AMD launches Radeon RX 480 Graphics Card

AMD claimed that the graphics card uses the world’s most advanced graphics technology that will provide an extraordinary value proposition to fans and gamers around the world. 

“Our message to gamers everywhere is that the Radeon RX 480 is every bit as much your card as it is ours,” said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. 

“We designed this technology by listening intently to you, the gamers who have bought and played on our graphics technology for years. We’ve worked tirelessly to produce something that satisfies the most discerning gamer, and delivers the ideal product at an impeccable price. We couldn’t be more grateful for the reception we’ve received from gamers, customers, and technology partners who see what our engineering team has accomplished, and agree that with the Radeon RX Series, gaming and VR is truly #BetterRed.”

AMD said in its press statement that the global PC ecosystem has demonstrated enthusiastic support for the Radeon RX 480 graphics card. OEM and system integrator partners such as Alienware, HP, and Lenovo are praising the Radeon RX 480’s capabilities.  

Game and VR application developers including Bethesda, EA, and Ubisoft and VR headset manufacturers Oculus and HTC are applauding AMD for delivering on the promise of bringing flagship performance and features to the mass market, enabling them to greatly expand the reach of experiences they’re developing, according to the press statement.

Professional and casual gamers alike are also celebrating the launch, with AMD-sponsored eSports teams such as Fnatic and Evil Geniuses hailing the Radeon RX 480 as a triumph for PC gamers everywhere, and prominent video reviewers worldwide affirming the exceptional value of the graphics card across a wide range of games, the statement added.

According to the statement, the Radeon RX 480 card packs an unprecedented amount of gaming and VR goodness into an incredible price point:  

- Premium technology engineered for unprecedented performance in its class – The Radeon RX 480 8GB card features the most advanced graphics and gaming technologies ever seen in a GPU at $239, delivering the best performance/$ in its class. The revolutionary Polaris architecture, optimized for the 14nm FinFET process, drives spectacular improvements in performance and efficiency.  It delivers more than 15 percent more performance per compute unit3, up to 2.8x the performance/Watt over AMD’s Radeon R9 200 series graphics architecture4, and fuels up to 5.8 trillion calculations a second.

- The most affordable solution for premium VR experiences – Starting at SEP $199 USD, the Radeon RX 480 4GB card is the most affordable solution for premium VR experiences, being both Oculus Rift- and SteamVR-Ready.5 Utilizing LiquidVR technologies designed to provide smoother, more comfortable VR experiences, the Radeon RX 480 4GB card lowers the cost barrier to entry for PC VR making it affordable for millions of consumers. 

- Future-proof technologies – The Radeon RX 480 card continues the Radeon tradition of innovation being first to new process nodes, first in memory types and bandwidth, and first to support new gaming APIs. 

AMD said gamers will enjoy the Radeon RX 480 card for a long time to come with a range of “future-proof” benefits including:

- Premium HD gaming in DirectX 12 and Vulkan – The Radeon RX 480 card excels in DirectX 12 and Vulkan, APIs that are powering the future of gaming. Polaris architecture uniquely supports asynchronous compute for superior experiences in games and VR applications using these new APIs, and combined with AMD FreeSync Technology6, gamers can enjoy silky smooth frame rates at 1440p resolution across the most demanding games.

- Next-generation display and video technologies – The Radeon RX 480 card features HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.3 HBR3, and DisplayPort 1.4 HDR supporting the new generation of high-resolution HDR and high-refresh displays enabling experiences such as FreeSync with high-refresh 4K, high refresh UltraWide, and single-cable 5K resolution computing at 60Hz. The Radeon RX 480 features AMD’s most versatile decode accelerator ever, enabling beautiful HDR movies using 10-bit HEVC7 from the likes of Netflix and Amazon, accelerated H.264 video of streamers on Twitch, accelerated VP9 videos on sites like YouTube, and razor-sharp video calling using HEVC and MJPEG in applications like Skype.

- Unprecedented control with Radeon Software and the new Radeon WattMan – Radeon Software complements the sophisticated hardware of the Radeon RX 480 graphics card, enabling the ultimate in performance, features and stability to ensure an exceptionally smooth and fast out-of-box experience, and one that gets better with age as updates roll out.

Launching with the Radeon RX 480 card are nine new features of Radeon Software Crimson Edition designed to give users more control over multi-GPU, display, and power efficiency settings. Radeon WattMan, based on AMD OverDrive technology, enables users to take complete control over the Radeon RX 480 card with a redefined overclocking experience9 and a wide range of features including dynamic GPU frequency and voltage curves that allow users to customize both elements across seven states. 

Radeon WattMan also delivers a new histogram interface that enables recording of per-application data to easily track peak and average activity, clocks, temperature and fan speed.

Radeon RX 480 graphics cards are available from retailers and etailers around the world starting Thursday.

 

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