ASRock Launches Custom Radeon RX580, 570, 560, And 550 GPUs

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A few weeks ago, rumors of ASRock entering the graphics card market swept the internet. We have to admit that we didn’t think they were true, but ASRock later posted a teaser that all but confirmed them. What was once rumored has become true: ASRock launched its Phantom Gaming line of AMD Radeon graphics cards. There are four products in total. From highest- to lowest-end, they are the Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX580 8G OC, RX570 8G OC, RX560 2G, and RX550 2G. All of them feature ASRock’s custom cooling and clock profiles. We’ll go over them in pairs because the higher- and lower-end cards share some similarities with each other.

Before we get into the individual cards, however, we should go over what we’ve gleaned of ASRock’s GPU philosophy. All of the cards, regardless of whether they have “OC” in their name, have an OC, default, and silent mode. This is set from ASRock’s companion software, Phantom Gaming Tweak. We’re not quite sure what the “OC” term actually denotes. As we show below, the two cards with the label run above AMD’s reference clocks in default mode, but the two cards without the label run below reference clocks in all modes.

Beginning with the higher-end cards, ASRock’s Phantom Gaming X RX580 and RX570 use a custom dual-fan cooling solution. The heatsink is a direct contact type with three heatpipes, and the fans use double-ball bearings. For video outputs, the cards have three DisplayPort 1.4 ports, a HDMI 2.0 port, and a dual-link DVI-D port. Both cards use a single 8-pin connector for power. We’ve broken down how the clocks of ASRock’s RX 580 and RX 570 compare to AMD’s reference in the table below.

At the lower end of ASRock’s new GPUs are the Phantom Gaming X RX560 and RX550. These cards have simpler cooling solutions with one double-ball-bearing fan and no heatpipes. They have one Displayport 1.4, one HDMI 2.0, and one dual-link DVI-D connector for video output. In all modes, both of these cards run at clocks that are significantly below AMD’s reference. We’ve broken down how their clocks compare to AMD’s reference in the table below.

All in all, ASRock’s new graphics cards don’t bring anything that we haven’t seen already. They don’t have any RGB lighting frills, don’t have an over-the-top cooling solution, and aren’t crazily over-built for overclocking. With rumors circling of anti-competitive marketing practices by Nvidia, it can only be a good thing for AMD to strengthen its partner branding by signing on new AIB OEMs such as ASRock.

Currently, we have no pricing or availability information on ASRock’s Phantom Gaming X graphics cards. With the cryptocurrency-mining craze still going strong, though, you probably shouldn’t expect to acquire these cards at their MSRP anyway.