The internet is abound with RX480 reviews today, so after months of waiting we can finally find out what the new Polaris graphics card from AMD is capable of. It turns out that the RX480 is a fantastic card at a really solid price point.
It comes in at $200 for the base, 4GB version, $230 for the 8GB iteration and offers performance somewhere between a GTX 970 and GTX 980. Considering it's a good measure cheaper than both of those cards, that's a solid buy in its own right.
However on top of that, the RX 480 provides a very affordable entry point for those looking to get into virtual reality. If you're already spending $800 on a HTC Vive set up, a couple of hundred extra isn't too monstrous a spend.
Perhaps the best is yet to come though, as AMD cards, especially those using the latest Polaris cores, have been shown to have impressive performance in DirectX12 titles, better in many cases than Nvidia hardware of equivalent power. As more DX12 enabled games come out and take advantage of some of the new features it offers, we could see cards like the RX 480 dominate even more.
If that card doesn't strike your fancy though, there is a RX 470 in the works, which should offer more GTX 970 level performance at a $150ish price point and there's rumors of a RX 490 at some point too, though whether that will be able to stand up to some of Nvidia's higher end cards like the GTX 1070 remains to be seen.
It certainly isn't about to take the performance crown from Nvidia's GTX 1080 any time soon, but AMD's offerings this generation are looking a lot more promising than its last.