Our inaugural episode of Close to the Metal kicks of with big news — a full review of AMD’s new Radeon RX 480 video card.
As the first hardware based on the new Polaris architecture, and AMD’s first new GPU of 2016, the card faces steep expectations. AMD has generally fallen behind its main competitor, Nvidia, in the last few years. The recent Nvidia GTX 1070 and 1080 saw widespread praise despite high pricing and limited availability.
The red team wants to use that to its advantage. The RX 480 starts at $200 with 4GB of GDDR5 memory, with an optional upgrade to 8GB quoated at $240. This positions the card at the “sweet spot” for gaming hardware. According to the Steam hardware survey, the vast majority of gamers are unwilling to buy cards priced much beyond the $200 price point.
Of course, Nvidia already has a well regarded video card at that price point. The GTX 960. Can AMD defeat it to take the throne of budget gaming? And if so, are there any downsides that might annoy gamers enough to keep them with team green? We’ll discuss all that, and more, as we give the AMD Radeon RX 480 the works.
This podcast features Matt Smith, Brad Bourque and Greg Nibler.
Close to the Metal is a podcast from Digital Trends that focuses on the geekier side of life. It tackles the topics PC enthusiasts argue over in language everyone can understand. Please subscribe, share, and send your questions to [email protected]. We broadcast the show live on YouTube every Wednesday at 1pm EST/10am PST.
Related Posts
The best scary podcasts to keep you up all night
This award-winning anthology of short original horror stories is now in its 18th season, with over 500 episodes to listen to. Each episode has a haunting, atmospheric soundtrack that ensures you're truly immersed in the tale. Be warned, though -- as the name suggests, this is definitely not a podcast to listen to in bed unless you plan on staying awake all night. Apple Podcasts Stitcher
Spotify looks to lure podcasters, listeners away from Apple with polls, Q&As
If you're a podcast creator, polls and Q&As give you a free way to increase your engagement with your audience. Normally, a listener has few ways to directly interact with their favorite podcasts, given that most platforms like Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts are essentially no more than a way to find, subscribe to, and play podcast episodes. With Spotify's new tools, podcasts become interactive, with polls and the ability to ask listeners questions, right on the episode page.
Apple’s Podcasts+ subscription service makes debut at Spring Loaded event
The premium Podcasts+ service will launch in May with several new shows only available to Podcasts+ subscribers. Along with receiving additional curation options and recommendations for subscribers in the redesigned app via Channels, Podcasts+ subscribers will also enjoy ad-free listening settings, early access to certain shows, and more, yet-to-be-announced features.