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Radeon-RX480-Feature2

AMD launched an entire refresh wheel of its midrange graphics cards today. While our review focuses on the RX 580, AMD is too shipping new SKUs for the RX 460 and 470, equally well as a new part, the RX 550. Let's pace through what'south changed for these fries, and what the updates mean for gamers in these market segments.

RX 560 and RX 570

The RX 560 and RX 570 are both iterative improvements of the RX 460 and RX 470 GPUs AMD launched about a year agone. Both Anandtech and Hot Hardware included the RX 570 in their reviews, and it broadly shows the aforementioned blueprint as the RX 580 — which is to say, performance is improved by ~12 percent, the GPUs are quieter (thanks to improved cooling solutions relative to AMD'due south reference designs on the RX 470 / RX 480), and they throttle much less. The flip side is that these GPUs do fire more than power. Anandtech'south review implies that the RX 570'due south power curve is a flake improve than the RX 580s, meaning the gap between the stock RX 470 and a custom, overclocked RX 570 is about x percent smaller than the equivalent gap between a stock RX 480 and an overclocked RX 580. Since the RX 570 is also clocked lower than the RX 580, this fits our theory that Polaris is slamming into the acme of its frequency curve. Nosotros don't know how much headroom is left in these chips, but we're fairly sure tapping it will burn larger and larger amounts of ability relative to measured functioning improvement.

RX570

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The RX 570 is positioned between the upper-end of the GTX 1050 Ti's price range and the lesser of the GTX 1060 3GB's. The 1050 Ti is decidedly outclassed by the RX 570, while the 1060 3GB is more of a toss-up. Every bit Eurogamer's results evidence, at that place are comparisons where AMD wins that match and others where it loses.

The RX 460 is a bit different from its predecessor, in that it now has more bachelor GPU cores and a college clock speed.

RX560

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The RX 460 had 896 cores, 56 texture mapping units, and 16 ROPS (896:56:16). The RX 560 is a 1024:64:16 design with a base of operations clock of 1175MHz compared with the RX 460's 1090MHz, for a proceeds of 8 percent. Heave clocks have also increased by half dozen per centum.

Betwixt the additional cores and the higher clocks, the RX 560 should exist a strong update to the RX 460. AMD is claiming that the RX 560 should be on store shelves by early May with an SEP of $100 for a 2GB card. The RX 460 isn't as fast every bit Nvidia's GTX 1050 or GTX 1050 Ti, just the RX 560's college clocks and expanded core counts should help AMD'due south budget GPU compete more finer. If OEMs offering mill overclocked cards, we could come across the RX 560 unseating the GTX 1050 every bit the budget GPU of pick. It'll likewise help if 4GB cards end up in the $100 – $120 cost range — currently the cheapest RX 460 with a 4GB frame buffer is $109 at Newegg.

The RX 550, aka Polaris 12

Finally, AMD is shipping an RX 550 for the first time, to ballast the sub-$100 market place. AMD and Nvidia haven't put much focus on this infinite for several years — near people who buy hardware in this toll bracket use an integrated GPU. AMD's GPUs in this price band have been based on Greatcoat Verde (GCN 1.0) or Oland (GCN 1.x — it's a variant betwixt GCN 1.0 and 1.1, with some, but non all, of Hawaii's features).

RX550

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AMD hasn't released much data about the RX 550 yet. Nosotros know it'due south built on a new GPU, codenamed Polaris 12, with a boost clock of 1175MHz, 512 cores, and 2GB of VRAM. The memory bus is still 128-bit, and the RX 550 reportedly has 32 texture mapping units, or TMUs.

The biggest factor in the RX 550's operation is probably its ROP count. The R7 250X was significantly faster than the R7 250 because it fielded a 640:40:16 core every bit opposed to a 384:24:8 core. If AMD uses 16 ROPs (512:32:16), the RX 550 should easily win past the R7 250X. If AMD only uses 8 ROPS, functioning predictions go a skilful deal murkier.

RX550-Perf

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Either way, it's much faster than AMD'southward R7 250. This new GPU is beingness positioned as an entry-level gaming GPU, with HDMI 2.0b support, HEVC and 4K playback adequacy, and as being available in low-profile designs for SFF grade factors where your ability to upgrade your GPU may be sharply limited by space. It'southward also an obvious attempt to win laptop designs, where ability is at a premium.

Determination

AMD isn't doing anything fundamentally new with its RX 5xx refresh cycle, but both the RX 560 and RX 570 should exist noticeably faster than their predecessors, improving the company's competitive opinion against Team Green.

Radeon-Comparison

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The RX 550 isn't likely to exist a major profit center. Only there are people who like PC gaming, but tin't afford to spend much coin on hardware. If you're stuck on an old R7 250, we expect the RX 550 to offering drastically better operation for well under $100. Exactly how closely information technology matches the RX 560 will depend on how many ROPs the GPU is configured with.