AMD Radeon RX 590 Review | 118 Data compared

The ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming X is a cost-optimized 12 nm "Polaris 30" graphics card featuring 8 GB GDDR5, a 1560 MHz boost clock, and a single 8-pin connector. As a budget-friendly option, its main advantages include a competitive $250 launch price for solid 1080p gaming, an idle-fan-off feature for silent desktop operation, and better performance-per-watt than the RX 580. Conversely, the card suffers from high power consumption, especially in multi-monitor setups, and lags behind Nvidia competitors in efficiency. Its primary drawbacks involve a weaker heatsink design, which necessitates loud, high-speed fan operation under gaming loads to manage temperatures.

The TechSpot review of the AMD Radeon RX 590 in Crossfire finds that while the configuration provides significant, up to 94% performance boosts in optimized titles like Strange Brigade, these successes are isolated. In supported scenarios, dual RX 590s can outperform a single RTX 2070, offering high-resolution, high-refresh-rate gaming at a lower entry cost. However, the analysis highlights that due to lack of support for multi-GPU configurations, many modern titles see zero scaling or negative performance, making the setup unreliable. The substantial increase in power consumption, heat output, and the requirement for a heavy-duty power supply make it a poor value proposition compared to a single faster GPU.

AMD Radeon RX 590 Performance Summary The AMD Radeon RX 590 is a refreshed mid-range graphics card built on a new 12nm process, designed to slot neatly between the older RX 580 and the more expensive Vega 56. In performance testing at 1080p, the card delivers a small but consistent 3% to 7% performance improvement over the RX 580, with the most notable gains appearing in demanding titles like The Division and Ghost Recon Wildlands. When stacked against Nvidia's GTX 1060 6GB, the RX 590 shows a clear advantage in modern DirectX 12 titles, boasting a 17% lead in The Division, a 24% lead in Forza Horizon 4, and a massive 26% frame-rate advantage in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. While primarily built for 1080p gaming, the card can stretch to playable 1440p resolutions if users are willing to lower some graphical settings in demanding games. Pros and Cons Evaluating the card reveals clear trade-offs in power and value: Pros: Faster clock speeds (1545MHz boost vs 1340MHz on the RX 580) achieved through the updated 12nm FinFET architecture. Outperforms the GTX 1060 6GB...

Overview and Specifications The AMD Radeon RX 590, evaluated here via the partner-designed XFX RX 590 Fatboy, serves as a mid-range refresh built on Global Foundries' 12nm process node. This architecture is essentially a ported and refined version of the 14nm Polaris design found in the older RX 580, maintaining an identical count of 2,304 Stream Processors, 144 Texture Units, 32 ROPs, and 8GB of GDDR5 memory. The transition to the smaller 12nm fabrication node enables a significant 16% jump in rated clock speeds out of the box. To handle the increased thermal output of this higher frequency, XFX outfitted the card with a "Fatboy" cooling solution that expands the thickness of the heatsink by roughly 55%. For connectivity and power delivery, the card includes three DisplayPort 1.4 ports, one HDMI 2.0b port, a Dual-Link DVI connector, and a dual 8-pin plus 6-pin power setup. Pros and Cons Pro: Notable out-of-the-box clock speed increases, running roughly 16% faster than the previous RX 580. Pro: Robust connectivity configurations including triple DisplayPorts, HDMI, and Legacy Dual-Link DVI. Pro: Bundled value value includes...

The TechPowerUp review of the Sapphire Radeon RX 590 Nitro+ Special Edition highlights a highly capable midrange card that dominates the sub-$300 market, delivering excellent 1080p and entry-level 1440p performance based on AMD's 12 nm "Polaris 30" architecture. Key advantages include an effective dual-slot cooler with idle-fan-stop, a dual-BIOS switch with a quiet mode, and a substantial factory overclock. Conversely, the card suffers from extremely high power consumption, drawing roughly 218 watts during gaming and showing poor power efficiency compared to NVIDIA competitors. Furthermore, the aging architecture offers limited overclocking headroom, having been pushed close to its frequency ceiling out of the box.

The TechPowerUp review of the XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy 8 GB, based on the 12 nm "Polaris 30" architecture, shows strong 1080p and entry-level 1440p gaming performance, beating the NVIDIA GTX 1060. Pros include a high-quality VRM, a triple-slot cooler with silent idle-fan-stop mode, and a dual-BIOS switch at a competitive $279 MSRP. However, the card exhibits poor efficiency, pulling over 230 W during gaming, leading to high thermal loads of around 81°C. Further cons include the lack of modern features like VirtualLink and persistent, high power consumption during multi-monitor setups.

Summary The AMD Radeon RX 590 is a "mid-life kicker" graphics card that extends the Polaris architecture by shrinking the process node from 14nm to 12nm. Priced at $279.99 at launch, it directly targets 1080p gaming and acts as a faster version of the older RX 580, boasting a 16.9% higher GPU clock speed. In performance testing against its main competitor, the $259.99 Nvidia GTX 1060 (6GB), the RX 590 achieved 14.5% higher general performance and 20.5% higher frames per second (FPS). It outperformed the Nvidia card by 6.3% to 8.5% overall in Jon Peddie Research's "Pmark" equations, delivering smooth, acceptable gameplay even when pushed past its baseline to 1440p resolution. Pros and Cons Pros: The card delivers excellent mid-range gaming performance that easily beats the GTX 1060, maintaining over 60 FPS in demanding games like FarCry 5 and over 120 FPS in Overwatch at 1080p. It also features AMD FreeSync support and, at launch, included a highly valuable $180 three-game bundle (Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry 5, and The Division 2) which heavily offset its retail price. Cons:...

The PCMag review highlights the XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy as a strong midrange GPU capable of no-compromise 1080p and 1440p gaming, boasting a 14% to 30% performance advantage over the GTX 1060 6GB. Key features include dual-BIOS functionality for performance or quiet modes, ample display connectivity, and a solid price-to-performance ratio for the performance tier. However, the card is exceptionally hot and power-hungry, drawing up to 232W, and features a bulky design that occupies nearly three expansion slots. Despite its strengths, the review notes that the card offers only marginal performance gains over the cheaper Radeon RX 580, making it less attractive from a pure value-per-dollar perspective.

The Radeon RX 590 Fatboy by XFX represents the third iteration of AMD’s Polaris architecture, migrating to an optimized 12nm FinFET manufacturing process to squeeze out higher clock rates than its predecessor, the RX 580. While this process shrink helps the card compete more effectively against Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060, the architectural gains were utilized strictly to boost performance—resulting in an official Total Board Power (TBP) increase from 185W to 225W. From a design standpoint, XFX reused its existing RX 580 GTS Black Edition PCB and cooling technology to save development costs, creating a thick 2.5-slot card with simple black plastic aesthetics, horizontally arranged cooling slats, and an added 6-pin power connector next to the standard 8-pin port. The primary pros of the RX 590 Fatboy center on its performance gains, delivering up to a 12 to 15 percent clock-rate increase out of the box while maintaining compatibility with existing third-party cooling solutions. It features a robust memory setup of 8GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit interface and provides practical display connectivity, including a legacy DVI-D port for users with older...

The Hardware Canucks review labels the AMD Radeon RX 590 as a holiday-season placeholder card that showcases impressive performance gains over its main competitor, the NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB. Moving to TSMC's 12nm manufacturing process allowed AMD to aggressively push the aging Polaris architecture to a base clock of 1469MHz and a boost clock of 1545MHz. Pros include its ability to comfortably handle 1440P gaming where the GTX 1060 struggles, offering a direct 10-15% performance improvement over the older RX 580. Additionally, the $279 introductory price tag was sweetening by an excellent $180 value game bundle including vouchers for Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil 2, and The Division 2. However, these performance boosts come with substantial cons, primarily centered around a massive total board power consumption of 225W. This "biblical" power draw matches the high-end RTX 2080 while delivering only a third of its frame rates. This extreme inefficiency forces partner models, like the reviewed XFX RX 590 Fatboy, to utilize a bulky 2.5-slot cooling design and a 6 pin power connector configuration, meaning it is not a simple...

The AMD Radeon RX 590 is a mid-range graphics card that updates the older Polaris architecture using a newer 12nm FinFET manufacturing process. This process shrink allows the GPU to achieve much higher clock speeds within a similar power envelope compared to the RX 580, successfully filling a pricing gap between $200 entry-level cards and $400 high-end options. Custom partner models like the XFX FATBOY and PowerColor Red Devil leverage this update by offering heavy factory overclocks—reaching up to 1600MHz and 1576MHz respectively—alongside massive three-slot cooling solutions featuring dual 100mm fans, thick copper heat-pipe arrays, and dual-BIOS functionality for silent or performance tuning. Pros and Cons Pro: Higher factory-overclocked boost speeds up to 1600MHz out of the box. Pro: Flexible dual-BIOS options on select models for customized silent or performance targets. Pro: Excellent display connectivity including three DisplayPorts, an HDMI port, and a DVI port. Con: High physical footprint requiring a bulky triple-slot space in PC cases. Con: Louder fan noise levels and increased power draw when operating under heavy overclocked profiles. Con: Lacks structural hardware changes, using identical core...

The Techgage review of the AMD Radeon RX 590 highlights the card as a 12nm, 12% faster refresh of the Polaris architecture, offering strong 1080p and capable 1440p gaming performance for $279 USD. Key pros include a 10-15% performance increase over the RX 580, excellent value, and a bundled game package. Conversely, the review notes significant drawbacks, particularly high power consumption resulting from the overclocked, older architecture. Furthermore, the XFX Fatboy variant is criticized for its bulky 2.5-slot design, leading to high thermal output under load.

The AMD Radeon RX 590 brings modest improvements to the midrange sector by utilizing TSMC's enhanced 12nm FinFET Polaris 30 architecture. Delivering great 1080p performance at ultra settings, the card achieves decisive wins over Nvidia's competing GTX 1060 6GB in titles like Deus Ex, Forza, and Hitman, outperforming it by about 10 percent overall. It features a boost clock of 1545MHz and 8GB of GDDR5 memory, making it a capable option for 1440p gaming at tweaked medium/high settings. A standout pro is its strong initial game bundle, which includes codes for Resident Evil 2, The Division 2, and Devil May Cry 5, offering significant added value for new PC builds. However, the card represents only a minor upgrade over the older RX 580 while carrying a higher MSRP. This price gap is further highlighted by heavily discounted RX 580 8GB cards available on the market, making the 590 a tougher sell for users who already own a competent midrange GPU. Additionally, the RX 590 falls short in power efficiency compared to Nvidia's Pascal architecture; it draws considerably more power, a...

The Radeon RX 590 is AMD’s first mainstream gaming graphics card built on a 12nm FinFET manufacturing process, designed to fill the performance gap between the older Radeon RX 580 and the premium Radeon RX Vega 56. Despite utilizing a newer GlobalFoundries 12nm node, the card remains rooted in AMD's aging fourth-generation Graphics Core Next (Polaris) architecture, maintaining the exact same architectural configuration—2,304 stream processors, 144 texture units, and 32 ROPs—as the RX 580 and RX 480. Consequently, all performance improvements stem purely from increased operating frequencies; the tested XFX Fatboy OC+ model achieves a boost clock rate of up to 1580 MHz, representing a 25 percent clock speed increase over the original RX 480. While this allows the card to effectively beat Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions, it pushes the hardware into steep diminishing returns, raising the official board power to a demanding 225W. Evaluating its overall market value highlights distinct structural advantages alongside notable engineering tradeoffs. On the positive side, the card delivers excellent gaming performance that surpasses both the RX 580...

The Eurogamer review benchmarks the AMD Radeon RX 590 at reference speeds against the RX 580 and Nvidia GTX 1060, positioning it as a highly capable mainstream GPU. Tested across ten demanding games, the card excels at 1080p resolution, frequently delivering over 60 frames per second (fps) in heavy titles like Battlefield 1 (101 fps average) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (89 fps average). It also provides tenable, entry-level 1440p gaming performance, successfully pushing past the 60 fps threshold in Wolfenstein 2 (67 fps average) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (60.5 fps average). Generational comparisons show that the RX 590's elevated 1545MHz boost clock speed grants it a consistent 10% to 20% performance lead over its closest competitors in optimized titles like The Witcher 3. The major pros of the Radeon RX 590 include its generous 8GB of VRAM and excellent frame-rate stability during intense, action-heavy scenes. Its high memory capacity prevents severe performance drops at higher resolutions, unlike the 6GB GTX 1060 which severely choked down to 7 fps in Assassin's Creed Odyssey at 4K. However, the...

ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX 590 8G OC Review Summary The ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX 590 8G OC is a cost-reduced, mainstream graphics card powered by the 12nm Polaris 30 GPU architecture, running at a default boost clock rate of 1560 MHz with 8GB of GDDR5 memory. It delivers great gaming performance at 1920 x 1080 resolution and occupies a dual-slot form factor, making it notably more compact and shorter than competing triple-slot models like the XFX Fatboy. A major highlight is that it represents the least-expensive Radeon RX 590 variant available on the market, offering five display outputs (two DisplayPort, two HDMI, and one DVI) and utilizing a simple, easy-to-use Phantom Gaming Tweak software utility to customize performance. However, the card suffers from substantial design trade-offs, most notably a lightweight aluminum heatsink that requires an aggressive fan curve, resulting in an exceptionally loud acoustic profile under load. It also demands heavy power consumption—drawing 232W during gaming workloads—which surpasses the power draw of AMD's reference Radeon RX Vega 56 and pushes its single eight-pin power connector well...

The XFX Radeon RX 590 Fatboy features a factory overclocked core clock speed of 1,580MHz, representing a modest two percent performance bump over standard specifications, while keeping its 8GB of GDDR5 memory at the stock speed of 8Gbps. Built on a 6 phase power design, this 2.5-slot card features an entirely LED-free, black-and-red plastic shroud paired with a rigid metal backplate. For connectivity and system integration, it includes three DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, one HDMI, and one dual-link DVI-D port, and it requires both an 8-pin and a 6-pin PCIe power connection to satisfy its 225W baseline TDP. The primary advantages of this graphics card include its "free" out-of-the-box performance increase and its lack of polarizing RGB lighting, which may appeal to minimalist builders. Additionally, it offers comprehensive direct cooling via thermal pads for all memory modules and MOSFETs, along with an included set of black adapter cables for older power supplies. On the downside, the physical design is notably bloated, expanding well beyond standard PCI bracket heights and thickness constraints. The heatsink itself is critique-worthy for being small relative to...