Today, a 3DMark user that goes by the name of ED1981 submitted an entry to 3DMark's Time Spy database that features an unannounced graphics card from AMD called the Radeon RX 590.
Many rumors have been going around claiming AMD will launch a refresh of its Radeon RX 500-series graphics card this month while it continues to work on its next-generation Navi architecture. The purported refresh, which has been dubbed Polaris 30, is expected to be built on the 12nm FinFET manufacturing process. The die-shrink from 14nm to 12nm would allow Polaris 30 graphics cards to come with higher operating clocks and lower power consumption in comparison to its Radeon RX 500-series counterparts. From a performance standpoint, we can expect an increase somewhere in the range of 10 percent to, if we're feeling optimistic, 15 percent.
The Radeon RX 590 that popped up in 3DMark's database was clocked at 1,545MHz, which is around 205MHz higher than a stock Radeon RX 580's boost clock. Much like the Radeon RX 580, the Radeon RX 590 apparently is equipped with 8GB of memory operating at a frequency of 8,000MHz. It's very likely the Radeon RX 590 leverages GDDR5 memory.
Radeon RX 590 vs. Radeon RX 580
ED1981 had previously benchmarked a Radeon RX 580 with the Time Spy benchmark. The Radeon RX 580 scored 4,399 points and recorded 29.61 frames per second (fps) and 24.55 fps in both graphics tests. The Radeon RX 590 scored 4,759 points and pumped out 32.25 fps and 26.4 fps. Based on these numbers, the Radeon RX 590 is reportedly about eight percent faster than the Radeon RX 580.
The Radeon RX 580 sits comfortably above GeForce GTX 1060 6GB on the graphics card hierarchy. With the RX 580 currently priced at $250, a RX 590's success would depend on two major factors: pricing and availability. If AMD releases a RX 590 with a sub-$300 price tag, AMD could possibly have a winner on its hands and potentially steal some of Nvidia's GTX 1060 market share.