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AMD reveals wallet-friendly Radeon RX 500 video card family with RX 580/570 launch

AMD has officially launched its new Radeon RX 500 series of graphics cards that will replace the existing RX 400 Series threesome currently on the market. The new units are based on AMD’s revised Polaris graphics chip architecture, promising slightly better clock speeds in part due to using the latest version of the 14nm FinFET LPP process technology.

As with the older RX 400 Series generation, AMD is addressing the mainstream customer who needs to upgrade an outdated graphics card to support HD gaming and high-quality VR. The cards also target customers relying on integrated graphics components, which don’t meet the minimum requirements for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

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So let’s dive in and check each one out versus the RX 400 Series card they will replace:

Radeon RX 580

RX 580 RX 480
Graphics core: Polaris 20 XTX Polaris 10 XT
Compute units: 36 36
Stream processors: 2,304 2,304
Base speed: 1,257MHz 1,120MHz
Boost speed: 1,340MHz 1,266MHz
Memory: 4GB/8GB GDDR5 4GB/8GB GDDR5
Memory interface: 256-bit 256-bit
Memory bandwidth: 256GB/s 256GB/s
Memory speed: 8GHz 8GHz
Peak performance: Up to 6.17 TFLOPS Up to 5.83 TFLOPS
Maximum power: 180 watts 150 watts
Power connector: 1x 8-pin 1x 6-pin
Target market: Beyond smooth HD gaming Premium VR Experiences
Starting price: $199/$229 $199/$229
Availability: April 18 June 2016

As previously revealed in photos of an engineering sample, the RX 580 is based on an entirely new board design (C940) backed by a new 8-pin power connector. This indicates that the card can be overclocked at the expense of a higher power requirement. Even AMD says that the RX 580 supports “aggressive tuning for higher clocks.”

According to AMD, the RX 580 can crank out 78 frames per second in Doom using a 1440p resolution and “High” settings. The Strix GTX 970 with the same settings can only manage 58 frames per second, while the Radeon R9 380X can only generate 52 frames per second. In other words, the RX 580 is somewhat of a large leap compared to the older GPUs.

Radeon RX 570

RX 570 RX 470
Graphics core: Polaris 20 Pro Polaris 10 Pro
Compute units: 32 32
Stream processors: 2,048 2,048
Base speed: 1,168MHz 926MHz
Boost speed: 1.244MHz 1,206MHz
Memory: 4GB/8GB GDDR5 4GB/8GB GDDR5
Memory interface: 256-bit 256-bit
Memory bandwidth: 224GB/s 224GB/s
Memory speed: 7GHz 7GHz
Peak performance: Up to 5.10 TFLOPS Up to 4.94 TFLOPS
Maximum power: 150 watts 110 watts
Power connector: 1x 6-pin 1x 6-pin
Target market: Max 1080P Gaming High visuals
Starting price: $169/TBA $149/$179
Availability: April 18 June 2016

Circling back to Doom, AMD says that this card manages 92 frames per second with a 1080p resolution and “Ultra” settings. Meanwhile, the EVGA GTX 960 only churns out 59 frames per second and the Radeon R7 370 only does 40 frames per second. The 570 also beats out those two older cards in Resident Evil 7 too, with 103 frames per second versus 68 frames per second and 38 frames per second, respectively.

Radeon RX 560

RX 560 RX 460
Graphics core: Polaris 21 Polaris 11
Compute units: 16 14
Stream processors: 1,024 896
Base speed: 1,175MHz 1,090MHz
Boost speed: 1,275MHz 1,200MHz
Memory: 2GB/4GB GDDR5 2GB/4GB GDDR5
Memory interface: 128-bit 128-bit
Memory bandwidth: 112GB/s 112GB/s
Memory speed: 7GHz 7GHz
Peak performance: Up to 2.93 TFLOPS Up to 2.2 TFLOPS
Maximum power: ? 75 watts
Power connector: 1x 6-pin 1x 6-pin
Target market: Efficient 1080p Gaming Efficient 1080p Gaming
Starting price: $99/unknown $99/$199
Availability: Early May June 2016

Based on AMD’s numbers, this card does rather well in Doom, with 67 frames per second at a 1080p resolution. The GTX 750 Ti manages only 33 frames per second, while the Radeon R7 360 is capable of 35 frames per second.

Radeon RX 550

RX 550
Graphics core: Polaris 12
Compute units: 8
Stream processors: 512
Base speed: Unknown
Boost speed: 1.183MHz
Memory: 2GB/4GB GDDR5
Memory interface: 128-bit
Memory bandwidth: 112GB/s
Target market: 4K Home Theater
Starting price: $79
Availability: May 20

AMD doesn’t provide a Doom benchmark with this card, but does throw out numbers regarding Rocket League and Overwatch. Check out the comparisons:

Overwatch Counter-Strike: GO
Radeon RX 550: 98 FPS 97 FPS
Radeon R7 250: 44 FPS 59 FPS
Intel HD 530: 18 FPS 24 FPS

Finally, here are some of the cards sold by third-party manufacturers based on the new Radeon RX 500 Series family. Remember, models based on the RX 560 and RX 550 won’t hit the market until next month (May):

Asus Gigabyte MSI Sapphire TUL
RX 570
STRIX OC 4GB
($189)
——
RX 580
Aorus OC 8GB
($259)
——
RX 580
Gaming 8G
($245)
——
RX 580
Nitro+ Limited Edition 8GB
($275)
——
RX 580 8GB
Red Devil Golden Sample
($269)
——
RX 570
STRIX 4GB
($179)
RX 580
Aorus 8GB
($229)
——
RX 580
ARMOR 8G
($229)
——
RX 580
Nitro+ 8GB
($249)
——
RX 580 8GB
Red Devil
($249)
——
RX 580
Gaming 8GB
($219)
——
RX 580
ARMOR 4G
($199)
——
RX 580
Pulse 8GB
($229)
——
RX 580 8GB
Red Dragon
($229)
——
RX 580
Aorus 4GB
($199)
——
RX 570
ARMOR 4G
($175)
RX 580
Pulse 4GB
($209)
——
RX 580 4GB
Red Dragon
($199)
——
RX 580
Gaming 4GB
($189)
——
RX 570
Nitro+ 4GB
($199)
——
RX 570 4GB
Red Dragon
($175)
RX 570
Aorus 4GB
($179)
——
RX 570
Pulse 4GB
($169)
RX 570
Gaming 4GB
($169)
Kevin Parrish
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
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