AMD has finally launched the driver to fix the Power Consumption problems, and PCPer has done a quick test

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-RX-480-Power-Consumption-Concerns-Fixed-1671-Driver

In summary, power consumption is the same, but the PCI-e problem has been solved. And performance hasn't changed.

So AMD's new nomenclature consists in replacing the "X2" brand with a higher rank? I don't see it.

More sites have tested AMD's new driver, and it also brings performance improvements in some games:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-480-polaris-power-fix,4668.html

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10477/amd-posts-radeon-1671-drivers-fixes-power-consumption-issues

http://hexus.net/tech/news/graphics/94330-amd-radeon-software-crimson-1671-released-benchmarked/

By the way, This is the MSI Radeon RX 480 GAMING X 8GB: http://videocardz.com/62026/msi-radeon-rx-480-gaming-x-8gb-pictured

But if you're into watercooling, Aqua Computer has shown its RX 480 waterblock

http://videocardz.com/62036/aqua-computer-intros-kryographics-water-block-for-radeon-rx-480

And there's an installation video too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov2RTBpzYak

The listing of the card is one thing, the rumor about it being a dual GPU card is another.

The RX 490 will come, we all know it, so it's understandable that not only AMD but also its partners prepare its sites and marketing plans for their launch. But that doesn't give the dual GPU rumor any more credibility.

Now, what can the 490 be? I have no idea, but I hope it's not a dual GPU solution.

Power consumption and games that don't work with Xfire are the biggest problems.

For those interested, TechPowerUp did a RX 480 Crossfire review https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480_CrossFire/

Videocardz has put an article with some of the custom RX 480 cards that will launch. I have to say that I'm disappointed, I was expecting that at least one of them would work on a "mini" 480.

http://videocardz.com/62059/asus-msi-gigabyte-powercolor-and-sapphire-custom-radeon-rx-480-pictured

Both the MSI Gaming X and the Gigabyte G1 will have a passive mode.

The 490 could either be an Aggressively binned Polaris 10 with a clock of 1.5Ghz or more or Vega 10 or 11.
Vega 11 could be the chip with 3000+ Shaders with Vega 10 having substantially more.

Polaris 10 would be a good fit for an X2 card.

The following is not about the RX 480 but its smaller siblings: the RX 470 & 460.

AMD Radeon RX 470 and Radeon RX 460 Reference Cards Pictured

http://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-rx-470-rx-460-reference-models/#ixzz4E7xlEjwy

AMD will be launching more Polaris cards in a couple of weeks which will be aimed at the mainstream market. These will include the Radeon RX 470 and Radeon RX 460 which will feature a starting price of $149 US and $99 US respectively.

AMD Radeon RX 470 Graphics Card

The AMD Radeon RX 470 features the same Polaris 10 GPU featured on the RX 480. The only difference is that it is a bit cut down which means it houses lower amount of compute units. The graphics chip on the RX 470 has a total of 32 compute units which total to 2048 stream processors. These processors are clocked at 1206 MHz and feature 5.0 TFLOPs of compute performance. The rated TDP for the Radeon RX 470 at stock clocks is 110W that makes it 40W lower than the full Polaris 10 chip.

The Radeon RX 470 is targeted at the sub-$150 market hence it is only offered in 4 GB GDDR5 variants. The card features the same 256-bit bus but the memory is clocked at a lower speed of 7.00 GHz (effective) which outputs 224 GB/s bandwidth. This is enough to feed the card. The card requires a single 6-Pin power connector to boot and features a reference cooler and PCB design which is very similar to the Radeon RX 480.

AMD Radeon RX 460 Graphics Card

The AMD Polaris 11 GPU will be featured inside the Radeon RX 460 graphics card which is a $100 US product aimed at the esports market where MOBA titles are very popular. The Polaris 11 GPU features 16 CUs which means it has 1024 stream processors. This chip is capable of delivering more than 2 TFLOPs of compute (FP32) performance. The card will be available with 2 GB GDDR5 memory, featuring a 128-bit memory bus interface.

The card will feature a TDP of less than 75W which means it will be powered via the PCI-Express bus and won’t need an external power connector. The card features a really small PCB and has a cooler design similar to the Radeon R9 Nano which looks compact and premium for a $99 card. The graphics card will launch close to August.

The RX 470 benches will be interesting to see because the R9 380X, with a Tonga/GCN 1.2 design, also features 2048 SPs, so a direct comparison between both cards will show us the architectural improvements from one gen to the other.

As the article says, the reference 460 won't have any power connector, taking all its power from the PCIe slot. I'd say that, if the card is a success, we'll see not only single slot variants, but also passively cooled ones.

As for the 470, I already said in my post that I'm looking forward its reviews to see how it compares to the 380X. After all, if the 480 offers (more or less) the performance of the 390, the 470 should end up being closer to 380X performance... and that's not good as that chip has the same SPs.

Of course, the 470 could end performing between the 380X and 390 chips, but that could make the 4GB 480 card pretty much useless (which may, or may not be AMD's plan from the very beginning).

Could also be compared to Tahiti as well.

This is what I want out of the 460, low profile, passively cooled for HTPC's and slim-line machines. I'll even buy a couple.

Probably when the new production process will be better refined, and firmware and drivers too, increasing power efficiency, AMD will be able to increase RX 470 performances a little, and RX 480 a little more, to differentiate them more from each other and also to deliver a more significant increase from previous generation.

About the 460, I expect from it the same, and more, like being used together with Zen CPU architecture to make APUs a lot more powerful than now, but still keeping power consumption within reasonable limit.

About drivers, AMD (but NVidia too with SLI) should work  to make CrossFire drivers more transparent, and allow game devs to use it as if the multiple GPUs were just a single, more powerful GPU, possibly requiring them to write specific code only if they want to go at a lower level and push the limits higher, but this should be considered necessary only for the most graphics-whorish titles. Surely mid-range CrossFire and SLI solutions, like using multiple cheap GPUs, or the most basic Hybrid CrossFire scheme, adding a single discrete GPU to an onboard or APU one, not being extreme configs shouldn't require specific coding to be used in games (and othe graphics SW).