AMD Polaris 10 release date, specs: RX 480 packs in 1266Mhz, 100W

The AMD Polaris 10-based RX 480 is not yet officially available, but sample models have reached PC partners, which conducted a few tests of the upcoming GPU. The new video graphics card offers a base clock speed of 1080MHz and a boost clock speed of 1266 Mhz. Initial round of tests also revealed that the card consumes 100W of power

WCCFTech reported that the AMD Polaris 10 RX 480 measures over 9 inches long and offers 3 DisplayPort 1.3 and one HDMI 2.0 port for the display outputs. The GPU also comes with a blower style cooling design and comes with all-black aluminum fin array heatsink for heat dissipation.

Based on the test conducted, the RX 480 consumes 100W of energy in normal game settings but can reach up to 150W in higher settings. Power is supplied via a 6-pin PCIe connector though other variants may use a single 8-pin PCIe connector or a dual 6-pin PCIe one.

A 3DMark Firestrike Ultra 1.1 was used to test the performance of the new AMD card, paired with an Intel Core i7 4960X six core Ivy Bridge-E CPU. This combination resulted in a 3,432 graphic score for the 8GB variant and a 3,381 graphic score for the 4GB model.

Last week, a 3DMark 11 Performance 1.0 benchmark result surfaced in the benchmarking app site's database. The actual video card doesn't have a model name, but the Core clock and memory bus clock match the information that AMD has released. Based on the numbers, the RX 480 performed well and good, and can be used for VR applications. It may not be as good as a full-fledged 4K gaming machine, but the price difference between its GPU is huge.

Many tech observers agree that the latest offering by AMD based with the Polaris 10 archcitecture will give several US$500 GPUs a run for their money.

The AMD Polaris-10 based RX 480 4GB is expected to retail at US$199 and US$230 for the 8GB variant. Both cards are scheduled to be available by June 29.