AMD Radeon RX 460 Review: Polaris On A Budget

Name: Radeon RX 460
Brand: Radeon

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, August 08, 2016, 09:00 AM EDT

Performance Summary: The ASUS Radeon RX 460 ROG STRIX card we tested performed about on par with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950. The cards traded victories in a few benchmarks and finished right on top of each other in a few others. Generally speaking, the Radeon RX 460 offers up roughly half the performance of the higher-end Radeon RX 480 (give or take a few percent), which isn't a surprise considering the Polaris 11 GPU has less than half the resources of the Polaris 10.

The Radeon RX 460 is relatively power friendly too. Although performance was similar to a GTX 950, the Radeon RX 460 consumed the least amount of power under both idle and load conditions.

The ASUS Radeon RX 460 ROG STRIX -- Find It At Amazon

If you typically lust after the latest and greatest flagship GPUs and highest-resolution displays, the Radeon RX 460 probably isn't your cup of tea. But for the large number of PC gamers on tight budgets looking for an entry-level graphics card, the Radeon RX 460 may be worthy of consideration.

Suggested pricing for the Radeon RX 460 will be in the $109 range, and AMD expects cards to be on store shelves today, which makes the RX 460 the most affordable, current-generation GPU available. NVIDIA doesn't have a budget Pascal-based chip available just yet and the Radeon RX 460 offers similar performance, more features, and better power characteristics than the GeForce GTX 950, for less money. It's not going to break any benchmark records, but the Radeon RX 460 is a compelling option at its relatively low-price point.


Affordable Power Friendly Compact Design Support For Latest Features and Display Technology	On Par With Year-Old GTX 950 In Terms Of Performance

Tags: AMD, graphics, GPU, polaris, radeon rx 460

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com