Even though all users are waiting for the new AMD Vega architecture, the red manufacturer today presented the new series AMD RX 500, which is also based on the 14-nanometer Polaris architecture chips that we already saw in the RX 400 series. That is why technical differences are not very significant, but the performance improvement is present. We will know all its details.
AMD RX 580: the top of the range
While the RX 400 series had only three models, the new series RX 500 will feature four models: AMD RX 550, 560, 570 and 580. The most powerful model would be the RX 580 graphic, which will come again in two versions of 4 and 8 GB of VRAM. At the performance level, the card is practically at the level of what a 6GB GTX 1060, competing in the same price segment.
The RX 580 is identical to the RX 480, only the reference design increases the clock frequency 1266 MHz to 1340 MHz. Most manufacturers offer a higher frequency, some even reaching up to 1500 MHz.
The performance improvement is placed, depending on the games and the resolution, in an average of between the 6 and 9% depending on the card model and the resolution with which we play. Due to the overclock that these cards present with respect to the RX 400 series, its consumption is also higher, being of up to 224 watts at maximum load playing vs 167 watts presented by the RX 480. The higher consumption of these cards also means that they need more connectors to the power supply, equipping the models with modified cooling with a total of 14 or 16 pins depending on the manufacturer. The cards have the technology Radeon Chill, which will adapt the performance of the card based on consumption and temperature.
Both the RX 550 and RX 560 will only work when connected to the motherboard’s PCI-E port, without requiring extra connection to the power supply. AMD wanted to highlight that the RX 560 will be four times more powerful than the Intel HD 530, being a great option to improve the integrated graphics of an Intel processor at a low price. All cards will have support for DirectX 12, Vulkan, FreeSync and native HEVC H.265 4K codec decoding. The RX 580 teraflops are 6.17 (more than Scorpio), while the RX 570 stays in 5.1.
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Same price as current models
The RX 580 is already on sale for a price of 299 euros for the 8 GB version and 279 euros for the 4 GB version. The RX 570 will also only come in two versions of 8 and 4 GB, which will cost 269 and 229 euros respectively, all this with the models with improved ventilation that Sapphire has released. The RX 550 will be on sale next April 20, while the RX 560 will be available from the beginning of May.
In short, when many consumers are waiting for the new AMD Radeon RX Vega what will the light see in the next few months to position itself with a performance similar to that offered by a GTX 1080 one year after its launch, AMD has wanted settle its presence in the segments of the low, medium and medium-high range with this series of graphics cards improved from its current Polaris architecture.
