Radeon rx 580 benchmarks: Radeon RX 580 Revisit: Is This the Graphics Card to Buy in 2021?

Radeon RX 580 Revisit: Is This the Graphics Card to Buy in 2021?

2021 has been a rough year for gamers, particularly those looking for a new graphics card. If you already have a half decent GPU, then it’s just been disappointing and perhaps a bit frustrating that you can’t turn your cold hard cash into extra FPS. But for those of you who are rocking a super old graphics card, or don’t have one at all, things might be getting desperate.

If you’re in that group of people, we’ve been recommending to avoid paying excessively high scalper prices for a shiny new Ampere or RDNA2 GPU, and instead look at the second hand market where you’re still getting rolled, but you’ll end up losing a lot less money.

Take the GeForce RTX 3070 for example, it’s meant to cost $500 but due to limited supply and high demand just getting your hands on one for any price is extremely hard. Over at eBay people are selling them for well over $1000, most models fetch between $1300 and $1400. Even the RTX 3060 is regularly selling for over $800.

That’s an insane markup but with virtually zero chance of snapping up a $500 model over at places like Newegg or Amazon, some gamers are taking the hit. This is why we’ve been recommending you get rolled on a much cheaper and older second hand graphics card like the Radeon RX 580 8GB. When we made that recommendation last time, you could snap one up for around $300, today though they’re more like $400+. Insane, right?

If you land an RX 580 8GB for even $500, under normal market conditions you’d be able to sell it for at least $100, so you’d potentially lose $400 on that transaction. But if you pay $1300 for an RTX 3070, which should only be worth $500, you’d stand to lose $800.

Let’s say the goal is to secure RTX 3070 performance, but you can’t afford to drop over $1000 on a graphics card. Buying the RX 580 now in hopes that in a year from today, RTX 3070-like performance will be achievable for $500, that transaction will end up costing you $900 in total, $400 for the hit on the Radeon, and then $500 for the new graphics card in a year’s time.

The alternative should you have $1300 right now, is to just buy the RTX 3070, it’ll cost around $400 more than the second hand stop-gap scenario, but you can enjoy 3070-like performance today. Or I suppose you could continue hanging in there and try to get a 3070 at a more reasonable price, but good luck with that.

The Radeon RX 580 8GB option only makes sense if you can’t afford to spend more than $500 on a graphics card and you have no way of gaming right now. So I guess the next question is, just how well does the RX 580 8GB handle games in 2021?

Rather than do our usual revisit where we compare the RX 580 head-to-head with the GTX 1060 6GB or a range of newer GPUs, today’s comparison is going to be very different and not something we’ve done before. That’s because the reality today is different, and it doesn’t matter how the RX 580 compares to other GPUs given you either can’t buy them or they cost too much, even on the second hand market.

All you really need to know is, how well does the RX 580 perform and to answer that question we’ve tested 17 games at 1080p and 1440p using three quality presets. Testing was conducted on our Ryzen 9 5950X test system using 32GB of DDR4-3200 CL14 memory, so the results are going to be entirely GPU limited.

Let’s get into it…

Benchmarks

We’ll start with one of the most graphically demanding games released in the last year, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. For those targeting 1080p the RX 580 is good for over 60 fps using the medium quality preset and over 70 fps with the lowest quality preset.

The high preset provides a great balance of visuals and performance, and here we’re looking at 52 fps on average, a frame rate that most gamers would deem acceptable for this type of single player title.

If you’re after a 1440p gaming experience, then the medium or lowest quality presets will be in order as you’re looking at just 38 fps on average with high. As for the very high and ultra high presets, I skipped testing those as they won’t be suitable for use with the RX 580.

In summary, this game still looks great even with the medium quality setting so you can certainly enjoy this game with an RX 580.

Those of you after a competitive experience will get that with the RX 580 in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, even at 1440p using the high quality preset you’re looking at over 100 fps on average.

For those of you with high refresh rate 1080p panels, the medium preset allowed for 200 fps on average with a 1% low of 159 fps. Given most gamers would opt to play Rainbow Six Siege using a blend of medium to low quality settings, the RX 580 is more than powerful enough here.

The most recently released game I’ve used for testing is Biomutant and I was shocked by not just how good this game looked, but also by how well it ran on the RX 580, pushing over 60 fps at all times at 1080p using the high quality preset. The only higher option is the ‘max’ preset but given how good the game looks on high, I see little need to go there, especially when using a ‘make do’ type solution like the RX 580.

From medium to high you can boost performance by 34% and at 91 fps on average at 1080p gameplay was very smooth, or you can enjoy 58 fps on average at 1440p if you’re after that higher resolution experience. Overall I was impressed by just how well the RX 580 handled this new title.

Outriders is another new title and it proved to be quite demanding using the high quality settings. Here the RX 580 was only good for 57 fps on average, though the game was of course playable. For those gaming at 1080p the medium quality preset looks to be the best balance of visuals and performance and although we’re only looking at a 17% increase from high, 67 fps on average is much smoother.

If you’re interested in prioritizing performance though, the low quality preset will boost frame rates by a further 34% to 90 fps on average. In my opinion the low quality preset is required at 1440p, but if you’re happy with 44 fps on average, then the medium preset will offer a nice visual upgrade.

Horizon Zero Dawn is another visually impressive and demanding game at that, but it plays quite well at 1080p using the RX 580, though do note we’re going to ignore the ‘ultimate quality’ preset.

With the favour performance preset enabled, the RX 580 rendered 79 fps at 1080p and 57 fps at 1440p, both acceptable for this type of game. The original preset allowed for a smooth 70 fps at 1080p, though the 1440p results were a bit sketchy at 49 fps. Then when favoring quality I recommend gaming at 1080p as here the RX 580 will still deliver 58 fps.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider was released in late 2018, so it’s kind of old at this point, but it’s still visually appealing, and as such demanding even on modern GPUs. We skipped the high and highest presets and opted for lowest, low and medium instead. As is the case with most of these games, visually it still looks good even on medium settings.

The RX 580 was good for 62 fps on average at 1080p and 44 fps at 1440p. I’d probably go for the low quality preset as it boosted performance by about 30% at each resolution, allowing for 79 fps at 1080p and 57 fps at 1440p.

Doom Eternal is not only visually impressive, but also an exceptionally well optimized game. Using the nightmare preset which is the second highest, the RX 580 was good for 125 fps at 1080p and 93 fps at 1440p. So with almost all the bells and whistles the game played flawlessly at 1440p, impressive stuff.

Death Stranding was released in late 2019, but it remains one of the better looking games out there. I’ve skipped testing the very high preset which enables the highest level of visual settings, and instead tested the other three presets: default, medium and low.

Even with the default quality preset which you could call ‘high’, the RX 580 was good for 78 fps at 1080p and 56 fps at 1440p which was a smooth gaming experience.

Next up we have Dirt 5 where we tested the medium preset and here you can enjoy 53 fps on average with the RX 580 or 44 fps at 1440p, so not bad. The low preset is probably the best balance though as visually the game still looks quite good but fps performance is boosted by almost 20%.

Fortnite is a bit like Rainbow Six Siege in the sense that it’s a competitive multiplayer game that requires high frame rates and is often played using a mix of low to medium-type quality settings. That’s good news for those hoping to crank some 90’s with an RX 580 as you’re looking at 161 fps on average at 1080p with the medium quality settings and a whopping 238 fps with the low quality preset.

Even at 1440p the RX 580 was good for 102 fps on average with the medium quality settings and 160 fps using low. So for these competitive shooters that require high fps, the RX 580 is very suitable.

Watch Dogs: Legion was released late last year and here we’re skipping the two highest preset options, very high and ultra. The game still looks good using the high preset where the RX 580 delivers 58 fps at 1080p and 40 fps at 1440p. For roughly a 20% boost in performance the medium preset jacked frame rates up to 70 fps at 1080p and 48 fps at 1440p. Then the downgrade to low only boosted frame rates by 10%, so medium is probably the best option here.

Resident Evil Village is a new title with super impressive visuals, yet like Doom Eternal it plays exceptionally well on just about anything, probably because it’s been optimized to take advantage of ray tracing with the latest hardware.

It’s worth noting that I have tested with the highest possible preset, as well as medium and then low. With the max preset we’re still looking at 72 fps on average at 1080p. Even at 1440p you’re looking at 50 fps on average which is enough to enjoy the game. The balanced preset increases frame rates by 16-18% depending on resolution and then we see a massive uplift using the lowest preset.

One of the most demanding games we have on hand for testing is Cyberpunk 2077, even with the lowest possible in-game quality settings this one is tricky on older hardware. Using the low quality preset, which is the lowest preset there is, the RX 580 8GB was good for just 55 fps on average at 1080p. The game is playable, though it doesn’t look nearly as good as it could, but we’re going for a compromised option, so I guess that’s okay.

Medium does look very good and is technically playable at 1080p, though I’d say 1440p is out of the question. So this is about as bad as it gets for the RX 580.

Moving on, we have one the best optimized titles in Forza Horizon 4. This one manages to look great but also play at very high frame rates, even with an RX 580. Although we’re not testing with the ultra preset, the game looks stellar using high and here the 580 allowed for 88 fps on average at 1080p and 68 fps at 1440p.

The downgrade to ‘medium’ boosts performance by a little over 30 fps and now we’re getting into high refresh rate territory at 1080p. Then for an additional 40% or more performance, the very low preset works a treat.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order can be enjoyed at 1080p using the maximum quality preset, which has been labeled ‘Epic’. We’re looking at 61 fps on average at 1080p, 69 fps with the high preset and 83 fps using medium. Of course, 1440p is a lot more demanding, but even so using the medium preset the 580 was still good for 55 fps on average, so a good result overall.

F1 2020 isn’t particularly demanding despite looking very good. Using the highest graphics preset, ultra high, the RX 580 was able to render 86 fps on average and then 64 fps at 1440p. Frankly, that’s excellent performance and most games won’t require more in this title.

Dropping down to the medium preset did boost performance by 50-65% depending on resolution and at 1080p we’re now well into high refresh rate gaming territory.

Last up we have Apex Legends and like the other competitive shooters I’ve tested, this is a game where you probably aren’t that interested in the high preset, instead opting for medium or low. With an RX 580 you’ll be good for around 90 fps at 1080p using the medium preset, or consistently over 100 fps using low.

Those targeting 1440p will have to settle for a 60 fps-like experience using either the high or medium preset, while low will allow you to get up around 80 fps.

What We Learned

The Radeon RX 580 remains a capable gaming graphics card in mid-2021. Sure, it’s no RTX 3070, but for someone with $500 or less to spend on a graphics card, it’s one of the few options available at the moment.

When I was recommending a second hand RX 580 a few months ago in a Q&A segment, I was fairly comfortable doing so as they could typically be had for around $300. At $500 though, it seems a bit nutty, but then what’s the alternative? Are you comfortable spending more than twice as much on a 3070? It’s a tough call really and obviously there’s no great option to choose from.

We do have noticed GTX 1060 6GB cards can be had for around $300, so that might be worth looking into, and perhaps we’ll end up looking at the old mid-range Pascal GPU on a similar piece soon.

Last year we compared the two head to head in over 30 games and the RX 580 was just 5% faster on average, so assuming that still holds true today, the GTX 1060 would be the card to look out for.

It’s worth keeping in mind that we have no idea when the shortage situation will improve and by how much. You could wait it out and later this year have a much better option available at $500, or things could get worse, though we’re not sure there’s much more room to move in the ‘worse’ direction, dare I say it.

Point is, whatever you do it’s somewhat of a gamble, but at the end of the day if it allows you to unwind and enjoy some games it’s probably going to be worth it.

Personally I would have given it a few months to try and get an RTX 3070 or 6700 XT at a reasonable price before giving up and settling on a way-too-expensive second hand graphics card like an RX 580 or GTX 1060.

But please, do let us know what you’ve done or plan to do in the comments section. Also let us know what you thought about this benchmark covering multiple quality presets, rather than a head-to-head comparison with a competing GPU as we normally do.

Shopping Shortcuts:

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 on Amazon

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT on Amazon

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 on Amazon

AMD Radeon RX 6800 on Amazon

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X on Amazon

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X on Amazon

Radeon RX 580 [in 7 benchmarks]

Radeon RX 580

Buy

Interface PCIe 3. 0 x16

Core clock speed 1257

Max video memory 8 GB

Memory type GDDR5

Memory clock speed 8000

Maximum resolution

Summary

AMD started Radeon RX 580 sales 18 April 2017 at a recommended price of $229. This is Polaris architecture desktop card based on 14 nm manufacturing process and primarily aimed at gamers. 8 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 8 GHz are supplied, and together with 256 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-slot card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 241 mm. 1x 8-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 185 Watt.

It provides good gaming and benchmark performance at

30.29%

of a leader’s which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.

Radeon RX
580

GeForce RTX
3090 Ti

General info

Of Radeon RX 580’s architecture, market segment and release date.

Place in performance rating	165
Place by popularity	11
Value for money	20.11
Architecture	Polaris (2016−2019)
GPU code name	Polaris 20
Market segment	Desktop
Release date	18 April 2017 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$229
Current price	$211 (0. 9x MSRP)	of 49999 (A100 SXM4)

Value for money

To get the index we compare the characteristics of video cards and their relative prices.

Technical specs

Radeon RX 580’s general performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon RX 580’s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2304	of 18432 (AD102)
Core clock speed	1257 MHz	of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Boost clock speed	1340 MHz	of 2903 (Radeon Pro W6600)
Number of transistors	5,700 million	of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology	14 nm	of 4 (GeForce RTX 4080 Ti)
Thermal design power (TDP)	185 Watt	of 900 (Tesla S2050)
Texture fill rate	193. 0	of 939.8 (h200 SXM5)
Floating-point performance	6,175 gflops	of 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Information on Radeon RX 580’s compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it’s interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	241 mm
Width	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 8-pin

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on Radeon RX 580: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors don’t have dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	8 GB	of 128 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory bus width	256 Bit	of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	8000 MHz	of 21000 (GeForce RTX 3090 Ti)
Memory bandwidth	256.0 GB/s	of 14400 (Radeon R7 M260)

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon RX 580. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference video cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model.

Display Connectors	1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	+

API support

APIs supported by Radeon RX 580, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	6.4
OpenGL	4.6
OpenCL	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131

Benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance of Radeon RX 580. Note that overall benchmark performance is measured in points in 0-100 range.

Overall score

This is our combined benchmark performance rating. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

RX 580
30.29

Passmark

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

3DMark Fire Strike Score

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Passmark

This is probably the most ubiquitous benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 26%

RX 580
8922

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280×720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

RX 580
19274

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280×1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

RX 580
44344

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280×720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RX 580
82516

3DMark Fire Strike Score

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RX 580
11986

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature seemingly made of lava. Using 1920×1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic enough graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

RX 580
13927

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280×720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

RX 580
348952

Game benchmarks

Let’s see how good Radeon RX 580 is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD	97
1440p	43
4K	36

Popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Full HD
Medium Preset

Full HD
High Preset

Full HD
Ultra Preset

1440p
High Preset

1440p
Ultra Preset

4K
High Preset

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

30−33

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	58
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	30−33
Battlefield 5	124
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−33
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	83
Far Cry New Dawn	83
Forza Horizon 4	108
Hitman 3	30−33
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−33
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−33
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	74
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−33

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	47
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	30−33
Battlefield 5	102
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−33
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	76
Far Cry New Dawn	78
Forza Horizon 4	101
Hitman 3	30−33
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−33
Metro Exodus	48
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−33
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	63
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	72
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−33

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	34
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	30−33
Battlefield 5	93
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	71
Far Cry New Dawn	71
Forza Horizon 4	82
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	44
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−33

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−33
Hitman 3	30−33
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−33
Metro Exodus	28
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−33
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−33

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	30−33
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	30−33
Battlefield 5	30−33
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	30−33
Far Cry New Dawn	53
Forza Horizon 4	30−33
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−33

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−33
Hitman 3	30−33
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−33
Metro Exodus	18
Red Dead Redemption 2	30−33
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	20
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	27

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	18
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla	30−33
Battlefield 5	37
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	26
Far Cry New Dawn	29
Forza Horizon 4	41
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−33

Relative perfomance

Overall Radeon RX 580 performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN BLACK
102.41

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB
101.49

AMD Radeon R9 390
101.39

AMD Radeon RX 580
100

AMD Radeon RX 5500
99.01

AMD Radeon RX 480
97.36

AMD Radeon R9 295X2
96.37

NVIDIA equivalent

The nearest Radeon RX 580’s NVIDIA equivalent is GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB, which is faster by 1% and higher by 2 positions in our rating.

GeForce GTX
1060 5 GB

Compare

Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon RX 580:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z
102. 97

NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN BLACK
102.41

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB
101.49

AMD Radeon RX 580
100

NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN
91.42

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780
90.23

NVIDIA T1000 8 GB
87.82

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

Radeon RX
480

Compare

Radeon RX
5500 XT

Compare

Radeon R9
Nano

Compare

Radeon R9
390X

Compare

Radeon R9
Fury

Compare

GeForce GTX
970

Compare

Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with Radeon RX 580 according to our statistics.

Ryzen 5
2600

10.5%

Ryzen 5
3600

5.4%

Ryzen 5
1600

4.2%

Core i5
9400F

2.7%

Core i3
9100F

2.6%

Core i3
10100F

Core i5
10400F

Ryzen 5
2600X

1. 7%

Ryzen 3
1200

1.5%

Xeon E5
2689

1.4%

User rating

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.

Questions and comments

Here you can ask a question about Radeon RX 580, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

AMD Radeon RX 580 benchmarks: the Red Team’s 1080p contender

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is one of the best graphics cards for PC gaming right now, thanks to its excellent 1080p gaming performance and low price point. Compared to the more popular GTX 1060 6GB, it is more often than not both faster and less expensive. However, the GTX 1060 remains the most popular graphics card reported by Steam users, with the RX 580 not even getting a look in — a true tragedy.

In theory, the RX 580 should be able to hit 60 frames per second in most games at 1080p, making it a good option for getting console-quality graphics, or better, at double the frame-rate. To see how well theory lives up to reality, we’ll show you gaming benchmark results for ten different games, pitting the RX 580 against its closest mid-range competitors: the new (and more powerful) RX 590 and the best-selling GTX 1060 6GB. We’ll also compare the RX 580 to its AMD Radeon antecedents and descendants, including the Fury X, Vega 56 and Vega 64, towards the end of the article.

Which GPUs are worth buying? We’ve made our picks for the best graphics cards available, updated with the latest graphics cards as they’re released. As well as an overall performance champ, we name the best value graphics card and best cheap graphics card to guide your next upgrade.

It’s worth mentioning that there are no AMD-made reference models available for the RX 580 or RX 590, just partner boards that come with an assortment of out-of-the-box clock speeds. To get comparable results, especially with the reference GTX 1060, we’ve set our Radeon cards to their reference specifications in AMD’s Wattman software. That means that some RX 580 and RX 590 cards may offer better performance than is reflected here, in the region of three to seven per cent, with otherwise equivalent hardware.

Our review model of the AMD Radeon RX 580 is the Sapphire Nitro edition, pretty much the fastest example of the card out of the box, but we’ve set it to reference speeds.

	GPU cores	Boost clock	TFLOPS	Memory	Memory Bandwidth
RX 580	2304	1340MHz	6.2	4GB/8GB	256GB/s
RX 590	2304	1545MHz	7.1	8GB	256GB/s
GTX 1060	1152/1280	1708MHz	3.9/4.4	3GB/6GB	192GB/s

For each benchmark, you’ll see a YouTube video within a bespoke benchmark system unless you’re viewing this page on mobile. Start the video by pressing the play button, and you’ll see how each card handles the scene in real time. You can use the controls on the right to add or remove graphics cards from the comparison, as well as see how different cards perform at different resolutions.

Below the live graph, you can see the average results from the entire run, including the average frame-rate and the (often useful) worst one per cent and worst five per cent figures. You can click on the barchart to toggle between absolute and relative frame-rate values too.

You can learn more about how these benchmarks work and why we developed the system this way in our guide to the new Digital Foundry benchmarking system.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get right into the results!

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

The most recent Assassin’s Creed release, Odyssey, offers a punishing benchmark at its ultra high preset. The RX 580 manages to just about rumble through with a 36fps result, with the RX 590 and GTX 1060 providing successively higher frame-rates. Realistically, the high or medium presets would offer a significantly better gameplay experience, especially if you’re tempted to run the game at 1440p or ultra-wide resolutions.