Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

flowrider99 · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:12

I am in the market to buy a new GPU and only bought my R9 380 as a stop gap. I was interested in the GTX 1080 until I saw the eye watering price and was/am waiting for the GTX 1070 but now I am also interested in the RX 480 or maybe the RX 490 if there will be one. I am leaning towards AMD as I have a freesync monitor but if Nvidia came come up with the goods for a reasonable price then they could still be in the running.

AlamoX · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:15

D.P. said:
I do t get what you are saying in the slightest. Nvidia have publicly shown GP106 chips with production dates earlier than the GP104. Nvidia is simply waiting on their on terms to release, maybe june 30th to spoil AMD's limelight.

There is also likely a GP108 chip forthcoming in the 100mm^2 size. Lots of leaks about his in the last weeks.

ofc nvidia must have gp106-108 they are the response to polaris 10 & 11, what i am saying, is that AMD made it clear they are going for market share with aggressive prices, AMD cleared their production, do you hear any other chip being made by them ? they have 100mm² and 200mm².
if as expected demand is high for the finfet GPU, i just think that nvidia having to produce twice as much wafers could become an issue in keeping stock and a handle on price to be competitive.
all depands on TSMC capacity and market demand ofc.

andybird123 · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:19

Nvidia always need to produce vastly more wafers than AMD, its never been a problem in the past.

The fact they have GP106's kicking about produced before GP104 could indicate they are stock piling befire launching.

Seanspeed · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:20

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
There is a third GP104 SKU that was leaked at the same time as the other two which turned out to be the GTX1080 and GTX1070,so they seem accurate leaks. That SKU is mostly likely the one fighting Polaris 10 is a cut down GP104. Nvidia did the same with the GK104 with the GTX660TI. The GP106 is rumoured to be a smaller part than Polaris 10 on a less dense process,so is probably going to target the cut down versions of Polaris 10 IMHO.

1070 is already cut down quite massively itself. But it's possible.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:23

AlamoX said:
ofc nvidia must have gp106-108 they are the response to polaris 10 & 11, what i am saying, is that AMD made it clear they are going for market share with aggressive prices, AMD cleared their production, do you hear any other chip being made by them ? they have 100mm² and 200mm².
if as expected demand is high for the finfet GPU, i just think that nvidia having to produce twice as much wafers could become an issue in keeping stock and a handle on price to be competitive.
all depands on TSMC capacity and market demand ofc.

I see them using a cut down GP104. There was a reasonable amount of noise about the GK106 too,but Nvidia launched the GTX660TI first as a third level salvage chip.

I see Polaris 10 being bracketed by a slower GTX1060 based on the GP106 and a faster GTX1060TI based on a cut down GP104.

Seanspeed said:
1070 is already cut down quite massively itself. But it's possible.

The GTX660TI was a third level salvage part of the GK104 used in the GTX680. We have seen the SKU leaks for the GP104 - there was a third one mentioned.

Nvidia have only to target a bit better performance than an RX480 8GB and then price it at £250. It is still £70 cheaper than a GTX1070.

That way none of them get involved in a pricewar for the time being.

Edit!!

If Nvidia were to get involved in a pricewar,it would be kind of useful though!!

AlamoX · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:24

andybird123 said:
Nvidia always need to produce vastly more wafers than AMD, its never been a problem in the past.

The fact they have GP106's kicking about produced before GP104 could indicate they are stock piling befire launching.

so basicaly nvidia have the whole line up 1050-1060-1070-1080 stock piled and ready to launch in june/july ?

Seanspeed · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:31

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
The GTX660TI was a third level salvage part of the GK104 used in the GTX680.

Nvidia have only to target a bit better performance and then price it at £250.

That way none of them get involved in a pricewar for the timebeing.

It was, but there wasn't much difference between a 660Ti and a 670, and a 670 and a 680. Meanwhile, a 1070 is a straight 25% chopped off the 1080 along with less bandwidth memory.

Again, not saying it's not possible, but I wonder how potentially wasteful it might be to cut it down even more.

bru · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:31

I have no idea if they have or haven't, but stockpiling for launch day is not a new thing, it happens all the time.
I'm sure AMD will have done the same thing for the RX480, or is it fair to slate them if they go out of stock.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:40

Seanspeed said:
It was, but there wasn't much difference between a 660Ti and a 670, and a 670 and a 680. Meanwhile, a 1070 is a straight 25% chopped off the 1080 along with less bandwidth memory.

Again, not saying it's not possible, but I wonder how potentially wasteful it might be to cut it down even more.

The rumour is still there:

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-pascal-gp104-gpu-skus-june/

The GTX1080 uses the top end SKU with the same code mentioned in the article. The GTX1070 uses the second code. The GTX1060TI probably uses the third.

Remember,Nvidia can cut down the memory controller to 192 bit like the GTX660TI had,and probably put a cap on the power limit so it does not boost as much,so the GTX1070 is not threatened. Advertise it as a 1080P card and as long as it bests the RX480,they can claim the fastest under £300 card.

Anyway,I could be wrong.

smilertoo · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:42

I really hope the new AMD kit is decent, nvidia and intel have gotten far too complacent and greedy.

D.P. · 5 Jun 2016 at 17:55

andybird123 said:
Nvidia always need to produce vastly more wafers than AMD, its never been a problem in the past.

The fact they have GP106's kicking about produced before GP104 could indicate they are stock piling befire launching.

GP106 is also the GPU used in the DrivePX2 which nvidia said would be sentered out to interested parties in Q2 (many people chose to ignore that and instead went on claiming nvidia were 6 months behind). GP106 is around and waiting for a good release date, something whi check doesn't interfere with GP10Y products buts stops AND getting too many 480 sales

D.P. · 5 Jun 2016 at 18:01

AlamoX said:
so basicaly nvidia have the whole line up 1050-1060-1070-1080 stock piled and ready to launch in june/july ?

1050 might be later but 1060 is almost certainly volume production ready, before 1080. Im thinking 1060 launch early to mid july.

There was a leaked Chinese chart that correctly showed April GP100 and had Gp104 for June and GP106 in july.

GoogalyMoogaly · 5 Jun 2016 at 18:03

old gamer said:
I don't know if it's just me but I see a opportunity here for the 480 to bring pc gaming to the masses, Surely the prospect of building a pc without spending 400 to 500 on graphics and being able to play crysis 3 at 1080p would appeal to a lot

I guess, if people haven't played Crysis 3 yet then maybe.
However I'd expect things to move on the same as it always has done and expect the 480 to fill the same gap in the market that AMD's £200 card usually has. Sure the jump may be a bit bigger this gen because of the die shrink, but I expect that across the board.

Mauller · 5 Jun 2016 at 19:04

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
The GTX660TI was a third level salvage part of the GK104 used in the GTX680. We have seen the SKU leaks for the GP104 - there was a third one mentioned.

Nvidia have only to target a bit better performance than an RX480 8GB and then price it at £250. It is still £70 cheaper than a GTX1070.

The third salvaged GP104 part appears to be a laptop version of the 1080 with ~2000 shaders.

humbug · 5 Jun 2016 at 19:47

lets get back on topic please.

[Mod edit - this ^^^]

Ferrari100 · 5 Jun 2016 at 20:10

So, that PowerColor watercooling block shown at computex was too big for the 480 despite info telling us it was for Polaris.

.....breadcrumb?

Something tells me AMD's got another surprise waiting to be unveiled next week

Nutella33 · 5 Jun 2016 at 20:24

That or the double 480 that was talked about

Ferrari100 · 5 Jun 2016 at 20:25

Nutella33 said:
That or the double 480 that was talked about

I don't remember talk of a dual 480 at all?

Mtom · 5 Jun 2016 at 20:26

Nutella33 said:
That or the double 480 that was talked about

Talked about where? AMD only showed a slide where two 480 is faster than an 1080. Even compared the prices as 2 cards vs 1 card.

Nutella33 · 5 Jun 2016 at 21:03

Power colour had a single and a dual chip WC set up at CEX. They might make a devil 13 version with the 480. Although it could just be for the old one and the dual pro.

I did just say talked about, not confirmed. I think it's more likely than a different/new chip.