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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Michael Bay - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
The PC mass market is commodized to the point of race for the bottom for basically everybody.Good luck finding money there.
hero4hire - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Comments like this are infuriating to me. "Good luck finding money there"So. Fking. What.
If AMD puts out a 480 (or 490) at a loss how do I, the consumer, lose? Are we all financial investors playing the market?
If some unknown 3rd party put out a card at $25 with open source drivers that delivered 5 tflops and bare minimum gaming support/features, I'd buy. When that company blows through $10B of investor money killing countless hedge funds through an unsustainable market presence; will I cry about their poor ROI?
I'm here as a consumer. Give me it all for free if you want. Lots of high margin items out there for you to buy and help those corporate bottom lines. Better hurry before there's a price drop!
CaptainDoug - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
You don't have to be an investor to know AMD needs to regain some market share. Nvidia needs a competitor. Same with the AMD vs Intel battle. If AMD goes down, you'll be paying more for CPUs and GPUs.D. Lister - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Wrong. Intel and Nvidia (or any company that sells non-perishable/non-consumable goods) can only raise the price to a point where it is still viable for someone who already has an older model. Otherwise, they wouldn't make any new sales.If AMD was dead now, you think the GTX 1080 would have had an MSRP of $2,000? How would they convince someone who already has a 980Ti, or even a 780Ti for that matter, to part with two grands?
When AMD goes down, nothing would change in the world, except perhaps eventually normal people would not have to put up with AMD's fanbase anymore.
TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
Not release new drivers for older cards? That sounds like a very easy way to force people to upgrade.Also, it's been proven time and time again that a monopoly leads to higher prices. Every. Single. Time. The PC market is no different.
D. Lister - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
@TheinsanegamerNA consumer GPU is an entertainment product, or rather a mere component of one, which not only has to compete with other brands in the same line of products, but also with the value provided by consoles/handheld/mobile, and even other forms of entertainment, like TV and movies.
JKay6969AT - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
@D. Lister You don't really get how competition works do you? Monopoly = Bad simple as that. In fact intel don't want AMD to fail, simply to be noncompetitive. If AMD dies then intel faces being broken into smaller companies to remove their monopoly. As long as AMD exists intel can claim it's a free market and there is no monopoly, even when their high end product prices reveal otherwise.I am not attacking you just pointing out the truth, this is not intel bashing or nVidia bashing or AMD bashing. It is simply the fact that where markets are competitive prices fall and innovation increases but while there is no or little competition the opposite is true.
I currently have an intel Core i7 4970K and a Radeon R9 290X. My last CPU was a Core i7 920 and my last GPU was an nvidia GTX 580.
I don't care which company makes my hardware, I simply care to get the best product for the best price that is suitable for purpose.
I will consider buying AMD Zen if it has benefits over intel, even if it's slower as the competing intel CPU as long as the price reflects this and the CPU is up to the task I require it for. The same goes for my next GPU, nVidia or AMD doesn't matter, price and performance relative to my needs is important, not brand loyalty.
D. Lister - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link
"You don't really get how competition works do you? Monopoly = Bad simple as that. "And you obviously don't understand the word "monopoly" beyond being some sort of a scary monetary bogeyman. The state has monopoly on law enforcement and military, monopolies that are necessary and practical. Then there are natural monopolies that are actually beneficial. The point is not a direct comparison, but to make you realize the world isn't quite as much in black and white as you may like to think.
Secondly, in the grander scheme of things, a duopoly isn't really an immense improvement over a monopoly anyway.
"If AMD dies then intel faces being broken into smaller companies to remove their monopoly."
For heaven's sake, there is a big difference between having monopoly status, and actually being charged for abuse of monopoly. Intel could only be broken down at the demise of AMD, if it was proven in court that Intel was somehow directly responsible for AMD's bankruptcy.
READ, CAREFULLY... >>> http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Market_failures/M...
Brek - Tuesday, June 7, 2016 - link
step away from the foilhat lister, you nvid fanboy.atlantico - Wednesday, June 1, 2016 - link
When Nvidia goes down, well be rid of the Nvidiots. Good times ahead.