If you’re after a budget-friendly graphics card that allows you to play your favourite games, then the Radeon RX580 is a card to consider. It packs a decent punch for its attractive price and has a few variants from AMD partners that are both eye-catching and powerful.

Snapshot

+ 8GB of memory

+ Fine-tuned version of the RX480

-More power-hungry than the Nvidia equivalent

Thanks to partners of AMD such as Gigabyte, Sapphire and ASUS there are many RX580 variants out there. Depending on what you’re wanting to use your GPU for and what your intentions are affect which card you opt for. However, AMDs base GPU performs admirably for a wallet-friendly option. It has 8GB memory which is an impressive amount at this price point and ensures the card has a good amount of memory to give you those luscious graphics. The card doesn’t just have a good amount of memory though, with the memory speed being 8 Gbps which contributes to the overall smooth rendering of graphics on your monitor.

Memory

Given the constant development of memory and speed of memory, you’ll be glad to hear that the RX580 features GDDR5 memory, so you can expect your card to have a large bandwidth – 256GB/s to be exact – which will be capable of processing a lot of video calculations. On the speed front of the GPU, the base clock speed is 1120–1257 with a boost clock speed of 1266–1340. Now, these are the base and boost clock speed of the AMD GPU but there are partner-tweaked cards out there that have a higher boost clock speed than that, such as the Sapphire AMD RX580 Nitro+ GPU.

FreeSync ready

As with the majority of AMD GPUs, the RX580 comes ready to support FreeSync technology, so this graphics card is ready to leverage the benefit of AMD’s software. You can expect reduced input lag, smoother gameplay and a reduction in screen tearing. Furthermore, the RX580 supports FreeSync via HDMI, so if that’s your preference of connection you are sorted. It’s important to note that you will need a monitor that also supports FreeSync to be able to utilise it, but knowing that your GPU has this potential is great. Even if you opt for Displayport 1.4 as your preferred connection then this graphics card has a port for you to connect it to your monitor.

Features

On top of FreeSync support, the RX580 comes VR-ready so is equipped to satisfy your VR gaming/experience needs at a very affordable price. Furthermore, it comes with AMD Multi-Display Eyefinity technology which means you’ll be getting a seamless multi-monitor gaming experience with this graphics card. An added bonus is if you’re sporting newer monitors you’ll be able to daisy-chain them together via Displayport 1.4. The last key feature which the RX580 comes with is compatibility for a multi-GPU rig. If you’re after a monster PC with two GPUs in it, you’ll be able to do that with the RX580 thanks to it being Crossfire ready. The GPU comes with a bunch of other features like The Vulkan API, DirectX 12 technology among others, but the three mentioned are the key stand-out features.

Our top pick

As mentioned previously, our top pick for an AMD RX580 is the Sapphire Nitro+. It comes with a boosted clock speed of 1411MHz, 8GB VRAM memory, 2 Displayport 1.4 ports, 2 HDMI ports and a DVI-D DL port. It also comes with two 95mm ultra-quiet fans that will keep the GPU nice and cool in the heat of battle. Roll all of that into a GPU that’s Crossfire ready and able to support HDR and you’ve got a powerful GPU at an affordable price.

If you’re after a GPU that’s got solid specs and able to handle 60fps on mainstream games such as The Witcher 3 and Doom then the RX580 is a solid option. Our top pick would be the GPU from Sapphire, however there are plenty of other great options out there from other partners. Now it’s up to you to decide which RX580 to go for and get it stuck into your rig to start owning the competition.