Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

D.P. · 6 Jun 2016 at 19:14

humbug said:
I know this, Doesn't mean its anything like Maxwell. it just means they improved what was weaker compared with Maxwell, GCN are stronger in other areas so you add those improvements to GCN and what you have is an Improved GCN, not Maxwell.

No one said Polaris is maxwell.

karik666 · 6 Jun 2016 at 19:20

SiDeards73 said:
Isn't there something on the 13th AMD are at? Then the 20th and also Hotchips also the NDA ends at the end of the month, I still expect to see atleast something before NDA ends

The nda ends on the 29th,which is also release day for the 480.

So i dont think we will hear anything new from Amd until the 29th.

Amd seem really happy with how polaris 10 is performing,so i cant understand why they didnt lift the nda mid june.

queamin · 6 Jun 2016 at 19:20

karik666 said:
The nda ends on the 29th,which is also release day for the 480.

So i dont think we will hear anything new from Amd until the 29th.

Amd seem really happy with how polaris 10 is performing,so i cant understand why they didnt lift the nda mid june.

Why let Nvidia know more than they have to?.

rubberduck · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:11

Think this card is aimed at me who will be upgrading from a 7950 bought back in early 2013 for just over £200... Have been holding off upgrading for around 6 months now and although I was tempted by the 1070, think the price-point of the RX 480 makes it a more attractive value proposition. Will look forward to the benchmarks.

bayo000 · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:21

rubberduck said:
I was tempted by the 1070, think the price-point of the RX 480 makes it a more attractive value proposition. Will look forward to the benchmarks.

Same, I was even considering 1080 at one point but then thought about it a bit more and 480 should do me just fine for the games I play. I might wait to see 480x price and release date. I'm on holiday till 4th of July so hopefully there will be some news by then.

five8five · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:22

karik666 said:
The nda ends on the 29th,which is also release day for the 480.

So i dont think we will hear anything new from Amd until the 29th.

Amd seem really happy with how polaris 10 is performing,so i cant understand why they didnt lift the nda mid june.

Will there be some reviews before the release date?

karik666 · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:33

five8five said:
Will there be some reviews before the release date?

No one can review them until the 29th june as far as we know.

FoxEye · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:33

five8five said:
Will there be some reviews before the release date?

Not a chance. Would defeat the whole purpose of having an NDA.

fs123 · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:34

five8five said:
Will there be some reviews before the release date?

Reviews will be on 29th on the same day as release.

bayo000 · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:39

karik666 said:
No one can review them until the 29th june as far as we know.

I guess the actual reviews will happen before but they won't publish them till 29th

psidetracked · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:42

That's a bit of a worry though isn't it? Reviews held off until the day of release. If this was a movie we'd assume it was going to be rubbish

AllBodies · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:48

psidetracked said:
That's a bit of a worry though isn't it? Reviews held off until the day of release. If this was a movie we'd assume it was going to be rubbish

No one's making you buy it until you've read a review.

Also the reviews may well go up a few hours before the cards are purchasable.

bayo000 · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:58

psidetracked said:
That's a bit of a worry though isn't it? Reviews held off until the day of release. If this was a movie we'd assume it was going to be rubbish

Why? Doing a proper review will take time and people will expect reviews the second NDA is lifted.

Alexrose1uk · 6 Jun 2016 at 20:58

psidetracked said:
That's a bit of a worry though isn't it? Reviews held off until the day of release. If this was a movie we'd assume it was going to be rubbish

It can be seen that way, however it can also be used to stop Nvidia getting an accurate measure of AMDs plans prelaunch, and then using the info to disrupt or ruin the launch. Without solid info, Nvidia is clutching for straws. Slightly different kettle of fish to the situation with movies, as we have only two big players trying to out do the other.

Look at the impact the 4870 had when it arrived to see what I mean. Nvidia were completely blindsided on released and ended up dropping prices substantially almost overnight in an attempt to respond.

ICDP · 6 Jun 2016 at 21:02

psidetracked said:
That's a bit of a worry though isn't it? Reviews held off until the day of release. If this was a movie we'd assume it was going to be rubbish

It is actually very normal for new GPUs and reviews to be released on the exact same day. This is what is known as a hard launch where there are plenty of GPUs available, so nothing will sell out by the time you read some trusted review sites to decide if the GPU is worth a purchase.

Far better than releasing some reviews and then following up with a limited availability launch a week or two later.

Seanspeed · 6 Jun 2016 at 21:13

D.P. said:
Or the reality of the situation is AMD release terrible launch drivers and spent the next years improving them.

I wanted to say the same thing, but I was pretty sure the discussion would eventually lead to somebody going, "GOD, why are the Nvidia fanboys always coming in here to bring up Nvidia" even though for the like the 5th time, it was an AMD fan bringing Nvidia up in the first place.

Seanspeed · 6 Jun 2016 at 21:15

psidetracked said:
That's a bit of a worry though isn't it? Reviews held off until the day of release. If this was a movie we'd assume it was going to be rubbish

It's not 100% ideal, but it's not a reason to worry, no.

There has never been any correlation to review embargoes only being lifted on day of release to 'being bad' whatsoever. I see this happen in gaming all the time, where people assume any game that has a release day review embargo means a 'lack of confidence' but it has absolutely nothing to do with it. Tons of great games do this.

It's just people not understanding the situation and thinking their 'gut instinct' is actually worth listening to.

esquimo · 6 Jun 2016 at 21:16

Well wanting one of these for one of the systems, will pre order for sure if possible.

D.P. · 6 Jun 2016 at 21:17

Seanspeed said:
I wanted to say the same thing, but I was pretty sure the discussion would eventually lead to somebody going, "GOD, why are the Nvidia fanboys always coming in here to bring up Nvidia" even though for the like the 5th time, it was an AMD fan bringing Nvidia up in the first place.

Of course you can bring up nvidia in this thread, S long as point out how much better AMD is, how evil nvidia is, how glorious AMD design wins are, how only fanboys buy nvidia products, or how pascal is just "finfet" maxwell. What you absolutely cannot do under any circumstance is provide a balanced objective discourse on the relative pros or cons of the 2 comoNies or GPU architectures.

Got it?

Phixsator · 6 Jun 2016 at 21:23

D.P. said:
Seanspeed said:

I wanted to say the same thing, but I was pretty sure the discussion would eventually lead to somebody going, "GOD, why are the Nvidia fanboys always coming in here to bring up Nvidia" even though for the like the 5th time, it was an AMD fan bringing Nvidia up in the first place.

Click to expand...

Of course you can bring up nvidia in this thread, S long as point out how much better AMD is, how evil nvidia is, how glorious AMD design wins are, how only fanboys buy nvidia products, or how pascal is just "finfet" maxwell. What you absolutely cannot do under any circumstance is provide a balanced objective discourse on the relative pros or cons of the 2 comoNies or GPU architectures.

Got it?

Cheese anyone? the whine department is heavy a major sell today it seems.