PCI-SIG pulls AMD Radeon RX 480 PCIe certification

Last month AMD's Radeon RX 480 entered stormy waters as several review websites discovered that the video card did not meet the PCI Express specification due to its excessively high PCIe slot power draw. AMD largely mitigated the issue with the publication of the Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1 beta driver but now it seems the issue has cost AMD a product listing on the PCI-SIG Integrators List.

This list is compiled for hardware that implements the various PCI-Express specifications to the letter. Initially, the card was on the list but this is no longer the case. The implication of this is that AMD can no longer use the PCI Express certification logo on the product or in its RX 480 marketing materials.

This, however, may not affect AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners that are PCI-SIG members in their own right, and make graphics cards with their own sub-vendor IDs, provided their power-supply designs comply with PCIe specs. Custom-design cards with an 8-pin PCIe power connector, instead of 6-pin, may qualify as the combination of the 8-pin connector and the slot yields a power budget of 225W.

It is largely meaningless, but we still wonder how the RX 480 got on the list in the first place. This should not have happened if proper testing and control was in place.