Hardware21.04.2017

AMD Radeon RX 500 vs RX 400 graphics cards – South African pricing

By Jamie McKane

AMD has launched its Radeon RX 500-series graphics cards, refreshing its Polaris GPU line-up.

The cards are aimed at the market segment occupied by AMD’s Radeon RX 400-series graphics cards.

AMD’s new generation of mid-range cards are built on the same architecture and 14nm manufacturing process as the RX 400 series, which have been out for less than a year.

We compared the specifications, performance, and South African pricing of the two graphics card line-ups, below.

Specifications and Pricing

Card	Cores	Base Clock	Boost Clock	Memory	Bandwidth	TDP	Price
Radeon RX 500 Series
RX 580	2,304	1,257MHz	1,340MHz	8GB GDDR5	256GB/s	185W	R4,389
RX 570	2,048	1,168MHz	1,244MHz	4GB GDDR5	224GB/s	150W	R3,203
RX 560	1,024	1,175MHz	1,275MHz	2GB/4GB GDDR5	112GB/s	80W	$99
RX 550	640	–	1,287MHz	2GB/4GB GDDR5	112GB/s	50W	$79
Radeon RX 400 Series
RX 480	2,304	1,120MHz	1,266MHz	4GB/8GB GDDR5	256GB/s	150W	R4,389
RX 470	2,048	926MHz	1,206MHz	4GB/8GB GDDR5	211GB/s	120W	R3,393
RX 460	896	1,090MHz	1,200MHz	2GB/4GB GDDR5	112GB/s	75W	R2,254

Performance

We used information from AnandTech’s benchmark database to compare the performance and value of the two graphics card ranges.

Benchmark data for the RX 560 and RX 550 were not available at the time of writing, and the comparison focuses on the two higher-end cards from each generation.

Average FPS was calculated using benchmark data from eight modern games running at a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080.

The price was divided by the average frames per second to output a price-per-FPS value score – with a lower number indicating better value for money.

Graphics card pricing was sourced from Rebel Tech.

Card	Average FPS	Price	Price-per-FPS (Lower is better)
RX 580	66.5	R4,389	66
RX 570	60.1	R3,203	53
RX 480	64.5	R4,389	68
RX 470	57.3	R3,393	59

From the benchmark data, it is apparent that AMD’s Radeon RX 500-series graphics cards offer better performance at the same price when compared to the previous-generation cards.

The pricing and performance comparison makes it difficult to justify buying a Radeon RX 400-series card in South Africa, unless the price begins to fall.

The Radeon RX 460 continues to be a good-value low-end GPU, but it is set to be outshined by the imminent launch of the Radeon RX 560 and RX 550.