The long wait for AMD fans and gamers alike is now almost over; AMD has finally announced its highly anticipated Polaris 10-based graphics card called the RX 480. This would be the first time the company has released a non-R7 or R9 graphics card ever since introducing the nomenclature a few years ago.
According to AMD, the RX 480 will be aiming at gamers that want a performance of a US$500 graphics card, but at a significantly lower price point. In addition, the company has also mentioned that the RX 480 will be the first graphics card under US$500 that can deemed VR-Ready. AMD has been very vocal in recent months about its plans to lower the barrier of entry for VR gaming – and the RX 480 reflects that.
Specification-wise, the RX 480 will come with 36 CUs (Compute Units) along with a memory bandwidth of speed of 256GBps. Interestingly, the RX 480, when released, will be available in two memory size variants: 4GB and 8GB. Speaking of which, AMD has decided to not equip its first Polaris 10-based graphics card with the HBM memory standard; the company has opt for the more common GDDR5 memory standard instead.
Besides that, AMD’s RX 480 will also support AMD’s FreeSync technology through the DisplayPort 1.3 and 1.4 port. One feature that makes the RX 480 stand out is HDR support, which will allow consumers to plug any compatible monitors to the RX 480 to experience HDR video playback and gaming (when supported).
Price-wise, the RX 480 graphics card will be priced at US$199 (about RM820) for the 4GB variant and it will be made available worldwide on the 29th of June this year. That aside, it would be to best address the elephant in the room: the RX 480 is not a high-end graphics card. No, it will not be as powerful as Nvidia’s GTX 1080 or the GTX 1070 even, but it does however, become a good option for gamers that tend to look for a graphics card in the US$100 to US$300 region.
