Radeon RX 540X vs RX 480

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking250not rated
Place by popularity94not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation15.81no data
Power efficiency10.21no data
ArchitectureGCN 4.0 (2016−2020)GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameEllesmerePolaris 23
GCN generation4th Genno data
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Designreferenceno data
Release date29 June 2016 (8 years ago)11 April 2018 (6 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$229 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores2304512
Compute units36no data
Core clock speed1120 MHz1124 MHz
Boost clock speed1266 MHz1219 MHz
Number of transistors5,700 million2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology14 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)150 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rate182.339.01
Floating-point processing power5.834 TFLOPS1.248 TFLOPS
ROPs3216
TMUs14432

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
Bus supportn/ano data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x8
Length241 mmno data
Width2-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pinNone
Bridgeless CrossFire+-

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount8 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed8000 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth224 GB/s96 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPortNo outputs
Eyefinity+-
HDMI2.0-
DisplayPort support1.4HDR-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAccelerationn/a-
CrossFire+-
Enduron/a-
FRTC+-
FreeSync++
HD3Dn/a-
LiquidVR+-
PowerTune+-
TressFX+-
TrueAudion/a-
ZeroCore+-
UVD+-
VCE+-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (12_0)
Shader Model6.46.4
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL2.02.0
Vulkan+1.2.131
Mantlen/a-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 29 June 2016 11 April 2018
Maximum RAM amount 8 GB 2 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt 50 Watt

RX 480 has a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount.

RX 540X, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, and 200% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon RX 480 and Radeon RX 540X. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that Radeon RX 480 is a desktop card while Radeon RX 540X is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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AMD Radeon RX 480
Radeon RX 480
AMD Radeon RX 540X
Radeon RX 540X

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


4.2 1845 votes

Rate Radeon RX 480 on a scale of 1 to 5:

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3.6 52 votes

Rate Radeon RX 540X on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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