Earlier this year, AMD released its Radeon RX 480. With the high-end mainstream covered, it's time for more affordable options to roll out.
Keeping with a predictable naming scheme, the RX 460 looks to provide an option for people who need a step up from integrated graphics, but don't need to drive multiple high-defintion monitors at high frame rates. It will be available with 2 GB or 4 GB of VRAM (on a 128-bit bus width), and aims to have a stingy power budget of less than 75 watts.
Stepping up to the next level, the RX 470 enables a little more headroom with its 120 watt power budget, wider memory bus (shared with the 480, 256 bits wide), and more available VRAM (4 or 8 GB).
Both feature GDDR5 memory, with that in the 460 clocked at 1750 MHz, and the 470 nudged down to 1650 MHz. The 460 (with its narrow bus but slightly higher clock rate) can push a respectable 112 GB/s throughput, while the 470's memory configuration allows for 211 GB/s throughput. Combined with the larger amount of memory, this clearly makes the 470 more capable of shuffling more textures around, allowing higher resolutions without as much reliance of system RAM (reducing the potential for a bottleneck.)
In terms of raw power, the 460 uses its 14 computer units and 896 stream processors to net around 2.2 TFLOPs of peak performance. The 470 steps up, with its 32 computer units and 2048 stream processors yielding up to 4.9 TFLOPs of computing power. The products share a similar boost frequency of 1200 MHz, with the 460 clocked a little higher at its base speed to help make up for the reduced hardware set (1090 MHz to the 470's 926 MHz). This setup allows the 470 to make full use of its memory subsystem, and allows for greater number crunching prowess when the GPU is used for general-purpose applications (encoding/transcoding, ray tracing, and the like), though these cards are squarely aimed at gamers (who will appreciate the FPS boost).
The RX 460 and RX 470, sitting on a similar Polaris platform to the RX 480, should be released August 8th (460) and August 4th (470). Regional availability has not been announced, but likely depends on the OEM partners to decide where they want to launch the products first. For the U.S., the 460 is expected to slot in between $99 and $119, while the 470 is expected to be between $149 and $179 to slot in below the 480's $200 price point.
