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AMD Radeon RX 580

AMD Radeon RX 580 in 2025: Is it worth getting a legend from the past?

Review of the graphics card for budget gamers and enthusiasts

1. Architecture and Key Features

Polaris Architecture: A Time-Tested Foundation

The AMD Radeon RX 580, released back in 2017, is based on the Polaris (GCN 4.0) architecture. Despite its age, this platform remains popular due to its balance of price and performance. The card is manufactured using a 14nm process, which seems outdated for 2025 but explains its affordability.

Unique Features: Modest but Practical

The RX 580 does not support hardware ray tracing (RTX) or neural network technologies like DLSS. However, it is compatible with AMD FidelityFX—a set of optimizations to enhance graphics (such as FSR 1.0) and increase FPS. Support for FreeSync ensures smooth gameplay on monitors with adaptive synchronization.

2. Memory: Speed vs. Modern Standards

GDDR5: A Classic in the Budget Segment

The RX 580 comes equipped with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. The bandwidth is 256 GB/s, which is half of what modern cards with GDDR6 offer. This is sufficient for 1080p gaming but may lead to performance drops at 1440p and 4K due to limited speed.

Memory Size: Room for the Future?

8 GB is surprisingly ample for a card from 2017. It allows running even demanding titles from 2025 at medium settings without critically lacking VRAM.

3. Gaming Performance: What Can the RX 580 Show in 2025?

1080p: Comfortable Gaming

In popular games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Elden Ring, the RX 580 delivers 35-45 FPS at high settings. In less demanding titles (Fortnite, Apex Legends), it achieves stable 60-80 FPS. For smoother gameplay, it’s better to use medium presets or FSR in "Performance" mode.

1440p and 4K: Is it Worth It?

At 1440p, FPS drops to 25-35 in AAA titles, which is acceptable only for casual gaming. 4K is for those with iron nerves: even with FSR, the card barely reaches 20-25 FPS.

Ray Tracing: Not for Polaris

Hardware ray tracing is absent on the RX 580. Software methods (for example, through DirectX 12 Ultimate) strain the GPU to 90-100%, dropping FPS to unplayable levels.

4. Professional Tasks: Modest Potential

Video Editing and 3D Modeling

For work in Premiere Pro or Blender, the RX 580 is suitable at a basic level. Rendering complex scenes will take longer than on modern GPUs. OpenCL support allows for task acceleration, but there are no CUDA cores (like those found in NVIDIA cards).

Scientific Calculations: Not the Best Choice

The card can handle simple simulations, but for machine learning or Big Data, it’s better to choose models with ROCm support (current Radeon Pro or NVIDIA with CUDA).

5. Power Consumption and Heat Generation

TDP 185W: A Power-Hungry "Retiree"

The RX 580 requires a quality power supply (at least 500W with an 8-pin connector). Partner versions (like Sapphire Nitro+) manage cooling more efficiently, reducing noise to 32-38 dB under load.

Cooling Tips

- Use a case with good airflow (2-3 intake fans).

- Regularly clean the heatsink from dust.

- Replace thermal paste if the card has been in use for more than 3 years.

6. Comparison with Competitors

Direct Competitors in 2025

- NVIDIA GTX 1650 Super (4 GB GDDR6): less memory, but more energy-efficient (TDP 100W). Falls short in 1080p.

- AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (4 GB GDDR6): newer, but 4 GB of VRAM limits performance in modern games.

Modern Alternatives

For $200-250, you can find RX 6600 or Intel Arc A580—they offer ray tracing support and higher FPS.

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply: Don't Skimp!

Choose models with 80+ Bronze certification and overload protection (Corsair CX550, EVGA 500 BQ).

Compatibility with Platforms

- PCIe 3.0 x16: works on PCIe 4.0/5.0, but without speed gains.

- OS Support: drivers are current for Windows 10/11 and Linux (AMDGPU).

Drivers: Stability vs. Newness

Use WHQL versions to minimize errors. Avoid beta updates if you’re not prepared for bugs.

8. Pros and Cons

✅ Pros:

- Low price ($120-150 for a new card in 2025).

- 8 GB VRAM for budget gaming.

- Support for FreeSync and FSR.

❌ Cons:

- High power consumption.

- No hardware ray tracing.

- Outdated architecture.

9. Final Conclusion: Who Is RX 580 For?

This graphics card is a choice for:

- Budget Gamers looking to play at 1080p on medium settings.

- Owners of old PCs wanting to upgrade their systems without replacing the PSU.

- Enthusiasts building "retro" systems based on 2010s components.

Why Consider RX 580 in 2025?

It is affordable, reliable, and still handles most tasks adequately. However, if you plan to play new releases in 2026-2027, it's advisable to look at modern GPUs like the RX 7600 or RTX 3050.

Prices are current as of April 2025. New RX 580 cards can still be found for sale, but the main availability is concentrated on the secondary market.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

April 2017

Model Name

Radeon RX 580

Generation

Polaris

Base Clock

1257MHz

Boost Clock

1340MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

5,700 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.

144

Foundry

GlobalFoundries

Process Size

14 nm

Architecture

GCN 4.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

8GB

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.

256bit

Memory Clock

2000MHz

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.

256.0 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.

42.88 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.

193.0 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.

6.175 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.

385.9 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.

6.299 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.

2304

L1 Cache

16 KB (per CU)

L2 Cache

2MB

TDP

185W

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

1x 8-pin

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

450W

Benchmarks

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2160p

Score

17 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p

Score

36 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1080p

Score

51 fps

Battlefield 5 2160p

Score

28 fps

Battlefield 5 1440p

Score

53 fps

Battlefield 5 1080p

Score

76 fps

GTA 5 1440p

Score

61 fps

FP32 (float)

Score

6.299 TFLOPS

3DMark Time Spy

Score

4451

Hashcat

Score

204331 H/s

Compared to Other GPU

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2160p / fps

GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER

47 +176.5%

Radeon RX 6600 XT

39 +129.4%

RTX A2000

26 +52.9%

Radeon RX 580

GeForce GT 1030

1 -94.1%

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1440p / fps

GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

95 +163.9%

Radeon RX 5700 XT

75 +108.3%

RTX A2000 12 GB

54 +50%

Radeon RX 580

GeForce GT 1030 DDR4

7 -80.6%

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1080p / fps

GeForce RTX 3070

141 +176.5%

Arc A770

107 +109.8%

GeForce RTX 2060

79 +54.9%

Radeon RX 580

GeForce GT 1030 DDR4

12 -76.5%

Battlefield 5 2160p / fps

GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile

56 +100%

Radeon RX 5600 XT

46 +64.3%

Radeon RX 5500 XT

34 +21.4%

Radeon RX 580

GeForce GT 1030 DDR4

1 -96.4%

Battlefield 5 1440p / fps

Radeon RX 6600

100 +88.7%

Radeon RX Vega 56

91 +71.7%

GeForce RTX 3050 8 GB

66 +24.5%

Radeon RX 580

Radeon RX 550

14 -73.6%

Battlefield 5 1080p / fps

Radeon RX 5700 XT

139 +82.9%

Radeon RX 5600 XT

122 +60.5%

Radeon RX 5500 XT

90 +18.4%

Radeon RX 580

Radeon RX 550

20 -73.7%

GTA 5 1440p / fps

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti

153 +150.8%

GeForce RTX 3070

103 +68.9%

GeForce GTX 1070

82 +34.4%

Radeon RX 5600 XT

62 +1.6%

Radeon RX 580

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

RTX A1000

6.872 +9.1%

GeForce GTX TITAN X

6.557 +4.1%

Radeon RX 580

6.299

RTX A1000 Mobile 6 GB

5.954 -5.5%

Instinct MI6

5.796 -8%

3DMark Time Spy

RTX A3000 Mobile 12 GB

8089 +81.7%

GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

6135 +37.8%

Radeon RX 580

4451

GeForce GTX 1060 Max Q

3388 -23.9%

GeForce GTX 1630

2060 -53.7%

Hashcat / H/s

Quadro P5000

245484 +20.1%

Arc A380

210867 +3.2%

Radeon RX 580

204331

Radeon R9 290X

204127 -0.1%

GeForce GTX 980

196096 -4%