Polaris 10 benchmarks...

[atakall]

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).

 

[renderstate]

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.

 

[mohit9206]

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.

Watch those same people currently saying 4gb is not enough change their mind when Nvidia releases 3gb GTX1060 as the cheaper model.

"+$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"

But we don't know for sure whether it will be only $30 difference.If its $30 then it's no brainer to get the 8gb but if its $50 then will have to think twice.

 

[nkdesistyle]

So why is Nvidia far bigger if AMD has constantly had better price/performance cards?

I have seen you literally thread crap other sites and you keep staying ignorant and keep bringing up the same argument that amd released a card that doesn't compete with 1070. This card will start a 200, what is it about that you don't get? Seriously have you not heard amd is starting off with mainstream and will be building up to high end and then enthusiast cards? Or you are ignoring that as well. Buy nvidia and be happy, there are choices for a reason or wait a few months for vega. Can't make it any more simpler than that.

 

[atakall]

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.

That's very possible and a great observation. OTOH, the OEMs could segment the consumer base by offering the 470 for the mass of those purchases and forcing those that are more interested "maximizing the tier" to purchase the highest priced item (the 480 8gb).

You actually see a lot of that now among PC OEMs and their pricing. Try shopping for a middle of the road Dell XPS 13 or 15 (their ultra thin notebooks aimed at the mid to upper tier market). They make it impossible to just go mid-tier among those products on some things and not the others. You either go low-tier or they make you pay a significant jump for the top tier of every component. The purpose is to force those that a sensitive as to what they really want (e.g., 1 or 2 of the superior options) to pay for it all. Just a slight twist to making the user that wants the highest end of the mid-tier cards to fork over just a tad more for the 480 (8gb) then they really should have to (offering 4gb). For those less sensitive, they'll offer the 470.

Unfortunately, AMD doesn't break out the figures such that we'll ever know. A wide sampling of OEM offerings, however, could provide some solid evidence. Ultimately, it could go either way or both ways (OEMs may take different approaches). We shall see.

 

[atakall]

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.

Most consumers will agree with your perspective (as do I, personally). And, I'm banking AMD will supply accordingly. If there are shortages, I bet they are among the 4gb cards. Not likely due to demand, but supply. 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. At least the consumers will be getting something out of it (as opposed to the Nvidia FE offering where consumers get less for more).

 

[3DVagabond]

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.

There are going to be 3 price levels. There's the $200 4gig (good), the $230, or more, 8 gig (better), and there will be the "up to $300" (best).

Then there is going to likely be the +$300 premium models like the Lightning, Atomic (maybe?), Black Edition, etc... These are another marketing strategy separate from the strategy you are pointing out.

Thanks for taking the time to research and explain it. I understand the concept but I'm not a teacher, by neither vocation or skill.

This is actually the best thought out launch strategy from AMD in many years. Rather than their typical "release it and let it land where it may" strategy they've been doing for a long time now. They have successfully avoided the dreaded head to head price war as well. Instead they have a product that will simply stand on it's own merit of performance and value.

 

[Ranulf]

Heh, shades of the GTX 960 debates last year, just in reverse.

 

[Qwertilot]

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.

iirc that's already been confirmed as happening - at least the 4GB ones are launching behind the 8gb model.


Elsewhere - I don't think they're launching soon enough to really avoid a price war, as the 1060 will roll up soon enough. Whether NV will actually bother with a price war is another matter.

In all honesty, factor in the modest premium NV command and these prices look like they're basically where you'd expect them to be vs the 1070, and so 1060.

 

[sirmo]

iirc that's already been confirmed as happening - at least the 4GB ones are launching behind the 8gb model.

Care to provide a source? I've heard the opposite is why I am asking.