Today AMD unveils its refined Polaris architecture with Radeon RX 500 series.

AMD Radeon RX 500: Polaris 20 XTR, XTX and XL

Has Polaris architecture been refined, has it evolved? Well, there is only one way to find out, by reading actual reviews and those are coming later today.

Okay, but what’s XTR, XTX and XL? Those are Polaris 20 graphics processor variants. It may an important factor for your purchase. If you are after best performing Radeon RX 580 graphics card, grab XTR-based model, if you just want RX 580 on a budget, get XTX version instead.

But how to distinguish one from the other? Well, unless the manufacturer specifically states it’s XTR, it may be hard to guess. Basically, any model going past 1400 MHz out of the box is likely XTR-based and there aren’t that many of those. In other words, Polaris 20 XTR is basically highest-binned chip designed for best performance. Some reviewers will be using XTR cards others will have XTX-based samples. Unfortunately, that’s all we know right now.

Radeon RX 580 and Radeon RX 480 share similar specs, but there are few differences. The first thing is higher boost clock (1340 MHz vs 1266 MHz). The new dual-fan reference card has a new board equipped with a single 8-pin power connector, also TBP has been increased to 185W (I guess that explains where did higher clock come from).

AMD has not changed memory clock speed for RX 580 (which is still 8 Gbps), but RX 570 memory clock has been modified to 7 Gbps (vs 6.6 Gbps).

When it comes to cheaper cards, the RX 550 and RX 560 are using different Polaris chips. The RX 560 has full Polaris 11 (1024 cores vs 895 on RX 460), whereas the RX 550 has cut-down Polaris 12.

The following chart lists all Radeon RX 500 cards, we will add official prices and missing specs as soon as they are confirmed.

AMD Radeon RX 500 Series Specifications April 18th 2017 Radeon RX 580 Radeon RX 570 Radeon RX 560 Radeon RX 550 GPU Polaris 20 XTR/XTX Polaris 20 XL Polaris 11 Polaris 12 Cores 2304 2048 1024 512 TMUs 144 128 64 32 ROPs 32 32 16 16 Base Clock 1257 MHz 1168 MHz 1175 MHz – Boost Clock 1340 MHz 1244 MHz 1257 MHz 1183 MHz Memory Clock 8000 MHz 7000 MHz 7000 MHz 7000 MHz Memory 8/4 GB G5 8/4 GB G5 4/2 GB G5 4/2 GB G5 Memory Bus 256-bit 256-bit 128-bit 128-bit Bandwidth 256 GB/s 224 GB/s 112 GB/s 112 GB/s Typical Board Power 185W 150W 80W 50W MSRP 229 USD 169 USD 99 USD 79 USD

Fastest AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics cards

SAPPHIRE RX 580 8GB NITRO+ Limited Edition Specs provided by VideoCardz.NET Database GPU : Polaris 20 XT(X/R) Base Clock : 1256 MHz Cores : 2304 Boost Clock : 1450 MHz (+8.2%) TMUs : 144 Memory Clock : 8 Gbps ROPs : 32 Memory : 8 GB GDDR5 256b



MSI RX 580 8GB GAMING X PLUS Specs provided by VideoCardz.NET Database GPU : Polaris 20 XT(X/R) Base Clock : 1256 MHz Cores : 2304 Boost Clock : 1441 MHz (+7.5%) TMUs : 144 Memory Clock : 8.1 Gbps (+1.3%) ROPs : 32 Memory : 8 GB GDDR5 256b





GIGABYTE RX 580 8GB AORUS XTR Specs provided by VideoCardz.NET Database GPU : Polaris 20 XT(X/R) Base Clock : 1256 MHz Cores : 2304 Boost Clock : 1439 MHz (+7.4%) TMUs : 144 Memory Clock : 8 Gbps ROPs : 32 Memory : 8 GB GDDR5 256b





POWERCOLOR RX 580 8GB Red Devil Golden Sample Specs provided by VideoCardz.NET Database GPU : Polaris 20 XT(X/R) Base Clock : 1256 MHz Cores : 2304 Boost Clock : 1425 MHz (+6.3%) TMUs : 144 Memory Clock : 8 Gbps ROPs : 32 Memory : 8 GB GDDR5 256b





XFX RX 580 8GB GTS BLACK EDITION Specs provided by VideoCardz.NET Database GPU : Polaris 20 XT(X/R) Base Clock : 1256 MHz Cores : 2304 Boost Clock : 1425 MHz (+6.3%) TMUs : 144 Memory Clock : 8.1 Gbps (+1.3%) ROPs : 32 Memory : 8 GB GDDR5 256b

