PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 580 8GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Price

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is here at last, and there are many variants of it hitting the market today. The Power Color Red Devil is one of the more expensive options, and you can expect a retail price of around $250/269EUR.  What’s interesting is that the older RX480 which this is based on costs around the same, meaning you’re getting more performance for the same money. It’s also slightly cheaper than most of the Nvidia GTX 1060’s on the market right now, and since the RX 580 is a little faster than the equivalent Nvidia card in most tests, that makes it very good value for money overall.

Overview

There’s no hiding the fact that this card is basically a re-tooled RX480, we’ve known it’s a rebrand for a while now. However many similarities are there, but there are quite a few changes too. Power Color, in particular, used the same PCB as their Red Devil RX 480, but they added significantly improved power delivery and MOS, which allows the card to run more efficiently and at higher clock speeds with improved stability. They’ve also upgraded the cooling capabilities of the card, and that means it can maintain those higher clock speeds with ease, while still keeping the card well within a comfortable thermal target.

Speaking of thermal performance, the fact this card can run complete silent up to 60c is very impressive. Even while benchmarking we noticed the fan would only spin up after a few minutes of heavy benchmarking, and that speaks volumes about the quality of the heat sink. If you’re keen to have a quiet computer, it’s an appealing option. Of course, with Radeon Chill technology built-in, as well as a growing list of games which support it, you can drastically cut the power usage and thermals of your card by not having the GPU core work any harder than is needed to hit your target frame rate.

Other very welcome technologies include FreeSync 2, making it ready for the newest FreeSync displays hitting the market. Display connectivity options on the back of the card are excellent too, so a wide variety of displays will work without issue. Those who really want to move onto the next-gen of PC monitors, or even hook up the graphics card to their new 4K TV will find support for high resolutions, as well as HDR video output, which is something I certainly welcome.

Regarding performance, the card is right on the money to appeal to most consumers. The card is a little faster and a little cheaper than the Nvidia GTX 1060 in most benchmarks, while also being faster and similarly priced compared to the RX 480 too; this makes it a welcome improvement for the AMD lineup. If you’ve bought a new GPU in the last 6 months, even the last 18 months, perhaps the RX 580 isn’t the upgrade you’re waiting for. However, if you’re part of a large number of gamers still using 2 years+ old mid-budget graphics cards, the price versus performance ratio offered by the RX 580 makes it a great option for those who want to play the latest games with the latest technologies, but don’t want to spend a small fortune.

Pros

• Competitive performance
• Great price
• Mute Fan Technology
• Quiet fans under full load
• Gorgeous two-piece metal shroud
• Unique and durable backplate design
• Great connectivity
• Improves on RX 480 performance
• Supports FreeSync 2, Chill, HDR, and more!

Cons

• High power consumption

Neutral

• Ghost Recon: Wildlands performance needs improvement, we expect a driver update will fix this.

“The Power Color RX 580 takes an already competitive graphics card (RX 480) and makes it just that bit better in every respect. With plenty of modern features, fantastic gaming performance and a competitive price, it’s a very good time for some gamers to stop putting off that long-overdue GPU upgrade.”

PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 580 8GB Graphics Card Review