Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

[h4rm0ny]

but Nvidia have plenty of room to drop prices IF the release of the 480 has any effect on their sales, in the meantime they can make hay while we still don't actually know that the release date of the 480 is the 29th of this month, just that the NDA lifts then

From a marketing point of view dropping your prices in response to a competitor always looks bad. Just like the way Intel's contra-revenue program where they were paying people not to use AMD chips looks bad. If you do it, you're basically walking up to the mic and saying: "our competitor was better so we devalued our product". Nvidia get a lot of sales out of their heavy marketing as "the best". If that goes pop, they wont like it.

Also, unless they have plenty of stock (which they haven't for the 1080), then many of the sales will be pre-orders and those will be cancelled in an instant if something better is announced in the meantime.

 

[SiDeards73]

I can only see a win for Nvidia here if AMD's products are massively inferior...

If the Polaris stuff comes in at its low price point and offers far superior performance than its price point indicates, then i can only see that as an AMD win.

Basically a lot now hinges on AMD bringing something good with Polaris, they right now are in pole position to eat into nvidias market share massively IF polaris delivers at a low price point.

 

[h4rm0ny]

Explicit mGPU is the multi hlgpu we have been wanting since release. We just needed the APIs for it.

Agreed. If it takes off (no guarantee but it's got better reason to than CF/SLi in the past), then AMD's strategy of targetting mid-range cards just became an even smarter move.

 

[andybird123]

I didn't say they would drop prices straight away, I said they could IF it affects sales, which I'm not convinced about - I think Nvidia will release the 1060 which will also be around 980 performance and at a price point a bit higher than the 480 and they will get away with it, I don't think they will even try to use the 1070 to compete with the 480

 

[beany_bot]

From a marketing point of view dropping your prices in response to a competitor always looks bad.

completely agree. It basically says "Yup, we were deliberately abusing you all while the competition wasnt there"

In any other industry the consumer would walk. However, sadly in this industry the fanboys rule strong and Nvidia can do now wrong in many peoples eyes because the shiny shiny and more fps. Some people would genuinely sell their soul for 2 more FPS. We all get really hung up on whats not that important. Can't see the woods for the trees.

 

[meldarthx]

I didn't think there was such a difference in price between 4 and 8 gig versions, at least in the USD pricing

199 for 4 gigi; and 230 for 8 gig version..........we know there's 300 price; that is the big question what's at the 300 mark? 480X? 490?

we can guess that from different things we can see; 480 in DX 11 falls roughly between 970 and 980....DX 12 its 980 speeds

Why I've roughly put 480 at 390X/980 speeds over all and it will get faster over time; possibly to Nano speeds.....

As I said; whatever is at 300 price range; could very well be at Fury or possibly Fury X speeds already and then will get faster.....

 

[TheRealDeal]

MultiGPU is dead.

It's not as it looks like it may be the future. In it's current form you are possibly correct but because of the manufacturing process it looks like future chips will go the way of Cpu's with multiple core's ie Multi Gpu's. If this does happen they better get on it fast as at this moment support is not great.

 

[tavtavtav]

Call me cynical but I can see AMD/AIB bumping their prices to the upper end of their range quoted range knowing that the Nvidia's cards are so more expensive...

 

[Mauller]

Call me cynical but I can see AMD/AIB bumping their prices to the upper end of their range quoted range knowing that the Nvidia's cards are so more expensive...

The cards target different market segments and low stocks and availability are bumping the gp104 prices.

 

[David Bisset]

It's not as it looks like it may be the future. In it's current form you are possibly correct but because of the manufacturing process it looks like future chips will go the way of Cpu's with multiple core's ie Multi Gpu's. If this does happen they better get on it fast as at this moment support is not great.

Seen this style of comment in a few places. It's basically getting things the wrong way round - multi-core in CPUs is effectively doing what has been in place for GPUs for ages. GPUs have been massively parallel for ages (thousands of cores! ). However, multi-GPU doesn't refer to this (as it's the normal base-case) but rather to having separate physical GPUs served by separate resources etc. More akin to dual-socket server CPUs but where RAM is not a shared pool but rather a smaller pool for each.

Perhaps we could in future see a few chips on a board as a way of getting more transistors without yield issues, though if this were to happen in this way it'd be more akin to one large GPU anyway in terms of operation, and I suspect we're not near the point it makes sense yet as it adds a whole ton of complexity (thus cost) and will require different architectures to handle the varying latency. It may never happen.

Edit: I realise some people are saying this is what's coming in Navi - but even if it is, it's still not "like CPUs" nor will it effectively be multi-GPU from a developers standpoint.

DX12 is looking the other way - how to get lots of GPUs as they exist now to work together better. This involves much more difficult problem-solving on the software side and probably is unlikely to really be adopted heavily in most games any time soon, as significant extra complexity means significant extra cost which for a few users benefit is a poor trade off. Perhaps in future it'll become more standard and more games engines etc will make it easier for games devs. (Abstraction/tooling are very helpful in gaining mass adoption, despite what you may have read about low-level access being some kind of magic bullet)

 

[hyperseven]

4GB model for $199, 8GB model for $232, but they said Polaris will cover $100-300.

argh, its not $199 though is it, you have to add sales tax on top.

Its like saying the 1080 is only £437.50, bargain.

 

[tavtavtav]

The cards target different market segments and low stocks and availability are bumping the gp104 prices.

I know, but as far as we know there is no competition from nvidia in this segment also, and the gap between segments are so big I can see AIBs getting away with plonking 10 or 20 quid to a price here or there

 

[Sargatanas2511]

argh, its not $199 though is it, you have to add sales tax on top.

Its like saying the 1080 is only £437.50, bargain.

But it is $199 in the USA. It just won't be a direct translation here. That isn't AMDs fault.

 

[r7slayer]

Call me cynical but I can see AMD/AIB bumping their prices to the upper end of their range quoted range knowing that the Nvidia's cards are so more expensive...

But Amd price range they quoted was not for AIB partners. Dont know why people keep saying this. Its for the reference cards which is what Amd set the price range for. So there is still room for another card at the other side of the scale around $ 300 mark which a 8gb 380x for example could fit in.

 

[D.P.]

It's not as it looks like it may be the future. In it's current form you are possibly correct but because of the manufacturing process it looks like future chips will go the way of Cpu's with multiple core's ie Multi Gpu's. If this does happen they better get on it fast as at this moment support is not great.

GPUs already have mutliple cores, 2-3000 cores

 

[D.P.]

I know, but as far as we know there is no competition from nvidia in this segment also, and the gap between segments are so big I can see AIBs getting away with plonking 10 or 20 quid to a price here or there

We know the GP106 chip exists and has a manufacturing date before the retail 1080 chips. The GP106 chips is used in a drive PX2 which was sent to select auto OEMs in April.

Therefor it would be foolish to think the 1060 isn't ready for launch on a time schedule dictated by Nvidia. I'm thinking we will here something soon.

 

[melmac]

argh, its not $199 though is it, you have to add sales tax on top.

Its like saying the 1080 is only £437.50, bargain.

Well if you convert the $199 and $232 and add the VAT, then add the same percentage gouging as they did to the cheapest 1080, then the polaris card will come in at £175 and £200.

 

[tavtavtav]

But Amd price range they quoted was not for AIB partners. Dont know why people keep saying this. Its for the reference cards which is what Amd set the price range for. So there is still room for another card at the other side of the scale around $ 300 mark which a 8gb 380x for example could fit in.

That doesn't really affect what I said though...
(Or was what I was trying to say not clear?).

 

[HeX]

argh, its not $199 though is it, you have to add sales tax on top.

Its like saying the 1080 is only £437.50, bargain.

Not all states have sales tax, which is why everything in the US is quoted pre-sales tax.

Anywho, for the UK, $199 + VAT + 10% for handling =

£185 for 4GB RX480
£210 for 8GB RX480
£275 for Mystery $300 card (RX490 ???)

 

[Orangey]

Yanks don't pay sales tax. They always brag about it.