HTC Vive deal throws in a free RX 480 for those needing a GPU upgrade

We all know that virtual reality is an expensive endeavor on the PC, not just because the headsets are expensive, but if your graphics card isn’t up to scratch, an upgrade is another major outlay – although Newegg has an offer on the HTC Vive which removes the latter sting in the tail.

In a ‘limited offer’ for the next six days, the retailer is selling the HTC Vive at its standard retail price of $799, but you get a VR-capable graphics card bundled for free – AMD’s Radeon RX 480.

The exact model on offer is the Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 G1 Gaming with 4GB of on-board RAM, which normally retails at $200 (although the card itself is currently on offer at $185 on Newegg).

Cool customer

Gigabyte’s card boasts a Windforce cooling system with twin 90mm fans featuring a unique fan blade design that promises improved airflow, along with three copper heat-pipes designed to be in direct contact with the GPU as much as possible, again for better cooling.

The graphics card also has an LED indicator to show the fan status (how fast they’re spinning), and you get customizable RGB lighting for those who like a bit of glitz in their gaming rig.

In our review of the RX 480, we concluded that the video card offered a truly compelling mix of price and performance, and praised AMD’s board for running smooth and quiet.

Via: Digital Trends

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).