Released Today: Radeon RX480 from AMD

Breaking Records Not Banks

AMD's brand new Polaris architecture graphics technology sports boosts in efficiency, performance, value -- especially with VR.

AMD aims to hit breakthrough pricing with the Radeon RX480 - starting at only $199, it meets the demands of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

HardOCP's crowns the RX480 as the new king of 1080p gaming and calls it a "giant generational leap from its R9 380X predecessor".

The Tech Report proves the RX480's performance to be on a par with Nvidia's more expensive GTX 970, boasting that "a performance jump like this hasn't happened around this price point for a long, long time, and it's quite welcome."

AnandTech's advises to spend an extra $40 for the Radeon RX480 with 8GB of VRAM.

The RX480 reference card by AMD is based on a standard 'blower' design and come in 4GB GDDR5, and a more expensive 8GB VRAM varieties.

If you go for the more future-proofed 8GB version, you get more bandwidth: 8gbps vs the 7gbps thats 's the lower capacity card.

Core clocks remain the same on both models though.

Later stock from manufactures like MSI and EVGA will more than likely offer an upgraded design and cooling system - over the stander blower that has emphasis on noise suppression over reduced thermals.

With architecture based on the new Polaris 10 graphics core, this lineup is the first 14nm FinFET product produced by AMD, featuring 36 compute units in total.

Tech Specs

Architecture: GCN 4th Generation
Shaders: 2304
Compute Units: 36
Base Clock: 1120MHz
Boost Clock: 1266MHz
Peak Performance: Up to 5.8TFLOPs
VRAM: 4GB or 8GB GDDR5
Memory Clock: 7gbps or 8gbps (4GB and 8GB models respectively)
Memory Bandwidth: 224 or 256GB/s (4GB and 8GB models respectively)
Process: 14nm FinFET
Connectors: 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI 2.0
Power Connector: 1x 6-pin
TDP: 150W

Until Nvidia's Pascal GTX 1060 clashes with team red later this year, AMD definitely packs a punch with their new RX480, delivering performance at an otherwise unchallengeable price.

Comments

vRAM - 4 GB vs 2 GB

Get much for an extra $50? Take the NVidia GTX 960, for example. This mid-range card offers 2 GB and 4 GB versions, respectively -- at about a $50 discrepancy between the two cards. That being what the cost of a whole new game, for some, this makes the world of difference. GTA V A memory-hungry game to the fullest; where the more vRAM, the better. That is, the 970's 3.5 GB is just about the bare minimum, to run this game at max, 60 FPS. The 960's 4 GB are not fully taken advantage of on the lower GM206 Maxwell architecture. Therefore any additional vRAM here would be best for a more constant frame rate, with less dips and stutters between lowest and highest framerate. While this can be easily rectified with vSync enabled - you do get about 3-5 FPS higher on the four GB model of the GTX 960. You can enable far more advanced graphics options in GTA V with 4 or more GB of vRAM - namely ancillary settings like higher population density, depth of view,

Review of the Alienware Graphics Amplifier

Laptop VS Desktop? Have both. What is a "graphics amplifier"? In essence an external GPU you can plug right into your system. Many companies have tried to release these onto the market, but sadly many haven't gotten past announcement phase. Users either resort to painstakingly building custom external graphics cards with components purchased all over the web or simply tossing aside their laptop and building a $10000 gaming PC for their graphics power needs. Both are acceptable, but Alienware and Razor (or any other company to announce one aain) give you another option: a mini-tower outfitted with a build-in PSU and cooling fan for your graphics power needs. Easier and More Flexible Wouldn't it be great to bring your laptop to work, coming back to your home office 2 hours later and gaming away as if it were that $10000 desktop? What a versatile workstation! No stray red, black and yellow cables sticking out of a shoebox or melted GPUs.

EA Play 2017 Announcements

EA Play 2017 Madden NFL 18 EA's presser kicked off with a Madden 18 trailer showing off its new Longshot campaign mode. Alongside FIFA 18 and the newly-refreshed NBA LIVE 18 , this looks to be a step in the right direction for the Madden NFL franchise - especially, in the last decade. Watch the trailer Battlefield 1 - Expansion Battlefield 1 now has eight new maps, within its 'In the Name of the Tsar' expansion. This boasts new vehicles, weapons, the addition of a women's battalion and interestingly a new gameplay mode based off of player feedback, was teased. More about that will shared in August, at Gamescom. FIFA 18 The official trailer for FIFA 18 was shown, alongside a video of Cristiano Ronaldo performing motion capture. EA announced the return of Alex Hunter in the campaign mode. A Nintendo Switch version will also be released, although a 'lesser product' than the mainstream next-gen release. Watch the trailer Need for Speed

Prissy Little Chloe

Search This Blog