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AMD Radeon RX 460

AMD Radeon RX 460 in 2025: Budget Veteran or Obsolete Solution?

Introduction

In 2025, the AMD Radeon RX 460 remains a legend in the budget segment, despite its nearly ten-year lifespan. Released in 2016, it is still found in the builds of novice gamers and office PCs. But how relevant is it in an era of ray tracing and neural network upscaling? Let's delve into the details.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Polaris Architecture: The Foundation of Stability

The RX 460 is built on the GCN 4.0 (Graphics Core Next) microarchitecture, known as Polaris. This is the first generation of AMD optimized for energy efficiency. The manufacturing process is 14 nm (GlobalFoundries), which appears outdated in 2025 against the backdrop of 5-nm RDNA 3 chips.

Functional Limitations

The card does not support hardware ray tracing (RT) and proprietary NVIDIA technologies like DLSS. However, it is compatible with AMD FidelityFX, including CAS (Contrast Adaptive Sharpening) and FSR 1.0 (FidelityFX Super Resolution), but only through driver updates. FSR 2.0 and newer are unavailable due to hardware limitations.

Conclusion for 2025: Polaris is a tried-and-true but outdated architecture. It is suitable for basic tasks but not for modern graphical features.

2. Memory: Modest Capabilities

Type and Volume

The RX 460 is equipped with GDDR5 (not to be confused with GDDR6/X!) with a volume of 2 or 4 GB. The memory bus is 128 bits, providing a bandwidth of up to 112 GB/s (for the 4 GB versions).

Impact on Gaming

In 2025, even 4 GB is insufficient for AAA projects at medium settings. For example, in "Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty" (2024) at 1080p, texture loading can cause lag. However, for indie games (Hollow Knight: Silksong) or esports titles (CS2, Valorant), there is enough memory.

3. Gaming Performance: Realities of 2025

1080p: Minimum for Comfort

- CS2: 90-110 FPS at low settings.

- Fortnite: 45-55 FPS (Low, FSR 1.0 Quality).

- Hogwarts Legacy: 25-30 FPS (Low, no RT).

1440p and 4K: These resolutions are impractical. Even with FSR 1.0, one can only play older titles like "The Witcher 3" (40-50 FPS on Medium, 1080p).

Ray Tracing: There is no hardware support. Software methods (like via Proton on Linux) reduce FPS to unplayable levels.

4. Professional Tasks: Modest Ambitions

Video Editing

In Premiere Pro, the card can handle 1080p rendering, but 4K timelines will stutter. OpenCL-based accelerators work, but slower than CUDA on NVIDIA.

3D Modeling

Blender and Maya will run, but complex scenes in Cycles require patience. It is suitable for learning but not for production.

Scientific Calculations

OpenCL support allows the GPU to be used in machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow/PyTorch, but only for educational models. Serious tasks are better handled by newer cards.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

TDP and Recommendations

The TDP of the RX 460 is 75 W, so it does not require additional power (powered through PCIe x16). It is an ideal option for compact cases and low-wattage PSUs.

Cooling

Even in 2025, passive and single-slot models (like the Sapphire Pulse) remain silent. However, in poorly ventilated cases, temperatures can reach 75-80°C under load. The solution: a case with 1-2 fans (for example, Fractal Design Core 1100).

6. Comparison with Competitors

Analogues from 2016-2017:

- NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti (4 GB): 10-15% faster in DX11 but more expensive.

- AMD RX 560: Slightly higher clock speeds but similar architecture.

In 2025:

New budget cards like Intel Arc A380 (6 GB GDDR6, XeSS) or AMD Radeon RX 6400 (6 nm, RDNA 2) offer support for modern APIs (DirectX 12 Ultimate) and FSR 3.0. Prices start at $130, while a new RX 460 (if you can find one) can be bought for $60-80.

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply: A 300-400 W PSU is sufficient (for example, EVGA 400 W1). Make sure the PSU has a 6-pin connector (only for some RX 460 models).

Compatibility:

- Motherboards: PCIe 3.0 x8 (the card is physically compatible with PCIe 4.0/5.0 but will not gain speed).

- Processors: Even an old Intel Core i5-4xxx or Ryzen 3 1200 will suffice.

Drivers: AMD officially ended support for Polaris in 2024. The last stable drivers are Adrenalin 23.12.1. Compatibility for Windows 11 and Linux (Mesa) is maintained.

8. Pros and Cons

Advantages:

- Low power consumption.

- Silent models with passive cooling.

- Support for FSR 1.0 for easy upscaling.

Disadvantages:

- No ray tracing or FSR 3.

- Only 2-4 GB of outdated GDDR5.

- Limited performance in new games.

9. Final Conclusion: Who is the RX 460 for in 2025?

This graphics card is a choice for:

1. Budget Builds: If you need a PC for office work, study, or video streaming.

2. Retro Gaming: Running games from the 2010s at high settings.

3. Upgrading Older Systems: Replacing integrated graphics without changing the PSU.

Why not buy new? For $60-80, it's better to look for a used RX 570 (8 GB) or GTX 1650. However, if you value warranty and minimal noise, the RX 460 could still be an option. Nevertheless, in 2025, it is more of a niche solution for enthusiasts than a mass-market product.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

August 2016

Model Name

Radeon RX 460

Generation

Arctic Islands

Base Clock

1090MHz

Boost Clock

1200MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x8

Transistors

3,000 million

Compute Units

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

GlobalFoundries

Process Size

14 nm

Architecture

GCN 4.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

2GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

128bit

Memory Clock

1750MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

112.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

19.20 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

67.20 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

2.150 TFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

134.4 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

2.107 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

896

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

1024KB

TDP

75W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.2

OpenCL Version

2.1

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_0)

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.4

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

250W

Benchmarks

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2160p

Score

3 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p

Score

12 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1080p

Score

22 fps

FP32 (float)

Score

2.107 TFLOPS

3DMark Time Spy

Score

1797

Hashcat

Score

66609 H/s

Compared to Other GPU

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2160p / fps

GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER

47 +1466.7%

Radeon RX 6600 XT

39 +1200%

RTX A2000

26 +766.7%

GeForce GTX 970

15 +400%

Radeon RX 460

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p / fps

GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

95 +691.7%

Radeon RX 5700 XT

75 +525%

RTX A2000 12 GB

54 +350%

GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB

33 +175%

Radeon RX 460

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1080p / fps

GeForce RTX 3070

141 +540.9%

Arc A770

107 +386.4%

GeForce RTX 2060

79 +259.1%

Radeon RX 6500 XT

46 +109.1%

Radeon RX 460

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon RX 560X Mobile

2.236 +6.1%

Quadro M2200 Mobile

2.164 +2.7%

Radeon RX 460

2.107

Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition

2.037 -3.3%

Radeon Graphics 512SP Mobile

2.007 -4.7%

3DMark Time Spy

Arc A550M

5182 +188.4%

Radeon RX 580 2048SP

3906 +117.4%

Radeon 780M

2755 +53.3%

Radeon RX 460

1797

GeForce GT 1030 DDR4

623 -65.3%

Hashcat / H/s

Radeon HD 6870

75215 +12.9%

Radeon RX Vega 11

71266 +7%

Radeon RX 460

66609

GeForce GTX 750 Ti

65496 -1.7%

GeForce GTX 770

63227 -5.1%