The AMD Radeon RX 590 Review, feat. XFX & PowerColor: Polaris Returns (Again)
by Nate Oh on November 15, 2018 9:00 AM ESTAshes of the Singularity: Escalation (DX12)
A veteran from both our 2016 and 2017 game lists, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation remains the DirectX 12 trailblazer, with developer Oxide Games tailoring and designing the Nitrous Engine around such low-level APIs. The game makes the most of DX12's key features, from asynchronous compute to multi-threaded work submission and high batch counts. And with full Vulkan support, Ashes provides a good common ground between the forward-looking APIs of today. Its built-in benchmark tool is still one of the most versatile ways of measuring in-game workloads in terms of output data, automation, and analysis; by offering such a tool publicly and as part-and-parcel of the game, it's an example that other developers should take note of.
Settings and methodology remain identical from its usage in the 2016 GPU suite. To note, we are utilizing the original Ashes Extreme graphical preset, which compares to the current one with MSAA dialed down from x4 to x2, as well as adjusting Texture Rank (MipsToRemove in settings.ini).
With Ashes, the RX 590 performance uplift over the RX 580 pays off in terms of beating its main competition, the GTX 1060 6GB. The lead is slim enough, however, that custom GTX 1060 6GB cards could easily make up the difference. With the price premium the RX 590 has over the GTX 1060 6GB, the reference GeForce is a little too close for comfort.
While not particularly known as a VRAM-eater, Ashes at 1440p brings down the GTX 960 and its anemic 2GB framebuffer, though it wouldn't be managing playable framerates anyhow.
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rtho782 - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
So, a 16% increase in price since June 2016, 30 months ago, gets us 22% higher clocks with the same memory bandwidth, and 50% more power consumption.I'm not very excited by this for some reason.
Galcobar - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
It's likely a reference to the Harley-Davidson Fatboy, which is a big cruiser even by HW standards. Probably hoping to capitalize on its continuing media presence in such productions as Sons of Anarchy and Terminator Genisys (not so much Wild Hogs).Galcobar - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Bother, replied to the wrong comment...Dr. Swag - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Who in the world thought xfx fatboy was a good gpu name?!?"Hey I was thinking of buying the fatboy."
"Dude the fatboy actually runs pretty cool."
Seriously wtf is that name?
plonk420 - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
it would have been an amazingly awesome promo if Fallout 76 came with it...PeachNCream - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Yes, that's some awful branding and who knows how that one found its way onto a retail box. The name on the box doesn't mean anything in relationship to the card's performance, but someone over at XFX was smoking something good and someone else was asleep at the approval button helm.ianmills - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
If we think of electricity as food I think fatboy is a great name for the 590!PeachNCream - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Hah, that's a good (and funny) point!Galcobar - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
It's likely a reference to the Harley-Davidson Fatboy, which is a big cruiser even by HW standards. Probably hoping to capitalize on its continuing media presence in such productions as Sons of Anarchy and Terminator Genisys (not so much Wild Hogs).PeachNCream - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
It seems derogatory in any case, as if a clever way to toss out an insult in the general direction of the customers. As for media presence, I don't know. I've heard of Terminator movies before, but haven't seen anything past the second movie. Sons of Anarchy, I think is a cable TV series IIRC, but not as many people pay attention to television. For instance, I haven't even owned a television in the last 18 years and don't bother with streaming media aside from the occasional YouTube clip. It seems that aside from the very old, that's more the norm than the exception. As well, I think those big motorcycles aren't very popular either. Isn't the company that sells them in a little financial trouble these days?