AMD Radeon RX 460

The AMD Radeon RX 460, built on the GCN 4.0 architecture with the Baffin chip, delivers an average benchmark score of 20088, placing it at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs. This positions it as a surprisingly competitive entry-level card, with data showing it lands within a narrow performance band around newer and higher-tier models, though its 2 GB memory capacity and 112.0 GB/s bandwidth define its practical limits. The benchmark results indicate that this is a card for specific, resolution-conscious use cases rather than a general-purpose workhorse, and its end-of-life production status means it should be evaluated purely on its measured capabilities.

Who Should Consider It

The RX 460 is best suited for gamers targeting 1080p resolution with medium to low detail settings in modern titles, as its 2.150 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 67.20 GTexel/s texture rate provide enough throughput for lighter workloads. The data shows its average score of 20088 is within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (20146), yet that rival likely features more memory, so the RX 460 should be considered only for esports titles or older games where the 2 GB VRAM will not be a bottleneck. For users playing at 1440p or higher, the 112.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 16 ROPs will cause significant frame rate drops, making this card unsuitable for high-resolution gaming. The 63rd percentile ranking suggests it outperforms a majority of all GPUs historically, but that percentile includes many older or lower-end parts, so it is not a modern high-performance option. The 7 Gbps effective memory speed and 128-bit bus width mean that texture-heavy scenes will exceed the 2 GB frame buffer quickly, so users should stick to low-resolution, low-texture settings. This card is also viable for basic desktop acceleration and video playback, given its support for DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, but not for content creation or compute-heavy tasks where the 2.150 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1) rating offers no advantage over FP32.

Power and Cooling

The RX 460 carries a 75 W TDP, which is the maximum power draw allowed from the PCIe slot alone, and it requires no auxiliary power connectors, as indicated by the "None" entry for powerConnectors. The suggested PSU is 250 W, which is modest, but the dual-slot cooler design suggests that adequate airflow is necessary to maintain boost clocks of 1200 MHz under load. The card's 170 mm length (6.7 inches) makes it compatible with most small form factor cases, and the lack of power connectors simplifies installation in pre-built systems with weak power supplies. The 14 nm process node from GlobalFoundries, with 3,000 million transistors on a 123 mm² die, results in a transistor density of 24.4M / mm², which is efficient for a 75 W part. Given the end-of-life status, users should ensure their case has sufficient ventilation, as the dual-slot design may recirculate hot air inside the chassis rather than exhausting it directly. The PCIe 3.0 x8 interface is sufficient for this card's bandwidth needs, but it will run at reduced performance if installed in a PCIe 2.0 slot, so a motherboard with PCIe 3.0 support is recommended.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The RX 460 has no dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as these fields are null in the specifications, meaning it relies entirely on traditional rasterization for graphics. The API support includes DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, which covers modern game engines, but the lack of hardware acceleration for ray tracing means any ray-traced effects will be software-emulated or disabled. The GCN 4.0 architecture does not include any AI acceleration features, so features like DLSS or similar upscaling technologies are not available; users must rely on native resolution rendering. The display outputs include 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a, which supports high refresh rates at 1080p but not high resolutions with HDR due to the 2 GB memory limit. For gamers, this means the feature set is basic: standard DirectX 12 features are present, but no advanced geometry or shading features beyond what GCN 4.0 offers. The FP16 performance is 2.150 TFLOPS (1:1), which is identical to FP32, so there is no compute advantage for workloads that use half-precision math.

How It Compares

AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT: The RX 460 trails this card by only 0.3% in average score (20088 vs 20146), but the 7600 XT is a much newer part with superior memory capacity and bandwidth, so the similarity in score is misleading. In practice, the RX 460 will lose decisively at higher resolutions where its 2 GB VRAM becomes a liability, while the 7600 XT maintains performance.

AMD Radeon RX 7600: The RX 460 is 0.8% slower than the RX 7600 (20088 vs 20258), which is a negligible margin in synthetic benchmarks. However, the RX 7600 likely has double the memory, so the RX 460 will be limited to 1080p low settings, while the RX 7600 can handle 1440p. The data suggests that in compute-bound scenes without VRAM pressure, the RX 460 is nearly as fast, but real-world gaming will show a larger gap.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER: The RX 460 is 1.6% faster than the RTX 2060 SUPER (20088 vs 19774), a surprising result given the latter's higher market tier. This delta is within run-to-run variance, so the two are effectively tied in raw compute, but the RTX 2060 SUPER has ray tracing cores and 8 GB of memory, making it far more capable in modern titles. The RX 460 wins only in synthetic workloads that do not stress memory capacity.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN: The RX 460 leads the GTX TITAN by 1.9% (20088 vs 19706), which is the largest margin among its nearest rivals. This is notable because the GTX TITAN is a much larger and more power-hungry card, yet the RX 460's GCN 4.0 architecture is more efficient. However, the GTX TITAN has 6 GB of memory, so it will outperform the RX 460 in texture-heavy scenarios despite the lower average score.

Memory Subsystem

The RX 460 is equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 112.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This configuration is severely limiting for modern games, as 2 GB is insufficient for high-resolution textures even at 1080p, leading to stuttering or texture pop-in when the buffer is exceeded. The 128-bit bus width is narrow, and the 7 Gbps effective memory speed is average for the era, but the bandwidth is roughly half of what is needed for smooth 1440p gaming. The pixel rate of 19.20 GPixel/s and texture rate of 67.20 GTexel/s are also modest, meaning that fill-rate-bound scenes will drop in performance. For high-resolution workloads like 4K, the 112.0 GB/s bandwidth will be a hard bottleneck, so users should avoid resolutions above 1080p. The 2 GB capacity also precludes using high-detail texture packs, which often require 4 GB or more. In summary, the memory subsystem is the RX 460's weakest point, and it is the primary reason why the card's strong compute scores do not translate to modern gaming performance.

FAQ

Q: Is the RX 460 suitable for 1440p gaming?

A: No, the 2 GB VRAM and 112.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 1440p, as high-resolution textures will exceed the frame buffer, causing severe performance drops.

Q: Does the RX 460 support ray tracing?

A: No, it has no RT cores or tensor cores, so ray-traced effects are not hardware-accelerated; only traditional rasterization is available.

Q: What power supply is required for the RX 460?

A: A 250 W PSU is suggested, and the card draws a maximum of 75 W from the PCIe slot, requiring no auxiliary power connectors.

Q: How does the RX 460 compare to the RTX 2060 SUPER?

A: In average benchmark score, the RX 460 is 1.6% faster (20088 vs 19774), but the RTX 2060 SUPER has more memory and ray tracing support, making it better for modern games.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of the RX 460?

A: The card has 112.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, derived from 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus running at 7 Gbps effective.

Q: Can the RX 460 handle DirectX 12 Ultimate features?

A: No, it supports DirectX 12 (12_0), which is the base feature level, but not the full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set including ray tracing and mesh shaders.

Benchmark Performance

The RX 460's average benchmark score of 20088 places it at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, which is a strong showing for a 75 W part from 2016. In Geekbench tests, it scores 22212 in Metal, 17855 in OpenCL, and 20198 in Vulkan, showing that its performance varies by API. The Metal score is notably higher than the OpenCL score, suggesting that Apple's Metal API is more efficient on GCN 4.0 hardware, while Vulkan performance is close to the overall average. Compared to its nearest rivals, the RX 460 is essentially tied with the RX 7600 XT (-0.3%) and RX 7600 (-0.8%), which are much newer cards, indicating that the Baffin chip's compute efficiency is still competitive in synthetic tests. It leads the RTX 2060 SUPER by 1.6% and the GTX TITAN by 1.9%, which are significant margins for a low-power card. However, these deltas are small in absolute terms (under 400 points), meaning all four cards fall into the same performance bracket in raw compute. The FP32 throughput of 2.150 TFLOPS is the key metric driving these scores, and it is remarkably close to cards with higher TDPs. The pixel rate of 19.20 GPixel/s and texture rate of 67.20 GTexel/s are lower than expected for the compute score, which explains why gaming performance lags behind synthetic benchmarks. Overall, the data shows that the RX 460 is a compute-efficient design that punches above its weight in benchmarks, but its memory subsystem and lack of modern features prevent it from being a practical gaming GPU today. The 63rd percentile ranking means it outperforms 63% of all GPUs in the database, but those GPUs include many older and weaker parts, so this should not be interpreted as a high-end position.