WHats so great about these cards for the millions of people that bought 290's, 290x's ,gtx780's, 780ti's, gtx970's and gtx980's?
I have a 290x tri oc with 4 gb. This was my first purchase of a card at greater than $350. I generally upgrade every 2-3 years. I guess you are assuming that the 480 will not be better than the 390x or 980. I on the other hand believe that the RX 480 hits the rumored performance of close to Nano and can OC even higher and its wattage is less than 200 watt OC. If there will be AIB cards for $250 I will spend my fathers day present from my 3 kids on this card if it meets the above standard. I will not buy until the first adopters have paid their premium as with all new releases. Here are my reasons:
1} A new 980 card is still $380 minimum on new egg. The 1070 is not readily available at this time and its cost is more than the 980 card.
2} The fact that I will also gain HDR capability, and HDMI 2.0b, will be a plus for future monitors or TV's that I might purchase.
3} The power savings will be a positive.
4} My main game that I play is warhammer 40K and Dawn of war 3 will be coming out in 2017.
5} Crimson drivers updates have improved tremendously over the past year.
6} Even though I have the capability to purchase over 200 1080 cards tomorrow I will not spend 1 cent for the debacle that is FE.