Conclusion
Through this evaluation we have ascertained that the Radeon RX 460 is a competent performer at a full-HD resolution common on mainstream gaming PCs. Starting at around £90 and rising to £125-plus for models equipped with 4GB of onboard memory, there's plenty of choice out there.
An examination of four partner cards illuminates a few key benefits and detractions. The Gigabyte OC 2GB variant is the cheapest on test but doesn't maintain its peak core speed in our benchmarks. It does, however, have the benefit of not requiring additional juice. The 4GB model is something of a halfway house, matching the inconsistent core clock of its sibling yet not standing out in any meaningful way.
The XFX card does most things well - a decent core clock, quiet running, competitive pricing and solid overclocking potential - but is bigger than we'd like for a card of this ilk. If you have the room and therefore don't mind the form factor, it's a reasonable bet.
We're more keen on the Sapphire Nitro. It benchmarks well, isn't quite as big as the XFX and subjectively looks better. We'd hope to see keener pricing, but do appreciate that AMD charges partners a premium for using the RX 460 GPU with a 4GB framebuffer.
The dearest and arguably best of the bunch is the Asus Strix. Asus charges £20-£25 more than anyone else, which is telling in a hotly-contested market, and it appeals to those of you who are already converts and customers of the Aura RGB lighting system.
If it was our money and RX 460 was the card for us, the Sapphire Nitro OC would get the nod, though the green team has plenty of goodness in the form of the GTX 1050.
A key takeaway here is that you don't have to spend a lot to achieve a good games-playing experience. We'll seek to replicate the experience with the next level up, so Core i5 powering the RX 470/480 and GTX 1060.
The AMD Radeon RX 460 GPUs are available from Scan Computers.
PowerColor RX 460 Red Dragon 2GB
