AMD Unveils Radeon RX 480, A VR-Ready GPU Priced At $199

Launching June 29. 

4

During AMD's Computex 2016 keynote, the company made several striking announcements, namely the fact that its newest Polaris architecture-based card, the Radeon RX 480, is releasing this June.

The RX 480 is touted as being VR-ready and will retail for $199, delivering desktop-class virtual reality experiences for a fraction of what it will cost ot purchase the necessary equipment. In a market where graphics cards routinely cost hundreds, this appears to be AMD's bid to jumpstart the market for VR with a card that's absolutely capable of the power needed to ensure setups like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift require.

The official specs as provided by AMD are as follows:

TFLOPS: > 5
CUs: 36
Memory Bandwidth: 256 GB/s
Data Rate (Effective): 8 Gbps
Memory Size: 4/8 GB GDDR5
Memory Bit-rate: 256-bit
Power: 150 W
VR Premium: Yes
AMD FreeSync™: Yes
Display Port: 1.3/1.4 HDR

As the June 29 release date wears ever closer, it's expected AMD will eke out additional information about the card itself, but it's good news for PC gaming enthusiasts and anyone looking to enter the VR sphere without the deep pockets it previously required. 

Senior Editor

Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, Brittany is a Senior Editor at Shacknews who thrives on surrealism and ultraviolence. Follow her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake and check out her portfolio for more. Like a fabulous shooter once said, get psyched!

From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 31, 2016 8:14 PM

    Brittany Vincent posted a new article, AMD Unveils Radeon RX 480, A VR-Ready GPU Priced At $199

    • reply
      May 31, 2016 8:20 PM

      Wha....how? I'm guessing this will run VR stuff at the barest minimum of settings? I'll be interested in seeing some footage of the card in action, at least.

      • reply
        May 31, 2016 8:28 PM

        at those Gflops and Ram, this has to be the super entry-level card.

      • reply
        May 31, 2016 9:30 PM

        It's actually faster than the current minimum gpus, remains to be seen by how much

      • reply
        May 31, 2016 11:31 PM

        [deleted]

    • reply
      May 31, 2016 11:01 PM

      I'm no expert by any means, but my understanding is that for VR the time it takes from user input (like moving ones head) to photons reaching the eye is crucial. Wouldn't that make latency an important spec in any VR ready gpu?

      • reply
        May 31, 2016 11:25 PM

        Latency depends on a lot of things, though, like your PC configuration and headset.

Hello, Meet Lola