AMD is on a roll as-of-late. Not only has the company pulled things back in the CPU market to better compete against Intel but it's also gearing up for the upcoming Vega announcement to hit back at Nvidia. Unfortunately, while we're still holding off for the latter, AMD has in the meantime decided to launch a new batch of GPUs in the RX 500 series to offer affordable and capable 1080p and 1440p gaming experiences.
As noted by Engadget, the RX 480 is more than capable of Virtual Reality and 1080p/1440p gaming, but the RX 500 series of cards will take gaming to 60 frames per second and above. The RX 580, which is the most powerful card in the mid-range series, will be able to achieve this, according to AMD. The company is also releasing the RX 570, 560, and 550.
These cards aren't only more efficient than the RX 400 series of GPUs, thanks to being 2nd-gen Polaris chips built on 3rd-gen 14nm FinFET architecture, they're also clocked at higher speeds. It gets interesting when you look at the RX 560, however. This GPU is rocking Polaris 11 and thus enjoys gains in more areas than mere efficiency and increased clock speeds. The 550 is even more unique thanks to sporting Polaris 12.
Starting with the RX 580, prices start from just $199 with 4GB of VRAM ($229 for 8GB), while the 570, 560, and 550 will set you back $169, $99, and $79, respectively. Availability commences from today for the 580 and 570, while the 550 comes out on April 20 and the 560 will reportedly arrive in May. If you're holding out for a GTX 1080 competitor offering, we're afraid you'll have to continue waiting for Vega. Still, AMD is killing it in the mid-range sector by bolstering its affordable collection of GPUs.
