The AMD Radeon RX 480 Preview: Polaris Makes Its Mainstream Mark
by Ryan Smith on June 29, 2016 9:00 AM ESTGaming Performance, Continued
While AMD’s launch drivers for the RX 480 have by and large been stable, the one outlier here has been Grand Theft Auto V. In the current drivers there is an issue that appears to affect the game’s built-in benchmark on GCN 1.1 and later cards, causing stuttering, reduced performance, and in the case of the 380X, complete crashes. AMD has told me that they’ve discovered the issue as well and will be issuing a fixed driver, but it was not ready in time for the review.
Continuing our look at gaming performance, it’s becoming increasingly clear that RX 480 trends closely to the last generation Radeon R9 390 and the GeForce GTX 970. Given their architectural similarity, in a lot of ways this is a repeat of 390 vs 970 in general; the two cards are sometimes equal, and sometimes far apart. But in the end, on average, they are close together on our 2016 benchmark suite.
For mainstream video card users, this means that last year’s enthusiast-level performance has come down to mainstream prices.
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FriendlyUser - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
I don't think nVidia wants to compete on price. They'll probably present something equivalent or even marginally (5%) better so that they can "win" then sell it at a significantly higher price point. The price range from $239 to the $400+ of the 1070 has no next-generation products. I'm guessing something will quickly populate the $300-320 price point. Could be wrong, but would make more sense than going to $150.cocochanel - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
I doubt Nvidia can match this card. If they come up with one, they'll have to sell it at a loss.sonicmerlin - Friday, July 1, 2016 - link
You think Nvidia can't match their 2 year old 970 with 2 node jumps?Sushisamurai - Friday, July 1, 2016 - link
Thats a good point, I don't think they'll be able to match it, as there's a large R&D cost for developing a new chip and board on process jumps. The fact AMD can recuperate those costs @$200/240 is pretty nutsQuestor - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
Amazing thought comparison to a card that doesn't exist yet. You must be in touch with your inner god.HollyDOL - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
Well, maybe if you actually read what I wrote before you started seeing red, you would notice word LIKELY :praazman - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
Don't worry, it's coming.fuicharles - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
Provided there is stock available.HollyDOL - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
hehe, touche :-)dragonsqrrl - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
I doubt the 1060 will "have it for breakfast", but based on these results I now have little doubt that a card based on a fully enabled GP106 will be performance competitive with the RX480. Rumors and leaks prior to launch suggested that RX480 would trade blows with the 390X, which made me think the 1060 would probably perform a step below it.