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.
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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
| Model | Base Clock | Boost Clock |
|---|---|---|
| ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX 590 8G OC | 1,469 MHz | 1,591 MHz |
| ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 590 GME 8G OC | 1,385 MHz | 1,413 MHz |
| PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 590 | 1,469 MHz | 1,545 MHz |
| PowerColor Red Dragon Radeon RX 590 GME | 1,380 MHz | ? |
| Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 SE | 1,469 MHz | 1,560 MHz |
| Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 GME | 1,380 MHz | 1,440 MHz |
| XFX Radeon RX 590 8GB Black Wolf | 1,469 MHz | 1,600 MHz |
| XFX Radeon RX 590 GME 8GB Black Wolf | 1,380 MHz | 1,460 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.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.