The AMD Radeon RX 590 Review, feat. XFX & PowerColor: Polaris Returns (Again)
by Nate Oh on November 15, 2018 9:00 AM ESTFar Cry 5 (DX11)
The latest title in Ubisoft's Far Cry series lands us right into the unwelcoming arms of an armed militant cult in Montana, one of the many middles-of-nowhere in the United States. With a charismatic and enigmatic adversary, gorgeous landscapes of the northwestern American flavor, and lots of violence, it is classic Far Cry fare. Graphically intensive in an open-world environment, the game mixes in action and exploration.
Far Cry 5 does support Vega-centric features with Rapid Packed Math and Shader Intrinsics. Far Cry 5 also supports HDR (HDR10, scRGB, and FreeSync 2). This testing was done without HD Textures enabled, a new option that was recently patched in.
Far Cry 5 shows the same trends as Battlefield 1, with the RX 590 splitting the difference between the GTX 1070 FE and GTX 1060 6GB FE. At 1440p, that level of performance brushes close to the 60fps milestone, not a surprising feat as the original RX 480 8GB proves itself on par with the GTX 1060 6GB FE. Like Battlefield 1, this is the general space that the RX 580 wants to be in, where its performance can act as a spoiler for the GTX 1070 FE and mitigate increased prices and power draw.
As we'll see later, the lower VRAM options in this upper mainstream segment make it clear that 8GB is really the new level of broadly sufficient video memory, especially for cards expected to be in service for a few years. As it so happens, Far Cry 5 released a free 29GB patch adding toggleable HD Textures, which we will look into benchmarking. Generally, high-resolution texture packs are a simple way of increasing visual fidelity without significantly hurting framerates, provided the card has enough framebuffer. This can especially benefit those mainstream cards, particularly those on 1080p rendered on larger displays, as every passing year is often another exercise in figuring out what quality settings to dial down.
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eva02langley - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Who the hell is using SFX?There is plenty of small form factor case using regular ATX standard.
Unless you use Silverstone cases, SFX is not even a matter.
JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
I am using a Silverstone case and a SFX power supply. Not that either of the two matter in regards to an RX590 announcement.duploxxx - Friday, November 16, 2018 - link
hard to find any psu below 500w these days....Gasaraki88 - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Unless the 1060 GDDR5X version comes out... which is soon.eva02langley - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
GDDR5X is only having an impact at higher resolutions than 1080p... which the 1060 GTX is clearly not aiming at.eva02langley - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Exactly, this is selling at the same price as a 1060 GTX and offer a game bundle, it is brainless and right before christmas.Unlike a lot of people here, I think it is the best new card of the year. RTX was such a disaster and especially more with BF5 benchmarks.
ragenalien - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Still viable for smaller cases that have stricter heat requirements.Uelmo - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
I bought my GTX titan X I bought in mid 2016 for cheaper than current price rtx 2080 ti , it's sad that GPU advancement has slowed , my card can still good with best :(goatfajitas - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Boy oh boy, if AMD keeps pushing like this by next year they will be as fast as Nvidia was in 2016.mapesdhs - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Problem is, far too many gamers just don't buy AMD even when they do have something genuinely competitive or objectively better. Many people use them merely as a means of buying a cheaper NVIDIA option when the latter drops its prices. I've even seen people say such dumb things as they hope AMD will release something good so they can buy a cheaper NVIDIA card. With such a consumer mindset, there's no incentive for AMD to target the high end at all. AMD are going after the mainstream, which is where the volume is. If they can do well there then they can build the brand recognition and aim higher later.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guK2XoFbPFw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USMlET3L7mA