AMD RX480 Specs: $200 for 5TFLOPs, 8GB GDDR5, Launch 6/29 | Computex | GamersNexus

AMD RX480 Specs: $200 for 5TFLOPs, 8GB GDDR5, Launch 6/29 | Computex

By Steve Burke Published May 31, 2016 at 10:00 pm

Hardware

AMD's 14nm FinFET Radeon RX480 was just announced at Computex, using the new Polaris 10 architecture. The AMD Radeon RX480 GPU uses Polaris 10 architecture to deliver >5TFLOPS of Compute for $200, at 150W TDP, and ships in SKUs of 4GB & 8GB GDDR5. We have not confirmed if the 8GB model costs more; the exact language was “RX 480 set to drive premium VR experiences into the hands of millions of consumers, priced from just $199.”

“From,” of course, means “starting at” – so it could be that the 8GB model costs more. Regardless, AMD's firmly entered the mid-range market with its 8GB RX480, landing where the R9 380X and GTX 960 4GB presently rest. (Update: We emailed and confirmed that the 4GB model is $200. The 8GB model is not yet finalized for pricing -- probably $250+).

AMD's is rumored to be skipping on the high-end market with Polaris architectures 10 & 11, likely aiming to fill that demand with Vega instead. Vega is on the roadmap for public delivery later in 2016.

AMD Radeon R480 Specs

COMPUTE	">5TFLOPS"
CUs	36
Memory Bandwidth	256GB/s
Data Rate (Effective)	8Gbps
Memory Size	4/8GB GDDR5
Memory Interface	256-bit
TDP / Power	150W (1x 6-pin)
DisplayPort	1.3/1.4 HDR

AMD also specifies that its RX480 is “VR Premium,” which seems to be what every manufacturer on the planet is doing right now. We're not keen on this branding for products, obviously, but there you have it.

The RX480 supports FreeSync, HDR, and uses 8Gbps GDDR5 dies. This memory speed is fairly standard for GPUs of the mid-range-and-up class.

More interestingly, the RX480 announcement specifically pointed toward notebook inclusion. AMD's more-or-less absent from the notebook market right now, and Polaris 10 & 11 look to be posturing to attack that market. At 150W TDP and with >5TFLOPS compute, the RX480 would challenge nVidia's notebook lineup (GTX 970M: ~95W; GTX 980M: ~125W).

AMD's mostly making noise about Virtual Reality support with its RX480. For more traditional gamers, the card will fill the mid-range and dodge challenging the new $450 GTX 1070 (reviewed here) and $700 GTX 1080 (reviewed here). One item of note is that there will be GTX 1070s as low as ~$380, but at $200 for an RX480 – or maybe $250 for the 8GB model, we're not sure – the two should mostly exist in separate market segments. It is the GTX 1060 that AMD will make AMD look over its shoulder.

More coverage on Polaris and the RX400 series of GPUs as it becomes available for posting.

Editorial: Steve “Lelldorianx” Burke
Video: Keegan “HornetSting” Gallick

Last modified on June 01, 2016 at 10:00 pm

Steve Burke

Steve started GamersNexus back when it was just a cool name, and now it's grown into an expansive website with an overwhelming amount of features. He recalls his first difficult decision with GN's direction: "I didn't know whether or not I wanted 'Gamers' to have a possessive apostrophe -- I mean, grammatically it should, but I didn't like it in the name. It was ugly. I also had people who were typing apostrophes into the address bar - sigh. It made sense to just leave it as 'Gamers.'"

First world problems, Steve. First world problems.