On Day 2 of Computex 2016, we find ourselves with a new AMD GPU to talk about. We knew that we’d be seeing something related to Polaris, and that something is the paper launch of the Radeon RX 480.
AMD’s goal with the Radeon RX 480 is to drop a graphics card in the market that delivers $500 dollar performance at a much lower price point, targeting customers that want an affordable setup with which they can run a VR system. In fact, the RX 480 will cost just $199.
This jibes with what we know of AMD’s strategy--ceding the high-end to Nvidia for now in favor of attacking the middle and lower ranges of the market.
“VR needs to be everywhere, and VR needs to be for everyone,” said Raja Koduri, Senior VP and Chief Architect of AMD’s Radeon Technologies Group.
The Polaris GPU in the RX 480 runs with 36 CUs and is linked to either 4 or 8 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit memory interface. Its performance measures over 5 Tflops. The GPU doesn’t have any form of HBM memory, but as this is designed to be a budget-friendly graphics card, we suppose one can hardly gripe about the omission.
The RX 480’s TDP sits at 150 W, and it offers 1.7x the performance per watt thanks to FinFET 14 technology. Not only does it have DisplayPort 1.3 support, but it is also the first card to support DisplayPort 1.4 with HDR.
The RX 480 will be available as of June 29. AMD also promised that it would be unveiling more information about the Polaris product stack over the coming weeks.
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