SFF.Network [SFF Network] AMD Announces the Radeon RX 480: 5 TFLOPS and 4GB for $199

AMD's event may have been thin on details for some of their upcoming technologies (as the author gives some longing side-eye to Zen), but there was at least one segment that had some tangible information, and some welcome brashness and boldness to boot: the announcement of the Radeon RX 480, a graphics card set to launch on June 29th that utilizes the first Polaris-based high-performance GPU.

Throughout AMD's Computex presentation, the various speakers seemed to endlessly repeat the value proposition AMD's various CPU and GPU technologies meant to the lower price segments of the graphics and portable industries - segments, they'd mention, that are the most popular across the broader computing market. And although the commentary by some of the vendors and guests on-stage felt directed at a very different audience at times (let's be real: nobody in that room was impressed that AMD's new silicon makes room for an ODD in a cheap Dell laptop), how AMD planned to leverage some of these innovations in the enthusiast space to boost perf-per-dollar was what kept the anticipation high as they quickly started to discuss the state of graphics.

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[Phuncz]

GDDR5X + higher clock rates might help close the gap on the 1070. I thought the RX 480 was already using full Polaris 10 though?

As far as I know, this hasn't been disclosed, neither most information about the chip at all. It's still a guess but it makes sense if there are only two chip designs, namely Polaris 11 (100-199$) and Polaris 10 (200-299$). Like in the past they have often done a "Pro" and "XT" version (internal names) of which one was the fully activated chip with a higher maximum power.

Though one has to wonder why AMD didn't mention or show this more powerful $299 Polaris card at Computex then, to possibly prevent people from buying the GTX 1070.

Probably because AMD wants to one-up Nvidia price/performance-wise at a time when they're less flexible to respond, as they often do.

 

[TheInternal]

With the whole "VR backpack" and clear drive to making high end VR portable, having the short PCB seemed like a good call for AMD. It's good to see manufacturers factor in the demand for mobility almost right out of the gate. I get the impression it's a race to the cheapest / most portable VR solution. I'm totally okay with this.