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Radeon RX 480: AMD's $200 alternative to the Nvidia GTX 1070 also takes on VR

3.6.2016

Translation: machine translated

With its new Polaris graphics cards, AMD is targeting price-conscious gamers who want as much performance as possible for their money. Enthusiasts, on the other hand, are left out.

After Nvidia made a strong showing with the two Pascal graphics cards GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, it is now AMD's turn to present its new stars. However, anyone hoping to see a new performance king will be disappointed. Instead, AMD is trying to pick up gamers for whom a GTX 1070 is too expensive, but who don't want to sacrifice performance.

Radeon RX 480 is the name of the potential price-performance winner, which is based on the new Polaris 10/11 chipset. In a direct comparison with the existing range, it probably ranks slightly ahead of the R9 390. A theoretical computing power of 5 TFLOPS (the GTX 1070 has just under 7 TFLOPS) is assumed with a GPU clock of 1100MHz. However, clock rates of around 1300MHz have also been spotted in benchmark databases. This would bring the GPU to almost 6 TFLOPS, putting it on a par with the R9 390X.

Like Nvidia, AMD relies on GDDR5 memory for the GTX 1070. The entry-level model has 4GB RAM, but 8GB models will also be available. Displayport 1.4 HDR is to be enabled with a later firmware update. AMD also emphasises that the graphics card should enable a premium VR experience.

Faster than a GTX 1080 - with some support

Concrete performance will only be revealed in tests when the card is launched at the end of June. However, AMD has already shown an impressive DirectX 12 comparison at the presentation using the game "Ashes of Singularity". Two RX 480s were compared with a single GTX 1080 in Crossfire mode. With an average of 62.5 FPS compared to 58.7 FPS, the AMD cards performed slightly better and still cost less. However, such tests should be taken with a grain of salt.

«Ashes of Singularity» runs better on the new AMD card than with Nvidia cards, promises chief developer Raja Koduri.

For thrifty users with high demands

All in all, AMD delivers an extremely attractive overall package. The performance should be sufficient for the vast majority of gamers and should the price actually reach the end customer this low, it really would be a bargain. However, Swiss prices are not yet known and Nvidia has recently shown that announced prices usually deviate somewhat from the actual ones.

Graphics card

ASUS Radeon RX 480

8 GB

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Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

As a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles.

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Radeon RX 480: AMD's $200 alternative to the Nvidia GTX 1070 also takes on VR

Faster than a GTX 1080 - with some support

For thrifty users with high demands

111 comments

111 comments

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