AMD Teases Radeon RX 480: Launching June 29th For $199
by Ryan Smith on May 31, 2016 10:00 PM ESTAMD's Full Teaser Text
On June 01, 2016 at 10 a.m. China Standard Time (3 a.m. BST / 4 a.m. CEST) the Radeon Technologies Group will be announcing:
- Radeon™ RX 480 set to drive premium VR experiences into the hands of millions of consumers; priced from just $199
- First Polaris architecture-based graphics processor to deliver VR capability common in $500 GPUs; expected to accelerate the size of the VR-ready install-base and dramatically increase the pace of VR ecosystem growth
- RadeonTM RX 480 specifications including:
| AMD Radeon RX 480 | |
| TFLOPs (FMA) | >5 TFLOPs |
| Compute Units | 36 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 256GB/sec |
| Memory Clock | 8Gbps GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus Width | 256-bit |
| VRAM | 4GB/8GB |
| Typical Board Power | 150W |
| VR Premium | Yes |
| AMD FreeSync | Yes |
| DisplayPort | 1.3/1.4 HDR |
Set to formally launch on June 29th, the Radeon™ RX 480 will deliver the world’s most affordable solution for premium PC VR experiences, including a model that is both HTC™ Vive Ready and Oculus™ Rift™ certified and delivering VR capability common in $500 GPUs.
In a notable market survey, price was a leading barrier to adoption of VR. The $199 SEP for select Radeon™ RX Series GPUs is an integral part of AMD’s strategy to dramatically accelerate VR adoption and unleash the VR software ecosystem. AMD expects that its aggressive pricing will jumpstart the growth of the addressable market for PC VR and accelerate the rate at which VR headsets drop in price:
- More affordable VR-ready desktops and notebooks: AMD expects that affordable PC VR enabled by Polaris architecture-based graphics cards will drive a wide range of VR-ready desktops and notebooks, providing a catalyst for the expansion of the addressable market to an estimated 100 million consumers over the next 10 years.
- Making VR accessible to consumers in retail: Thus far, retail has not been a viable channel for VR sales as average system costs exceeding $999 have precluded VR-ready PCs from seeing substantial shelf space. The Radeon™ RX Series graphics cards will enable OEMs to build ideally priced VR-ready desktops and notebooks well suited for the retail PC market.
- Unleashing VR developers on a larger audience: Adoption of PC VR technologies by mainstream consumers is expected to spur further developer interest across the ecosystem, unleashing new VR applications in education, entertainment, and productivity as developers seek to capitalize on the growing popularity of the medium.
- Reducing the cost of entry to VR: AMD expects that affordable PC VR enabled by Polaris architecture-based graphics cards will dramatically accelerate the pace of the VR ecosystem, driving greater consumer adoption, further developer interest, and increased production of HMDs, ultimately resulting in a lower cost of entry as prices throughout the VR ecosystem decrease over time.
The Radeon™ RX Series launch represents the first salvo in AMD’s new “Water Drop” strategy aimed at releasing new graphics architectures in high volume segments first to support continued market share growth for Radeon™ GPUs. In May 2016, Mercury Research reported that AMD gained 3.2% market share in discrete GPUs in Q1 2016. The Radeon™ RX Series will address a substantial opportunity in PC gaming: more than 13.8 million PC gamers who spend $100-300 to upgrade their graphics cards, and 84% of competitive and AAA PC gamers. With Polaris architecture-based Radeon™ RX Series graphics cards, AMD intends to redefine the gaming experience in its class, introducing dramatically improved performance and efficiency, support for compelling VR experiences, and incredible features never before possible at these prices.
Supporting Quotes:
“VR is the most eagerly anticipated development in immersive computing ever, and is the realization of AMD’s Cinema 2.0 vision that predicted the convergence of cinematic visuals and interactivity back in 2008,” said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. “As we look to fully connect and immerse humanity through VR, cost remains the daylight between VR being the purview of the wealthy, and universal access for everyone. The Radeon™ RX Series is the disruptive technology that adds rocket fuel to the VR inflection point, turning it into a technology with transformational relevance to consumers.”
“The Radeon™ RX series efficiency is driven by major architectural improvements and the industry’s first 14nm FinFET process technology for discrete GPUs, and could mark an important inflection point in the growth of virtual reality,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy. “By lowering the cost of ownership and increasing the VR TAM, Radeon RX Series has the potential to propel VR-ready systems into retail in higher volumes, drive new levels of VR content investment, and even drive down the cost of VR headsets.”
“We congratulate AMD for bringing a premium VR ready GPU to market at a $199 price point,” said Dan O’Brien, vice president of virtual reality, HTC. “This shows how partners like AMD survey the entire VR ecosystem to bring an innovative Radeon RX Series product to power high end VR systems like the HTC Vive, to the broadest range of consumers.”
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mapesdhs - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
praxis22 writes:> The stuff you'll find in big box retail is always exploitative. They usually give
> you a good CPU, typically over specified for gaming which is GPU limited,
> and give you a passable GPU, that will likely need to be replaced within a year.
(good posts btw!)
This happens for pro sales aswell. I'm helping a guy who bought a system which was mostly to be for pro tasks, with some gaming too. It had a decent enough CPU (i7 4770) but a pretty naff GPU (GTX 645 1GB), and cost quite a lot. I'm building him a replacement with a 4.8GHz 3930K, Quadro 6000 6GB and GTX 580 3GB for extra CUDA.
Seems to be a common approach by generic builders, they overspec the CPU and then fit a lame GPU. The PC the guy bought also had a bizarre RAM config (12GB with 3 DIMMs). At least he had the sense to fit an SSD himself (I'm so tired of seeing OEM systems supplied with 1TB rust spinners).
jabber - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I was with you all the way till the Zen bit. It was like when you talk to someone and have a really good conversation then they say "and have you ever accepted the Lord Jesus into your heart?"praxis22 - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I run an i5 like most sensible gamers, I'm in now way an AMD fanboy, I bought my GPU for one game, so I'm defacto not normal. I just happen to think that the evident long running AMD strategy is very clever. I'm unlikely to buy a Zen/Xen (not sure how you spell it) but it will surely sell a lot if priced well.My wife would like me to accept Jesus, but my heart belongs to Danu :)
extide - Monday, June 6, 2016 - link
It's Zen. Xen is a hypervisor.JKay6969AT - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
Sadly with a lot of 'PC Enthusiasts' these days their brand loyalty is getting close to religious worship. Arguing against facts, logic and truth as they can't imagine a situation where their beloved brand could be wrong or worse or imperfect.The reality is that AMD, nVidia and intel are all corporations out to make profits, if the market allows them to price gouge then that is what they will do, if the market allows them to rebrand old products as new ones then that is what they will do, if the market forces them to compete then that is what they will do, if the market forces them to innovate and release new products then that is what they will do.
None of these companies hold any true loyalty to any of you, they just want you to invest in their products and advertise them through word of mouth, which incidentally is not a regulated form of advertising and so can be far more effective than having to tell the truth about your products, your fanboys will say whatever makes them feel they have won the argument regardless of it's basis in reality.
pashhtk27 - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
Very true.When I built my pc 4 years ago, I was very proud not to have two components from the same brand except the RAM and PSU from corsair. And with a few updates, I still have no component and peripheral same except those two......and well, a gamepad and mouse from logitech.
I love my pc knowing that I investing in the best from all brands. Even though it's old and weak and....cheap in today's tech. :)
cocochanel - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
I don't understand people bitching. AMD is bringing VR to the masses. What's wrong with that ? Nvidia and Intel can sit this one out if they want, who cares ? PlayStation Neo, Xbox One VR and Nintendo will probably have a powerful APU with Zen cores and Polaris GPUs. Me ? I'm waiting for PlayStation Neo + VR headset. All for about a grand. This stuff is as good as a 35k Tesla. Yummy !!!tamalero - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
because each band expects to have the "bragging rights". Its always a back and forth. ATI won the crown? they blasted Nvidia, Nvidia won? the same in the opposite direction.eddman - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
"What this is, is a land grab. In 4x terms this is a Rush."There is nothing stopping nvidia from reducing 1070's price and positioning the upcoming 1060 (and 1060 Ti?) to counter 480, if they feel their market share is threatened.
"AMD will own, the laptop segment, with Polaris 11"
How would you know that? It depends on how GP106, 107 and 108 turn out.
"the Console segment, since Nvidia wasn't interested. Apple, and the consumer market. They also own the graphic subsystem with Mantle/Vulkan, So they get Android and iOS, etc. Since they have the consoles, and games port to the PC from consoles, it makes more sense to code to Vulkan."
Don't be so sure. There are two main gaming segments that do not really overlap: consoles/computers and mobile.
In the first segment PS, xbox and PC rule. PS comes with its own optimized APIs and xbox and PC use DX. It would take a lot to convince developers to abandon these powerful APIs.
"At a stroke AMD now owns PC gaming into the future. MSFT continues to screw up, since Direct X12 doesn't support dual cards."
No dual cards? What do you mean? DX12 supports multi-GPU setups.
"... skyrim ... dx9 ... 4gb ..."
What does this have to do with anything? Off-topic.
"What AMD are going for is market dominance, and market share"
Again, there is nothing stopping nvidia from countering all this.
praxis22 - Friday, June 3, 2016 - link
Oh good, argument! :)The Last time I bought a Laptop, 4/5 years ago, I bought a hybrid netbook with Nvidia's Optimus architecture. Woks well as a third party Chromebook, runs Linux well too, but the battery life sucks.
That's one thing I have noticed about big box retail, at least in Germany, that they no longer sell Chromebooks even as a paid installation like the rest, as it kills their margins. They're not the highest selling "laptop" on Amazon for nothing. That is the future of the consumer laptop, and thus the cheaper the chips the more margin the OEM makes. They do sell them in the UK however, that and very expensive laptops. There is seemingly no middle ground anymore. That is what I mean by owning the laptop market. Owning the rump of what's left of it. Globally there are only three makers of laptops with Clevo being the biggest. Everything else is just badged.
Sure there are plenty of indy games, which rely more on Steam for their target platform. With Vulkan I was talking about the big AAA titles, which for at least the past 5 years have been console first. they then port the console build to the PC. Skyrim, Witcher3, go look at the howls of the faithful about the graphics downgrade of Witcher3 because they chose to prioritise the console. The New consoles, (except Nintendo) will be running AMD. Purely because Nvidia wasn't interested, and Intel is incapable. Nintentdo has gone for a Tegra chip by Nvidia, so it can port to Android. Again using Vulkan. there were talks about optimising for Vulkan at the the recent Google IO, I watched them.
There is a shift underway, DX12 is built on Vulkan too, go check. This is shift back to a layer much closer to the metal, for better performance and memory management, essential for VR. This is a step change. It will take years, but it's already underway. Keep your hands inside the moving car, and watch out for changes :)
Have you used dual cards with DX12? I haven't, but I have read and watched a fair bit about people who have, and have thus taken to the interwebs to bitch about it. MSFT says they'll fix it. I haven't seen any comment about patching DX9 to use more VRAM. Though I have also seen a read a lot about that too. It's why I blocked the Windows10 upgrade. There aren't that many DX12 games as yet, so it will take years to fully phase out the older platforms.
What does it have to do with anything? It has everything to do with graphics cards, and the drivers and games that run on them. Not everyone has your use case, or habits. :)
You're right, there is nothing stopping Nvidia, except a desire. They're already looking to get out of the low end GPU business, and into AI and automotive, as anyone who's watched a recent Nvidia keynote, (like me) will have seen.