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AMD Radeon RX 560X

AMD Radeon RX 560X: Budget Graphics Card for Undemanding Tasks

Analysis of capabilities, performance, and target audience in 2025

Architecture and Key Features

Architecture: The AMD Radeon RX 560X is based on an updated version of the GCN 4.0 (Graphics Core Next) architecture with optimizations for reduced power consumption. Although GCN is considered outdated compared to RDNA 2/3, AMD has retained it in the budget segment to minimize costs.

Manufacturing Technology: The chip is manufactured using a 12nm process (TSMC), allowing for slight improvements in energy efficiency compared to the original RX 560 (14nm).

Unique Features:

- AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR): Support for FSR version 2.2, which increases FPS in games through image upscaling.

- FreeSync: Adaptive synchronization to eliminate tearing.

- Lack of Hardware Ray Tracing: The RX 560X lacks ray tracing cores, which is typical for cards at this level.

Memory: Type, Capacity, and Impact on Performance

Memory Type: GDDR5 (not GDDR6). This is the card's weak point in 2025, as modern competitors have already moved to GDDR6.

Capacity: 4 GB — the minimum acceptable for low settings in gaming.

Bus and Bandwidth: A 128-bit bus provides 112 GB/s. For comparison, the NVIDIA GTX 1650 (GDDR6) has 192 GB/s.

Impact on Gaming:

- In VRAM-intensive games (e.g., Cyberpunk 2077), FPS may drop due to buffer overflow.

- In less demanding titles (CS2, Fortnite), 4 GB is sufficient for stable performance on medium settings.

Gaming Performance: FPS and Resolutions

The RX 560X is positioned as a solution for 1080p (Full HD). Examples of average FPS (settings "Medium"):

- Apex Legends: 45–55 FPS (FSR 2.2 Quality).

- GTA VI: 30–35 FPS (on low settings).

- Dota 2: 60–70 FPS (maximum settings).

- Elden Ring: 25–30 FPS (low settings + FSR).

1440p and 4K: Not recommended — the card struggles with these resolutions even with FSR enabled.

Ray Tracing: Not supported. Attempts to enable RT through software emulations (e.g., Proton for Linux) result in FPS dropping below 15 frames.

Professional Tasks: Video Editing, 3D, and Computing

Video Editing:

- In Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, the card handles rendering projects in 1080p, but more VRAM is required for 4K.

- Encoding acceleration through AMD AMF works, but is slower than NVIDIA NVENC.

3D Modeling:

- In Blender, the RX 560X shows modest results: rendering a scene in Cycles (OpenCL) takes 2–3 times longer than with an NVIDIA GTX 1660.

Scientific Computing:

- OpenCL support allows the card to be used for simple tasks, but the lack of specialized cores (like CUDA) limits its applicability.

Power Consumption and Thermal Output

TDP: 75 W — powered through the PCIe slot, no additional connector needed.

Cooling Recommendations:

- The standard cooler handles the load, but under heavy load, noise reaches 38 dB.

- For cases: choose models with at least one intake fan (e.g., Deepcool MATREXX 30).

Assembly Tips:

- Avoid compact cases without ventilation — overheating up to 85°C is possible.

Comparison with Competitors

- NVIDIA GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR6): 15–20% faster in games, priced at $160–180 (RX 560X — $130–140).

- Intel Arc A380 (6 GB GDDR6): Handles modern APIs (DX12, Vulkan) better, but requires a more powerful PSU (75 W vs. 90 W).

- AMD Radeon RX 6400: Newer but more expensive ($150) and limited to PCIe 4.0 x4, which reduces performance in older PCs.

Conclusion: The RX 560X only wins on price but falls short in technological advancement.

Practical Assembly Tips

1. Power Supply: A 400 W model is sufficient (e.g., EVGA 400 W1).

2. Compatibility:

- Supports PCIe 3.0 and 4.0.

- Works better on platforms with AMD processors (thanks to Smart Access Memory optimization).

3. Drivers:

- Use Adrenalin Edition 2025 with improved FSR 2.2 support.

- Avoid "raw" beta versions — artifacts in games may occur.

Pros and Cons of RX 560X

Pros:

- Low price ($130–140).

- Energy efficiency.

- Support for FSR 2.2.

Cons:

- Only 4 GB of outdated GDDR5.

- No hardware Ray Tracing.

- Weak performance in modern AAA games.

Final Conclusion: Who is the RX 560X For?

This graphics card is suited for those who:

1. Are building an office PC with the capability to run undemanding games.

2. Are looking for an upgrade for an old computer with a low-wattage PSU.

3. Are budget-constrained ($150).

Alternatives: If willing to spend an additional $30–50, it’s better to choose the NVIDIA GTX 1650 or Intel Arc A380 — they will provide greater performance headroom for the future.

Updated in April 2025. Prices are current for new devices in retail chains in the USA.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

April 2018

Model Name

Radeon RX 560X

Generation

Polaris

Base Clock

1175MHz

Boost Clock

1275MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x8

Transistors

3,000 million

Compute Units

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

GlobalFoundries

Process Size

14 nm

Architecture

GCN 4.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

4GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

128bit

Memory Clock

1750MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

112.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

20.40 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

81.60 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

2.611 TFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

163.2 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

2.559 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

1024

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

1024KB

TDP

75W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.2

OpenCL Version

2.1

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_0)

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.4

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Suggested PSU

250W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

2.559 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon HD 6970 X2

2.757 +7.7%

Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6

2.666 +4.2%

Radeon RX 560X

2.559

GeForce GTX 950 OEM

2.513 -1.8%

Quadro T1000 Max Q

2.467 -3.6%