Fake Xfx Radeon Rx 580 Gts Black Edition 8gb Review

2017 has been a promising year, then far, for AMD. Indeed, what'south looking like a turnaround one. After teasing its upcoming "Vega" graphics cards and showing off quite a few AM4 motherboards at CES 2017 in early January, the company launched its long-awaited "Zen"-based Ryzen CPU platform, starting in early March. While the chips, like the loftier-end Ryzen 7 1800X and midrange Ryzen 5 1600X, launched with some issues around 1080p gaming operation (compared to competing Intel CPUs), the Ryzen chips have been praised overall. In general, they deliver multi-core computing operation that often competes well with Intel chips that price twice as much, or more.

Afterwards the launch of the company's Ryzen 5 processors in mid-April, the expected adjacent steps for AMD were high-end Vega-based graphics cards (these accept been promised onetime in the second quarter), and a lineup of lower-end Ryzen iii processors, expected sometime in the 2d half of the year.

You Can Trust Our Reviews

Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you brand better buying decisions. (See how we test.)

But apparently that's non enough new product for AMD, considering the visitor is launching three new midrange graphics chips today, and one two days later, on April 20. Cards based on these chips, collectively known as the Radeon RX 500 series, are based not around Vega, but on the same "Polaris" architecture that was broiled into the visitor's 2016 depression-end and midrange video cards, notably the Radeon RX 480 and the Radeon RX 470.

Similar Products

The Radeon RX 580, which we're looking at hither in the form of an XFX bill of fare (the $249.99-MSRP Radeon RX 580 GTS Xxx Edition), and the Radeon RX 570 (which y'all tin can expect a review of here shortly) are expected to compete with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 and GTX 1050 Ti, respectively. Cards based on the lower-finish Radeon RX 560 will also be bachelor starting today, with Radeon RX 550 cards on the style later in the week. RX 580 cards with 8GB of retentivity should get-go at $229.

Now, those paying close attending to the graphics-bill of fare game volition note that the RX 580 and RX 570 are positioned pretty much in line with the RX 400 series cards they're replacing. Given that, and the fact that these are also based on Polaris chips (plus AMD's history of, at times, rebadging existing silicon with a few pocket-size tweaks and calling it a adjacent-generation menu), y'all might exist thinking that that's what's going on here. Simply AMD insists that the Radeon RX 580 is based on a new Polaris graphics chip, dubbed "Polaris twenty."

Then again, we were also told in person by AMD reps that the Radeon RX 580 would exist offered simply with 8GB of GDDR5 memory, rather than the 4GB and 8GB options offered upwards with the previous-generation Radeon RX 480. Even so the dark before launch, nosotros were sent a list of cards past the company that cited five 4GB models of the Radeon RX 580. So we're taking everything AMD says nearly these cards with a grain of common salt.

We're sure there'south something, under the silicon hood, substantially different about the Polaris xx chip that lets AMD merits it's new. But the company didn't provide any details virtually major changes with this flake that'south at the core of the RX 580 and RX 570. And nosotros come across a good many similarities between the specs of the RX 580 and the Radeon RX 480 it'southward replacing. Both chips have a reported dice size of 232mm squared, and both feature 36 compute units, 2,304 stream processors, and 144 texture units. And both cards feature the aforementioned 256-fleck memory bandwidth.

The primary difference, looking purely at the spec sheet from AMD, is that the newer card has a college base clock speed (1,257MHz), compared to ane,120MHz on the Radeon RX 480 (a leap of just over 12 percent). Even the "Peak Compute Performance" that AMD lists for the Radeon RX 580 indicates a modest improvement. The new card claims to offer upward 6.17 teraflops, while the Radeon RX 480'south specs advertise five.8 teraflops. That's an increase of 6.four percent. Based on AMD's specs solitary, nosotros're not expecting major performance gains here compared to the Radeon RX 480. Just we'll have to wait and see once nosotros get to testing.

With all that out of the way, how does the Radeon RX 580 perform, specifically the 8GB XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition that AMD sent us for testing? And what are the other new features AMD is rolling out around these "new" cards? For that, we have to dig deeper. Follow u.s.a. below as go to the meat of the matter, including a ability-saving "Radeon Chill" feature that limits frame rates when there's not much going on in-game.

Design & Features

Rather than rattle off a full list of the Radeon RX 580 and RX 570 specs, here's the summary, directly from AMD...

Lest y'all think nosotros were exaggerating well-nigh the similarities between this new card and the Radeon RX 480, here are the specs for the 2016 model.

Reps from AMD indeed told the states that the newer cards are based on a "refined" new graphics flake. But based on what's on the page here, we don't see much substantive departure, other than faster clocks with the Radeon RX 580, 8GB of GDDR5 memory being the merely option with the new carte du jour (which was not borne out, after all, given the confirmed, terminal-minute emergence of 4GB cards), and a college power rating (185 watts, versus 150 watts with the Radeon RX 480). The latter is most what we would expect if AMD just cranked up the clock speeds a bit beyond what was generally possible with the original run of RX 480 cards.

Here's a visual overview of the Radeon RX 580's specs and features, once again direct from AMD. The visitor says cards based on the RX 580 GPU will be a good fit for gaming at resolutions upwardly to 2,560x1,440.

Because the GPUs inside these cards utilise the same Polaris compages that was constitute in last year'south Radeon RX 480 carte, we'll point you to that review at the link if you demand to catch upwards on the details of what makes these cards tick. The visitor didn't provide whatever architectural details well-nigh what makes the new Polaris silicon different from last yr'southward fries, then we suspect information technology's minimal at all-time. Then, without anything new in that vein to talk about, we'll leap to the other major feature AMD is rolling out with these cards: Radeon Chill.

Radeon Chill

The obvious, inappropriate Netflix-and-chill jokes aside, Radeon Chill is a software feature aimed at reducing power consumption by limiting frame rates when non much is going on in a scene beingness rendered. That might be when your character is standing effectually in an online RPG waiting for your friends to get in. Or maybe you've walked abroad from your PC (to get a snack, and you forgot to hit Pause) while your character is in a calm section of a level.

AMD says Radeon Chill is opt-in, meaning you'll have to enable information technology by switching information technology on in the WattMan software (which is, ironically, used mostly for overclocking). One time y'all practise and so, an algorithm monitors your game inputs (keyboard, mouse, and so on) to predict when fast motion is happening on the screen. When your character is standing still or there's little movement in the game, Chill ramps down the frame rate to save power, equally well every bit reduce heat and sound output. Once yous get-go moving, or a bunch of baddies crawl into your onscreen space, the menu kicks back up into its normal performance way. In WattMan, you lot can also gear up a target frame-charge per unit range y'all want to limit the game to, as you can see here...

AMD says enabling Radeon Arctic can decrease the Radeon RX 580's average board power consumption by 31 percent (from 168 watts to 115 watts), subtract average card temperature by 12 degrees C, and decrease boilerplate frame rates by 47 percentage with no noticeable effect on the experience or performance of your game.

The catch? AMD says not all games are a skilful candidate for Radeon Chill. We doubtable that games like racing titles, where items are most always flight by onscreen at a frenetic pace, are probably on that list. And at least for at present, Chill is only qualified to work on some games. AMD sent forth a list of 19 titles that information technology says should provide a good experience with Radeon Chill enabled at this time. Yous can see that list displayed graphically beneath. Some are very popular, similar DOTA ii, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Witcher iii. But the launch list is pretty small, and no DirectX 12 titles are on it.

Nosotros asked AMD nearly the lack of DirectX 12 titles in the current Radeon Arctic list. Our contacts didn't offer much in the way of details, but they seemed to indicate DX12 isn't a deal-breaker for Chill. An AMD rep told u.s. the company has "exciting updates coming very shortly in regards to Chill and DX12 back up." Take from that what yous will.

The other matter to keep in mind about Radeon Chill is that you may not need a new card to utilize it. It'southward primarily a software feature, and we were told that it will work with "all GCN and Polaris-compages GPUs." That means all cards going back to the Radeon Hard disk 7000 series (even relics similar the Radeon Hard disk drive 7770) should get support for AMD'due south power-saving characteristic via a Radeon Ruby-red software update.

Every bit appreciated equally whatsoever power-saving feature is, nosotros suspect that Radeon Chill will take limited appeal for the boilerplate gamer, who tends to be far more interested in maximizing frame rates, rather than lowering them. But for buyers looking to outfit several systems for, say, a gaming cafe, particularly in a country where electricity is expensive, we can meet how Radeon Chill could have appeal. And should AMD go its graphics fries into more than gaming laptops, Arctic could current of air upwardly useful for times when you find yourself gaming abroad from a power plug.

XFX Menu Design

Given that AMD isn't pushing a reference pattern for the Radeon RX 580, a wide variety of RX 580 models—in different shapes, sizes, and libation designs—will define the bill of fare form.

The model AMD sent for review was an XFX-branded model, the XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition, that measures x.v inches long and a little less than 4.v inches wide.

Like nigh all cards in this class, information technology has a dual-slot cooler, and this model has a pair of fans. A metal backplate with some modest XFX branding occupies the entire back of the bill of fare.

For a card in this operation grade, this XFX 580 fairly large. It'due south about iii-quarters of an inch wider than the stock Radeon RX 480, more than an inch longer, and slightly thicker than the stock previous-generation AMD carte, as well.

1 item we were not fond of: The single 8-pin power connector on the XFX card is oddly recessed behind both the plastic fan shroud and under a metal oestrus pipe...

This last detail is annoying from a reviewer'southward perspective, making the card slightly harder to install and remove. Just for the average gamer who will install the card just once or twice in its working lifetime, this is a minor consequence.

As for ports, the Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition has three DisplayPorts (one.4 HDR-ready), a 2.0b-set up HDMI port, and the one handy port the stock version of the Radeon RX 480 lacked: a dual-link DVI-D port, for users with older high-resolution monitors.

While we'd prefer a smaller design in a menu in this performance class, the XFX model could be considered well-nigh compact compared to the PowerColor Red Devil RX 570 (seen on the bottom of the stack in the image below) that we'll be reviewing shortly. Despite beingness a lower-cease menu in terms of silicon, performance, and presumably price, the PowerColor carte is 11 inches long and sports three fans.

Maybe nosotros're only getting erstwhile, but we miss the comparatively compact and understated pattern of the Radeon RX 480.

At the very least, the large libation and fans on the XFX carte du jour keep the Radeon RX 580 GTS Thirty Edition from becoming overly noisy. It's not the quietest carte, but we didn't have detail discover of the fan noise under load, even when nosotros were standing right next to the case with the door off.

Functioning Testing

Information technology's been most a year since we revamped our video-carte testing procedure to incorporate DirectX 12 titles and some virtual-reality (VR) testing. Then, for these cards (and the looming high-cease Vega cards from AMD), we decided to conform our testing once over again, adding a championship (Tom Clancy's The Sectionalization) and ditching Ashes of the Singularity (which, at high settings, is so CPU-bound that information technology'south not a bully measuring stick for graphics operation). Nosotros've also moved on to higher-end 3DMark tests (Extreme and Ultra), which better reflect the realities of today's high-end gaming. We've likewise included 3DMark's DirectX 12 test, Fourth dimension Spy, and Futuremark's VRMark exam.

With these new tests (and a full testing refresh on all the cards below), the time was right to build a new video-card testbed, every bit well. Centered effectually an Intel Core i7-7700K "Kaby Lake" processor and an MSI Z270 Gaming M5 motherboard, our new graphics-testing rig is equipped with 16GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX RAM, and boots from a Corsair Force LX SSD. That's a very reasonable high-terminate gaming rig for 2017, with maximum CPU potential, without going into the aristocracy pricing stratosphere of X99-based Intel Broadwell Extreme fries.

Fifty-fifty with our testing updates, though, things remain in flux these days when it comes to testing GPUs, because two key technologies—despite being available in some class for over a year now—are proving difficult to definitively test.

The first of these is DirectX 12 (DX12), which is just at present starting to become mutual in AAA titles, though nosotros have notwithstanding seen relatively few real-earth benchmarks for it. DirectX 12 will probable exist the standard graphics API in the futurity, and most card buyers probably expect their cards to final for a few years, if not longer. So it'due south important to know if a card can handle DX12 well before buying. We tested this card with the DX12-capable titles Hitman (the 2016 edition), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Tom Clancy's The Sectionalisation. We tested a load of games using DirectX xi, as well, because that API dominates, and it volition withal exist in wide use for the foreseeable future.

The 2nd engineering that's tricky to test at nowadays is support for virtual reality, or VR for short. At this writing, in that location are two major competing VR headsets, the Oculus Riftn and HTC Vive, with more coming to market presently, and information technology's difficult to establish a lone test that is applicable to all VR scenarios.

Steam has its ain VR benchmark, but it mainly indicates whether or non your PC is ready to handle VR games on a three-color cherry-red/yellow/dark-green scale. Since the baseline recommendation for both the Vive and the Rift is a Core i5 processor and a GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, merely adequately powerful cards (and systems in full general) are VR-capable.

At the moment, we're using Futuremark'south new VRMark exam to measure out VR capability. It consists of an "Orangish Room" test designed to measure a card's ability to handle today's games, and a "Bluish Room" exam designed to simulate extremely enervating time to come titles. The Blue Room test is so tough, no card nosotros've tested to date (including the $699 GeForce GTX 1080 Ti) gets a passing course. So for the moment, we'll only study Orange Room results.

And so, on to the benchmarks. Since the Radeon RX 580 is a midrange GPU, with 8GB RX 580-based cards starting at a suggested price of $229 (and $249 for the XFX carte du jour nosotros're specifically looking at here), nosotros'll exist comparing it to Nvidia's GTX 1060 (this card'due south chief competition), specifically the GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition; the step-down Radeon RX 570, in the form of a PowerColor Cherry Devil Radeon RX 570 card; and the previous-generation AMD Radeon RX 480 and Radeon RX 470 (the latter in Gigabyte Radeon RX 470 G1 Gaming trim).

Also in our chart mix is the PowerColor Ruby-red Dragon RX 460 (a decidedly lower-end card), the college-end GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition (mostly merely for perspective, in instance your budget might include a pricier option), and the 2 lower-finish Nvidia options in this rough price range, the GeForce GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti.

3DMark (Fire Strike)

Nosotros started off our testing with Futuremark's 2013 version of 3DMark, specifically the suite's Burn Strike subtest. Fire Strike is a synthetic test designed to measure overall gaming performance, and Futuremark has expanded Fire Strike nowadays into three subtests of increasing difficulty. Hither, nosotros'll wait at the Extreme subtest that runs at 2,560×1,440 resolution, likewise as the Ultra subtest that measures performance at 4K (3,840x2,160).

Compared to the previous-generation Radeon RX 480, the XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS Xxx Edition delivered a 7 to 8 pct advantage here. And it landed near even with (or slightly ameliorate than) the competing GeForce GTX 1060.

Adjacent, nosotros ran Futuremark's VRMark, a tough exam designed to measure a bill of fare'southward power to run games at the loftier frame rates (typically above 90fps) required for comfortable VR game play. The test returns a numeric score, which we written report to show how competing cards stack upwards in this emerging gaming surface area.

The difference betwixt the Radeon RX 480 and its successor card hither was even smaller, downwardly below 2 percent. And once once more, the GTX 1060 was merely a whisker backside the RX 580. So far, things look pretty evenly matched between Squad Blood-red and Team Greenish. That said, every bit the Radeon RX 480 was VR-ready, and the RX 580 is slightly more powerful than the card it's replacing, those picking a card for a VR rig should take no major performance issues if you choose to build around the Radeon RX 580.

DirectX 11 Tests: Hitman, Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs & Bioshock Infinite Next is our quartet of older DirectX 11 titles. None of these games is much of a challenge for modernistic midrange or high-end graphics cards these days, unless y'all're playing at or effectually 4K resolution. But these tests are nevertheless helpful in determining how a card handles older games that you lot might return to again and again.

On these older titles, the Radeon RX 580 tacks on as many as 6 frames per 2nd (fps) at 1080p over the Radeon RX 480 information technology's replacing. Just the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 was faster on all of these tests at 1080p past as few as 4fps, or every bit many as 19fps. (The latter number, though, seen in Hitman: Absolution, is an outlier, every bit the MSAA setting in that examination hits AMD'due south Polaris cards particularly difficult. It tin be swapped out for a different blazon of anti-aliasing when y'all're really gaming.)

Far Weep Primal

Adjacent, nosotros moved to a more recent DirectX 11 game, released in 2016. Ubisoft'due south latest open-world commencement-person hunting game is i of the most demanding titles nosotros use, thank you to its lush foliage, detailed shadows, and otherwise incredible environments.

Interestingly, on this much newer DirectX 11 championship, things looked better for the new AMD carte. At 1080p, it was most even with the GeForce GTX 1060 (a couple of frames ahead on the Normal preset, and one frame backside on the Ultra setting). At the college 2,560x1,440 resolution, the Radeon RX 480's edge was a fleck bigger. And only the AMD carte could hitting 60fps at that resolution (though only on the Normal preset).

3DMark Fourth dimension Spy (DirectX 12)

Futuremark says its Time Spy criterion was built "from the basis upwardly to fully realize the performance gains that [DX12] offers." It renders a scene that incorporates some of the "greatest hits" of Futuremark's past benchmarks, while including some DX12-specific features, such as asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading.

Once again, the XFX Radeon RX 580 did nearly 7 percent better than its predecessor on this test. And the newer AMD card edged about 4 percent alee of the GeForce GTX 1060. It's a modest lead, but a lead nonetheless.

Tom Clancy'southward The Partition

Our latest DirectX 12 game-benchmark add-on is Ubisoft's popular tertiary-person open-world RPG shooter set in a near-future New York in the midst of a pandemic. Nosotros test nether DX12 using the Medium and Ultra presets.

XFX

At present that we're getting into DX12 games, things outset to look up for the new AMD card. The XFX RX 580 was significantly speedier than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 here, adding 7fps at 1080p at the highest setting, and 18fps on the Medium preset.

Rising of the Tomb Raider

Lara Croft rises once again in the early-2016 iteration of Square Enix'southward long-running activeness franchise. As our hero works to unfold an aboriginal mystery (and reveal the hugger-mugger to immortality), she traipses through a slew of complex atmospheric environments, from barren tombs to the frigid Siberian wilderness. A dynamic weather organisation, and the complexities of Lara's wind-tousled hair, add to the game's visual complication.

The performance deltas betwixt the XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS Xxx Edition and the GeForce GTX 1060 weren't quite as dramatic on this game, but the AMD card still took the lead. The deviation was particularly noticeable in a higher place 1080p on the Medium preset.

Hitman (2016)

The newest game in the Hitman franchise finds Agent 47 turning over a new leaf, and embarking on a journey of self-discovery as a instructor at a school for underprivileged children. But kidding, of class; he kills loads of people in this one, only like the rest. It does offering gorgeous graphics in both DX11 and DX12 varieties, though. We run and report simply the DirectX 12 results here, using the Loftier detail preset.

On our last DirectX 12 test, the XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS 30 Edition tacked on virtually 7fps at 1080p compared to the previous-generation Radeon RX 480, and it was about 6fps faster than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060. Again, the new AMD card isn't significantly speedier than either the GeForce GTX 1060 or the Radeon RX 480 it's replacing. Only information technology does appear to have an border on DirectX 12 titles, or at least in the DirectX 12 titles in our testing regimen.

Conclusion

The AMD Radeon RX 580, in the XFX model nosotros tested, did provide betwixt 4fps and 11fps improvement compared to the previous-generation Radeon RX 480 in our games testing at 1080p and high settings, which is more often than not more than you can expect from typical overclocking of a stock card. This crash-land, at least when looking at an 8GB version of the carte, also helped the Radeon RX 580 stay more or less even in terms of performance with the competing Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060.

In our testing, the Nvidia card did meliorate on older DirectX eleven titles, just AMD's latest pulled even or ahead in newer DX11 and DX12 titles. That leaves things, at this price bespeak, more than or less a wash, as the $229 starting toll for the AMD Radeon RX 580 is virtually in line with Nvidia's pricing. To be fair, 6GB GeForce GTX 1060 cards typically commencement at about $10 more, or $239. Simply we saw a few such cards on Newegg and Amazon for $230, $225, and even one Zotac GTX 1060 Mini on sale for $219. Nosotros suspect the Nvidia and AMD cards will settle in closely in price, just as they are in operation. And the Radeon RX 580 cards will range in price, too; the one we tested came in at $249.

All that said, the launch of these new cards from AMD at this point has u.s. scratching our heads. Certain, they're solid upgrades over 2015-era cards like the Radeon R9 380 and R9 370, which is actually how AMD is pitched these cards to united states: good upgrades for midrange video cards that are two or three years former. Just the aforementioned could be said, more or less, about the existing Radeon RX 400-serial Polaris cards. In general, these 500-series cards (at least the ii we've tested so far) tack on a few (at the very most, around 10) frames per second at loftier settings at 1080p over the Polaris cards that came out a lilliputian less than a year agone. And these new cards consume more than ability (putting bated AMD's new Radeon Arctic characteristic) to get those extra handful of frames. More operation is ever appreciated in the graphics-card globe. But it's hard not to encounter these RX 580 cards, or at to the lowest degree the XFX card we're looking at here, as a (mostly unnecessary) rehash of 2016'southward still-very-skilful Radeon RX 480 cards.

Indeed, the Radeon RX 480 further dings the RX 580 past its very continued being. Several 8GB models of that card were even so available at this writing, some dipping beneath the RX 580'due south request price. When we wrote this in mid-April 2017, we noted a Sapphire Nitro 8GB RX 480 for sale on Newegg for $220, with a $15 rebate that dropped the card to $205. The RX 580 is a better carte, but we're non sure it'due south worth paying $25 or $xxx actress for information technology. So, in the brusk-term, if you're in the market for a card in this price range for 1080p or 1440p gaming, you lot may desire to check pricing on existing Radeon RX 480 cards before clicking the purchase button. While the Radeon RX 580 is as proficient an selection as any in the range, the older card is nearly as skilful a performer, and also rated to consume less ability.

We're notwithstanding eagerly awaiting AMD'south adjacent-gen "Vega" cards, considering the Radeon RX 580 feels a little bit too much like the AMD of 2015 or 2016. Afterward the impressive launch of the company's Ryzen CPUs, we expect more from the AMD of 2017 than this. That said, 2017 isn't close to over all the same.

XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition

The Lesser Line

AMD'south "refined" Polaris card trades blows with Nvidia'due south competing GTX 1060. It's a solid pick for 1080p gaming at high settings, or 1440p play if 60fps isn't your aim.

Like What Y'all're Reading?

Sign up for Lab Report to go the latest reviews and elevation product advice delivered right to your inbox.

This newsletter may incorporate advertising, deals, or chapter links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Utilise and Privacy Policy. Y'all may unsubscribe from the newsletters at whatever time.

dutilbeirst.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/xfx-radeon-rx-580-gts-xxx-edition

Share this post