Why is the AMD rx 480 cheaper than even a 390x

[jimmyEatWord]

does that mean that a cpu like AMD's 9590 wil still be more expensive than the upcoming zen processor ?! cause i've been thinking of getting one

 

[iam2thecrowe]

the 390x is probably slightly faster than the 480. I just recently bought a r9 390 for $70 less than i can get either a 390x or a 480 for. As soon as the 480 populates the market, the 3xx series cards will drop in price as they become clearance items. Who knows how expensive the zen processors will be, it will depend on their performance. If their performance matches the 9590 you can expect they will also be priced similarly.

Generally no one buys the 9590 though as it's just an OC'd 8350, and it requires water cooling, capable psu and a capable motherboard, making the total cost of ownership much more than just the dollar value of the cpu. It pretty much makes it more expensive than the intel i5, which comes with an adequate cooler, can be used with a cheap motherboard and lower end psu, and is still much faster for gaming among other things.

 

[Biscuit42]

Node change!

At 14 nm, you can simply fit more GPU's on an 8" wafer in the fab, compared to the 28 nm the R9 390X chip is manufactured on. More chips for the same raw materials means lower cost per chip.

It also means you can run them at a higher clock speed and lower power. The RX 480 uses about 80 - 120 watts less than the R9 390 for very nearly the same performance.