AMD Teases Future Radeon RX 470 & Radeon RX 460 Cards
by Ryan Smith on June 13, 2016 3:30 PM EST
With the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo once again upon us, this week has been a flood of gaming hardware and software news. On the PC front, AMD is once again sponsoring PC Gamer’s PC Gaming Show, and while the company isn’t making quite as large of a presence this year – having just announced a bunch of tech at Computex – AMD is still attending E3 to tease a bit of hardware. Announced in a press release that’s going out at the same time as the PC Gaming Show starts, AMD is very briefly teasing the next two Polaris-based Radeon cards: the Radeon RX 470 and the Radeon RX 460.
AMD previously teased the Radeon RX 480 back at Computex, and with that card not shipping until the end of this month, the RX 470 and RX 460 are even more brief teases, essentially amounting to AMD confirming that they will exist.
As you can assume from the numbers, the RX 470 and RX 460 will slot in below the $199 RX 480. AMD’s press release specifically notes that the RX 470 is a “refined, power-efficient HD gaming” card. Whereas the RX 460 is a “a cool and efficient solution for the ultimate e-sports gaming experience.” These are no further details such as performance, specifications, or pricing, so this is a true teaser in every sense of the word.
Based on their admittedly short descriptions, it sounds like the RX 470 and RX 460 will slot in to very similar positions as the R7 370 and R7 360 respectively, as these are the same markets AMD pitched those cards at. This would make the RX 470 a budget 1080p card, while RX 460 is pitched specifically at MOBA players and the like, as those games have relatively low system requirements. Lower-end cards of this nature have also proven very popular in China, where MOBAs are especially popular and the pricing is better aligned with what most consumers can afford.
For what it’s worth, those cards launched at $149 and $109 respectively, so that may give us a ballpark idea of what to expect. Note that AMD only has two Polaris chips – the larger Polaris 10 and the smaller Polaris 11 – so it’s not clear how AMD may split these up. Historically, Radeon x60 cards have been based on chips that have been prevalent in smaller, mid-performance laptops.
On that note there’s one last passage from AMD’s press release I want to point out. In reiterating their talking point about bringing “console-like” performance to thin and light laptops, AMD’s release mentions that Polaris offers “exceptionally low power and low-z height.” Like everything else, no further details are provided, but I don’t suspect this is the last we’ve heard of this point. Having seen a very early Polaris 11 last December it’s definitely a small chip, and it sounds like AMD focused not just on package size, but thickness as well. Z-height is not something I’ve previously paid attention to, so I’m not immediately sure how thick AMD’s last-generation chips were, or whether this has been much of a problem on a competitive basis.
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rhysiam - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
Vega is still officially pegged for release in 2017. The rumours of the October release are pretty questionable IMHO. To top it off, we know very little about the performance of Vega. Even if it does beat a 1080, Nvidia still have the GP100 (which we do know quite a bit about) sitting (well!) above the GP104 GPU in a 1080.I personally like the RX 480 play from AMD and hope it helps their market share and bank balance... we consumers need AMD to stay competitive. But suggesting AMD will somehow dominate Nvidia across the board this round is pretty far fetched.
fanofanand - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
Trying to use the GP100 to compete against Vega would put Nvidia in a bad spot, because they couldn't be price competitive. GP100 is Nvidia's $1500+ chip, and if they have to use that to compete against Vega they will be in a whole lot of trouble.Ashcutus - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
AMD have said repeatedly for months that they are changing the way they are releasing their new series by focusing on the "sweet spot" gaming segment. The announcement that the RX480 will be $200 for the 4gb version and a little bit more for 8gb means the end user will be getting 390(x) performance for roughly half the price and half the power.That is great news to the vast majority of PC gamers who are still on 1080p/60Hz monitors and would like to play these newer AAA games with high/ultra settings at a price point that will not break the bank.
Another thing to note is there is a high-end part coming - Vega - which will look to take on the 1080 and/or 1080ti should there be one. This tech is basically ready, but is reliant on HBM2 which is not being produced in the quantities required (one can also look at the 1080 being released with GDDR5X - I'm sure nVidia would love to have a HBM2 card out, and this will probably be the Ti version in 2017).
Shadow7037932 - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
This is Polaris. It's not AMD's high end architecture.MLSCrow - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
TROLLfanofanand - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
How was that being a troll? Making accurate statements is now considered being a troll? GTFOKenLuskin - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
@Wreckage84% of GPUs sold are in the range of $100 to $300... but MORONS like you canNOT understand that AMD is running a business.
MORONS like you only care about yourself.
so. FUCK YOU MORON!
BTW, AMD will bring out GPUs that CRUSH Nvidia at the high end later on when they combine VEGA with HBM2 late this year or early 2017.
SUCK on that MORON!
beast6228 - Friday, June 17, 2016 - link
I'll bet that the GTX 1060 will beat their 980 and will completely destroy the RX 480 and will do it for close to the same price. It's not looking good for AMD right now, I think they have wasted their time in the GPU world. They should have stayed in Germany and did their CPU research which is when they were on top of the processor game. I know not everyone is made of money, but I am glad that Intel still sells some quality, affordable products, I just wish Nvidia could lower their prices about 50% to get more people back in the gaming world, which would help the entire computer industry.Creig - Friday, June 17, 2016 - link
The only thing we all saw coming, Wreckage/Prime1, was you showing up to troll an AMD article.Eden-K121D - Monday, June 13, 2016 - link
RX 470 will make for a brilliant 1080P card purchase