Custom PC - UK (2020-04)

AMD RADEON

RX590 /£165 inc VAT

SUPPLIER scan.co.uk

T

he Radeon RX 590 was something

of a last gasp for the company’s

Graphics Core Next architecture.

Designed as a drop-in upgrade for OEMs, the

GPU could be used on existing RX 580 board

designs. Indeed, the GPU is basically just an RX

580 with a die shrink and clock speed boost.

Over a year since launch – and many years

since the GCN architecture debuted – and this

card is seriously showing its age, but hefty

price drops mean it still has some merit.

The major downside to this older

architecture, though, is woefully bad power

efficiency. This card tops the power usage

charts in this group test by some margin,

despite it being far from the fastest. That’s

why our sample XFX card also required two

large fans and a hefty heatsink equipped with

four heatpipes to keep it cool. You’ll also need

plenty of additional power, with both a 6-pin

and an 8-pin PCI-E power socket sitting on the

top edge of this card.

When it comes to gaming performance,

though, the surprisingly low price means this

card can defy its age, consistently delivering

performance that beats the GeForce GTX

1650 Super, GTX 1660 and RX 5500 XT. In

this regard, it’s a standout bargain for cards

of its class. However, we really

can’t ignore that power

consumption, plus this

clocked-up GPU

also gets very

hot, requiring

substantial cooling

On our sample

XFX Fatboy card,

the large cooler

also stretches beyond

the width of two PCI-E

slots, so you’ll need to give

over three slots to accommodate it. The cooler

isn’t too noisy, but it’s massive. XFX has at least

made good use of the extra bulk of this card,

though, by equipping it with three DisplayPort

sockets as well as an HDMI and DVI. The

addition of a DVI port reduces the ventilation

through the backplate though.

What’s more, opting for this older GPU

(or indeed any AMD GPU at the moment)

means you miss out on the buzz feature of the

moment, in the form of hardware ray-tracing

support. While some of Nvidia’s cheaper

cards also omit this feature – or only have it in

a compromised form – AMD’s cards simply

don’t support it at all at the moment. In coming

years, the already aging architecture of this

GPU will also see it becoming less futureproof.

Conclusion

At first glance, everything about the AMD

Radeon RX 590 suggests it shouldn’t be much

of a contender. It’s an old card based on an old

architecture that’s infamously power-hungry

and lacks the allure of hardware ray-tracing

support. However, sheer gaming performance

and a very low price mean it’s surprisingly

competitive, even now. What’s more, unlike most

sub-£200 graphics cards, it also comes with

8GB of memory. If you can afford to stretch your

budget, you’ll be much better off overall saving

up for a GTX 1660 Super, but if there’s no slack,

the Radeon RX 590 is currently a cracking 1080p

gaming card for a surprisingly reasonable price.

VERDICT

A surprise price/performance champion,

but spending just a little more money

will get you more features and far lower

power consumption.

PERFORMANCE

37 / 50

RAY TRACING

0 / 10

OVERALL SCORE

70 %%

EFFICIENCY

4 / 10

VALUE

29 / 30

SPEC

Graphics processor AMD Radeon RX 590,

1469MHz base clock, 1580MHz boost clock

Pipeline 2,304 stream processors, 32 ROPs

Interface PCI-E 3

RT Cores 0

Tensor Cores 0

Memory 8GB GDDR5, 8GHz effective

Memory interface 128-bit

Bandwidth 256GB/sec

Outputs/inputs 3 x DisplayPort

1.4, 1 x HDMI 2b, 1 x DVI-D

Power connections 1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin

RADAR

+^ Good 1080p^

performance

+^ Low price

+^ 8GB of memory

SEMAPHORE

-^ No ray tracing
-^ Very high power
consumption
-^ Needs lots of
cooling power

AMD RADEON

RX590/£165 inc VAT

SUPPLIERscan.co.uk

T

he Radeon RX 590 was something

of a last gasp for the company’s

Graphics Core Next architecture.

Designed as a drop-in upgrade for OEMs, the

GPU could be used on existing RX 580 board

designs. Indeed, the GPU is basically just an RX

580 with a die shrink and clock speed boost.

Over a year since launch – and many years

since the GCN architecture debuted – and this

card is seriously showing its age, but hefty

price drops mean it still has some merit.

The major downside to this older

architecture, though, is woefully bad power

efficiency. This card tops the power usage

charts in this group test by some margin,

despite it being far from the fastest. That’s

why our sample XFX card also required two

large fans and a hefty heatsink equipped with

four heatpipes to keep it cool. You’ll also need

plenty of additional power, with both a 6-pin

and an 8-pin PCI-E power socket sitting on the

top edge of this card.

When it comes to gaming performance,

though, the surprisingly low price means this

card can defy its age, consistently delivering

performance that beats the GeForce GTX

1650 Super, GTX 1660 and RX 5500 XT. In

this regard, it’s a standout bargain for cards

of its class. However, we really

can’t ignore that power

consumption, plus this

clocked-up GPU

also gets very

hot, requiring

substantial cooling

On our sample

XFX Fatboy card,

the large cooler

also stretches beyond

the width of two PCI-E

slots, so you’ll need to give

over three slots to accommodate it. The cooler

isn’t too noisy, but it’s massive. XFX has at least

made good use of the extra bulk of this card,

though, by equipping it with three DisplayPort

sockets as well as an HDMI and DVI. The

addition of a DVI port reduces the ventilation

through the backplate though.

What’s more, opting for this older GPU

(or indeed any AMD GPU at the moment)

means you miss out on the buzz feature of the

moment, in the form of hardware ray-tracing

support. While some of Nvidia’s cheaper

cards also omit this feature – or only have it in

a compromised form – AMD’s cards simply

don’t support it at all at the moment. In coming

years, the already aging architecture of this

GPU will also see it becoming less futureproof.

Conclusion

At first glance, everything about the AMD

Radeon RX 590 suggests it shouldn’t be much

of a contender. It’s an old card based on an old

architecture that’s infamously power-hungry

and lacks the allure of hardware ray-tracing

support. However, sheer gaming performance

and a very low price mean it’s surprisingly

competitive, even now. What’s more, unlike most

sub-£200 graphics cards, it also comes with

8GB of memory. If you can afford to stretch your

budget, you’ll be much better off overall saving

up for a GTX 1660 Super, but if there’s no slack,

the Radeon RX 590 is currently a cracking 1080p

gaming card for a surprisingly reasonable price.

VERDICT

A surprise price/performance champion,

but spending just a little more money

will get you more features and far lower

power consumption.

PERFORMANCE

37 / 50

RAY TRACING

0 / 10

OVERALLSCORE

70 %%

EFFICIENCY

4 / 10

VALUE

29 / 30

SPEC

Graphics processor AMD Radeon RX 590,

1469MHz base clock, 1580MHz boost clock

Pipeline 2,304 stream processors, 32 ROPs

Interface PCI-E 3

RT Cores 0

Tensor Cores 0

Memory 8GB GDDR5, 8GHz effective

Memory interface 128-bit

Bandwidth 256GB/sec

Outputs/inputs 3 x DisplayPort

1.4, 1 x HDMI 2b, 1 x DVI-D

Power connections 1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin

RADAR

• 
  

  Good1080p
  performance

  
  


• 
  

  Lowprice

  
  


• 
  

  8GB of memory

  
  

SEMAPHORE

• Noraytracing


• Very high power
  consumption


• Needs lots of
  cooling power