The AMD Radeon RX 590 Review, feat. XFX & PowerColor: Polaris Returns (Again)
by Nate Oh on November 15, 2018 9:00 AM ESTPower, Temperature, and Noise
As always, we'll take a look at power, temperature, and noise of the Radeon RX 590. As a custom-only specification, this means that we will be looking at solely AIB vendor designs. With the RX 590, we already know what to expect with existing RX 580 boards and coolers.
As this is a new GPU, we will quickly review stock voltages and clockspeeds as well.
| AMD RX Series Video Card Voltages | ||||
| Boost | Idle | |||
| Radeon RX 590 | 1.1563V | 0.8000V | ||
| Radeon RX 580 | 1.1625v | 0.7625v | ||
| Radeon RX 480 | 1.0625v | |||
Power Consumption
For all the gaming performance gains that the RX 590 has made, it came with the higher clockspeeds, and to bring those higher clockspeeds came more power. Already, TBPs have notably increased from the RX 480's 150W to the RX 580's 185W, and now to the RX 590's 225W. Which is already past RX Vega 56's 210W reference board power spec.
Idle power consumption doesn't show anything out of the ordinary.
The RX 590's load power consumption is a slightly different story. For the RX 580 launch, we mused that this is where AMD paid the piper. For the RX Vega launch, I commented that the piper had then taken AMD to the cleaners. For the RX 590 today, I thought there wasn't any more the piper wanted to take, but there was.
From the wall, the RX 590 now pulls 30 to 45W more than the RX 580 in Battlefield 1. The difference in FurMark is even starker, with the RX 590 now drawing 45 to 80W more. Naturally, the power delta gets higher when comparing to the RX 480, let alone the GTX 1060 6GB FE. In Battlefield 1, that's 110W or more system consumption than the GTX 1060 6GB FE for what is panning out to be around 10% faster performance. It's clear that the RX 590 is not in the same league - or anywhere close - to the GTX 1060 in terms of power efficiency.
Temperature
With all that power, heat and temperature can easily become an issue. But as both a non-reference launch and a product refresh, the featured open air axial fan designs are tried-and-true, and already configured to dissapate similar thermals.
Noise
Likewise with noise, the RX 590 can benefit from zero dB functionality, where fans turn off under certain temperatures.
Additionally, a quick glance at RX 590 power consumption at -25% and -50% power limits show that like the RX Vega, RX 480, and RX 580, Polaris 30 is well past the optimal point on the voltage curve with the clocks at hand.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
136 Comments
View All Comments
wumpus - Saturday, November 17, 2018 - link
Diminishing returns, sure. But the improvements are still there. Oddly enough, it looks like 2080ti Battlefield (raytraced edition) has a choice of [low] 1080P raytraced (at 72Hz) vs. super high resolution and/or frequency. I'm curious what buyers pick (assuming their cards don't fail).Don't forget the value of a big screen for 2d and "immersive" effects. I certainly loved going from 1024x768 15" to 1600x1200 19" (CRTs)_, even though it would be ages before GPUs would catch up to those resolutions (the 19" CRT likely predated by Voodoo card).
Can't tell about 1366x768, I went straight from CRT land (at least 1600x1200 and beyond) to 1080P and wouldn't touch 1366 (unless on a laptop). The 2d benefits are enough, although you might consider a second monitor, or simply find a sufficiently large 4k TV (60Hz *real* frequency minimum, and make sure the HDMI interface can take 60HZ) for 2d use.
Spunjji - Sunday, November 18, 2018 - link
I'd argue that point happens somewhere between 1080p and 1440p - the difference between 1080p and lower resolutions is painfully stark, especially when it comes to representation of textures. YMMV depending on screen size and preference, of course, but it sounds like you might want an update prescription :)sean8102 - Tuesday, December 18, 2018 - link
As someone who finally upgraded from 1080p to 1440p (27 inch IPS monitor for both, 75 Hz / or 60 Hz 10 bit on my new 1440p). I was very surprised at the difference. I was not expecting it to be very noticeable, but it def is . It's not night and day but its def a nice bump up in sharpness. But the main thing I love is the extra screen space. I also went from ivy bridge 3770K to 8700K. I'm hoping my EVGA GTX 1080 (regular not Ti) can last me at least 6 more months. Till the end of next year would be even better. So far so good, I don't mind bumping one or two settings down as long as I can get close to max settings and a mostly steady 60 FPS.HardwareDufus - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
I'm the same way...Hard $200 cap on SSDs, Video Cards, Motherboards and CPUs. However, I might bend on the CPU next time out. I was flexible when I purchased my current I7-3770K many years back.. I paid about $300 for it.
I'm hoping we get an 8 core / 16 thread Ryzen with onchip Vega graphics... Problem is no manufacturer will put two HDMI 2.0 ports on a decent mITX motherboard.
AndrewDarnell - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/7xz2fw/psa_o...NomanA - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Vega 56 is between $350-400 in US. There are higher priced Vega 56s as well, but you can find them below $400.limitedaccess - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
This is available for $370 at Newegg.ca currently.There are GTX 1070s between $450 - $500.
mapesdhs - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
It seems the NPCs are happy to follow NVIDIA's push to shove the entire pricing stack upwards, mainstream becomes $600. Oh dear.Btw, used 980 Tis are a decent alternative. Only just a little bit slower than a 1070 FE but usually about the same or cheaper than the 590 via normal auction. Not as much as VRAM as a 590, but I doubt that matters much at this level.
PeachNCream - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
NPCs?Spunjji - Sunday, November 18, 2018 - link
It's a derogatory term that implies an individual is a "non-player character", doomed to wander around following instructions and being led by others. You'll mostly see it used in an unintentionally ironic way by the alt-right to describe anyone who doesn't reside in their echo chambers.In this case I sort-of endorse the point, because I too am frustrated by the willingness of many in the supposedly tech-savvy enthusiast community to swallow this ridiculous and unnecessary price inflation.