Introduction
ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX580 OC 8GB
The Phantom of the Gaming Opera
We review the ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX580 OC with 8GB graphics memory. A two slot cooled mainstream graphics card series will allow you to play your games in both the Full HD 1080P range, as well as gaming in WQHD (2560x1440) range. It's ASRock's first in a series of a new graphics card lineup. In Q1 2018 rumors surfaced that ASRock would be releasing graphics cards. Then all of the sudden we started to see a few teasers from ASRock, slowly word got out that the new series would be called Phantom gaming, but would it be for miners, gamers or both? In April some cards got released, however at the time seemed restricted towards an Asia region, which sparked a nasty discussion on the web, some saying that AMD would not allow sales of these cards in the EU and USA. Back in May, that rumor got denied, meanwhile, in the background we've been talking towards ASRock to see what was going on. A couple of weeks ago I received word and confirmation that the Phantom Gaming series will hit the EU markets as well. We know there have been some reviews out already, likely with the help of a bit of grey import and some favors. The time, however, has arrived for us to review an actual retail sample from ASRock. Today we look at their first born, the Phantom Gaming Radeon RX580 OC 8GB. This dual slot cooled mainstream to higher end (read the words well) graphics card series will allow you to play your games in both the Full HD 1080P range as well as gaming in WQHD (2560x1440) range. Yes, that RX 480 580 is the familiar Polaris based (P20), a code-name indicative of the Radeon RX 580 series. AMD also refers to this GPU as Ellesmere. The GPU is the same as the Radeon RX 480, it, however, is fabbed with a more up-to-date 3rd generation 14nm process, let's call it a bit more refined over time. That results in a GPU that can be clocked and boosted a notch faster (compared to the RX 480). As you guys know, both the Radeon RX 570 and 580 graphics card are made available in 4 and 8GB versions, you will also see both reference and tweaked slash customized models from the board partners. The GPU used in the 580 is based on Polaris 20 (XTX). For the RX 570 that would be a Polaris 21, which is based on the same GPU. The Radeon RX 580 has been going strong and still is. It pushes just over 6 TFLOPS of peak performance, 5 TFLOPS for the Radeon RX 570.
Purely looking at the product from a reference baseline point of view, a Radeon RX 570 can boost towards ~1244 MHz whereas the RX 580 clocks in towards ~1340 MHz on that boost frequency. More MHz means more power and power consumption, coming from 150W the RX 580 hovers at a 180W TDP with its 36 CUs (compute units aka shader clusters) x 64 shader processors per CU = 2304 shader processors). The cards have been available in both 4GB and 8GB versions tied towards 256-bit GDDR5 memory which offers an effective 8 Gbps data-rate. This review is all about the 580 of course, but the Radeon RX 570 is able to boost towards 1244 MHz with an 1168 MHz base clock frequency. This SKU is set at a 150W TDP with its 32 CUs (compute units aka shader clusters) x 64 shader processors per CU = 2048 shader processors). The cards will be available in predominantly 4GB but also 8GB versions and have 256-bit GDDR5 memory which offers an effective 7 Gbps / GHz, again based on reference metrics. The reference cards will use one 6-pin power PEG (PCI Express Graphics) header to give the card its power. The reference boards all have a 6-phase VRM power supply design and display output wise includes DisplayPort 1.4 connectors and one HDMI 2.0b. AIB partners may release SKUs with a DVI connector as well, the reference PCB shows SMT traces for a DVI connector. Overall the specs show a very potent card to play the latest games with whilst offering a good memory size versus price in the 1920x1080 and even 2560x1440 monitor resolutions.
Phantom Gaming Radeon RX580 OC edition with 8GB GDDR5 memory
Right, with the reference data out of the way, let's peek at ASRock. So are these cards intended for mining or gaming many will wonder? Well, let's give ASRock that benefit of the doubt here, as they did brand is Phantom Gaming. In this review we test a Phantom Gaming Radeon RX580 OC 8G sample, the card is fitted with 8GB of Micron GDDR5 graphics memory and has been factory tweaked for you at 1380 (max boost) MHz straight out of the box. A software mode will allow you to bump that upwards to a 1435 MHZ OC mode. There also a silent mode available at 1324 MHz. Mind you-you need software available and active to switch to these presets. We test defaults, the card as it is out of the box with a base clock at 1257 MHz, the boost clock at 1380 MHz / GDDR5 2000 MHz (=8000 MHz effective). This card follows a dual slots model design cooler and has not been fitted with a back-plate, neither will you find RGB LED functionality. Let's start up this review, onwards to the next page if you please.
