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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milkod2001 - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
In theory yes, in practice no. Always get one strong GPU rather than 2 crappy ones even if you save yourself a few bucks. It's not worth it.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
It's obnoxiously poor writing to use the word tease six times between the title and three paragraphs.It's like you're trying to annoy readers.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
"AMD Teases FutureAMD is still attending E3 to tease
AMD is very briefly teasing
AMD previously teased
the RX 470 and RX 460 are even more brief teases
so this is a true teaser"
All in barely three paragraphs.
stardude82 - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
Can I pleez haz low profile, single slot, <25W card with HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.4?TheinsanegamerN - Friday, June 17, 2016 - link
No.draizze - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - link
They should also add some teaser about Vega, that'll make them like they didn't give up the high end market.Chris A. - Wednesday, June 15, 2016 - link
I feel that AMD have a trick up their sleeve. I wouldn't have thought that 980/390/380/290/280 or above owners are going to buy the RX series. People like myself, who still owns and runs a 7850, are very interested. I'm an aging gamer, I still enjoy games when I get time but spending any silly money on a GPU is just not sensible. I will most likely buy myself one and be more than happy with the improvement.For the owners of the cards mentioned above, some will no doubt stump up the cash for the 1070/1080 but I think AMD are waiting and I suspect that it is GDDR that is making that decision. I'm not going to be bothered if AMD suddenly release a faster card as the RX series is good enough. The next tier shouldn't be disappointed either as they won't have spent any money on a new card.
Since Lisa has noted that this is the entire family RX480/470/460, is there going to be a 5 series before Vega? or is Vega a lot closer than we realise?
Beararam - Thursday, June 16, 2016 - link
You know what this article isn't? A 1080 review.kyrios - Thursday, June 16, 2016 - link
If only Nvidia have desire to release GTX 1060, Rx 480 will die instantly.And GT 1050, Rx 470 will have zero-to-little sale. C'mon.. statistic will not lie. Take a look at Amzon or oldegg GPU sale.
Why do they help AMD to survive? Or maybe coz this mid-to-low end cards has few profit?
Sell some patents to Intel so Nvidia will have REAL competitor? In swap, Intell will give some patents to change Ironing FX into Real CPU? Huh?
stardude82 - Thursday, June 16, 2016 - link
By the time Nvidia gets around to releasing the GTX 1060, Vega will have launched. Yeah, giving up the meatiest part of the market segment for 4-5 months isn't a great plan.On the other hand, the very low end sucks right now. It's dominated by crummy Kepler cards (GT 710, 730, 740) and AMD isn't worth mentioning. The only thing interesting is the low wattage GTX 950 which is probably only a match for the RX 460. I personally have lots of demand for small, low wattage cards that can push 4K @ 60Hz video.