While Nvidia has already rolled out it’s latest graphic card refresh with the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, AMD doesn’t seem to be taking the releases lightly. In fact, AMD has a trick up their sleeves with their upcoming RX 480. And while the upcoming card isn’t as powerful as the GTX 1080, AMD has claimed that the RX 480 will bring VR ready performance to anyone looking to get onboard with VR, as well as a more wallet-pleasing price. Set to launch as soon as June 29, 2016, the AMD RX 480 will have a retail price point of just $199 for the 4GB version and $229 if you want to move up to an 8GB version.
For just $199, you’re coming in just under the power of the discontinued GTX 980, but just over the AMD R9 390X video cards. For that price, you could pick up two cards and put them in a Crossfire configuration and get more power than the GTX 1080 for a fraction of the cost. And while we don’t have any official benchmarks or what I rather see some real-world performance charts, there have been benchmark scores released from the popular video card website, VideoCardz.com
Time will tell if the AMD claims hold true, but if they do then the RX 480 is more than likely going to fly off the store shelves. That price combined with that power is just what the mid-ranged gamers are looking for and I’m sure their wallets and purses won’t mind that too much either. As someone who hasn’t owned an AMD card in quite some time (the last AMD card I owned was when it was called ATI) I’m hoping that the RX 480 can help get AMD back into the video card game. Sure, they have cards that sell but the majority of the graphics card market is dominated by Nvidia cards.
We’ve reached out to AMD to see if we can get a review sample, so we can put it through the paces. if that’s unsuccessful, we’ll brave the online and local stores to find an RX 480 of our own. Either way, expect a review on June 29, 2016, or shortly afterwards.