AMD Shows Off RX 480, Zen Processor, and New APU Line at Computex 2016

AMD’s showing at Computex 2016 was very interesting, to say the least. The hotly anticipated Polaris architecture—Team Red’s response to Nvidia’s next-gen Pascal line—made its debut with the RX 480, a $199 part that promises better performance than a GTX 970 at a substantially lower price-point. While Nvidia’s GTX 1070, set to release on June 10^th, is certainly a great proposition for 4K gaming, statistically, 1080p remains the most popular resolution to game at.

Circa-970 levels of performance means that the RX 480 will be able to push 1080p/60 at Ultra settings in modern titles, an unheard of level of performance in the $200 price-bracket. Interestingly, the RX 480 makes use of the Polaris 10 GPU which will supposedly be featured in the PS4 Neo. AMD also briefly demoed its next-gen “Summit Ridge” processor, on the next-gen Zen architecture. Zen is set to feature a 40 percent leap in IPC (instructions per clock) over Piledriver, meaning that Zen-based CPUs may become a viable alternative to an Intel i5 or i7 for gaming, especially if the price is right.

Also showcased was a complete refresh of AMD’s A-series APU line. AMD’s value-oriented 7^th gen A-series APUs pair entry-level Excavator cores with an on-chip Radeon graphics component.