Upgrade Path!

Introduction

Is the new Radeon RX 5600 XT a proficient upgrade path from AMD'southward 3-year-old Radeon RX 580 Polaris video card? That is the question nosotros are going to reply today.

The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT has launched on Jan 21st simply a couple of weeks ago. We reviewed the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC Ii Pro video card for $279.99.  So, in a reaction to NVIDIA lowering pricing on GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition to $299 it was decided that the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT could actually exist pushed college.  Add-in-board partners released new BIOS's with faster clock speeds.  We tested the new BIOS that XFX has released for the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC II Pro which raised the game clock from 1460MHz to 1560MHz.

Upgrade Path

At the heart of this launch was AMD'due south merits that the Radeon RX 5600 XT provided a skillful upgrade path for video cards 3+ years old.

In the get-go press slide above AMD made it articulate that the summit three graphics cards used on Steam are 3+ years sometime.  In the second slide, it was shown that the most used graphics cards on steam deliver sub-par 1080p FPS gaming experiences in today's games at ultra-quality settings in 1080p gaming.  In the third screenshot, taken directly from AMD's Reviewer's Guide it was demonstrated to united states of america reviewers that the Radeon RX 5600 XT was, in fact, a good upgrade path from AMD'southward ain previous AMD Radeon RX 590 Polaris generation GPUs.

To test this claim, and see if indeed the Radeon RX 5600 XT is a good upgrade path from the previous generation Polaris GPU, we are going to exam i and find out.  In today's article, we are going to examination the reference operation of the AMD Radeon RX 580 at 1080p and compare it directly to the operation on the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC Ii Pro.  We will run across what kind of a performance upgrade the Radeon RX 5600 XT offers over the Radeon RX 580 in case y'all are considering upgrading.

The Radeon RX 580

Nosotros practise wish we had a Radeon RX 590 to test this claim directly with, notwithstanding, we do not have one.  What we do have though is an MSI Radeon RX 580 GAMING X 4GB OC video carte du jour to use.  This will stand up in merely fine every bit it is still a Polaris GPU and the just deviation between the 2 is clock speed.  Too, the Radeon RX 580 came out almost exactly 3 years at this point.

In an unfortunate event, the MSI RX 580 video card we have is damaged from having run Ethereum Mining for years.  However, we were able to successfully downclock it to standard reference Radeon RX 580 clock speeds and retentivity speeds and get the tests nosotros needed.  And so, nosotros won't be running the video card at its factory overclock, but instead at the reference specifications for a Radeon RX 580, so information technology represents a stock standard reference carte in performance.

The Radeon RX 580 is a 14nm Polaris xx XT GPU released in Apr of 2017.  The Radeon RX 580 is actually a refresh of the previous AMD Radeon RX 480 14nm Elesmere XT GPU released in June of 2016.  Both video cards are based on the GCN architecture.  The Radeon RX 580 runs at 1340MHz heave clock versus 1266MHz boost clock on a Radeon RX 480.  Both video cards have 2304 streaming processors, 144 texture units and 32 ROPs.  Both video cards have 4 or 8 GB of GDDR5 running at 8GHz.  Also, both video cards debuted at an MSRP of $229.99.  Basically, the Radeon RX 580 is a faster RX 480 but at the aforementioned price and released a year subsequently in 2017.

Now, just for comparing, a Radeon RX 590 is a refresh of the Radeon RX 580. The Radeon RX 590 was released in Nov of 2018, then it is 1 year and two months erstwhile at this bespeak.  It is based on a newer 12nm manufacturing process just is yet a Polaris 30 XT GPU with the same GCN compages.  It however has the same 2304 streaming processors, 144 texture units and 32 ROPs as the 580 and 480.  However, it runs at a boost clock of 1545MHz.  Information technology besides has the same 8GHz GDDR5.  So, the just functioning difference is again a higher clock speed versus the RX 580.  Still, information technology did get a toll heave, the Radeon RX 590 debuted at $279, the aforementioned toll every bit the new Radeon RX 5600 XT.

So, when information technology comes to performance, the Radeon RX 580 is a faster RX 480 by clock speed just, and the Radeon RX 590 is a faster Radeon RX 580 past clock speed only.  From the Radeon RX 580 to the Radeon RX 590 at that place was yet a price increment with the MSRP from $229 to $279.

Video Card Setup

Equally nosotros mentioned, we would accept loved to include a Radeon RX 590 in this comparison, but we merely did not have 1.  When you look at the release date though, the Radeon RX 590 is only a year onetime.  To closer match AMD'due south claim of upgrading from 3-year-old video cards, the Radeon RX 580 is actually a closer match to that fourth dimension frame.

Therefore, we are using our MSI Radeon RX 580 GAMING X OC and downclocking the factory overclock on it to reference Radeon RX 580 clock speeds.  We simply had to this considering our video card would not run at its manufacturing plant overclock anymore. It was only a small overclock though, to begin with, a 40MHz overclock from 1340MHz to 1380MHz.  Information technology was nowhere about Radeon RX 590 clock speeds and would have never been able to overclock that high.

We call up this is a good representation of an upgrade path.  The Radeon RX 580 was a pop video card, and people who have had them for 3 years now are probably wondering what an upgrade would go them.  So, let's notice out if the Radeon RX 5600 XT is a good upgrade from the Radeon RX 580.

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Brent Justice has been reviewing calculator components for 20+ years, educated in the art and method of the reckoner hardware review he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer oriented... More than by Brent Justice