Very nice post! You should post more and lurk less.
Thank you. I hold your posts in the same regard. Thank you for your substantial contributions (along with Russiansensations and many others).
Very nice post! You should post more and lurk less.
Watch those same people currently saying 4gb is not enough change their mind when Nvidia releases 3gb GTX1060 as the cheaper model.Seriously guys, it was only up to 6 months ago that many people thought the 2GB 960 was fine for mainstream 1080p gaming.
Suddenly 4GB RX 480 is not enough? Don't be silly. That low resolution does not stress the frame buffer.
If gamers are on 1440p (and especially 4K), I would shell out extra for 8GB for sure, for 2-3 years future proofing. But 1080p is mainstream resolution, with many budget gamers running below that even (steam survey).
One thing that's certain though, we've seen it with Mirror's Edge.. NV's plan to phase out their older stuff will focus on VRAM. So if they sponsor the PC port, expect to see a special "Hyper" mode that's designed to eat up your vram & destroy performance for next to zero visual gains.
As long as gamers are fine running at normal Ultra settings, 4GB for 1080 will be great for the next few years.
"+$30 for a PC component that has a expected 2 year lifespan is too expensive you know, but hey let's talk about that $5 latte I buy every morning"
So why is Nvidia far bigger if AMD has constantly had better price/performance cards?
Many folks are over-thinking the 4GB versus 8GB Polaris 480.
As several have stated (including drunkenmaster on other forums) the 4GB 480 is a very attractive option for OEMS like Dell, HP, etc who offer pre-packaged PCs for the non-enthusiast crowd. The $30 they (OEMs) save by going with the 4GB card saves them on the overall price of the PC, leaving the 8GB 480 as a possible upgrade option.
There will conceivably be MANY of the 4GB 480 cards sold in these OEM PC builds.
Putting down $30 extra for an investment that is supposed to last 2+ years is a no brainer. Whether games effectively use 8GB now is irrelevant as they will use more and more memory.
Although the "decoy pricing" technique frequently involves 3 pricing tiers (as discussed in article above), it can equally be applied here, where there are only two tiers but the prices between the tiers versus the perceived benefits are minimal.
In fact, it would be smart of AMD to limit supply of 4gb cards early in order to force those who want to buy the new line sooner than later to pony up for the 8gb version.
Care to provide a source? I've heard the opposite is why I am asking.iirc that's already been confirmed as happening - at least the 4GB ones are launching behind the 8gb model.