MSI Adds Low-Profile AMD Radeon RX 460 Graphics Cards to Lineup
by Anton Shilov on February 18, 2017 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- MSI
- Polaris
- RX 460 4GT LP
- RX 460 2GT LP
MSI has quietly added two low-profile AMD Radeon RX 460 graphics adapters to its product family. The add-in-boards (AIBs) are powered by AMD’s latest entry-level GPU, Polaris 11. As these are base RX 460 models. they do not require PCIe power and are compatible with a wide range of computers that have enough space for a dual-slot card. The new adapters will be among the most affordable discrete graphics options today and will be aimed at those upgrading entry-level systems as well as building SFF HTPCs.
The MSI Radeon RX 460 4GT LP and Radeon RX 460 2GT LP are based on AMD’s Baffin (Polaris 11) graphics chip (896 stream processors, 56 texture units, 16 raster operations pipelines, 128-bit memory bus) clocked at up to 1.2 GHz (base/boost) and carry 2 or 4 GB of GDDR5 memory at 7 Gbps. As for connectivity, the boards have one DL-DVI-D and one HDMI 2.0 output with HDCP 2.2 support (HDCP 2.2 is required for playback of protected UHD video). When it comes to cooling, the AIBs use dual-slot cooling systems with two fans, the same as the company installed on other low-profile graphics cards. As an added bonus, MSI states that it uses MIL-STD-810G certified components to ensure a long lifespan for its LP adapters.
Over the past couple of months, MSI and a number of other companies (GIGABYTE, GALAX) have introduced low-profile graphics adapters based on NVIDIA’s GPUs - MSI is one of the first with similar LP RX 460 cards and extending its range of contemporary LP AIBs to four models. The addition of two low-profile cards to the lineup may indicate that demand for such products is relatively significant and rather stable.
Both AMD Polaris 11 (Baffin) and NVIDIA GP107 GPUs outperform integrated graphics cores of mainstream desktop CPUs and also support modern functionality like DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs. Furthermore, the two graphics processors support hardware-accelerated decoding and encoding of HEVC (H.265) and VP9 video at 4Kp60 as well as HDR10. Finally, the GPUs consume up to 75 W of power and do not need any auxiliary PCIe power connectors, which makes them compatible with virtually all modern PCs with a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, including those from various large brands that sometimes do not have any spare connectors left.
| MSI's Radeon RX 460 Low Profile Graphics Cards | ||||||
| RX 460 4GT LP | RX 460 2GT LP | |||||
| GPU | AMD Polaris 11 (Baffin) | |||||
| Stream Processors | 896 | |||||
| Texture Units | 56 | |||||
| ROPs | 16 | |||||
| Core Clock (MHz) | 1090 | |||||
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 1200 | |||||
| Memory | Capacity | 4 GB | 2 GB | |||
| Type | GDDR5 | |||||
| Clock | 7 Gbps | |||||
| Bus Width | 128 bit | |||||
| Outputs | DisplayPort | 0 | ||||
| DVI | 1 × DVI-D | |||||
| HDMI 2.0b | 1 | |||||
| TFLOPS (FP32) | 1.95 | |||||
| TDP | 75 W | |||||
| Launch Date | 2/2017 | 2/2017 | ||||
MSI has not announced MSRPs forthe new cards, and since the AIBs were added to the company’s product family in the last week, they are no yet available at Amazon or Newegg. Given the positioning of the adapters, it is unlikely that their price will be substantially different from $109 (2 GB version) and $139 (4 GB version) recommended by AMD.
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Ro_Ja - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
Server Computers still have D-Sub ports.They should've added a DVI, HDMI and a DisplayPort and included a low profile bracket.
epobirs - Wednesday, March 1, 2017 - link
This has already happened. 2015 was the agreed upon sunset year for VGA by most companies. Most of the items you can still buy with VGA are models predating that deadline or aimed at non-consumer markets.nightbringer57 - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
It can be updated, at some cost, while DVI-VGA adapters are ubiquitous and cheap.This is a low-end GPU.
Shame that it doesn't have DP.
StevoLincolnite - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
This GPU isn't single slot. It misses a chunk of it's target audience, which is the big let down.Death666Angel - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
If it misses its target audience, it's not really the target audience, is it?barleyguy - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
Agreed.Buy an old Dell with a Sandy Bridge processor for $40, add this card, and you've got a usable gaming PC for around $150. I think that is the target audience. That and people upgrading similar machines.
StevoLincolnite - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
I have a similar machine as that. But... It can only handle single slot GPU's.BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - link
In a number of OEM systems, 75W TDP is still a little bit on the high side for old half-height retired Dell business systems. I've had success with a GT 730, but it's rated at 23 or 25W TDP (DDR3 or GDDR5 depending) in a Sandy Bridge-based Optiplex 390 slim desktop, but I suspect any card closer to 75W would simply be too much for the PSU. More importantly though, the slot isn't rated to handle over 35W so it's well under spec for normal PCI-e 16x slots. The mini tower version of the Optiplex 390 doesn't have that problem, but IIRC the PSU is rated at 250W so it might need to be replaced with something a bit more powerful.barleyguy - Sunday, February 19, 2017 - link
Passive DVI to VGA converters require DVI-I, which this card doesn't have.ddriver - Saturday, February 18, 2017 - link
Nothing's wrong with DVI, this is a budget product that is very likely to be bundled with an older display. This will eliminate spending extra money on adapters. I am all for DP, but it doesn't get anywhere near the adoption it should, while pretty much everything has HDMI, so logically if the goal is to minimize cost for a budget product, DVI + HDMI is the most logical choice of interfaces, providing support for both legacy and contemporary displays.