AMD Radeon RX 480 On Linux
Now that we have an idea for where the raw performance of the Radeon RX 480 is at under Linux, here is a look at the performance-per-dollar for various benchmarks. Graphics card pricing was based upon Amazon. The Phoronix Test Suite is able to automatically generate the performance-per-dollar metrics when the COST_PERF_PER_DOLLAR= environment variable is set.
With the F1 2015 racing game where the raw performance of the Radeon RX 480 comes up well short of the GeForce GTX 970 under Linux, when calculating the performance-per-dollar this Polaris graphics card comes in between the GTX 1070 and GTX 970 for best value. The Radeon RX 480 delivers significantly greater value than older AMD GPUs like the R9 Fury and R9 290.
When determining the performance-per-dollar for Unigine Valley -- a test where AMD's OpenGL Linux stack is strong -- the RX 480 is the most cost effective graphics card tested of either Linux driver.
The AMD performance struggles with Metro Last Light Redux on Linux, but when looking just as the performance-per-dollar, the RX 480 comes in right behind the GTX 970 for a third-place finish.
Lastly for these performance-per-dollar metrics, the RX 480 had the second best value with Dota 2 where it came in just behind the GeForce GTX 970 -- again with either AMDGPU-PRO or RadeonSI Gallium3D.