AMD Radeon RX 480 "Polaris" Launched at $199

[Legacy-ZA]

Good price point AMD, very nice indeed; now I am patiently waiting for 3rd party reviewers for the full story.

 

[Assimilator]

Oh snap single 6-pin. GET HYPE.

All that tells me is that it can't OC for s**t, which would gel well with the rumours that the 14nm process has massive leakage issues at higher speeds. OTOH, if RX 480 can deliver GTX 970 or better performance for $200, overclocking probably doesn't matter too much.

However, given AMD's record of blatantly lying about its cards' performance before their actual release, I won't be holding my breath.

 

[dj-electric]

Why people think that 6PIN only means no overclocking capabilities?!

HD 6850 had 6PIN and was a phenomenal OCer, and so was HD 7850.
Going a bit over 6PIN power spec is not improbable.

 

[btarunr]

If it's to be launched on June 29th, then it's not launched now, unless it's launched twice ...

As far as i know, when a card is launched, there are reviews from (selected) tech sites, even if it's a paper launch and there's no real availability to the public. This is not the case with polaris, hence why i consider it's an announcement instead of a launch.

That 29th could be review NDA and market availability. Launch was now.

GTX 1080 AND GTX 1070 were launched on May 7th, but reviews were allowed to be posted only on May 17th, and GTX 1080 availability was only after May 27 and GTX 1070 only after June 10.

RX 480 is Launched. 1st June 2016 is the launch day that will appear in GPU-Z for this chip.

 

[Xzibit]

If it's to be launched on June 29th, then it's not launched now, unless it's launched twice ...

As far as i know, when a card is launched, there are reviews from (selected) tech sites, even if it's a paper launch and there's no real availability to the public. This is not the case with polaris, hence why i consider it's an announcement instead of a launch.

Thats why I mentioned Nvidia and there timing. Nvidia launched GTX 1080 & 1070 at Nvidia Editors Day on May 6. Both AMD and Nvidia use launch for what should be announcements but anyone can see there are none available when they say launch. They use availability for what some like to think of as a launch.

 

[medi01]

Why people think that 6PIN only means no overclocking capabilities?!

Well, 1070 is 8 pin, max 225w.
6 pin is max 150w.

Conslusions... No idea.
Both cards are claimed to be 150w TDP, lol.

if RX 480 can deliver GTX 970 or better performance

If we trust this leak, it's between 980 and Fury.
(separate article confirms 480 is C7)

http://videocardz.com/60253/amd-radeon-r9-480-3dmark11-benchmarks

Although I still keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Chaitanya]

That price ..

Same here, even if 8GB version costs 30$ more I would definitely consider it.

 

[Frick]

If the performance is as promised and if they have managed to build up a big enough stock by the 29th... Good times ahead.

 

[mroofie]

Same here, even if 8GB version costs 30$ more I would definitely consider it.

230 seems like it or maybe 250

Edit : 230 it is

 

[laszlo]

don't care if is close/under fury or 980 as perf.; price is more than ok ,power only 150w (don't need another psu) - is my next upgrade

 

[Naito]

Full Polaris 10 has shader count of 2560?

 

[TheGuruStud]

Another GloFo loser chip. Great. I bet even with beefy VRMs and full power control, it STILL won't clock.

Dump the APUs on GloFo to fill the contract and nothing more. It seems that Sammy is the only one that can save them.

 

[Caring1]

what??? only one??? we need moar

This is the reference card only.
Wait for partner boards to come out.

 

[arbiter]

When can we expect some reviews please?

Polaris was just announced, NDA embargo lifts June 29th. Raja did mention availability.
GTX 1080 was announced, 2 weeks later reviewed, 2 week after that released, 2 days after 1080 released 1070 was reviewed. 1070 wont be released until June 10th.

Um no, pascal was announced the on the 7th, NDA was up 17th, on sale was week and a half later on the 27th. between the anounce and on sale was less then 3 weeks. AMD has a 1 month NDA on their's which seems like they just wanted to try to throw water on the fire left behind by the pascal Bomb.

 

[G33k2Fr34k]

Another GloFo loser chip. Great. I bet even with beefy VRMs and full power control, it STILL won't clock.

Dump the APUs on GloFo to fill the contract and nothing more. It seems that Sammy is the only one that can save them.

It's cheaper for them to manufacture chips at Glofo. Saves them a lot of money. Why is it a looser chip? The chip most definitely consumes less than 150 Watts and performance wise it's Fury (non X) level. At $199 price point, this is the new mainstream king.

 

[Absolution]

AMD implies that it's as fast as R9 Fury, which is faster than GTX 980. NVIDIA can't beat RX 480 without giving the GTX 1060 too many SMs, thereby cannibalizing the GTX 1070.

This SKU is disruptive af.

By that disruption they sure did shake up their own product line too, albiet the prev gen, which i guess is acceptable than disrupting nvidias current gen.

Also, if this is true (that its similar to a Nano or Air Fury in performance), I better get rid of my Nano fast lol.

But I dont get why AMD quoted a number of >5 teraflops? The Nano is 8 teraflops. How could it reach that? Does teraflops mean anything in this context?

 

[Absolution]

All that tells me is that it can't OC for s**t, which would gel well with the rumours that the 14nm process has massive leakage issues at higher speeds.

I thought the finfet process in essence was supposed to reduce the problem of leakages by quite a margin?

 

[G33k2Fr34k]

By that disruption they sure did shake up their own product line too, albiet the prev gen, which i guess is acceptable than disrupting nvidias current gen.

Also, if this is true (that its similar to a Nano or Air Fury in performance), I better get rid of my Nano fast lol.

But I dont get why AMD quoted a number of >5 teraflops? The Nano is 8 teraflops. How could it reach that? Does teraflops mean anything in this context?

Not sure... but it is a powerful card. It's probably slightly faster than the R9 nano and closer to the R9 Fury. I think they showed it running Doom at 1440P on Ultra and it was getting ~80fps, which is R9 Fury performance.

 

[bug]

I thought the finfet process in essence was supposed to reduce the problem of leakages by quite a margin?

Sadly, no. The lower the process, the more the leakage bites you.

 

[Metalpunk182]

This would be the new 4850/70 IMHO

 

[Absolution]

Sadly, no. The lower the process, the more the leakage bites you.

Actually yes lol. Lower means lesser leakage. Finfet reduces leakage by a large margin, multiple sources indicate that and was also mentioned in the Anandtech article:

Across the entire performance curve the 14nm process offers a continuum of better switching speeds and/or lower leakage compared to Intel’s 22nm process

And AMD will be using both 14nm and 16nm tech for their Polaris chips too. So it cant be leakage:

The group has confirmed that they will be utilizing both traditional partner TSMC’s 16nm process and AMD fab spin-off (and Samsung licensee) GlobalFoundries’ 14nm process, making this the first time that AMD’s graphics group has used more than a single fab.

I think they will tune the card according to the markets competition (aka the 1060), hence the reason why clock speed and teraflops numbers are not released. They want to scare nvidia through the AoTS slide by showing how much more the chip can perform.

 

[Sir Alex Ice]

AMD clearly has no employees telling their bosses "you've done goofed" when it is clearly the case. GTX970 level of performance, at a reasonable price - for the moment, but with the power draw of the GTX1070?

 

[btarunr]

Added 8GB price. So $199 for 4GB and $229 for 8GB. Both very nice prices.

 

[btarunr]

But I dont get why AMD quoted a number of >5 teraflops? The Nano is 8 teraflops. How could it reach that? Does teraflops mean anything in this context?

1266 x 2304 x 2 (iop/MADD) = 5.84 TFLOP/s. The rest is probably made for with big improvements to the frontend/memory management, etc.

 

[mroofie]

Added 8GB price. So $199 for 4GB and $229 for 8GB. Both very nice prices.

so its official