Earlier this month, it was revealed that AMD was set to launch yet another version of their 590 graphics card. Coining the name ‘GME’, not many details were known about it at the time. Not even one of the most basic questions such as what ‘GME’ actually stood for!
In a report via Videocardz, however, further details have emerged and while ‘GME’ still remains a moderate mystery, what seems pretty clear is that this graphics card is so weird, it’s bordering on being just outright silly!
So, what do we know about this graphics card? Well, the details are a bit wide and varied (and still open to some speculation). So what I’m going to do is lay out some of the information below and then we can determine what we think about it afterward.
So, starting with manufacturing partners, we know that there will be at least 4 AMD 590 GME’s produced. Sapphire, XFX, Powercolor, and ASRock are all confirmed to be producing a version of this card.
What about clock speeds? Well, while there is no 100% confirmed figures as of yet, it seems pretty much guaranteed that GME cards will be notably slower than their standard ‘590’ counterparts. Roughly about 5-10% depending on your source. This is (at least in part) due to the fact that they utilize Polaris 20 (14nm). Yes, the GME will use a weaker version of AMD’s already seemingly ancient graphics architecture than that seen in the standard 590 GPU release.
So, can this be overcome with overclocking? Well, apparently not. One review source has claimed that even attempting a moderately tepid 80MHz boost (a speed that would still have it slower than the standard 590) resulted in some major problems.
Based on all of this information, the only conclusion we can draw is that this graphics card basically boils down to not really being a 590 at all. While we’re not saying that AMD is outright deliberately attempting to muddy the waters, is this a 590? No, it’s (at least based on this information) a slightly faster 580!
Should this be a problem for consumers though? Well, the chances still seem likely that this 590 GME will never be sold outside of Asia. That market is, after all, still pretty desperate for inexpensive and generally ok graphics cards.
If this does hit Western shores, however, then based on what we know so far, it seems to be one of the silliest, pointless and perhaps (dare we say) disingenuous GPU releases AMD has made! Harsh words I know, but is this really a 590? Because the details (at the time of writing) certainly seem to suggest not!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
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