AMD Polaris Thread: Radeon RX 480, RX 470 & RX 460 launching June 29th

[Sweepr]

- May 31

Radeon RX 480: Launching June 29th For $199+

First off, the RX 480 will include 36 CUs. If we assume 64 stream processors to a CU – the GCN standard – then this brings us to 2304 SPs. AMD has not named the specific Polaris GPU being used here, but given the CU count I believe it’s reasonable to assume that this is a Polaris 10 SKU, as I’ve already seen Polaris 11 and it’s a very small chip better suited for notebooks. AMD also revealed that the card would offer over 5 TFLOPs of compute performance. Given what we know about the CU count, this allows us to estimate the GPU clockspeed. This puts the lower bound of the GPU clockspeed at 1.08GHz and an upper bound (6 TFLOPs) at 1.3GHz, which would be in the range of 10-30% higher clocked than comparable Radeon 300 series cards.

In terms of raw numbers this puts the RX 480 just shy of the current Radeon R9 390. However it also doesn’t take into account the fact that one of the major focuses for Polaris will be in improving architectural efficiency. I would certainly expect that even at the lower end of clockspeed estimates, RX 480 could pull ahead of the R9 390, in which case we’re looking at a part that would deliver performance between the R9 390 and R9 390X, with final clockspeeds and architectural efficiency settling just how close to R9 390X the new card gets.

http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y303/martmail55/amd-rx-480-polaris-4-900x506_zps4b4zs5ql.jpg

On the memory front the card is equipped with 8Gbps GDDR5, running along a 256-bit memory bus. This is the typical bus width for AMD x80-series cards, and the high clocked 8Gbps GDDR5 means that we’re looking at a total of 256GB/sec of memory bandwidth to feed the RX 480’s GPU. AMD’s partners will be offering both 4GB and 8GB cards, and for the purposes of this teaser I assume that pricing information will be for the 4GB card, with 8GB serving as a premium option. Cementing its place as a mainstream card, the RX 480 pricing will start at $199. Finally, AMD has also revealed the TDP for the RX 480, stating that it will be a 150W card.

www.anandtech.com/show/10389/amd-teases-radeon-rx-480-launching-june-29th-for-199

Polaris: NDA ends on June 29th

Above you can see the NDA paper that reviewers are told to sign as they arrive. The date expires on 29th June, which many of you will find strange. However this is exactly what we were expecting. Official ‘hard launch’ of Polaris GPUs was planned for early July. This date indicated that on Wendensday June 29th we might be seeing first reviews of Polaris graphics cards. At worst this would mean AMD will allow reviewers to release more information about Polaris architecture, however since this is almost a month after June 1st event, then actual GPU reviews are more likely to be the case.

Finally, now that they’ve revealed the price and much of the specifications of their first Polaris card, AMD is also releasing more details on their overall development and market positioning strategy with Polaris. As AMD has hinted at in the past, Polaris is being specifically developed for and aimed at the mainstream market.

http://videocardz.com/60373/amd-polaris-tech-day-nda-ends-on-june-29th

No Computex/E3 launch. Hopefully there will be availability no later than July.

AMD Radeon RX 480 specifications leaked

http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y303/martmail55/AMD-Radeon-RX-480-Specifications_zpsxk1qo9z7.jpg

http://videocardz.com/60752/amd-radeon-rx-480-specifications-leaked


- June 13: PC Gaming Show 2016 @ E3 2016

AMD's E3 2016 PC Gaming Show Live Stream (11:30 AM Pacific)

Watch it live here:
https://www.twitch.tv/pcgamer
https://gaming.youtube.com/pcgamer

AMD Announces 470 and 460 along with 480 launching June 29th

The products include the Radeon RX 480 graphics card, which can run virtual reality on a PC for prices starting at $200 for a four-gigabyte version. AMD is also showing the Radeon RX 470 and the Radeon RX 460 cards. They go on sale on June 29.

The performance will also be the equivalent of “console class” performance, meaning that many games that currently run on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One could theoretically run on these chips on the PC, if someone ported them over. The PCs using these chips would have low power and compact form factors. AMD said it could run such games at 60 frames a second at 1080p HD resolutions.

AMD chief executive Lisa Su showed off the chips at an event at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles today.

“Gamers and consumers today are being left behind,” said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group at AMD, in a statement. “Today only the top 16 percent of PC users can afford GPUs that deliver premium VR and gaming experiences. Hundreds of millions of gamers have been relegated to using outdated technology. Notebook gamers are often forced to compromise. And tens of millions more can only read about incredible PC VR experiences that they can’t enjoy for themselves. That all changes with the Radeon RX Series, placing compelling and advanced high-end gaming and VR technologies within reach of everyone.”

AMD said the RX 480 can run VR on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets. It supports DirectX 12 and Vulkan graphics standards, enabling high-end graphics effects. The Radeon RX series supports new monitor technologies and supports HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.3/1.4 standards. It has accelerated h.265 encoding and decoding for better video streaming at 4K resolutions at 60 frames per second.

http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/13/a...w-cost-polaris-graphics-chips-that-can-run-vr

Looks like RX 480 is full P10, RX 470 the cut down version and RX 460 is Polaris 11 for desktops.

AMD unveils Radeon RX 470 and RX 460 Polaris graphics cards

Radeon RX 470 (Lisa Su's right hand), Radeon RX 460 (left hand)

LOS ANGELES—AMD has unveiled two new graphics cards based on its latest Polaris architecture, the RX 470 and the RX 460. The company says the RX 470 is ideal for 1080p, 60FPS full HD gaming, while the RX 460 is for e-sports players looking for a small low-power graphics card (just 75W) that offers high frame rates in games like Overwatch and League of Legends.

AMD didn't go into technical details on either card, but it's a good bet that the RX 470 will feature a slimmer version of the chip inside the RX 480, a mid-range graphics card designed for VR and 1440p gaming that's due out on June 29. AMD hasn't priced either the RX 470 or RX 460, or announced a release date, but given that the RX 480 is set to retail for $199 (for a 4GB version), they'll likely be light on the wallet.

AMD's didn't go into further details on the Polaris architecture behind the two new graphics cards either, but we do know that Polaris is new 14nm FinFET manufacturing process that's allowing AMD to shrink down its GCN architecture to a far more efficient level. Polaris isn't designed to take on the likes of Nvidia's GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, and is instead aimed at the mainstream, with the top-of-the-range RX 480 offering VR-ready performance. The RX 480 will feature 36 compute units, along with some fast GDDR5 memory attached to a 256-bit memory bus for 256GB/s of bandwidth.

Going after a mainstream audience is potentially a very smart move for AMD. It has struggled to compete with Nvidia at the high-end of the market, despite some decent efforts in the form of the R9 Fury range. Be reaching volume at cheaper price points, the company can hope to claw back some of the market share it has lost to Nvidia, which has traditionally not fared so well at lower price points.

http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/06/amd-rx-470-460-specs-pricing-release-date


- June 15:

AMD confirms Polaris 10 and Polaris 11 specifications

It is now confirmed that Polaris 10 has 36 Compute Units (2304 Stream Processors), while it’s slower brother features 16 CUs (1024 Stream Processors). Smaller Polaris chip is also confirmed to feature 128-bit memory bus.

AMD claims that Polaris architecture has 2.8 times the performance per Watt compared to older architecture (unspecified which arc).

http://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2016/06/AMD-Radeon-RX-400-Polaris-8-900x506.jpg

http://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2016/06/AMD-Radeon-RX-400-Polaris-1-900x506.jpg

http://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2016/06/AMD-Radeon-RX-400-Polaris-5-900x506.jpg

www.computerbase.de/2016-06/amd-radeon-rx-480-vr-benchmark

A Bit More on AMD’s Polaris GPUs: 36 & 16 CUs

First and foremost, AMD’s presentation included a slide with pictures of the two chips, and confirmation on their full configurations. The larger Polaris 10 is a 36 CU (2304 SP) chip, meaning that the forthcoming Radeon RX 480 video card is using a fully enabled chip. Meanwhile the smaller Polaris 11 (note that these pictures aren’t necessarily to scale) packs 16 CUs (1024 SPs). This puts it a bit below Pitcairn (20 CUs) before factoring in GCN 4’s higher efficiency. Meanwhile as is common for these lower-power GPUs, AMD’s slide also confirms that it features a 128-bit memory bus.

AMD is expecting Polaris 11 to offer over 2 TFLOPs of performance. Assuming a very liberal range of 2.0 to 2.5 TFLOPs for possible shipping products, this would put clockspeeds of a high-end Polaris 11 part at between 975MHz and 1220MHz, which is similar to our projections for RX 480/Polaris 10. Note that AMD has not yet announced any specific product using Polaris 11, however as we now know that RX 470 is a Polaris 10 based card, it’s safe to assume that RX 460 is Polaris 11, and the over-2 TFLOPs projection is for that card.

www.anandtech.com/show/10424/a-bit-more-on-amds-polaris-gpus-36-16-cus


- June 28:

Radeon RX 480 Architecture Presentation

http://videocardz.com/61557/rajas-super-secret-cigar-stash


- June 29th

Radeon RX 480 Reviews

- Performance

- Power Consumption

- Performance per Watt

- Performance per Dollar

Guru3D
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-radeon-r9-rx-480-8gb-review,1.html

Gamespot:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/amd-radeon-rx-480-review/1100-6441354

Legit Reviews:
http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-rx-480-video-card-review-polaris-arrives_183428

TechPowerUp:
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/

TechPowerUp - Crossfire:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480_CrossFire/

TweakTown:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/77...card-review-starting-rebellion-199/index.html

PCWorld:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3089...-whats-possible-with-a-200-graphics-card.html

HotHardware:
http://hothardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-480-polaris-gpu-review-hitting-the-sweet-spot

PC Perspective:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-RX-480-Review-Polaris-Promise

Tech Report:
http://techreport.com/review/30328/amd-radeon-rx-480-graphics-card-reviewed

Tweakers:
https://tweakers.net/productreview/136089/amd-radeon-rx-480-8gb.html

Digital Foundry 1080p:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTku-GqDSWg

Digital Foundry 1440p:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5YrKM-M7pQ

Engadget:
https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/29/amds-radeon-rx-480-is-the-new-king-of-budget-video-cards

ArsTechnica:
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/06/amd-rx-480-polaris-review

AnandTech:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10446/the-amd-radeon-rx-480-preview

Eurogamer:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-amd-radeon-rx-480-review

bit-tech: h
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2016/06/29/amd-radeon-rx-480-8gb-review/1

Hardware Canucks:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...2889-radeon-rx480-8gb-performance-review.html

Tom's Hardware:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-480-polaris-10,4616.html

HardOCP:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/06/29/amd_radeon_rx_480_video_card_review#.V3PKevkrKUk

ComputerBase:
https://www.computerbase.de/2016-06/radeon-rx-480-test/5/#diagramm-f1-2015-2560-1440

Techspot:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1198-amd-radeon-rx-480/

PCGamesHardware.de
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/AMD-Radeon-Grafikkarte-255597/Specials/RX-480-Test-1199839/2

 

[showb1z]

We know.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38250674&postcount=173

 

[ShintaiDK]

I guess that puts a Polaris launch into July or later. The question begins to be, what launches first. Polaris or GP106.

 

[ZZZAAA]

Wait I'm confused. Does this mean it is set in stone that at best, Polaris will be sold about month from today?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Wait I'm confused. Does this mean it is set in stone that at best, Polaris will be sold about month from today?

Yes. It would be odd for a NDA to expire after people can buy it in stores. I would guess mid July as the early part.

 

[Sweepr]

I guess that puts a Polaris launch into July or later. The question begins to be, what launches first. Polaris or GP106.

At this point GP106 might not be far behind. In fact we're already hearing the first rumours about the chip.

 

[ZZZAAA]

If AMD is pitting the Polaris 10 against the gp106, does that mean there are two versions of the Vega GPU planned, 10 and 11? No Fury this time?

 

[ShintaiDK]

If AMD is pitting the Polaris 10 against the gp106, does that mean there are two versions of the Vega GPU planned, 10 and 11? No Fury this time?

Fury is just the name of a card line. The chip you refer to I guess is Fiji.

It depends what Vega 10 and 11 is exactly. Vega 10 could be a FP64 enabled version of Vega 11. But that's something we have to see in 2017.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

I have a hard time believing AMD would miss both Computex AND E3 with their Polaris launch only to release it two weeks later. I understand the product is not meant for retail customers and OEMs don't need flashy reveals, but it makes little sense to skip on the publicity.

 

[sm625]

I have a hard time believing AMD would miss both Computex AND E3 with their Polaris launch only to release it two weeks later. I understand the product is not meant for retail customers and OEMs don't need flashy reveals, but it makes little sense to skip on the publicity.

But this is AMD. I cant find the post, but someone asked what I meant by "given the state of AMD", this is what I meant. They do things that are just so... well, stupid. They are literally handing Nvidia a 20% boost to 1070 sales by not answering right away. Sure they might be different price brackets, but there is some overlap just from pent-up demand. Potential R9-480X buyers will buy a 1070 just because its the only option.

 

[Qwertilot]

Isn't this sort of problem - there has surely been an unplanned delay by this stage! - more likely to be GF than AMD? Similar ultimate results of course
(And OK, had AMD enough cash flow to do it they could use Samsung as a back up fab instead or some such.).

It isn't the extra 1070 sales that'll hurt that much, its more the missed x months of taking a free swing without GP105/6 around.

 

[sze5003]

That sucks was hoping to hear something sooner. I need to update my card but don't really want to wait until July since I also want to throw in other components.

 

[Noctifer616]

Isn't this sort of problem - there has surely been an unplanned delay by this stage!

What delay? The official word from AMD ways always in time for "back to school" and mid year. End of June is exactly mid year.

Sure, rumors suggested earlier release, but those were just that, rumors.

 

[ZZZAAA]

Fury is just the name of a card line. The chip you refer to I guess is Fiji.

Why is everyone trying to correct me? Fiji is the chip and Fury is the end product. What was WRONG with what I said?

 

[raghu78]

But this is AMD. I cant find the post, but someone asked what I meant by "given the state of AMD", this is what I meant. They do things that are just so... well, stupid. They are literally handing Nvidia a 20% boost to 1070 sales by not answering right away. Sure they might be different price brackets, but there is some overlap just from pent-up demand. Potential R9-480X buyers will buy a 1070 just because its the only option.

There is no problem in launching at a certain date. What AMD needs to have is a solid product with excellent product volume at launch and a steep ramp in supply in the weeks/months following launch. People naively believe that the bulk of a product's lifetime sales is sold at launch. But thats definitely not the case. These GPUs are going to be around for atleast 2 years. In fact given both 16FF+ and 14LPP are relatively new nodes it will be quite a bit of time (1-2 quarters) before 16FF+ / 14LPP GPUs make up the majority of GPU sales volume at Nvidia/AMD.

 

[Krteq]

But this is AMD. I cant find the post, but someone asked what I meant by "given the state of AMD", this is what I meant. They do things that are just so... well, stupid. They are literally handing Nvidia a 20% boost to 1070 sales by not answering right away. Sure they might be different price brackets, but there is some overlap just from pent-up demand. Potential R9-480X buyers will buy a 1070 just because its the only option.

Hmm, GTX 1070 will be introduced on 10th June with product availability in the end of June, so it's a tactical move from AMD I guess.

Anyway, Polaris launch isn't delayed at all.

 

[Sweepr]

Hmm, GTX 1070 will be introduced on 10th June with product availability in the end of June

Source?

 

[zlatan]

I have a hard time believing AMD would miss both Computex AND E3 with their Polaris launch only to release it two weeks later. I understand the product is not meant for retail customers and OEMs don't need flashy reveals, but it makes little sense to skip on the publicity.

You can believe it. A lot of journalist just didn't know what was the original plan, and they write a lot of bullshit about the release date.
The fact is AMD decided to preview Polaris on the E3 PC Gaming Show, and this was back in february. They just stick themselves to the plan, because they invited a lot of high ranked game developer and they simply unable to move this show to the Computex.

 

[tential]

But this is AMD. I cant find the post, but someone asked what I meant by "given the state of AMD", this is what I meant. They do things that are just so... well, stupid. They are literally handing Nvidia a 20% boost to 1070 sales by not answering right away. Sure they might be different price brackets, but there is some overlap just from pent-up demand. Potential R9-480X buyers will buy a 1070 just because its the only option.

It's already a failed launch for amd. Wrap it up. I'm not buying Polaris now.

 

[Krteq]

It's already a failed launch for amd.

What launch? It's known since last year that Polaris will be launched in midyear.

 

[Phynaz]

Another Month Delay

 

[Krteq]

WTF?? What delay?

 

[Noctifer616]

Another Month Delay

You are reading the calendar wrong. End of June is mid year, so on schedule.

 

[MrTeal]

This really isn't that surprising. A Computex launch would have been nice for them, but it would have gone against the guidance they've been giving all year about when Polaris would launch. The big surprise this cycle has been how early nVidia delivered GP104, so while it's understandable people would like AMD to pull in the launch of Polaris it does seem like we're going to end up with at least a month of a single provider of 1xnm GPUs.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of launch Polaris is. With Hawaii, stock was on the shelf when the NDA expired and reviews went up. If the long leadup to Polaris lets them hard launch the product, the <3 week gap between GTX1070 and Polaris might not hurt them too badly.

 

[Silverforce11]

You can believe it. A lot of journalist just didn't know what was the original plan, and they write a lot of bullshit about the release date.
The fact is AMD decided to preview Polaris on the E3 PC Gaming Show, and this was back in february. They just stick themselves to the plan, because they invited a lot of high ranked game developer and they simply unable to move this show to the Computex.

Thanks man, one of the few voices of reason left here.

So sad that people are ignoring what AMD have said since the start of the year. "Hi guys, we're gonna launch mid-year", "just in time for the summer holidays", in-case some even have no idea what that means, they even said "June".

Plan on track = delays?

Do you want them to rush ahead with the release because NV announces something a month ahead of their "launch"? An unhealthy precedent would be set, rushing out products not ready for mass volume and all that.