Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

Ferrari100 · 2 Jun 2016 at 13:56

nashathedog said:
That's the funny thing about the "ooh look how it beats the 1080 in crossfire" crowd. I find it shocking that AMD even have the cheek to make the comparison. Anyone who get's two will spend more gaming time with the second card disabled than not.

I read in several places that people appreciate that two 480's are capable of beating the 1080 but yes, are wary of crossfire.
Thing is, these are such an amazing price that people are much more likely to at least 'try' it out.

I think it was a great move to plant that seed in peoples minds.

Its certainly got people asking questions about over $200 difference and better performance.

We will have answers soon enough, in the meantime people will continue to talk. The point being - when people have conversations of the 480 and someone asks the price, $200 is a jaw dropping figure for this much performance. People will remember the amazing price/performance, regardless of what the main topic of discussion is.

andybird123 · 2 Jun 2016 at 13:59

someone in that thread makes a good point - AMD seem to have used the GPU bound figures from the bench runs and thrown them up as the 1080 being 98% utilised and the 480's being 51% utilised (and then Rob incorrectly surmising this as 151% scaling)

but the AoTS bench doesn't tell you utilisation, it tells you what % of the run was GPU bound, which isn't the same as either of the things that AMD have now tried to tell us

51% utilisation, and 151% scaling both sound like they are under valuing the actual usage, when what it actually says is that for 51% of the run both GPU's were 100% utilised... they were less than 100% utilised for 49% of the run (e.g. CPU bound for 49% of the run), but that doesn't mean they were 0% utilised for that portion of the run

151% scaling could be correct, but without the single card FPS results to compare we won't know, and 51% util being 151% scaling just sounds too convenient

Orangey · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:03

In the hype leading up to Fiji we had an empty slot in the 380X just like now with only the 480 being announced. 380X turned out to be full Tonga.

Anyone wanna try a guess?

Could it be:

-full Polaris
-2nd level Vega salvage
-another, heretofore unannounced chip

?

Bigminimus · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:08

It looks promising, but I'd wait for 3rd party tests.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:10

Orangey said:
In the hype leading up to Fiji we had an empty slot in the 380X just like now with only the 480 being announced. 380X turned out to be full Tonga.

Anyone wanna try a guess?

Could it be:

-full Polaris
-2nd level Vega salvage
-another, heretofore unannounced chip

?

I expect the first - there were rumours for a longtime that Polaris 10 was a 2516 shader chip,ie, 40 CUs.

We also don't know whether Polaris 10 has a 384 bit memory controller with segments disabled or uses a 256 bit memory controller which supports GDDR5X.

KillBoY_UK · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:14

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
I expect the first - there were rumours for a longtime that Polaris 10 was a 2516 shader chip,ie, 40 CUs.

We also don't know whether Polaris 10 has a 384 bit memory controller with segments disabled or uses a 256 bit memory controller which supports GDDR5X.

Its a possibility but Tonga's full bus was never used. Even if a 384bit bus is present there are no guarantee it will ever be used.

Scania · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:19

Been waiting for used 980 / ti prices to drop, think I'll probably just go with one of these if the price is as good as it seems.

Never thought I'd go back to AMD but this is tempting.

980 / ti prices are going to fall even more.

~>Dg<~ · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:21

no they will drop a little then become eol products.

AllBodies · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:22

Orangey said:
In the hype leading up to Fiji we had an empty slot in the 380X just like now with only the 480 being announced. 380X turned out to be full Tonga.

Anyone wanna try a guess?

Could it be:

-full Polaris
-2nd level Vega salvage
-another, heretofore unannounced chip

?

Well the CEO did say there'd be a $300 card, and they're not going to charge $100 for 4GB of extra RAM.

Who knows when the $300 card will appear though.

nashathedog · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:23

Ferrari100 said:
I read in several places that people appreciate that two 480's are capable of beating the 1080 but yes, are wary of crossfire.
Thing is, these are such an amazing price that people are much more likely to at least 'try' it out.

I think it was a great move to plant that seed in peoples minds.

Its certainly got people asking questions about over $200 difference and better performance.

We will have answers soon enough, in the meantime people will continue to talk. The point being - when people have conversations of the 480 and someone asks the price, $200 is a jaw dropping figure for this much performance. People will remember the amazing price/performance, regardless of what the main topic of discussion is.

Let's hope AMD remember this when they offer us there 1080 competition.

If they do I'll stay red and go freesync too.

meldarthx · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:24

Phixsator said:
no i think you are incorrect. Vega i believe will battle against pascal's titan and 1080 ti class cards. Time will tell

Big Vega yes will be TI cards; little vega will be 1080.....

Scania · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:32

~>Dg<~ said:
no they will drop a little then become eol products.

I'm not bothered about retail for new (980) cards, I was considering buying used, but doubt I will now as this looks a better buy new.

Hence me thinking 980's used price will fall a lot further.

If they fall considerably then maybe I'll go with one but think new with warranty will sway me.

And that's from an ardent Nv user!

Kidge · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:37

Scania said:
I'm not bothered about retail for new (980) cards, I was considering buying used, but doubt I will now as this looks a better buy new.

Hence me thinking 980's used price will fall a lot further.

If they fall considerably then maybe I'll go with one but think new with warranty will sway me.

And that's from an ardent Nv user!

This! I was thinking about picking up a second hand 980Ti if I can find an EVGA one for £300 but will probably hold out to see what actual performance reviews show from this card.

D.P. · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:39

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
I expect the first - there were rumours for a longtime that Polaris 10 was a 2516 shader chip,ie, 40 CUs.

We also don't know whether Polaris 10 has a 384 bit memory controller with segments disabled or uses a 256 bit memory controller which supports GDDR5X.

I think it probably is a 40CU chip but I don't think its 384bit, unless AMD have slipped even further behind Nvidia in terms if bandwidth efficiency. 256 it is already quite large for a GPU with the performance of the 480.

GDDR5X is a possibility. It may be a supply issue and nvidia have a contract with micron, not necessarily exclusivity but nvidia is prioritized so until micron increases production volume nvidia gets the current supply.

40CU part would only be about 7% faster in real world gaming though. A faster clock speed would help differentiate. This could be the $300 card. It would be slower than 1070 but $80 cheaper.

It would be very strange to release it later though.

Orangey · 2 Jun 2016 at 14:57

Polaris doesn't seem "overly-large" to me, 30-odd percent slower than 1080 and 30-odd percent smaller.

Jono8 · 2 Jun 2016 at 15:01

Orangey said:
Polaris doesn't seem "overly-large" to me, 30-odd percent slower than 1080 and 30-odd percent smaller.

30 percent slower than a 1080?! Lol

Orcvader · 2 Jun 2016 at 15:03

Orangey said:
Polaris doesn't seem "overly-large" to me, 30-odd percent slower than 1080 and 30-odd percent smaller.

The PCB itself is very short, the extra length is due to the cooler. I expect 480s with custom coolers will be even more shorter due to this, would be a sweet card for ITX systems.

tyler_jrb · 2 Jun 2016 at 15:06

Orangey said:
Polaris doesn't seem "overly-large" to me, 30-odd percent slower than 1070 and 30-odd percent smaller.

Fixed

Davedree · 2 Jun 2016 at 15:23

Gregster said:
haha fair one. I have a feeling that the 480X cards are not going to show, or at least not soon. Traditionally, the X would release first and the failed chips would go to make the next card down (which would be the 480 in this case). Maybe Vega will be the 490/X variants and they could have some huge chip similar to the FX/TX for the top top line. Time will tell.

Dating back to tahiti and pitcairn days yes, but since tonga 285 we've seen and being stingy and purposely giving apple priority whilst stagnating releases such as the rebranded bonaire and pitcairn released into 300 series with just cut down versions.

Example tonga 285 1792 shades, apple got the 2048 shader.
380. 1792, then eventually we saw the 380x 2048.

R7 360 is only 768 the full chip has 896
R7 370 is only 1024 the full chip is 1280 (China only).

There is no excuse for and to hold back the 480X considering they need to execute with outright precision these days.

Legend · 2 Jun 2016 at 15:28

I haven't really been following this closely, but is there any consensus on whether XFire RX480 (8GB) would be a better choice than a single 1080... at considerable saving also?