Upgrading Radeon RX 580 to Radeon RX 5600 XT

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Conclusion

AMD launched the Radeon RX 5600 XT to crush the competition. It was first meant to crush the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, which it has done successfully.  Then, with price reductions on the GeForce RTX 2060, FE AMD found it needed to compete with that video card as well.  It has done so, with varying degrees.

There was also another thing the Radeon RX 5600 XT was meant to do, provide an upgrade path for people on older generations of video cards.  AMD specifically talked about this in its hardware briefing to us.  The Radeon RX 5600 XT should provide gamers an upgrade path from 3+ year-old video cards that are struggling at 1080p in today’s games. 

In today’s review, we tackled this very topic.  We wanted to find out for sure if video cards from three years ago are struggling at 1080p.  We wanted to find out if the Radeon RX 5600 XT is the answer to those video cards, to upgrade and give you now a better 1080p gaming experience.

We used the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC II Pro video card with the latest BIOS from XFX to do this.  This video card is $279 (the standard default MSRP pricing) and we compared it with the now three-year-old AMD Radeon RX 580 Polaris video card.  This was a popular video card that debuted at $229 for the 1080p gameplay crowd.  This created a very important scenario for us to do direct testing.

Performance Differences

Firstly, we did find out that the AMD Radeon RX 580 is struggling in today’s games at 1080p.  It does not allow ultra or max gameplay settings at 1080p.  We found that we had to use low to medium game settings to get acceptable performance.  Even then, it did not offer very high framerates except in a couple of games.

The most exciting part of our testing today was the revelation of the huge performance differences we actually saw.  In every game the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC II Pro provided a large percentage improvement in framerate.  It also allowed much higher gameplay settings at 1080p. 

Games performed 30-66% faster, depending on the game using the new XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC II Pro.  Most games were in the 50%+ range on performance advantages.  Only one game, Red Dead Redemption 2 was a bit lower of a difference at 30%.  That game though is very demanding.  The rest of the games were all very high in terms of performance advantages. 

There is really no question now that the Radeon RX 5600 XT is going to give you around 50% increase in performance, and that’s without overclocking it.  The performance differences lead to real-world gameplay advantages in the latest games.  As newer games are released, the divide could even widen between the two video cards as games become more demanding using newer features.

Playable Differences

The performance difference allows the Radeon RX 5600 XT to be playable at settings that are way above what’s playable on the Radeon RX 580.  The Radeon RX 580 was not playable in most games at the same settings as the Radeon RX 5600 XT.  The Radeon RX 5600 XT is going to allow you to raise the game to near the highest settings, whereas the Radeon RX 580 is at medium or low settings. 

However, there are exceptions.  Some games that perform very well, to begin with like Call of Duty Modern Warfare or Gears 5 might be playable at high settings on the Radeon RX 580.  This means the gameplay experience will be the same in these games, though the Radeon RX 5600 XT will still offer a much higher framerate.  This is just going to depend on the game itself.  Some will perform better, and some will be very demanding.  In the very demanding games, the Radeon RX 5600 XT is going to come out on top.

The Radeon RX 5600 XT still cannot maximize some games at 1080p however.  In games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Metro Exodus, it cannot play those games at the highest settings.  Even with a Radeon RX 5600 XT, you may be slightly limited in the most demanding games.  At least you won’t be as limited as the Radeon RX 580 though, which is definitely showing its age now at 1080p.

Clock Speed Differences

Though we used a reference specification Radeon RX 580 today, and not a factory overclock the performance is still relevant.  Video cards like the Radeon RX 580 never had real high factory overclocks.  For example, the MSI video card we are using only has a factory overclock of 40MHz on the GPU, from 1340MHz to 1380MHz.  This will provide maybe a 5-6% uplift, at most with a memory overclock 10%.  That means even with a factory overclock the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC II Pro the upgrade would provide 45% more performance on average compared to the best clocked Radeon RX 580, or greater depending on the game.  That upgrade in performance is still a big step.

Closer would be the Radeon RX 590 which runs at 1545MHz.  That should give the Radeon RX 590 about 15% better performance than the Radeon RX 580.  However, that still means the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC II Pro is 35-40% faster on average.  Maybe even greater, depending on the game.  That’s still a good uplift in performance for a video card only 1-year-old.  Since the Radeon RX 590 was launched at the same price of the Radeon RX 5600 XT you don’t lose any money upgrading at the same cost as the Radeon RX 590 cost you and you get a good boost at 1080p in performance.  It is all still ultimately cheaper than the GeForce RTX 2060 FE.

Power

We didn’t get to do our normal power testing with our Radeon RX 580, due to it misbehaving.  However, while we were gaming, we did notice that it reached as high as 300W total system power while gaming.  This is above the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC II Pro which reached 266W.  It’s also above the GeForce RTX 2060 FE which reached 286W.  Therefore, the new Radeon RX 5600 XT is much more power-efficient and will bring a power savings cost to your build if you chose to upgrade.  You get 50-60% more performance, at 40 less Watts.  That’s impressive.

Final Points

Is the new Radeon RX 5600 XT a good upgrade path from a Radeon RX 580?  It definitely is in terms of performance and efficiency for gaming at 1080p.  It will allow higher game settings at 1080p and a smoother experience in the latest games.  The Radeon RX 580 is showing its age, and the Radeon RX 5600 XT is modern and allows a high level of 1080p gaming experience. 

The only issue is the cost difference.  The Radeon RX 580 debuted at $229, and the new Radeon RX 5600 XT is $279.  That’s a 21% increase in price, for a ~50% increase on average in performance.  The math works out and says that is a good upgrade.  In our minds though we are asking ourselves if maybe the Radeon RX 5600 XT is a little overpriced.  But then we bring ourselves to the Radeon RX 590 at $279 and think that one probably has the worse value proposition considering now you can get the Radeon RX 5600 XT at that price for a much bigger performance upgrade.

We hope this review has been somewhat valuable to you.  Basically, if you are rocking a factory overclocked Radeon RX 580 the new Radeon RX 5600 XT is a good upgrade.  You can get a factory overclocked Radeon RX 5600 XT like the XFX Radeon RX 5600 XT THICC II Pro at the stock MSRP of $279, which makes it a good deal.  You will be paying a bit more than you did for your RX 580, but you’ll also experience much better gameplay at 1080p today.  You’ll also be getting better performance than the cheaper GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and Radeon RX 5500 XT.

Discussion

Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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