I have never been so excited about any other graphics card launch. Looks like the AMD’s new Polaris graphic cards are going to be a game changer, provided they are priced right in India.
Update 30th June: The AMD RX 480 has finally launched in India at ₹29,000 for the 8GB version. It’s overpriced, given the price in USA is only $229(₹17,000 approx.). It beats the purpose of budget graphics card.
Update 8th July: AMD has reduced the price of RX 480 by ₹2,000.
Update 9th July: With NVIDIA having announced GTX 1060 for $250 or 22,999 in India, it will interesting to see how it will perform against RX 480 which has been priced at 26,999. It’s performance is said to be above GTX 980.
Update 17th July: The leaked NVDIA GeForce GTX 1060 benchmarks show that it performs toe to toe with RX 480. Given the pricing in India is considerably lesser than that of RX 480 and lower power consumption, it will be the best choice for the gamers.
Update 28th August: ZOTAC GTX 1060 Mini 3GB has been priced at ₹24,000. While the performance might be great, the 3GB of VRAM will be a bottleneck in most upcoming games. Best Budget gamers wait for RX 460 cards.
According to reports, the 4GB and 8GB version of RX 480 will be priced at $199(₹13,500 approx.) and $229(₹15,500) respectively for reference cards. If reports are to be believed, it can run GTA V at 1440p Very High settings 60 FPS and Witcher 3 at 1080p Ultra settings 60-70 FPS. These benchmarks are on a PC with Intel i5-6400 6th Gen Processor. With VR gaining popularity, the fact that RX 480 will be VR capable makes it a perfect contender for gamers who want a future-proof graphics card. A graphic card with performance in line with R9 390(₹40,000), for such low price is certainly unbelievable.
The RX 470 reference model is expected to be priced around $149(₹10,000 approx.) and $179(₹12,000 approx.) for 4GB and 8GB versions respectively. Considering the leaked 3D Mark score it’s performance is going to in line with R9 380X which is priced at $250(₹17,000 approx.). If the leaked scores are true then we have a winner in our hands. It’s truly going to shake the budget segment. The OEM designs like Asus Strix will probably cost around ₹2,000 higher than the reference. It will be great for a under 40K-50K 1080p gaming build when paired up with Intel Pentium G4400 or i3-6100.
According to AMD , the RX 460 is a “cool and efficient solution for the ultimate e-sports gaming experience”. It’s mainly aimed at gamers who play games like DOTA 2, Counter Strike Global Offensive, etc. With an expected price of $99(₹6,700 approx.) for 2GB and $129(₹8,700) for 4GB version it will be best for the lower-end gaming PC. It scores half of that of RX 470 in 3D Mark benchmark. This is nothing to smirk at. You will be still able to run new games at 1080p with decent settings which was hard to imagine few years back.
While the prices in US looks promising, finally it all depends on how they are priced in India. For example, the Asus Strix NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB was priced at $230(including tax) in US which approx. is ₹15,500 at launch. However, in India it’s launch price was ₹19,000. That’s ₹4,500 difference in price which is unreasonable. While it was called “the best budget graphics” card in US, in India it doesn’t even come close to what “budget” stands for. Hopefully same doesn’t happen in case of these new graphic cards.
For more updates like my Facebook page here.
ANM678
Unleash Your Laptop 