RX 4XX and 5XX GPU Graphics Card Repair

This page is to feature all the RX 4XX/5XX GPUs I have worked on. The 5XX versions of 4XX cards e.g. 580 and 480, seem pretty much just refinements of the core design and often share quite a lot. All of them seem to run relatively hot compared to the Nvidia competition at this time e.g. 9 series and legendary 10 series. I still consider them favorites of mine, as for their age, they pack a lot of value, come in a huge variety of designs, and are still fine for my type of games e.g. HD.

What is there to like about repairing Polaris cards?

  • Well-trodden ground i.e. well analyzed by repairers, like this excellent guide https://repair.wiki/w/AMD_Polaris_GPU_Diagnosing_Guide
  • They are very popular, have lots on the market and have so many cool designs, especially the Sapphire ones.
  • Still quite fun for HD gaming, with the RX 590 also fine for 1440p a lot of the time.
  • As AMD/Radeon cards go, most Polaris cards can use tserver to narrow their very common memory issues.

What is there not to like about repairing Polaris cards?

  • BGA issues – Due to their often generous memory (8Gb) and reasonable price point, they have often been a popular choice for miners. As such, they can suffer from thrashed memory and worse, memory controllers, making some unfixable for many people.
  • These cards feature I2C PWM controllers, which can be challenging in that reprogramming may be required.
  • They generally run quite hot, the RX 4XX cards more so. This heat probably contributes to BGA issues over time.

Common faults:

  • VRAM – very common, look out for vertical bar artefacts.
  • Display rail issues – usually very fixable.
  • Shorts – sometimes savage on the 12V rail, but also nicer 5V and 1.8V regulator issues.
  • Crashing under load – sometimes through heat, but often more complex issues.

RX 460

RX 470

  • Asus ROG Strix RX-470 4GB (SOLD – lovely condition, runs, but seems to get hot. Seller said it can fail, this only happened once for me, so I resold it as faulty)
  • Gigabyte RX 470 (Sometimes stable under load, sometimes crashes)

RX 480

I really want to fix a RX480, but I have not done well so far!

RX 560

RX 570

These cards can still be quite nice for HD gaming.

ASUS ROG Strix

XFX Black Edition

RX 580

For me, the RX 580 is a classic card! There are a lot of varieties, this is my favorite that I have worked on:

Sapphire NITRO+ RX 580 8Gb Special Edition

RX 590

These cards are great! They will play 1440p quite well. Juicier, but have more powerful core performance than 580s.