It looks like AMD Radeon RX 500 series SKUs, such as the RX 580, RX 570, and RX 550, will launch later this month after all, with various ASUS and Sapphire branded SKUs getting listed on popular online stores. While predictably, these SKUs are overpriced on account of pre-launch orders, these are widely expected to be re-brands of the RX 480, RX 470, and RX 460, with slightly higher reference clock speeds, and improved power delivery.

ASUS is readying at least six SKUs based on this series, including two RX 580 8 GB STRIX models, two RX 570 4 GB STRIX models, and two RX 550 SKUs with 4 GB and 2 GB memory amounts. Sapphire, on the other hand, has a gargantuan 12 SKUs based on the three chips, including 8 GB and 4 GB variants of both the RX 580 and RX 570, both 4 GB and 2 GB variants of the RX 550, and two new brand extensions - Pulse and Mini, besides its iconic NITRO+ series.The list of SKUs follows.

As TPU has reported before, some versions of AMD's RX 460 graphics cards were able to be unlocked to their full configuration with a simple BIOS update. This raised some questions as to why AMD didn't initially launch the RX 460 as such, increasing their competitiveness against rival NVIDIA's offerings, but now, it seems at least one of AMD's AIB partners has decided to take action in releasing a fully unlocked Polaris 11 GPU.

Marketed as the Sapphire Radeon RX 460 Nitro OC, this is the first officially launched retail version of the full, unlocked Polaris 11 chip, with all of its stream processors unlocked, for a grand total of 1024 SPs against the usual, and much more meager, 896. This brings the card's peak theoretical throughput at 2.56 TFLOPs (versus the base 2.2 TFLOPs on the 896 SP version), while keeping the card's 75 W TDP.

AMD is readying a new graphics card promotion for Holiday 2016. The company is planning to give away game keys to "Sid Meier's Civilization VI" with both the 4 GB and 8 GB variants of its Radeon RX 480 graphics cards. Available through participating retailers, and in select markets, the promotion will be applicable to both the reference and custom-design graphics cards. Sapphire, for example, is giving away keys to the game with both its NITRO+ and reference-design RX 480 cards. Purchase receipts for the cards will come with special promotion codes that can be redeemed on the AMD Rewards website to enable the game directly to your Steam account. The 6th edition of the smash-hit turn-based strategy game, "Civilization VI" takes advantage of DirectX 12 through its latest patch, the Radeon RX 480 meets or exceeds its recommended system requirements.

It turns out that the new SKU based on the Polaris 10 "Ellesmere" silicon AMD is working on, to fill the gap between the Radeon RX 460 and RX 470, could be named the "Radeon RX 470D," after all. It is also being reported that AMD is planning to launch this SKU only in China, for now. It is further cut down from the RX 470, in featuring 1,792 stream processors, by enabling just 28 out of 36 GCN compute units physically present on the chip. The SKU further features 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface.

AMD is clocking the RX 470D slightly higher than the conventional RX 470. Its core ticks at speeds of up to 1266 MHz (Boost clock), and its memory at 7.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective), compared to the 1206 MHz (Boost clock) and 6.60 GHz (GDDR5-effective) speeds of the RX 470. The RX 470D will be built to a cost, and it shows, on the Sapphire RX 470D NITRO. The PCB is shorter, and the cooler leaner. Chinese tech publication PCOnline got its hands on a sample, and tested it to be faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, yet slower than the RX 470. The card is expected to be priced about 14 percent less than the RX 470. Find more benchmark figures in the PCOnline review linked below.

Sapphire today released version 6.0.0 of TriXX its graphics card overclocking, tuning, and monitoring utility, included with Sapphire graphics cards, yet compatible with a wide variety of graphics cards. Version 6.0.0 comes with a revamped user-interface that not only gives you key readouts of your graphics cards, but also organizes its key functions so the main window doesn't look cluttered.

Since it's the first major release since AMD launched its new generation "Polaris" GPUs, TriXX supports the Radeon RX 480, RX 470, and RX 460; with special features supported on Sapphire custom-design graphics cards. To begin with, on the new Sapphire NITRO+ series graphics cards, it features the Fan Check function, which tests the health of the fans, and alerts customer support to send replacement fans. It also supports NITRO Glow, letting you customize RGB LED lighting, including 5 lighting presets. Lastly, you can now set up to five profiles for your settings.DOWNLOAD: Sapphire TriXX 6.0.0Image Courtesy: ZeppMan217

In addition to the RX 470 Platinum Edition OC, Sapphire unveiled a pair of Radeon RX 470 NITRO+ series graphics cards. This includes a 4 GB variant, and an 8 GB variant. Besides memory, the two differ slightly with their factory-overclock. The 4 GB variant ships with 1143 MHz core, 1260 MHz boost, and 8.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory; while the 8 GB variant ships with 1121 MHz core, 1260 MHz boost, and 8.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. Both variants feature Sapphire's new generation Dual-X cooling solution, which made its debut with the RX 480 NITRO+ series. The PCB appears to be similar, too.

Sapphire announced the Radeon RX 470 Platinum Edition OC graphics card. This card is the closest it gets to a market-available reference design AMD board for the RX 470. It sticks to the AMD reference design PCB, with a negligibly higher 1216 MHz engine boost clock (vs. 1206 MHz reference); but a significant 7.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory clock (vs. 6.60 GHz reference). Sapphire customized the cooler design to feature a silvery finish on the cooler shroud, and a matching silver+black backplate covering the length of the PCB. This card could be priced close to the $179 MSRP set for the RX 470.

AMD's upcoming 14 nm Polaris 11 "Baffin" ASIC, which powers the Radeon RX 460, was pictured up close, and it's tiny! Pictured as part of a Sapphire Radeon RX 460 Dual-X disassembly by PCOnline.com.cn, the Polaris 11 chip features a tiny package substrate owing to its low pin-count, wiring out a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface; a PCI-Express 3.0 x8 host interface (it fits into x16 slots but has wiring for just x8); and electrical pins to cope with its <75W TDP requirements. The card relies on the PCI-Express slot for all its power draw. Sapphire's Dual-X cooling solution looks beefy from the outside owing to its cooler shroud and pair of fans, but underneath is a fairly simple monoblock aluminium heatsink.

Here's the first picture of Sapphire Radeon RX 460 NITRO OC, a premium RX 460 offering by Sapphire. The card combines a custom-design PCB with a larger than reference cooling solution that employs heat pipes, an aluminium fin-stack, and a pair of 90 mm spinners, to keep the GPU cool. The RX 460, based on the 14 nm "Baffin" Polaris11 silicon, features 896 stream processors spread across 14 compute units; and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit wide memory interface. The NITRO OC, as its name suggests, features factory-overclocked speeds. The RX 460 is expected to be available from 8th August, 2016.

Here are some of the first pictures of the Radeon RX 470 Platinum Edition by Sapphire. The card design is a close variation of AMD reference design, with a silvery plastic panel on the cooler shroud, a metallic sticker on the fan hub, and a back-plate covering the length of the PCB. This PCB features two fewer power phases than the RX 480, and 4 GB of 7 Gbps GDDR5 memory. The RX 470 features 2,048 stream processors, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface. It draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector; and its TDP is rated at 150W. The MSRP for the RX 470 is rumored to be set at US $179.

Sapphire announced its premium Radeon RX 480 graphics card, the NITRO+. Featuring a completely custom design, the card features the company's latest Dual-X cooling solution that combines a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink, with a pair of easily detachable 95 mm fans, and an air-channel that directs hot air towards the top; and a custom-design PCB with a strong VRM, which draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.

The Radeon RX 480 NITRO+ comes in two variants, 4 GB and 8 GB. The 4 GB variant comes with clock speeds of 1208 MHz core, 1306 MHz boost, and 7 Gbps memory; while the 8 GB variant ships with 1208 MHz core, 1342 MHz boost, and 8 Gbps memory. Display outputs include two each of DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0b, and a dual-link DVI connector. The unique NITRO Glow feature lets you make the LED-lit Sapphire logo useful, by cycling it between its default blue color, to a random RGB color, gradients based on PCB temperature and fan-speeds, a Sapphire TriXX-set color, or stay off.

Here are some more pictures of the Radeon RX 480 Nitro by Sapphire, which was first pictured in June. This is the company's premium RX 480 offering, featuring a custom-design PCB, and a large new-generation cooling solution. Unlike its first pictures, which showed a silver/chrome color on the metal cooler shroud; the final design features a gunmetal finish. The cooler features a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink to which heat drawn from the GPU by copper heat pipes, is dissipated under the airflow of two 100 mm fans, which stay off when the card is idling. These fans are easily detachable, letting you clean the heatsink underneath.

The card draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, located along the rear side of the PCB, and not the usual top. The Sapphire logo along the top features RGB LED lighting, with a selection button on the PCB. The card is rumored to feature GPU clocks of up to 1350 MHz. Also featured is dual-BIOS. A back-plate runs along the entire length of the card. The card is listed for pre-order by OCUK for 249 GBP (incl VAT), a 20 GBP premium on the reference-design card.

A Sapphire branded AMD reference design Radeon RX 480 graphics card was taken apart, giving us an early close look at the card and its key components. The pictures reveal pretty much the same details as the first close-up shot of the reference RX 480 / RX 470 common PCB, and the cooling solution was taken apart further, revealing more details than the first time we saw what's underneath.

To begin with, the reference RX 480 PCB features a 6-phase VRM that draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. Display outputs include one HDMI 2.0 and three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors. One of the pictures features a close-up of the 14 nm "Ellesmere" silicon. The cooling solution is confirmed to feature a chunky monolithic aluminium heatsink with a copper core, cooling the GPU, with a metal base-plate conveying heat from the VRM and memory to it; ventilated by a lateral blower. The Radeon RX 480 is expected to launch on the 29th of June, 2016, priced at $199 for the 4 GB variant, and $229 for the 8 GB variant.More pictures follow.

Here are some of the first pictures of the Radeon RX 480 Nitro, and a reference-derived semi-custom graphics card by Sapphire. The RX 480 Nitro features a new dual-fan aluminium fin-stack cooling solution by Sapphire, with what looks like a metal cooler shroud featuring brushed aluminium finish, and a pair of 100 mm fans ventilating a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink. The company is also working on a card that's similar in design to AMD's reference card, with a few cosmetic changes, such as a glowing "Sapphire" logo instead of "Radeon," and a back-plate. The Radeon RX 480 is expected to go on sale a little later this month.

Sapphire unveiled its highest tuning air-cooled TOXIC variant for the Radeon R9 390. Targeted at the Greater China region (PRC, Hong Kong, Taiwan), this card features a swanky new VaporX vapor-chamber cooling solution, and the highest factory-overclock by the company for this chip. The core is clocked at 1120 MHz against reference clocks of 1000 MHz, and an untouched 6.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory clock.

The cooling solution consists of a large vapor-chamber plate, from which a number of 8 mm-thick copper heat pipes convey heat to two aluminium fin stacks, which are ventilated by three 100 mm spinners. A chunky, ridged, aluminium base-plate covers nearly every other part of the PCB, cooling the VRM and memory chips. Based on the 28 nm "Grenada" silicon, the R9 390 features 2,560 stream processors, 160 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory.

Sapphire launched its second premium Radeon R9 Fury graphics card, the R9 Fury Nitro. The card replaces the R9 Fury Tri-X as the company's best R9 Fury offering. While the R9 Fury Tri-X features a long cooling solution that's of standard height, the Nitro features a cooling solution that's of greater height (12.5 cm).

The cooler features a dense, split aluminium fin-stack heatsink, and three spinners. Under the hood is a custom-design PCB by sapphire, which is slightly longer and taller than AMD's reference "Fiji" PCB, but doesn't cover the entire length of the card. This PCB is said to be 8-layer, compared to the 6-layer PCB on the reference-design "Fiji" board. On offer, is a factory overclock of 1050 MHz core, and an untouched 500 MHz (512 GB/s) HBM memory. Another characteristic feature is its display I/O, which includes a DVI connector, in addition to three DisplayPorts 1.2a and an HDMI.

In a bid to step up the pressure on NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 970 and the product-stack below it, AMD is getting its add-in board (AIB) graphics card partners to launch cost-effective variants of the Radeon R9 390, with 4 GB of memory, instead of the 8 GB that was standard to the SKU. These cards feature 4 GB of memory across the chip's 512-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, and could help AMD and its partners shave a few dozen Dollars off the standard version, which is currently selling for as low as $309.

4 GB of memory would make the R9 390 a complete re-brand of the R9 290, if not for its clock speeds. The custom-design variants of the 4 GB R9 390 ship with clock speeds that are 10% higher than those of the R9 290, and the performance was found to be proportionately higher, by Expreview. Of the three cards spotted crawling their way out of product launch pipes in China, the ones from XFX and PowerColor retain the design and packaging of their 8 GB siblings; while Sapphire mated the chip with a new dual-fan cooler with a meaty, split aluminium fin-stack heatsink.

Sapphire announced its latest version of the TriXX overclocking utility, which it bundles with its graphics cards. Version 5.2.1 is one of the first pieces of software to support voltage control on AMD "Fiji" GPU graphics cards (R9 Fury, R9 Fury X, and R9 Nano), and HBM overclocking. The utility comes with a new "dashboard" themed user interface that gives you an analog readout of your card's main sensors - clocks, voltage, and temperatures; and a simpler layout. In addition, it also supports voltage control on other Radeon R9 300 series GPUs.DOWNLOAD: Sapphire TriXX 5.2.1

TechPowerUp released version 0.8.6 of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostics utility, which gives you detailed info on your installed graphics chips, and lets you monitor the various sensors of your GPUs. To begin with, the new version comes with DirectX 12 support, with the ability to tell which feature-level of Direct3D your hardware supports. Command-line usage has been added with the "/help" argument. Support was added for several GPUs, notably GTX 950, Microsoft Surface Book GPU, R9 Nano, and AMD "Carrizo" iGPU.

The app can now wake up AMD GPUs in laptops that are power-gated to conserve power (and which would hence not get properly detected). BIOS reading is improved, and incorrect fan-speed reading, and a rare BSOD in AMD R9 Fury series GPUs, are fixed. Several stability improvements for Intel iGPUs were made, with the addition of support for Intel "Braswell," "Cherry Lake," and "Skylake" iGPUs. AMD GPU clock speed detection with no AMD driver installed, has been improved. A rare case of misreading BIOS in multi-GPU setups, has been fixed. Voltage monitoring on some Sapphire graphics cards has been fixed.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.8.6 | GPU-Z 0.8.6 ASUS ROG Themed

The change-log follows.

In addition to the first liquid-cooled Radeon R9 Fury, XFX is ready with an air-cooled card designed to sell at the price AMD intended for this SKU. XFX' air-cooled Radeon R9 Fury graphics card features a triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution that's very similar (probably identical) in design to the Tri-X cooler used by Sapphire. Underneath it, is an AMD reference-design "Fiji" PCB, seating the 3,584 SP R9 Fury ASIC. The card could offer 0 dBA (silent) idle, and stick to AMD reference clock speeds of 1000 MHz core, and 500 MHz memory. It could sell at AMD's baseline price for the R9 Fury, at $550.

In addition to the Radeon R9 Nano, AMD quietly launched the Radeon R9 370X, a new SKU to combat the GeForce GTX 950 and GTX 960, in the sub-$200 market. The R9 370X. Based on the 28 nm "Trinidad XT" silicon, this chip offers 1,280 stream processors, 80 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding either 2 GB or 4 GB of memory.

Sapphire is the first to be out with an R9 370X product, based on its Vapor-X cooling solution, and available in both 2 GB and 4 GB variants. Sapphire's cards offer close to 1200 MHz core clock speeds, with 5.60 GHz (GDDR5 effective) memory, at which clocks, the memory bandwidth on tap is 179 GB/s. The card draws power from a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connectors, display outputs include two DVI, and one each of HDMI and DisplayPort.

We are bang in the middle of an inflection point where the latest generation of CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, memory, displays, and software (Windows 10) just launched. To help our readers wanting to save big on their first gaming PC builds [and because the news is slow these days], TechPowerUp brings to you its Builder's Digest series of guides, on which components we would choose, to build a gaming or media PC from the ground up, at a given price-point.

In this episode, we're trying to build the best gaming PC possible, under $1,700. Our definition of "best" includes not just performance, but also energy-efficiency and noise. $1,700 is a great budget to get building your first serious gaming PC from scratch. Your only semblance of a PC right now is probably a notebook you take to school, and so you need to buy everything that makes up a desktop. Here's how TechPowerUp will spend that money.

Aqua Computer unveiled its full-coverage water block for the Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card. The block should also be compatible with the Sapphire R9 Fury Tri-X, which uses the AMD reference PCB. The block features exposed copper as its primary material, with an acrylic top. Its coolant channel directly flows over not just the GPU, but also the VRM area. The block itself is single-slot capable. It has threads for common G 1/4 fittings, and is capable of multi-GPU fittings. Available now, the block is priced at 99.99€ (including 19% VAT).

Here are some of the first pictures of ASUS Radeon R9 Fury STRIX, detailed in no less than AMD's own [leaked] press-deck for the R9 Fury. It appears that only two AIB partners are going to launch the R9 Fury for whatever reason. These are the Sapphire, with its R9 Fury Tri-X card, and ASUS, with its R9 Fury STRIX. ASUS' card features the same new-generation triple-fan DirectCU III cooling solution that made its debut with the GTX 980 Ti STRIX, and is featured on the R9 390X STRIX. This cooler is mated to what appears to be the first custom-design PCB for AMD's "Fiji" silicon (Sapphire's card uses the reference AMD PCB carried over from the R9 Fury X). This card is firmly in the 30 cm-ish territory. Its display output configuration includes a DVI connector, apart from three DisplayPorts, and an HDMI connector. The cooler offers 0 dBA idle. AMD claims that the R9 Fury will offer higher performance than the GeForce GTX 980, and is hence expected to be priced in that range.

Here are some of the first pictures of Sapphire's custom-design Radeon R9 Fury graphics card. The card features a triple-slot (or 2.2-slot) Tri-X cooling solution. Its PCB appears to be AMD reference-design (identical in design to the R9 Fury X), but cooled by a long triple-fan dual-stack heatsink, with over one-third of it being overhung. Quite a few GTX 970, GTX 670, and GTX 760 cards are known to have similar overhangs of coolers that are longer than the PCB.

The pics also come with leaked specs-sheets, which confirm its core configuration of 56 out of 64 compute units being enabled, yielding 3,584 stream processors; while leaving the 4 GB 4096-bit HBM memory untouched. The core clock speed is lower, at 1000 MHz, while the memory clock is left untouched at 500 MHz, compared to the R9 Fury X. Sapphire is also selling a factory-overclocked card with 1040 MHz core. The Radeon R9 Fury is expected to launch in mid-July (next week).