guskline, you think a dual 480 card (lets call it say, a 490) would be a promising card in AMDs lineup if at $499?
Short answer is no and here's why. You can get a high end GTX1070 for less.
I've been playing around with my CF RX 480s and they are fun but have drawbacks. They use more power than GTX1070/1080. They don't have full game CF profile support (it is better than it used to be)
First some background. I've used GTX 670s in SLI, R9 290s in CF and now RX480s in CF. I have a bit of experience in this area. The RX480s in CF are the smoothest combo and draw much less power than the R9 290s but more power than a nearly comparable GTX1070.
That being said, AMD seems to not have Vega ready to go prime time. Perhaps a lack of HBM2? Interposer problems? Or perhaps Dr. Su wants
total focus on ZEN.
The GTX1080TI is most likely ready to go and BIG Vega is most likely the only AMD chip to compete.
The 470/480 Polaris is a solid chip and dual Polaris chips would make a compelling card but at $499? A bit too high.
I have 2 RX480s in CF and it only cost me $488. If the RX490 was a dual Polaris and released at $399 that might be a different story.
There are some cost savings to dual gpu chips on a single pcb but I doubt you would get much more performance than CF 480s. It would have a better cooler (would need to) and a more robust pcb but the overall card performance would probably not beat a GTX 1080.
I gave some real thought to the correct price for a RX490 if it is really dual RX 480s. One of the downsides is it is a single card. I can sell one of my RX480s at anytime or both if Big Vega come on board. I see RX490 as a niche card with VERY limited demand UNLESS it is a dual small Vega gpu. Now, if the RX490 was 2 small Vega chips in tandem, that is a MUCH different story.