A better Polaris is here

AMD has officially taken the wraps off of their new RX 500-series of graphics cards, giving gamers even more choices when it comes to equipping their rigs with modestly priced hi-performance silicon. These aren’t the long awaited Vega-powered GPUs, as they’re still based on AMD’s venerable Polaris GPUs.

While the new cards are based on the Polaris GPUs, they’re built on AMD’s third-generation 14nm process, which in turn gives the cards way higher clock speeds than last year’s RX 400 cards. For example, the headline RX 580 has a 1.257MHz base clock, which is the same clockspeed as the RX 480’s maximum clock. The RX 580 has a 1,340MHz boost clock as well.

AMD is also putting a premium on pricing these new GPUs well within the reach of the regular gamer, with the RX 580 8GB VRAM model having a $229 (Php 11.3K) price tag. The 4GB variant of the RX 580 goes for $200 (9.9K), while the RX 570 (aimed at gamers who spend the majority of their time in full HD) is priced at $169 (Php 8.3K). The RX 560 is priced at $99 (4.9K) while the cheapest of the bunch, the RX 550 is priced at $79 (Php 3.9K).

AMD won’t be selling reference cards for the new RX 500 series, and will instead rely on partners like ASUS, MSI and the rest to create their own cards. As with most GPU announcements, keep in mind that the cards that will be sold in the Philippines may carry higher price tags thanks to factors like exchange rate and the like.