Not to jump to conclusions about how good/bad Polaris actually is or to be too pessimistic, but according to these specs, AMD is releasing three cards soon, the RX 480, 470 and 460, now,
- RX 480 was targeted for VR gaming and 1440p gaming, okay, that's realistic and makes good sense, though they could also target 1080p 144 Hz with that card too.
- RX 470 was supposed to be targeted for 1080p gaming, that's also realistic and makes good sense.
Already, we have a problem, where the RX 460 targets:
- RX 460 being for MOBAs/ESports
First off, that's extremely vague, not really a good idea of how much power is really needed at all. Imagine saying a GPU is ready for FPS games, like you can really compare TF2 (which runs fine on Intel HD 4400) and something like Battlefield 1 (making up examples). If they refer to less demanding titles of that genre, those less demanding games should be a non-issue for newer integrated graphics, so the RX 460 is already extreme for that.
That's not my main complaint though about the GPUs so far, so far, my complaint is the same as my complaints about the GTX 980 and the 970 cutdown and GTX 960 and GTX 950 cutdown, AMD's RX 460 is MASSIVELY cut down from the RX 470, less than half the performance AMD claims. That was a huge disappointment for anyone with such a tight budget and kills the purpose of getting an RX 460 AT ALL unless saving up that extra $50 is that hard.
For the lower VRAM models, the RX 480 costs $200 and the RX 470 costs $150, the RX 480 tiering a GTX 980/Fury Nano sounded very impressive right? It did, until the RX 470 was said to be near the R9 390's performance, which doesn't put it very far behind for $50 cheaper, so whether the $50 is worth it or not is up to you. BUTT, the RX 460 is also $50 cheaper, you think that the GPU would compare to like an R9 380 based on the other comparisons or even go near it, right? NOPE, it compares to an R7 270X, which isn't a substantial boost like the higher end cards, the higher end cards go up TWO TIERS, and this one only goes up ONE? Now, let's be clear on this, AMD's reasoning for this I ASSUME for cutting down the RX 470 is that they were trying SO HARD to archive low power consumption that they disregarded the performance, which essentially kills off it's appeal and value for almost any purpose other than making really small computers (we are talking like those barebone PCs level of small, cause ITX is do-able with any of the Polaris GPUs.
What's worse is that if we compare the same VRAM GPUs (4 GB RX 470 to 4 GB RX 460), the price difference is only $20, it's the same situation as NVidia's 950 and 960 but worse.
http://wccftech.com/radeon-rx-470-crossfire-3dmark-11-benchmarks/
Conclusion: The RX 460 is NOT worth it if all of this comes to reality. Save $50 and get an RX 470, that MAYBE the best Price/Performer Polaris has to offer. The RX 460 isn't worth it, unless you plan to crossfire it with a Zen APU.