AMD Polaris Revival: Radeon RX 590 GME Graphics Cards Land in China

ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 590 GME 8G OC

ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 590 GME 8G OC (Image credit: JD.com)

News outlet Expreview has spotted several listings for a new AMD graphics card that is believed to be exclusive to the Chinese market. Apparently, AMD is resuscitating the Polaris silicon for the Radeon RX 590 GME.

None of the postings specify which silicon is inside the Radeon RX 590 GME. But since it's based on the original AMD Radeon RX 590, it's reasonable to assume that this new variant also features the Polaris 30 die, which is a product of GlobalFoundries’ 12nm FinFET manufacturing process -- that is unless AMD surprises us with the Polaris 20 14nm die, which is in the AMD Radeon RX 580.

As far as base specifications go, the Radeon RX 590 GME appears to have 2,304 Stream Processors (SPs) and 8GB of GDDR5 memory at 8 Gbps. The memory is said to run across a 256-bit memory interface for a memory bandwidth of up to 256 GBps. 

Based on the listings, the primary difference between the Radeon RX 590 GME and Radeon RX 590 is that the first comes with lower clock speeds. That would make the Radeon RX 590 GME slide in between the Radeon RX 580 and Radeon RX 590.

Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally
ModelBase ClockBoost Clock
ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX 590 8G OC1,469 MHz1,591 MHz
ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 590 GME 8G OC 1,385 MHz1,413 MHz
PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 5901,469 MHz1,545 MHz
PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 590 GME1,380 MHz?
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 SE1,469 MHz1,560 MHz
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 GME1,380 MHz1,440 MHz
XFX Radeon RX 590 8GB Black Wolf1,469 MHz1,600 MHz
XFX Radeon RX 590 GME 8GB Black Wolf1,380 MHz1,460 MHz

The PowerColor, Sapphire and XFX custom models are listed with a 1,380 MHz base clock, which we suspect could be the base clock for the reference Radeon RX 590 GME. For context, the reference Radeon RX 580 and RX 590 have 1,257 MHz and 1,469 MHz base clocks, respectively.

Since the listed SKUs are custom models, they likely sport a factory overclock. It's difficult to determine the reference specification for the boost clock on the Radeon RX 590 GME. However, comparing the new models to their current counterparts may provide some insight. In ASRock's case, there's a 178 MHz different in the boost clocks between the Radeon RX 590 and the GME model. For Sapphire and XFX, the difference comes down to 120 MHz and 140 MHz, respectively. The XFX Radeon RX 590 GME 8GB Black Wolf is the fastest of the quartet.

The Radeon RX 590 GME is expected to launch in China on March 9. Popular Chinese retailer JD.com has the custom models listed between 1,199 and 1,399 yuan, which convert to $172 and $200, respectively. 

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • King_V
    Assuming they are 12nm, I'm very curious as to whether the decrease in clocks has a disproportionately beneficial decrease in power consumption - much like when the Vega 56 was underclocked vs its stock speeds.
    Reply