.SKILL
Display : Crossover 289K (4096×2160)
SSD : Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2
PSU : EVGA SuperNova 850 G2
OS : Windows 10 x64 PRO
GPUs : HIS RX 480 IceQ X2 Roaring Turbo (Crimson 16.7.3)
HIS R9 390X IceQ X2 Turbo (Crimson 16.7.3)	HIS
Colorful iGame GTX 1070 X-TOP-8G (GeForce 368.81)	COLORFUL
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6G TOC (GeForce 368.81)	MSI

Overclocking

The author of video cards was successfully able to overclock the card to 1430MHz. The overclock was stable for all synthetic tests, but became quite unstable during gaming tests. With gaming tests, it reached the point where ASUS motherboard’s circuit protection actually shut down the whole PC, owing to too much power being drained by GPU. To make things stable, 1410 MHz clock speed was used, with memory clock set to 2250 MHz.

The author also tested three fan profiles. First profile couldn’t keep the clock stable at 1410MHz. The second profile was used for further testing, to ensure clock speed doesn’t throttle. The third profile is for daily use with lower RPM at lower temperatures.

Screen Grabs from GPU-Z

Stability and Thermal Testing

This card features 0dB technology, which means fans won’t start spinning unless the circuit detects certain temperature. The noise listed below is the noise generated by the whole system.

Default Bios

Stress testing	Idle	Fire Strike Stress Test	Furmark
Max. GPU Temperature	46 C	71 C	70 C
Fan Speed	0 RPM	2065 RPM	2223 RPM
Typical Clock Speed	300 MHz	1266 MHz	1180 MHz
Memory Clock	300 MHz	2000 MHz	2000 MHz
Noise Level (30cm/100cm)	—	49/41 dB	50/42 db

Overclocking

Stress testing	Idle	Fire Strike Stress Test	Furmark
Max. GPU Temperature	29 C	73 C	79 C
Fan Speed	1310 RPM	3080 RPM	2780 RPM
Typical Clock Speed	300 MHz	1410 MHz	1255 MHz
Memory Clock	300 MHz	2250 MHz	2250 MHz
Noise Level (30cm/100cm)	46/42 dB	59/48 dB	56/46 dB

Performance

The games were tested using moderate overclocking at 1410 MHz, which is more stable than 1430 MHz.

3DMark Fire Strike

3DMark 11

The overclocked RX 480 beats overclocked GTX 1060 in FS Performance and Ultra

DirectX 11 GTA5

VULKAN Doom

Summary

Overall, the HIS RX 480 IceQ X2 Roaring is a decent graphics card. When it comes to performance, overclocking at 1400+ shows that GTX 1060 and RX 480 have more or less similar potential. RX 480 fares better when it comes to framerate. The RX 480 reaches 1430MHz and finishes all 3D Mark tests without a sweat. Priced at 289 USD, this card definitely packs in a lot!

Share your experiences about this card in the comments section. We’d love to hear from you!