Architecture Overview
GCN 4.0, commonly called Polaris, launched in 2016 on a 14nm FinFET process and powered the Radeon RX 400 and RX 500 series. The jump to 14nm delivered a substantial improvement in performance per watt over the 28nm GCN generations. The RX 480 and its successor the RX 570 / RX 580 became some of AMD's best-selling discrete GPUs, dominating the mainstream segment and remaining in production for several years.
Quick Facts
- Architecture name
- GCN 4.0 (Polaris)
- Launch era / years active
- 2016 to 2019
- Predecessor
- GCN 3.0 (Fiji)
- Successor
- GCN 5.0 (Vega)
- Process nodes
- 14nm FinFET (GloFo / Samsung)
- Important chips
- Polaris 10 (RX 480 / 580), Polaris 11 (RX 470 / 570 / 560), Polaris 12 (RX 550), Polaris 20 (RX 590)
- Memory technologies
- GDDR5, GDDR5X (RX 590)
- CUDA / RT / Tensor generation
- GCN 4.0 Stream Processors; DirectX 12 (FL 12_0); Vulkan 1.0; OpenCL 2.0; Display Engine 1.2 (HDMI 2.0b, DP 1.3/1.4)
- Consumer series
- Radeon RX 480, RX 470, RX 460, RX 590, RX 580, RX 570, RX 560, RX 550
- Workstation / professional series
- Radeon PRO WX 5100, WX 4100, WX 3100
- Data center series
- (Minimal; compute focus remained on Vega/GCN 5.0)
- Source review status
- Source review complete for primary consumer product line.
What this architecture changed
14nm FinFET: first AMD discrete GPU on a sub-28nm process, enabling significantly lower power consumption at equivalent performance versus GCN 2.0/3.0.
Primary target was the mainstream market (RX 480 priced at $200 USD at launch).
DirectX 12 feature level 12_0 and Vulkan 1.0.
HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4 support.
Premier support for AMD FreeSync (Adaptive Sync) at mainstream price points.
Why it mattered
Polaris was AMD's most commercially successful GCN generation. The RX 570 and RX 580 remained competitive and actively sold for years after launch, appearing in budget builds and refurbished markets well into the RDNA era. The generation also became popular for GPU mining during the 2017 cryptocurrency boom, leading to widespread secondary market availability of well-used cards that are common in collector and budget-build contexts.
Related GPUs
Popular GPU entries
| GPU | Architecture | Launch Date | Shader Processors | Memory | Bus Width | TDP/TBP | Segment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radeon RX 470D | GCN 4.0 | 2016-10-21 | 1,792 | 4 GB GDDR5 | 256-bit | 120 W | Gaming |
| Radeon RX 460 | GCN 4.0 | 2016-08-08 | 896 | 2 GB GDDR5 | 128-bit | 75 W | Gaming |
| Radeon RX 470 | GCN 4.0 | 2016-08-04 | 2,048 | 4 GB GDDR5 | 256-bit | 120 W | Gaming |
| Radeon RX 480 | GCN 4.0 | 2016-06-29 | 2,304 | 8 GB GDDR5 | 256-bit | 150 W | Gaming |
| Radeon RX 550X Mobile | GCN 4.0 | 2018-04-11 | 640 | 2 GB GDDR5 | 64-bit | 50 W | Mobile |
| Radeon Pro WX 3200 | GCN 4.0 | 2019-07-02 | 640 | 4 GB GDDR5 | 128-bit | 65 W | Workstation |
| Radeon 540 Mobile | GCN 4.0 | 2019-03-26 | 512 | 2 GB GDDR5 | 64-bit | 50 W | Mobile |
| Radeon Pro 570X | GCN 4.0 | 2019-03-18 | 1,792 | 4 GB GDDR5 | 256-bit | 150 W | Workstation |
| Radeon Pro 575X | GCN 4.0 | 2019-03-18 | 2,048 | 4 GB GDDR5 | 256-bit | 150 W | Workstation |
| Radeon Pro 580X | GCN 4.0 | 2019-03-18 | 2,304 | 8 GB GDDR5 | 256-bit | 185 W | Workstation |