Final words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

You know, I like what MSI did with the new MECH 2 series. For both cards the boost clock is the primary clock that sticks, the cooling performance is quite okay and the noise levels I'd label to be excellent for the RX570, and good for the RX580. Both cards also tweak well, our RX580 reached 1550 MHz stable, which is pretty sweet. So yeah, 14 nanometer Ellesmere GPU is here once again, yes that is Polaris and in this case, Polaris certainly has had a good run for the money. While still very capable, the GPU itself is showing age though. But it was interesting to perform the review. MSI has to deal with what AMD offers, and they did pretty well. MSI placed a focus on an improved cooling series. The VRM design now has 8-phases, it has one 8-pin power connector. Where they goofed up is that closed backplate, I have no doubt it'll trap heat on that side which makes me wonder if that peak 75 Degrees C on that RX580 could have been lower with some backplate vents. None the less, these cards do perform roughly at close to reference performance levels and it is given or take as fast as a GeForce GTX 1060, but that depends a little on the game title.

Aesthetics

Looks wise, well, you can't complain, while the red and black elements closely resemble the gaming X series, the looks do differ. Overal it is a good looking card though, with subtle black colored PCB and also a subtle MSI LED lit logo that can be changed in color (default to white). I've had my say about the backplate already, while it's a poor design for heat, it does look better and apparently, MSI figured it prevailed over cooling. Pro for looks and a bit more protection, con as in it can trap heat. Consumer demand is always decisive, and you guys clearly like graphics cards with backplates in the year 2018.

Performance

The Radeon RX 570 and RX 580 are a small notch faster compared to the reference RX 470 and 480, but really a bit all over the place; fast in fill-rate limited games, a little less with GPU stringent ones but overall you are looking at a product that still competes with the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and 1060. The 8GB model is often in performance bracket of the Radeon R9 390 series as well. Overall, even in the year 2018, any RX580 8GB is a good choice for 1080p and 1440p gaming where the RX570 is more in that 1080p territory. It was good to see that the cards did not throttle down.

Pricing

Value wise the Radeon RX 580 is still selling in exactly the same price bracket as when it was released due to the mining craze, which is kind of crazy when you think about it. AMD traditionally always tries to offer that little extra value wise. The Radeon RX 580 8GB as tested today will be a 299 USD / € 329,- product with thus roughly similar prices throughout the EU. That price is fairly spot on with the 6 GB GeForce GTX 1060. The RX 570 will be roughly 40 bucks cheaper. 

Cooling and Noise levels

The RX 580 MECH2 comes factory tweaked at a notch on its boost allowance, it, however, is a small bump. The card sticks to that frequency most if not all of the time hence that helps you a bit in performance. Under load, the temperature seems to hover at roughly 75 Degrees C under full stress. That's merely a small notch below the reference cooler. With the heat pipes, the fans need to compensate and increase fan RPM. The result is that the RX580 cooler overall was slightly audible under high load whereas the RX570 remained totally silent. Both cards exhibited merely small amounts of coil whine, we doubt you'd hear that in a closed chassis.

Power Consumption 

We rate the RX580 at roughly a ~190 Watts TDP measured under full gaming load. The RX570 was in the 170 Watts range under load. Both a bit above reference, but hey nothing out of the ordinary I'd say. The number will vary a bit depending on the clock state (throttle) but also if you overclock the product you'll pass that value with a decent amount. Keep in mind that this figure is indicative as some games utilize a bit more, others a little less. 

Overclocking

Overclocking wise you'll get the RX570 card at roughly at 1450~1475 MHz on the GPU. The RX580, however, did an amazing 1550 MHz, and that is really good. Both cards kept their clock state and did not throttle as the cooler can keep the cards under its threshold. Memory wise both cards reached 9.0 Gbps on the 8GB memory, and both cards benefit from that greatly. So there's some cheap performance gain to be found there as MSI left the memory clocks at reference frequencies. Overall these are satisfying results.

Final Words

Yeah, it feels a little weird to test two 'new' RX 570 and 580 cards really. I mean the GPUs might be called Ellesmere, but these are the very same Polaris GPUs we tested back in June 2016, where we reviewed the first Polaris based Radeon RX 480. Last year in April 2017 we reviewed the RX 580 series. So here we are, June 2018 still testing that GPU series. Granted, it still holds up well in pretty much any game given the right resolution of course. Polaris (Ellesmere) is a better-binned GPU, it is the same series that is used in the RX 480, but fabbed on a better more refined fabrication node - yielded and thus offering higher clock frequencies. That does mean it's a factory tweaked product series. That also shows a bit in power consumption. This card hovers at the 180~200W Watt marker while gaming depending if you tweak it or not. From a  design point of view as well as aesthetics and cooling, hey I have little to complain as it's all good. And at Quad HD 2560x1440 you're still fine with the RX 580 really. So I can still recommend the product series from AMD as it does offer decent performance and features with an excellent software suite in the year 2018. The MSI Radeon RX 570/580 MECH2 8G OC hold up well up-to roughly that WQHD resolution domain if you like to tweak it manually, you'll get a little extra out of it. The new MECH2 series is available as we speak, and sure, come recommended.

Recommended  Downloads

• MSI AfterBurner
• 3DMark FireStrike + Time Spy (2016)
• Download AMD Radeon drivers
• Download GeForce drivers

Sign up to receive a notice when we publish a new article
Or go back to Guru3D's front page