AMD's Polaris architecture is shaping up and the AMD RX 480 benefits from the transition from the 28nm generation to the GlobalFoundries 14nm FinFET process. Polaris’s power efficiency has been significantly increased, along with the overall performance/resource efficiency as well.

The mainstream RX 480 offers a 40-60% performance gains compared to the previous generation cards, such as the Nvidia GTX 960 or the Radeon R9 380X.

The RX 480 will give you some extra power compared to the popular GTX 970, and is similarly ahead of AMD’s own Radeon R9 390. Do not expect AMD's new $190 card to enter the performance territory of the GTX 1070, which is almost 50% faster, but also costs more than 65% more.

In terms of power consumption, the AMD card is efficient enough, offering Hawaii-like performance at around half of the power. However, compared to the GTX 970, the power consumption is not as low as we would expect, at least in specific game benchmarks.

AMD and its partners are offering two different memory capacities of the RX 480 - with 4GB and 8GB onboard. The larger version will cost you some $40 more, but we believe the extra expense is worthy, since a 8GB RX 480 will be a more future-proof choice for you, espacially if you’re planning to play at 1440p or to use the RX 480 for VR.

AMD’s RX480 is here to shake up the mainstream market, and redefines what’s possible at affordable price points. n the other hand, there are no doubts that Nvidia has a GeForce GTX 1060 brewing, so stay tuned.