EK Water Blocks Ready with Radeon RX 480 Full-coverage Block

btarunr · Jun 30, 2016

EK Water Blocks is ready with a full-coverage water block for AMD Radeon RX 480 (model: EK-FC RX-480). Designed for the reference-design RX 480 PCB, the block features a common coolant channel for the GPU, memory, and VRM, with a ridged coolant channel over the GPU for better heat dissipation. The block is 1-slot thick, and comes in four variants, exposed copper block with clear acrylic top, exposed copper with opaque POM acetal top, and nickel-plated copper with acrylic/acetal tops. Since the upcoming Radeon RX 470 features the same reference PCB design, this block could be compatible with that card, too. The company didn't reveal pricing.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

geon2k2 · Jun 30, 2016

I think they were also fooled by the AMD performance claims.
Otherwise, I don't see the point of this block.

Who would pay 200$ on a card and 100$ on a cooler, considering the overclocking is not even that great?

chief-gunney · Jun 30, 2016

RX480 out performs the gtx 970 at half the price and does so on day 1 with virtually no cooling with a 6 pin power connector and a beta driver and no overclock, LoL.
Most definitely Number 1 in it's class ATM. Can only get better.
Waterblock may be a better idea on the after market cards to come with modified boards and 8 pin connectors,
looking forward to the results.

the54thvoid · Jun 30, 2016

chief-gunney said:
RX480 out performs the gtx 970 at half the price and does so on day 1 with virtually no cooling with a 6 pin power connector and a beta driver and no overclock, LoL.
Most definitely Number 1 in it's class ATM. Can only get better.
Waterblock may be a better idea on the after market cards to come.
looking forward to the results.

Nothing wrong with a water block on a hot running, noisy card. That's the main draw.

OTOH, comparing to a 970 which is EOL is a bit naff. Need to compare to the GTX1060 when it comes out (in paper fashion) next week.

HD64G · Jun 30, 2016

If they weren't sure that 480 is a more than a good overclocker they wouldn't have it ready me thinks. Especially for a GOU of this price category. So, wait a bit for the custom oced ones.

chief-gunney · Jun 30, 2016

Gtx 1060? - http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gtx-1060-special-launch-event-july/ looks like 192 bit bus and 3g version (WTF?) for $250 and 6g version for 300$. Bet the actual sale price will be much higher too.

RX480 custom cards look sweet - http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-asus-strix-msi-gaming/ - they've reported clock speeds up to 1.6ghz
Now a waterblock on them looks worth it.

GhostRyder · Jun 30, 2016

chief-gunney said:
Gtx 1060? - http://wccftech.com/nvidia-gtx-1060-special-launch-event-july/- looks like 192 bit bus and 3g version (WTF?) for $250 and 6g version for 300$. Bet the actual sale price will be much higher too.

RX480 custom cards look sweet - http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-asus-strix-msi-gaming/ - they've reported clock speeds up to 1.6ghz
Now a waterblock on them looks worth it.

Well thats if we can believe them, they like alot of click bait articles and claim things that many times end up being false. That being said they have been right before and this is not a stretch. If its true it just means its going to make the card that much better and make AMD look a bit foolish for not at least putting an 8pin connector on the card.

Waterblocks for this card are fine. People like water cooling even medium end products so I see no problem with this especially if an RX 480X comes later the design can be reused. Either way you don't have to go all in on a card to want to water cool it.

ZoneDymo · Jun 30, 2016

I would be very interested to see how this influences overclocking results.
On the current card it seems they pushed the clocks as far as they could within the safety margin leaving no room for OCing.
But with this there maybe some room.

peche · Jun 30, 2016

chief-gunney said:
RX480 out performs the gtx 970 at half the price and does so on day 1 with virtually no cooling with a 6 pin power connector and a beta driver and no overclock, LoL.

outperforms?
nice Try ....

here you could see more about how the RX 480 8GB gets smoked by other cards....

Regards,

GhostRyder · Jun 30, 2016

peche said:
outperforms?
nice Try ....

here you could see more about how the RX 480 8GB gets smoked by other cards....

Regards,

That's one game...Not the average...So the truth actually is...

It is better than the 970. Its exactly where everyone has been saying it is, in between the 970 and 980 performance wise (Or for AMD, between the 390 and the 390X). Its also on a pretty premature driver as this is the first card from this generation so performance will as with any card regardless of the company go up as time moves on.

dozenfury · Jun 30, 2016

Interesting, a $130 water block for a last-gen speed card that should cost $150. I can't imagine they'd sell many of these blocks. I agree that they probably got fooled a bit by the pre-release hype. Putting a water block on anything slower than a 980ti or 1070 seems pretty silly.

As it turned out, the 480 is more of a next-gen version of the 380, and people wouldn't watercool that.

peche · Jun 30, 2016

GhostRyder said:
It is better than the 970. Its exactly where everyone has been saying it is, in between the 970 and 980 performance wise (Or for AMD, between the 390 and the 390X). Its also on a pretty premature driver as this is the first card from this generation so performance will as with any card regardless of the company go up as time moves on.

well ... we will see with new drivers i guess...

Regards,

ShurikN · Jun 30, 2016

Its a small block for a small card, what makes you think it will cost $130

HD64G · Jun 30, 2016

dozenfury said:
Interesting, a $130 water block for a last-gen speed card that should cost $150. I can't imagine they'd sell many of these blocks. I agree that they probably got fooled a bit by the pre-release hype. Putting a water block on anything slower than a 980ti or 1070 seems pretty silly.

As it turned out, the 480 is more of a next-gen version of the 380, and people wouldn't watercool that.

Agreed! RX480 on water will reach stock 980Ti probably...

the54thvoid · Jun 30, 2016

HD64G said:
Agreed! RX480 on water will reach stock 980Ti probably...

You're quite the optimist. It's need to be 33% faster in performance. That's quite some ask....

Let's not get too ahead of things and start more hype. If it overclocks past 980ti, it beats Fury X too. It's not high end.

Deeveo · Jun 30, 2016

It will have it's niche, if the reference model had a second 6pin connector for extra power you could propably get some decent clocks with a water cooler on it.

newtekie1 · Jun 30, 2016

With the amount of power the reference PCB pulls through the PCI-E slot, I wouldn't want to overclock it at all, so this block is kind of pointless...

peche · Jun 30, 2016

Deeveo said:
It will have it's niche, if the reference model had a second 6pin connector for extra power you could propably get some decent clocks with a water cooler on it.

newtekie1 said:
With the amount of power the reference PCB pulls through the PCI-E slot, I wouldn't want to overclock it at all, so this block is kind of pointless...

im pretty sure will be custom PCB's with Extra connectors....

TheinsanegamerN · Jun 30, 2016

peche said:
well ... we will see with new drivers i guess...

Regards,

Driver won't fix the disappointing power consumption.

newtekie1 · Jun 30, 2016

peche said:
im pretty sure will be custom PCB's with Extra connectors....

And this waterblock won't fit them.

1rishPredator · Jun 30, 2016

From what I've seen, the RX 480 gains a lot when overclocked when compared to the previous 28nm R9 range. The tiny stock cooler heatsink and 150w power limit really hold back this card. It makes no sense to put a water block on the reference designed PCB. A water block on an aftermarket PCB with 8pin power would be great. It would be R9 Fury performance for much less money.

However, the aftermarket coolers are coming very soon. Look out for custom boards with added power connectors. I think the RX 480 will be very similar to the R9 290 launch, but even better with better cooling.

peche · Jun 30, 2016

newtekie1 said:
And this waterblock won't fit them.

great point ...

Ungari · Jun 30, 2016

geon2k2 said:
I think they were also fooled by the AMD performance claims.
Otherwise, I don't see the point of this block.

Who would pay 200$ on a card and 100$ on a cooler, considering the overclocking is not even that great?

I for one am surprised that EK would produce a waterblock for such a low cost card. It seems like the cost would put the user into a higher tiered video card.

Ungari · Jun 30, 2016

GhostRyder said:
If its true it just means its going to make the card that much better and make AMD look a bit foolish for not at least putting an 8pin connector on the card.

Ed from Sapphire said the Nitro version will have an 8-pin connector, but that the 8-pin is unnecessary!
I'm guessing the user can decide to use only a 6-pin to insert in the slot.

TheoneandonlyMrK · Jul 1, 2016

I'm on the soon as list for 2 of these ,and a second 480 next month (arives sat),yeah my Fx will bottleneck the cheap out of them but I'm jibering over the folding performance /efficiency.

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

Processor	AMD R5 3600
Motherboard	Asus x570 Strix-E
Cooling	custom water (360+280 rads) EK cpu and gpu blocks
Memory	Corsair Vengeance pro 3600
Video Card(s)	rx vega 64
Storage	XPG SX8200 pro NVME Gen3 500g, Samsung 860 evo 500g,
Display(s)	Benq Zowie XL 2730
Case	Phanteks Eclipse p600s
Audio Device(s)	Razor Leviathan
Power Supply	SEASONIC Platinum 850w CORSAIR HX1000,
Mouse	Zowie EC1-b, Glorias model-O
Keyboard	Corsair K70 Lux
Software	WINDOWS 10, 64BIT

Processor	Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard	MSI MAG Mortar B650 (wifi)
Cooling	be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Memory	32GB Kingston Fury
Video Card(s)	Gainward RTX4070ti
Storage	Seagate FireCuda 530 M.2 1TB / Samsumg 960 Pro M.2 512Gb
Display(s)	LG 32" 165Hz 1440p GSYNC
Case	Asus Prime AP201
Audio Device(s)	On Board
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure POwer M12 850w Gold (ATX3.0)
Software	W10

Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 5600@80W
Motherboard	MSI B550 Tomahawk
Cooling	ZALMAN CNPS9X OPTIMA
Memory	2*8GB PATRIOT PVS416G400C9K@3733MT_C16
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon RX 6750 XT Pulse 12GB
Storage	Sandisk SSD 128GB, Kingston A2000 NVMe 1TB, Samsung F1 1TB, WD Black 10TB
Display(s)	AOC 27G2U/BK IPS 144Hz
Case	SHARKOON M25-W 7.1 BLACK
Audio Device(s)	Realtek 7.1 onboard
Power Supply	Seasonic Core GC 500W
Mouse	Sharkoon SHARK Force Black
Keyboard	Trust GXT280
Software	Win 7 Ultimate 64bit/Win 10 pro 64bit/Manjaro Linux

Processor	AMD R5 3600
Motherboard	Asus x570 Strix-E
Cooling	custom water (360+280 rads) EK cpu and gpu blocks
Memory	Corsair Vengeance pro 3600
Video Card(s)	rx vega 64
Storage	XPG SX8200 pro NVME Gen3 500g, Samsung 860 evo 500g,
Display(s)	Benq Zowie XL 2730
Case	Phanteks Eclipse p600s
Audio Device(s)	Razor Leviathan
Power Supply	SEASONIC Platinum 850w CORSAIR HX1000,
Mouse	Zowie EC1-b, Glorias model-O
Keyboard	Corsair K70 Lux
Software	WINDOWS 10, 64BIT

EK Water Blocks Ready with Radeon RX 480 Full-coverage Block

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

geon2k2

chief-gunney

the54thvoid

Intoxicated Moderator

HD64G

chief-gunney

GhostRyder

ZoneDymo

peche

Thermaltake fanboy

GhostRyder

dozenfury

peche

Thermaltake fanboy

ShurikN

HD64G

the54thvoid

Intoxicated Moderator

Deeveo

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

peche

Thermaltake fanboy

TheinsanegamerN

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

1rishPredator

New Member

peche

Thermaltake fanboy

Ungari

Ungari

TheoneandonlyMrK

System Name	SnowFire / The Reinforcer
Processor	i7 10700K 5.1ghz (24/7) / 2x Xeon E52650v2
Motherboard	Asus Strix Z490 / Dell Dual Socket (R720)
Cooling	RX 360mm + 140mm Custom Loop / Dell Stock
Memory	Corsair RGB 16gb DDR4 3000 CL 16 / DDR3 128gb 16 x 8gb
Video Card(s)	GTX Titan XP (2025mhz) / Asus GTX 950 (No Power Connector)
Storage	Samsung 970 1tb NVME and 2tb HDD x4 RAID 5 / 300gb x8 RAID 5
Display(s)	Acer XG270HU, Samsung G7 Odyssey (1440p 240hz)
Case	Thermaltake Cube / Dell Poweredge R720 Rack Mount Case
Audio Device(s)	Realtec ALC1150 (On board)
Power Supply	Rosewill Lightning 1300Watt / Dell Stock 750 / Brick
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Logitech G19S
Software	Windows 11 Pro / Windows Server 2016

System Name	Cyberline
Processor	Intel Core i7 2600k -> 12600k
Motherboard	Asus P8P67 LE Rev 3.0 -> Gigabyte Z690 Auros Elite DDR4
Cooling	Tuniq Tower 120 -> Custom Watercoolingloop
Memory	Corsair (4x2) 8gb 1600mhz -> Crucial (8x2) 16gb 3600mhz
Video Card(s)	AMD RX480 -> ... nope still the same :'(
Storage	Samsung 750 Evo 250gb SSD + WD 1tb x 2 + WD 2tb -> 2tb MVMe SSD
Display(s)	Philips 32inch LPF5605H (television) -> Dell S3220DGF
Case	antec 600 -> Thermaltake Tenor HTCP case
Audio Device(s)	Focusrite 2i4 (USB)
Power Supply	Seasonic 620watt 80+ Platinum
Mouse	Elecom EX-G
Keyboard	Rapoo V700
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64bit

System Name	Athenna
Processor	intel i7 3770 Dellided
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Rev. 1.1
Cooling	Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro + Tt Riing12 x2 / Tt ThunderBlade / Gelid Slim 120UV fans
Memory	16GB DRR3 Kingoston with Custom Tt spreaders + HyperX Fan
Video Card(s)	GeForce GTX 980 4GB Nvidia Sample
Storage	Crucial M4 SSD 64GB's / Seagate Barracuda 2TB / Seagate Barracuda 320GB's
Display(s)	22" LG FLATRON 1920 x 1280p
Case	Thermaltake Commander G42 Window
Audio Device(s)	On-board Dolby 5.1+ Kingston HyperX Cloud 1
Power Supply	Themaltake TR2 700W 80plus bronce & APC Pro backup 1000Va
Mouse	Tt eSports Level 10M Rev 1.0 Diamond Black & Tt Conkor "L" mouse pad
Keyboard	Tt eSports KNUCKER
Software	windows 10x64Pro
Benchmark Scores	well I've fried a 775' P4 12 years ago, that counts?

Processor	Ryzen 3600
Motherboard	X570 I Aorus Pro
Cooling	Deepcool AG400
Memory	HyperX Fury 2 x 8GB 3200 CL16
Video Card(s)	RX 470 Nitro+ 4GB
Storage	SX8200 Pro 512 / NV2 512
Display(s)	24G2U
Case	NR200P
Power Supply	Ion SFX 650
Mouse	G703
Keyboard	Keychron V1 (Akko Matcha Green) / Apex m500 (gateron milky yellow)
Software	W10

System Name	Gaming rig
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5900X
Motherboard	Asus X570-Plus TUF /w "passive" chipset mod
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15S
Memory	Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 2x16GB 3200C16 @3600C16
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 3060 TI Gaming X Trio
Storage	Samsung 970 Pro 1TB, Crucial MX500 2TB, Samsung 860 QVO 4TB
Display(s)	Samsung C32HG7x
Case	Fractal Design Define R5
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar Essence STX
Power Supply	Corsair RM850i 850W
Mouse	Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard	Logitech G710+
Software	Windows 10 Pro

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	Skunkworks
Processor	5800x3d
Motherboard	x570 unify
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12A
Memory	32GB 3600 mhz
Video Card(s)	asrock 6800xt challenger D
Storage	Sabarent rocket 4.0 2TB, MX 500 2TB
Display(s)	Asus 1440p144 27"
Case	Old arse cooler master 932
Power Supply	Corsair 1200w platinum
Mouse	squeak
Keyboard	Some old office thing
Software	openSUSE tumbleweed/Mint 21.2

System Name	Team Crimson
Processor	AMD FX 8320
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
Cooling	Corsair H80i
Memory	DDR3 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 8GB RAM
Storage	Samsung 850 EVO 250GB / Crucial MX300 275GB
Display(s)	AOC 2752H 27" 1080p
Case	NZXT Source 220 Windowed
Power Supply	Antec Earthworks 650W
Mouse	Logitech M510/ AGPTEK T-90 Zelotes
Keyboard	Logitech K360/ iBUYPOWER TTC RED Switch Mechanical
Software	Windows 8.1 64 Bit

System Name	RyzenGtEvo/ Asus strix scar II
Processor	Amd R5 5900X/ Intel 8750H
Motherboard	Crosshair hero8 impact/Asus
Cooling	360EK extreme rad+ 360$EK slim all push, cpu ek suprim Gpu full cover all EK
Memory	Corsair Vengeance Rgb pro 3600cas14 16Gb in four sticks./16Gb/16GB
Video Card(s)	Powercolour RX7900XT Reference/Rtx 2060
Storage	Silicon power 2TB nvme/8Tb external/1Tb samsung Evo nvme 2Tb sata ssd/1Tb nvme
Display(s)	Samsung UAE28"850R 4k freesync.dell shiter
Case	Lianli 011 dynamic/strix scar2
Audio Device(s)	Xfi creative 7.1 on board ,Yamaha dts av setup, corsair void pro headset
Power Supply	corsair 1200Hxi/Asus stock
Mouse	Roccat Kova/ Logitech G wireless
Keyboard	Roccat Aimo 120
VR HMD	Oculus rift
Software	Win 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	8726 vega 3dmark timespy/ laptop Timespy 6506