AMD has a new range of graphics cards in the form the AMD RX 580, RX 570, RX 560, and RX 550. All, bar the new RX 550, are slightly tweaked versions of the 400-series that debuted with RX 480 in June and feature the company's 14nm Polaris architecture.

The RX 580 and RX 570 launch today at an MSRP of £185 and £165 for a 4GB version (8GB will also be available). The 2GB RX 560 launches in early May for £99, while the 2GB RX 550 launches on April 20 for a wallet-friendly £80.

While some might call the 500-series a rebrand, AMD says an improved 14nm FinFET manufacturing process has helped it push up clock speeds. The reference design RX 580, which features the same core specs as the RX 480 including 36 compute cores and a 256-bit memory interface, is clocked at 1257MHz and boosts to 1340MHz. That's just over 100MHz higher than the RX 480.

There are similar clock speed improvements across the entire 500-series, although partners are expected to push those clocks even higher. Indeed, AMD will not be producing any reference cards, so expect generally higher prices than the MSRP, but also better performance.

AMD is pitching the 500-series at those on a typical two-year upgrade cycle. Versus the R9 380X, AMD claims the RX 580 is as much as 57 percent faster, and will easily push over 60FPS at 1440p in several titles. It comes in faster than Nvidia's GTX 970 to boot. The RX 570, which is aimed at 60FPS 1080p gaming, is as much as 2.3X faster than the R7 370 according to AMD. The RX 560, aimed at e-sports players, is around 57 percent faster than the R7 360.

Bringing up the rear of the range is the new RX 550. Like the RX 560 it doesn't require additional board power to function, which makes it a handy upgrade for off-the-shelf PCs. It features a 1180MHz boost clock, eight compute units, and 2GB of GDDR5 memory with a 128-bit interface. The RX 560 is pitched as an ideal upgrade for those running integrated graphics, with as much as four times the performance of integrated graphics solutions like Intel HD 530.

While the 500-series is not the most exciting of upgrades, it's good value. A recent spate of driver improvements has made the RX 480 (and thus, hopefully, the RX 580) extremely competitive with Nvidia's GTX 1060, particularly when price is taken into account. They all also support Freesync, as well as HDR and 4K. Those after a better bargain might even be able to pick up a 400-series card on the cheap as retailers clear out old stock.