The Gigabyte RX 580, which is… Basically the Gigabyte RX 480.

This week, AMD releases two new graphics cards: the RX 580 and RX 570. Actually, calling them “new” is an overstatement. AMD has taken two cards from last year (the RX 480 and RX 470) and is now selling them with new names and a small overclock.

To be sure, we disliked AMD’s decision to do this with their 300-series, which was just a rehash of their 200-series. You can check out the article we wrote on that two years ago. Back then, a rebrand and an overclock meant paying up to $130 extra, earning AMD some well-deserved criticism. AMD seems to have learned a lesson this time, so we are getting the “new” cards at the same prices of the cards that they replace, or slightly cheaper.

There is nothing exciting about a rebrand, but at least we can appreciate a small overclock (~5%) for free. In the case of the RX 570, it is a small speed bump AND a $10 price cut! Hooray!

The RX 560 and RX 550 are not available for purchase yet, but are expected to launch in May. They should replace the RX 460, and hopefully they will retire the R7 250 and 250X, which we have been recommending in the low end of our chart since the Jurassic age (AKA 2013).

So what are we doing with the new cards?

The RX 570 replaces the RX 470 as the first recommendation in our Very Good tier.

The RX 480 4GB has not been knocked off our list yet, since you can get it for $20 less than the RX 580 4GB.  The RX 480 remains in our Great tier for now, while the RX 580 has been added to Great and Superb. (We do not recommend the 8GB version of these cards, as the performance does not justify the additional cost.)

The GTX 1060 3GB is still a good choice, since its performance and price matches the AMD competition almost perfectly. Despite being ~$30 more expensive than the RX 580 and having roughly the same performance, the 1060 6GB stays in our list, as it is cooler and quieter. Hopefully, NVIDIA will lower the price to match the RX 580.

A summary of our changes: