Benchmark Scores for Unannounced AMD Radeon RX 590 Posted Online

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(Image credit: 3DMark)

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.

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Zhiye Liu
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.

20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SgtScream
    Oh boy!
    Reply
  • King_V
    Ugh... I keep thinking that the so-called Polaris 30, or this RX 590, is nothing more than rumor.

    Still, if it's not so much fairy dust, then it's probably perfect for and upgrade for my son. 2560x1080 FreeSync monitor with a 50Hz minimum on the FreeSync range.

    If it can do high or max details reliably at that resolution at 50fps (not a typo) or above, it'd be perfect, as it seems like a 1070 or Vega 56 is definitely overkill for his needs.
    Reply
  • elbert
    I've seen RX 580's with the bios hacked performing better. Could be a bios hack of his RX 580 that allowed a gpu name change. Either way I would expect more with a node change given the 480 to 580 yielded about 6% gains at the same node with a smaller bump in speed.
    Reply
  • AlistairAB
    I wanted to see a slightly larger polaris chip, like the xbox one x uses. Disappointed, to say the least.
    Reply
  • King_V
    21404553 said:
    I've seen RX 580's with the bios hacked performing better. Could be a bios hack of his RX 580 that allowed a gpu name change. Either way I would expect more with a node change given the 480 to 580 yielded about 6% gains at the same node with a smaller bump in speed.

    If it's legit, it's not surprising. The clocks have been increased by about 15%, but memory throughput is still unchanged, so an 8-ish% performance increase is not entirely surprising.
    Reply
  • bobba84
    Too little too late!
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    21404815 said:
    Too little too late!
    They're not aiming for the crown. If they supplant the current Polaris models with a 12nm dieshrink, it's a minor bump for mid-tier cards. It's not meant to be anything else. Their next high-end card probably won't hit until after the professional market gets something new. That's where the money is, especially when initial production is limited.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    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.
    The problem isn't stealing the GTX 1060's market share, but competing with Nvidia's next generation of hardware. The 1060 is well over two years old at this point, and is already long overdue for a successor, which will likely be coming within the next couple months or so. If the RX 590 only offers around 10% better performance than an RX 580, then chances are good that it's not going to outperform the competition's next sub-$300 graphics card. And while a process shrink of this existing architecture from 14 to 12nm may help efficiency slightly at a given performance level, Nvidia are also moving to 12nm, so no gains will be made against the competition there, unless Nvidia simply re-badges existing Pascal cards for their new mid-range lineup. Even if they simply called a 1070 a 2060 and tossed a $300 price tag on it, it would still likely offer better efficiency and significantly more performance than what is seen here though.

    Had a 12nm refresh been launched this spring, around 2 years after the RX 480, it would have been a bit underwhelming, though it would have at least given AMD the mid-range performance crown for a little while. It's likely that they didn't go that route due to cryptocurrency mining severely messing up the market at the time though. By this point however, AMD has been talking about 7nm GPUs being on the Horizon, and there had been rumors that they might be available in early 2019, but with a refreshed collection of 12nm GPUs likely coming out this fall, it means that 7nm mid-range parts might be farther away, and probably not within the first half of 2019. The RX 480 was great when it launched for $200-$240 in the first half of 2016. Two and a half years later, a heavily-overclocked RX 480 is not going to be all that impressive though.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Nah, this is just fine! If the price is ok as I supose, this is very good gpu. If the Nvidia 2060 gets the same price high as other 2xxx series this is very good compared to upcoming 2060.
    It is about bang for the buck and these new nvidias Are not that!
    The previous generation of Nvidia cards Wins hands down the new ones so I would not put too big weigth in the next generation on 1060 series. If this new AMD is faster than previous with the same price. It is good enough!
    Reply
  • King_V
    21405565 said:
    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.
    The problem isn't stealing the GTX 1060's market share, but competing with Nvidia's next generation of hardware. The 1060 is well over two years old at this point, and is already long overdue for a successor, which will likely be coming within the next couple months or so. If the RX 590 only offers around 10% better performance than an RX 580, then chances are good that it's not going to outperform the competition's next sub-$300 graphics card. And while a process shrink of this existing architecture from 14 to 12nm may help efficiency slightly at a given performance level, Nvidia are also moving to 12nm, so no gains will be made against the competition there, unless Nvidia simply re-badges existing Pascal cards for their new mid-range lineup. Even if they simply called a 1070 a 2060 and tossed a $300 price tag on it, it would still likely offer better efficiency and significantly more performance than what is seen here though.

    Those are big ifs, though, to expect from Nvidia.

    The 1060 6GB is currently (in the US) generally more expensive than the RX 580 8GB.

    If the 2060 is on the new architecture, I can see it easily being $50 or $100 more than the current 1060 6GB. If it's a rehash of existing architecture, I don't see it performing any better, and it's already more expensive than the AMD cards in the same class, while performing slightly less or equal, depending on the game.

    I very highly doubt that Nvidia is going to relabel a 1070 as a 2060. If they do, the chance that they'd match or undercut current 1060 prices, or even dip much below 1070 prices, seems extraordinarily remote.

    Reply