Though some were hoping AMD might show a hypothetical RX 490 card during E3’s PC Gaming Show, that proved not to be the case. Instead, the lower-end cards branded as the RX 470 and RX 460 were … not exactly detailed, but confirmed to exist.
The RX 480 was revealed at Computex at the end of May, with a price point of $200.00 USD (probably for the 4GB version, with the 8GB at something like $230.00 USD) and some vague suggestions about specs. Leaked performance benchmarks have suggested the 480 will get close to Nvidia’s GTX 980, and may even approach the new 1070 when overclocked. However, it’s hard to say with the benchmarks unconfirmed.
Like the RX 480, the 470 and 460 will go on sale 29 June. This announcement was severely lacking in anything resembling performance benchmarks or technical details, so besides the assumption that 470/460 will be cheaper and lower powered than the 480, there’s not a whole lot to go on. AMD chief executive Lisa Su suggested that the 460 would be good for “esports”, which didn’t really make things any clearer. It presumably means the capability to play not-so-graphically-demanding titles like DOTA 2 or League of Legends.
Nothing was said about the 470 at all, but if it sits between ‘can run DOTA 2 pretty well’ (460) and ‘might be as good as a 980’ (480) that puts us in the rough idea of a solid 1080p card, I suppose.
Su confirmed that this completes the ‘Polaris’ line for AMD, which means any prospective 490 card will be under the ‘Vega’ heading, and therefore not due to be shown for some time yet. That’s ceding a lot of high-end ground to Nvidia, so AMD are banking on the 480 and below to appeal to more mainstream, budget-conscious players.
