AMD Details Remaining Polaris Cards: RX 470, RX 460 Releases Imminent

AMD recently launched its first Polaris GPU, the RX 480, which brought VR level performance to the $200+ price point. Now that the first Polaris launch is out of the way, AMD is gearing up to release the RX 480’s little brothers.

AMD CEO Lisa Su revealed the existence of the RX 470 and RX 460 on June 13, but aside from announcing that the RX 470 is perfect for 1080p gaming and that the RX 460 is designed for e-sports gaming with a 75W TDP, we weren’t told much.

During the announcement, Su held the two cards up in the air. We noticed that the RX 460 seems to be a single slot solution. We also noticed that the RX 470 has a single power connector and speculated that the card would have a 150W TDP or less. AMD is now talking about the real details of these cards, and the specs line up with what we had expected.

The upcoming Polaris GPUs will be even more affordable than the RX 480, which delivers impressive value for the money. AMD’s first Polaris cards are meant for the segment of gamers who spend less than $300 on their graphics cards. The RX 480 covers the gamer with over $200 to spend. For those on an even tighter budget, the RX 460 and RX 470 give gamers more performance than they’ve ever had for the money. AMD’s RX 460 and RX 470 cards bring the same technologies as the RX 480, including DX 12, Vulkan, HEVC, H.264, VP9, and High-Dynamic Range.

If you do your gaming on a 1080p panel, which many of us still do, then the RX 470 is meant for you. AMD said the card can handle demanding AAA games such as Far Cry Primal, The Witcher 3 and Project Cars with high or ultra settings and deliver upwards of 60 fps. The RX 470 operates at 960 MHz and boosts to 1,206 MHz and features 2,048 stream processors, 128 texture units, and 32 ROPs. AMD equipped the RX 470 with 4GB of 6.6Gbps GDDR5 operating on a 256-bit memory bus. We're not sure if there's a 6-pin or an 8-pin PCIe power plug on the card, but it has a TDP of 120W, so we expect to see a 6-pin plug.

If you’re interested in playing the hottest esports titles, such as DOTA 2, Overwatch and Rocket League more than the latest AAA games, you can save yourself a bit of money with the RX 460. AMD is positioning this card for esports players, and unlike last year when the focus was on attaining 60 fps for these titles, AMD said the RX 460 can handle these games with upwards of 90 fps. The RX 460 features a much smaller GPU that employs 896 Stream processors, 56 texture units, and 16 ROPs. The RX 460 will be offered in 2GB and 4GB variants. Both options feature 7Gbps memory and a 128-bit memory bus. What the RX 460 lacks in processor cores it makes up for in power savings. The card doesn't have an auxiliary power plug; it draws all of its sub-75 W TDP from the PCIe slot.

We expected the RX 460 to be a single slow card, but we were mistaken. The RX 460 features a single slot bracket, but the cooler is taller than single slot spacing allows.

AMD hasn’t revealed the actual price tags for the RX 460 and RX 470, but it’s clear that they will both be less than $200 and likely not under $100. We won’t be waiting much longer to find out, though; AMD said that RX 470 availability is “expected” on August 4. The RX 460 is “expected” to launch the following Monday, on August 8.