Official AMD Polaris Review Thread: Radeon RX 480, RX 470, and RX 460

[Sonikku]

Wow, looks tiny. Should be fantastic for an HTPC.

That's how video cards used to be. Back before they had fans. :hmm:

 

[raghu78]

Will a RX 470/60 be faster than a R9 280X? And when will they be available?

http://videocardz.com/62117/amd-confirms-radeon-rx-470-and-rx-460-specifications

Rx 470 will be very close to Rx 480 as its expected to be 2048 sp at 1200 Mhz. Memory is 7 GBps (224 GB/s bandwidth) and ROPs are 32. stock for stock I would say atmost 7-10% slower which would put it on par or slightly behind GTX 970 / R9 290. We saw how close HD 7950 is to HD 7970 and R9 290 to R9 290X at same clocks. So it will be an excellent GPU at USD 149. In fact I think it might very well be the best Polaris GPU for perf/$ and perf/watt.

Rx 460 could get to GTX 950 / R9 270x performance. But it will not be able to match Rx 470 for perf/$.

 

[flash-gordon]

I said that at any price or performance point AMD needs a lot more bandwidth to compete with Nvidia GPUs. Eg: Rx 480 with 256 GB/s bandwidth is still losing to GTX 1060 with 192 GB/s bandwidth which has a smaller die size and 1.3 billion transistors lesser. Nvidia can easily bring other GP106 variants with even lesser bandwidth (say 168 GB/s using 7 Gbps chips) and still beat AMD GPUs like Rx 470 which will have 224 GB/s . AMD's Bill of Materials is always going to be higher than Nvidia as they are far more efficient in terms of perf/transistor, perf/sq mm and perf per GB of bandwidth.

You dont know the price of the wafers from GloFo and TSMC for AMD and nVidia. So you're just speculating.

 

[Magic Carpet]

This is frustrating, guys. The card seems to be either overpriced (i.e. eBay) or not in stock :/

 

[mohit9206]

Will a RX 470/60 be faster than a R9 280X? And when will they be available?

470~ slightly faster than 380X
460~370
Just my prediction.
I know a lot of people say 470 will be within 10-15% of RX480 but with AMD you should always keep your expectations very low because they almost never meet expectations.

 

[zinfamous]

I strongly suspect a memory bottleneck. They tested the 4GB version of the Nitro card, and that has GDDR5 running at only 7Gbps, compared to 8Gbps for the 8GB version. This was easy to fix on the reference 4GB cards, which were just 8GB cards with a different BIOS, but it's likely to be an actual physical change on AIB models. Even during overclocking, they said they were only able to push the memory clock an additional 100 MHz (which would equate to 7.4Gbps effective RAM clock). We could see a few percent extra on the 8GB Nitro, especially if the RAM is also pushed to 9Gbps (which the reference cards can usually do).

I think AMD needs to consider a respin/new stepping of Polaris 10, to increase clocks and bring down power consumption.

Aye, and that's what 485 is supposed to be and already planned on their spec release sheet.

I'm curious about 485/490, and if 490 is actually small Vega and not simply OC 480 w/ dDDR5x and 2x bus? If not the latter, then I feel that those specs in some way will fall onto 485.

What more cna be done with these chips after they have already produced one run that became 480(full Polaris)/470/460? Can they somehow update these Polaris designs so that the full size chip has better power performance, can crank out more clocks w/ more OC headroom or whatever? I wonder if greater performance gain for 485 will mostly come from memory and board design?

 

[IEC]

This is frustrating, guys. The card seems to be either overpriced (i.e. eBay) or not in stock :/

Went in and out of stock 10x yesterday and 3x today already: https://www.nowinstock.net/computers/videocards/amd/rx480/full_history.php

Pretty clear that demand for new FinFET cards is far exceeding available supply. Your best bet is a Microcenter or other B&M retailer near you and make buddies with the stock manager...

Edit: Custom cards dropping next week (mostly 7/29) per Sapphire and a few other AIB partners. We'll see if they have sufficient stock...

The only place that seems to have sufficient stock is the UK, and that's mostly because Gibbo knew the RX 480 would sell like hotcakes:
https://www.nowinstock.net/uk/computers/videocards/amd/rx480/

 

[sze5003]

You can actually order it from UK but the price is hefty. Once you choose US it drops the price to £208 then £24 for shipping but once you go to PayPal it goes up to £249. Converted over that's like $350.

This was before I signed in to PayPal and I'm sure PayPal will have some other fee since it's dealing with pulling your money and converting it over.

 

[AtenRa]

You can actually order it from UK but the price is hefty. Once you choose US it drops the price to £208 then £24 for shipping but once you go to PayPal it goes up to £249. Converted over that's like $350.

This was before I signed in to PayPal and I'm sure PayPal will have some other fee since it's dealing with pulling your money and converting it over.

There is a PowerColor RX480 for 225 UK Pounds, without VAT at 187,49 + 25,67 for delivery to US = 213,16 UK Pounds or ~280 USD.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powe...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-187-pc.html

 

[IntelUser2000]

If you order from UK you might get charged heavy Import taxes upon shipment arrival. If it adds $60-80 on top of that, you might as well buy a Fury or a 1070.

This is frustrating, guys. The card seems to be either overpriced (i.e. eBay) or not in stock :/

Way worse in Canada. It's like the retailers get 10 per shipment. Gets sold in 15 mins. Actually the stock levels aren't even updated.

At some point you have to wonder supply issues. Maybe all the way back to AMD. Those with high yields like Intel you could buy their chips on release day everywhere. That failed with Broadwell and Skylake, coinciding with 14nm issues.

Having to clock it at unoptimal speeds, no availability, staggered releases. Quite a good sign of issues.

When's the 470 coming BTW?

 

[AtenRa]

Ahh if you have import taxes its not worth it to get it from UK.

As for the availability, everyone buying a new GPU wants 14/16nm so there is no way both AMD and NV to have those volumes as of now. Situation for both will be better from September.

No word for the RX 470, and i think AMD doesnt have to rush its release because there is no competition at that price point and RX 480 already volume limited. They prefer to sell all the dies they produce as RX 480 at $200-240 than $150-170 RX 470. We will see RX 460 first in a few days and RX 470 will come later.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

They prefer to sell all the dies they produce as RX 480 at $200-240 than $150-170 RX 470.

That would require perfect yields though.

 

[Abwx]

That would require perfect yields though.

More likely that yields are good enough that there s not much chips that can be harvested for the 470.

Otherwise shops being out of stock is due to limited orders as here in Europe there s no such a scarcity, the stock Sapphire 8GB is even at 250€ here in France despite our 20% VAT.

 

[sirmo]

Aye, and that's what 485 is supposed to be and already planned on their spec release sheet.

I'm curious about 485/490, and if 490 is actually small Vega and not simply OC 480 w/ dDDR5x and 2x bus? If not the latter, then I feel that those specs in some way will fall onto 485.

What more cna be done with these chips after they have already produced one run that became 480(full Polaris)/470/460? Can they somehow update these Polaris designs so that the full size chip has better power performance, can crank out more clocks w/ more OC headroom or whatever? I wonder if greater performance gain for 485 will mostly come from memory and board design?

FinFet respins aren't cheap.. also rx480 is just as efficient as 1060 if not more efficient in Doom (Vulkan). So I don't think they would get much better anyways.

Where GCN is utilized on new games the efficiency is absolutely fine, and in DX11 for most anyone 30 watts extra is not a big deal.

 

[poofyhairguy]

When's the 470 coming BTW?

It's been caught on camera at least:

http://videocardz.com/62511/sapphire-radeon-rx-470-and-rx-460-pictured

Problem is it will probably be $179 not $150 like many here expect. Probably $199 for AIB.

 

[sze5003]

There is a PowerColor RX480 for 225 UK Pounds, without VAT at 187,49 + 25,67 for delivery to US = 213,16 UK Pounds or ~280 USD.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powe...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-187-pc.html

Yea but that's just a reference card. I was talking about those here in the US that didn't want to wait to try and get an 8gb nitro. $280 for a reference 480 is dumb.

 

[AtenRa]

That would require perfect yields though.

Nope, it means they are using every available and capable die that can be qualified as RX 480 and still they dont have the necessary volume to keep up with demand.

They will not sacrifice RX 480 dies to make RX 470 because they dont have to, due to lack of competition and lack of RX 480 volume.

Could also be the reason why AMD using higher voltages, more dies qualify as RX 480

 

[AtenRa]

Yea but that's just a reference card. I was talking about those here in the US that didn't want to wait to try and get an 8gb nitro. $280 for a reference 480 is dumb.

Ahh my bad, didnt understand you were talking about the NITRO.

 

[PhonakV30]

Does Nvidia have any card for RX 470,RX 460?

 

[Hitman928]

Does Nvidia have any card for RX 470,RX 460?

There's been rumors of a 1050 but nothing has been announced that I've seen.

 

[Erithan13]

Does Nvidia have any card for RX 470,RX 460?

Last I heard GTX 1050 coming in December. Maybe that will get pulled forward given the 460 is supposed to be out at the end of this month.

It's interesting since the 1060 was obviously NVs response to the 480 and it's really heated up the competition between the two in that price segment. Meanwhile the response to the 460 is....erm, the $1200 Titan? You wonder if NV really are going to sit back and let AMD have the entire <$200 market to themselves for months. I hope so for the sake of AMD getting some much needed cash and marketshare but I hope not for the sake of competition.

Personally I'm looking forward to seeing the perf/w for the 470 and 460 to see if we can put the brakes on the 'AMD fails again with Polaris!' train.

 

[boozzer]

It's been caught on camera at least:

http://videocardz.com/62511/sapphire-radeon-rx-470-and-rx-460-pictured

Problem is it will probably be $179 not $150 like many here expect. Probably $199 for AIB.

20$ difference between 470 and 480 aib? nah. what is the point of buying 470 then?

 

[trane]

I'm not buying $179. I think it's going to be $159. $179 some OCed AIBs, sure.

 

[mohit9206]

It's been caught on camera at least:

http://videocardz.com/62511/sapphire-radeon-rx-470-and-rx-460-pictured

Problem is it will probably be $179 not $150 like many here expect. Probably $199 for AIB.

What? why? That's stupid. Value proposition will be lost if its not 149.
AMD has been very lazy in the sub 200 bracket since last 2 years. Launching a garbage card like R7 370 for $149 which got thrashed by 950 and R7 360 for $120 which got thrashed by 750Ti. Is AMD ever going to learn?
Are they intentionally trying to lose market share even more or is Lisa Su/Raja Koduri gone insane?
At $200 for AIB 470 why wouldn't anyone spend 25% more and get 30-35% more performance in 1060?
But first someone help me understand the strategy/logic of AMD releasing slower cards than Nvidia at same prices? (r7 360,370).

 

[JDG1980]

Does Nvidia have any card for RX 470,RX 460?

To compete with RX 460, they may simply continue producing the second-generation GTX 950 cards with no PCIe power connector. It will probably fall short in performance by a few percent but it's close enough that some buyers will still purchase it on the strength of the Nvidia brand name.