Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

[N19h7m4r3]

Look at the back of the card u ll see that actual card is way smaller than it is with that added cooler. I believe that is fan segment of cooler that protrudes from the back which adds to the length

I think it's mostly due to not wanting another launch were reference cards are far too hot. Hawaii, and the Nano were far too hot on reference coolers, and latter was already downlocked; but could still throttle.

With this design they have a decent junk of alu with a copper slug on the core, and also cooling for the rest of the PC.

I'm sure there will be smaller AIB cards to take advantage of the shorter pcb in the end, but a safer best for reference seems wise after the years of negative stereotypes about how hot AMD reference cards are.

 

[Jono8]

Well on the plus side 1.35 $:£ may not be far off as we are back up to 1.33 now from the 1.31 low. This being the case maybe we will see Gibbo get to offer his golden 199 card after all

Did you even read what he said or understand how these things work?

 

[Mauller]

The cooler is mostly empty except for the spinning bit and a small-medium black of alu with some fins. Rest is just empty. Bad cooler design for sure, could have had more metal in like some heatpipes or more alu with fins along the card instead of just over the gpu part. If its not going to clock much i bet they could have got away with a smaller cooler for similar cooling ability. I think the cooler they have (if performance and cooling is to be believed at leaks) is to make it look better than it really was.

It would have increased the price, the cooling was essentially made 'sufficient' for the needs of the Reference parts clocks.

 

[DPB]

How can it have nano size? You do realise that the nano was so small because of HBM making the Pcb much smaller.
Without that new tech GPU can't become smaller with this amount of power.

They were 960s and 970s almost as small as a Nano, and Sapphire made this 380 and a 285 that size too.

 

[SouthEastBlue]

£220 is a good price, deffo be in for one tomorrow!

 

[Lokken86]

The gtx980 can match if not surpass a stock Fury when overclocked so 480 has its work cut out to beat that. The Firestrike scores are similar when both at oc.

 

[SkeeterUK]

It would have increased the price, the cooling was essentially made 'sufficient' for the needs of the Reference parts clocks.

Exactly.

 

[Gibbo]

Given the cheapest 390 on OCUK is £205 it needs to do better then the 390 too be a good buy. Even if it was sold at the ideal £199 price thats still almost no difference.

390's are EOL and have fallen a lot in price in past weeks, were just clearing them out. Same for 390X!

 

[Feoilban]

My apparent insane maths and predictions are coming true when it comes to price. I just really hope it doesn't rise even more.

At the lowest current estimate of £220, it's going to cost me essentially €300 with shipping to get a reference card to Ireland

280 including shipping and 3% vat 270 with free shipping

 

[Gibbo]

Well on the plus side 1.35 $:£ may not be far off as we are back up to 1.33 now from the 1.31 low. This being the case maybe we will see Gibbo get to offer his golden 199 card after all

We need 1.45 for £199, long long way off.

 

[Alexrose1uk]

Did you even read what he said or understand how these things work?

I do but may have missed something. I didnt necessarily say tomorrow! Gibbo will want to see rates stabilising but hopefully that will be sooner rather than later as the edge of the drops seem to have gone and we seem to be mending now.

I see he has just stated 1.45 but i think we will get there again, even if not this week or for a month or two.

 

[Toss3]

The gtx980 can match if not surpass a stock Fury when overclocked so 480 has its work cut out to beat that. The Firestrike scores are similar when both at oc.

Gtx 980 is also more expensive.

 

[Overlag]

Hi there

Well $239 / 1.45 = £165 x 20% VAT = just shy of £200, yes the plan was to hit £199 with 8G !!! NO CHANCE NOW!

But now $239 / 1.31 = £182 x 20% VAT = near as dammit £220.


£20 increase on such a low price part because we left EU, on cards such as 1080 the price increase is simply too saddening.

Come on UK, sort it out, get the pound back upto at least 1.40 your ruining the economy!

Id rather pay 10% more on a GPU than stay in a European Dictatorship.

 

[AlamoX]

We need 1.45 for £199, long long way off.

with some luck £ will go back to 1.49/1.5 by the time AIB 480 start showing

 

[Jono8]

I do but may have missed something. I didnt necessarily say tomorrow! Gibbo will want to see rates stabilising but hopefully that will be sooner rather than later as the edge of the drops seem to have gone and we seem to be mending now.

We really are not.

From what Gibbo said he thought he could do £199 if the rate was 1.45. I expect he like many others were expecting a remain vote.

If we voted remain it was forecast to be nearer 1.6 GBP to USD. Instead we are currently sat at 1.33.....

The GBP/USD rate sits at a 31 year low because of this ****** referendum.

 

[Jono8]

with some luck £ will go back to 1.49/1.5 by the time AIB 480 start showing

Prepare to be disappointed

https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/usd/5095-pound-to-dollar-exchange-rate-222311

 

[Mauller]

I will give you two chickens and a duck for one, but i won't go over two shillings and six pence on top.

 

[AlamoX]

We really are not.

From what Gibbo said he thought he could do £199 if the rate was 1.45. I expect he like many others were expecting a remain vote.

If we voted remain it was forecast to be nearer 1.6 GBP to USD. Instead we are currently sat at 1.33.....

The GBP/USD rate sits at a 31 year low because of this ****** referendum.

the thing is that they need to speed up the process, invoke that article 50, and be done with it, because the more they drag this around the longer the £ will have the shakes.

 

[humbug]

£ will go back up, nothing is going to change except by name to try and fool leave voters and those profiting from it will be happy again.

 

[melmac]

Actually,Fottemberg who runs a well know Italian rumour and tech site,says they got a RX480 review sample but said the following three days ago:

RX480 could be the biggest fail ever,but meh in another day we will soon see how it performs!

This is something AMD have done before several times.

It doesn't, though. Several times people have made this argument and at no point has it made any sense.


Only giving publications two days to do a full suite of benchmarks is pretty awful. Not sure people realize how tedious and time consuming all that is(especially since you want to double check many results). And then they need a full scale write-up of everything. Geez.

As above, AMD do this all the time. Several review sites have complained in the past about having so little time. If it's any consolation, they only seem to keep the drivers back when they have a decent card. The 4xxx series and the 6xxx series been examples.

Hi there

Well $239 / 1.45 = £165 x 20% VAT = just shy of £200, yes the plan was to hit £199 with 8G !!! NO CHANCE NOW!

Come on UK, sort it out, get the pound back upto at least 1.40 your ruining the economy!

The Brexit sure has messed it up for GPU prices. £199, that would have been an instant buy for a lot of people.

My apparent insane maths and predictions are coming true when it comes to price.

Now the card just need to at least match the 390X, or that price to performance is going to look mighty dodgy.

Did you not read Gibbo's post? See above, these were meant to be £199 on release. You can't base the performance on current UK prices because the Brexit has messed things up.