AMD Sapphire RX 590 Nitro+ SE 8GB Review

1. AMD launches 12nm RX 5902. The background to RX 5903. Testing: 3D Mark and Deus Ex 4. Testing: Far Cry 5 and Middle Earth5. Overclocking, Power and Heat6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

Testing

Gaming Performance
We tested each of the five graphics cards using 1080p, 1440p and 2160p (4k) however we were clear from the start that 1080p was our focus of interest.

The Sapphire Nitro+ RX 590 follows AMD’s specification fairly closely however the Boost speed is 1560MHz, rather than 1545MHz.

AMD states the reference memory bandwidth for the 8GB of GDDR5 is 256GB/sec. When you work back through the 256-bit controller you arrive at an effective reference memory speed of 8000MHz (2000MHz actual). Sapphire uses a memory speed of 8400MHz in the Nitro+ which is a five percent speed bump over stock so we expect the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 590 would show a modest gain over a reference design, if such a thing even exists.

Test system:

CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K Turbo 4.4GHz All Cores
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming
RAM: 16GB Aorus RGB DDR4-3200MHz
CPU Cooler: Fractal Design Celsius S24
SSD: 1TB WD Black M.2 NVMe
Power Supply: Seasonic Prime Platinum 1300W

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