Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

[five8five]

I'm surprised everyone assumes Gibbo is
a) right and
b) talking about the aftermarket cards.

He'll probably not have seen an aftermarket card yet and he's a very good salesman but does he know what it can or can't do? On air, water & LN2, reference design or otherwise, with drivers that probably are just making their way to reviewers and can probably gain further as the weeks go by?

(Edit: Not having a go Gibbo and I think you're right about what people should expect... it's just kinda funny that you're assumed to be the all-knowing oracle )

Having said that it doesn't need to hit 980Ti speeds to be good, especially in the cheapest format. For those who'd have been aiming at a 960 previously it sounds a huge step up for similar money - sure 8GB and a sweet aftermarket cooler giving higher overclocks would be nice but I don't think that's where this card excels personally, it's what it can do at the bottom end. $200 is a heck of a lot cheaper than $300!

Please..............Stop!

Gibbo said earlier he saw custom cards in Taiwan. I expect he saw the performance or was told how they would perform.

I expect he's trying to temper the enthusiasm before there's a major letdown when official benchmarks are released which could cause a lot of unwanted negative publicity.

 

[Mauller]

Hi there


Sorry to burst bubbles guys but I hold 980Ti in a very high regard. Maxwell was and is incredible.

Do some of you realise how powerful and truly fast 980Ti is? How overclockable they are?

980Ti absolutely batters a 980, then it overclocks like an absolute banshee on top of that, they rape a 980 and even beat Titan X in games.

Even the 1070 struggles against an overclocked 980Ti, its a very good card. If some of you were genuinely expecting AMD's mid-range part to compete with NVIDIA's flagship at half the price then your deluded.

Maybe just maybe in some chosen games a highly overclocked RX-480 might get close to a bone stock reference 980Ti, but never beat it and once a 980Ti is overclocked its bye bye as they overclock like demons.


If RX-480 performs around 980 with twice the VRAM, less power usage at a much lower price I think AMD have a great card on their hands.

390x/980 - nano at stock confirmed!

Also most of the people were talking about up to stock 980ti/titanx/1070 based upon rumours that AIB version will clock to 1600mhz+

 

[fs123]

NDA, I am not going to post any results or release figures. So clouded is the best you will get.

But I was shocked some people seem to think this is a 980Ti or Titan X performing part, has no one looked at all the sites showing 390-390X performance and around 980 levels? They are all out there, I am just confused why all of a sudden some are touting it as a 980Ti performer.

Those thinking 980Ti levels need a reality check, the 980Ti is hugely powerful I'd be very surprised if an RX-480 could match a reference 980Ti, let alone an OC one as they overclock incredibly well.

I think the expectation of matching a 980ti came from some rumours that implied that some AIB's were working on extreme overclocked versions of the 480 that can reach greater than 1600MHz.

We have no way of knowing how that will pan out but I think we can safely say that the stock 480 will be between the 390X and 980 in performance. Don't you agree?

 

[Lokken86]

NDA, I am not going to post any results or release figures. So clouded is the best you will get.

But I was shocked some people seem to think this is a 980Ti or Titan X performing part, has no one looked at all the sites showing 390-390X performance and around 980 levels? They are all out there, I am just confused why all of a sudden some are touting it as a 980Ti performer.

Those thinking 980Ti levels need a reality check, the 980Ti is hugely powerful I'd be very surprised if an RX-480 could match a reference 980Ti, let alone an OC one as they overclock incredibly well.

It was because of the equal 980 stock performance and capable of 1500mhz rumours.

I'm more thinking along the lines of similar to 390/x but capable of matching a Fury Pro Oc'd. You know I'm right. You can't say it but you know

 

[kalniel]

Hi there


Sorry to burst bubbles guys but I hold 980Ti in a very high regard. Maxwell was and is incredible.

Do some of you realise how powerful and truly fast 980Ti is? How overclockable they are?

980Ti absolutely batters a 980, then it overclocks like an absolute banshee on top of that, they rape a 980 and even beat Titan X in games.

Even the 1070 struggles against an overclocked 980Ti, its a very good card. If some of you were genuinely expecting AMD's mid-range part to compete with NVIDIA's flagship at half the price then your deluded.

Maybe just maybe in some chosen games a highly overclocked RX-480 might get close to a bone stock reference 980Ti, but never beat it and once a 980Ti is overclocked its bye bye as they overclock like demons.


If RX-480 performs around 980 with twice the VRAM, less power usage at a much lower price I think AMD have a great card on their hands.

Hi Gibbo,

Apropo of nothing.. do you think AMD have a great card on their hands?

 

[five8five]

I think the expectation of matching a 980ti came from some rumours that implied that some AIB's were working on extreme overclocked versions of the 480 that can reach greater than 1600MHz.

But then being extrapolated higher!

 

[fs123]

I'm more thinking along the lines of similar to 390/x but capable of matching a Fury Pro Oc'd. You know I'm right. You can't say it but you know

I'd be very happy with that and am expecting it to be honest.

 

[Seanspeed]

Also most of the people were talking about up to stock 980ti/titanx/1070 based upon rumours that AIB version will clock to 1600mhz+

I specifically remember you and humbug with little back and forths doing 'maths' that showed that a simple 'shrunk Hawaii' would already beat a 390X and because of the 'big architectural improvements' should do well better than that still.

Dont act like you and he didn't have any hand in all the expectations.

 

[Lokken86]

Hi Gibbo,

Apropo of nothing.. do you think AMD have a great card on their hands?

He already said it is

 

[MyBrainz]

Please..............Stop!

Gibbo said earlier he saw custom cards in Taiwan. I expect he saw the performance or was told how they would perform.

I expect he's trying to temper the enthusiasm before there's a major letdown when official benchmarks are released which could cause a lot of unwanted negative publicity.

Gibbo said he 'held' a Sapphire card, thats it.

OcUK will be first with all cards just like 1080 and 1070.

We are Kings of VGA, that won't change when it comes to AMD!

So the moment I get a sniff of custom cards they shall be online. I know board partners have them but whether they want to launch is another thing, I have even held the Sapphire ones when I was in Asia couple weeks ago.

 

[Gibbo]

I think the expectation of matching a 980ti came from some rumours that implied that some AIB's were working on extreme overclocked versions of the 480 that can reach greater than 1600MHz.

We have no way of knowing how that will pan out but I think we can safely say that the stock 480 will be between the 390X and 980 in performance. Don't you agree?

Basing hope on overclocking dreams is very bad idea.

Look at 1080 and 1070, custom cards are doing very little for OC. Also was Fury X or was it Nano not touted as an Overclockers Dream? Basing hopes on OC performance is a very bad idea as overclocks are not guaranteed.

Lets wait, not long to wait now, I am sure people will be pleased with performance in games and the features on offer.

I am certainly excited about RX-480, its going to be a very successful card for sure.

 

[Mauller]

I specifically remember you and humbug with little back and forths doing 'maths' that showed that a simple 'shrunk Hawaii' would already beat a 390X and because of the 'big architectural improvements' should do well better than that still.

Dont act like you and he didn't have any hand in all the expectations.

ofcourse, that was all before they revealed that Polaris 10 has 2304 shaders instead of 2816, which with the performance enhancements of GCN4 would put it further ahead than it apparently is at 1266mhz. it would have pretty much been around fury x performance with hawaii number of shaders using GCN4.

And of course a shrunk hawaii would beat a 390X at the same clocks if it was using GCN4, its 2 generations newer and basically the same number of shaders. then you have the clock increase on top of that.

 

[fireman999]

Gibbo has told me in private, that Vega will be 10x faster than a GTX 1080ti and that AMD will give you one free if you trade in your old graphics card.

ALL Aboarddddddddd........Tickets PLZ

 

[Seanspeed]

which with the performance enhancements of GCN4

Or perhaps the improvements were more geared towards low TDP?

 

[harney]

Right, now that's sorted.... ALL Aboard the Rx470 Hype train!!.

 

[David Bisset]

Please..............Stop!

Gibbo said earlier he saw custom cards in Taiwan. I expect he saw the performance or was told how they would perform.

I expect he's trying to temper the enthusiasm before there's a major letdown when official benchmarks are released which could cause a lot of unwanted negative publicity.

No indication he saw performance figures, and even if he did again that's pre-release drivers - and again there is room for variation based on cooling solution and I doubt he saw all the possibilities. Again, I don't see any reason this card needs to go anywhere near a 980Ti to be good at $200... it's just amusing that one comment from someone who knows some but not necessarily everything makes everyone go nuts

 

[Mauller]

Or perhaps the improvements were more geared towards low TDP?

'Instruction prefetching' alone is geared towards improving throughput by helping shader utilisation. so even at the same clocks a GCN4 shader should be faster than one on a previous iteration.

 

[RavenXXX2]

***

 

[Seanspeed]

it's just amusing that one comment from someone who knows some but not necessarily everything makes everyone go nuts

Did you find it just as amusing when leaks came in talking about 1600Mhz and 1070-beating performance and people went nuts?

 

[ICDP]

It was because of the equal 980 stock performance and capable of 1500mhz rumours.

I'm more thinking along the lines of similar to 390/x but capable of matching a Fury Pro Oc'd. You know I'm right. You can't say it but you know

I'd be very happy with that and am expecting it to be honest.

390X/980 type performance at stock with an overclock to Fury Pro levels would be a great card for the price.

970/390 with an OC to 390X/980 levels would not be.

I would anticipate RX480 with a decent OC would get ~10% slower than stock 980Ti.