It is not going to be easy to be kind to AMD for this one: The 590 is a refreshed 580, which itself is a refreshed 480.
Performance and Price of the RX 590:
Yes, AMD is reselling practically the same card from two-and-a-half years ago, under a new name. What has changed? The power consumption has gone from 150W (480) to 185W (580) to 225W (590). Hurray!
Alright, alright, I might be feeling a bit upset, because I was hoping for something better. So, the good news is that the “new” card is clocked much higher, and as a result comes with a pretty decent 10% performance increase over the 580. If it was priced at 10% higher than the 580, that would have been great, but AMD chose to price it ~30% higher. Because… AMD wants your love!
However, AMD’s chosen price point is $280, which is between the GTX 1060 ($220) and GTX 1070 ($360). Because there is nothing to compete with it at this price (not including OCed cards), the RX 590 ends up a logical purchase. Overpriced, yes, but still the logical purchase at its price range.
In other news, the prices of nearly all cards has gone down to pre-crypto-craziness, with the exception of the Vega 56 and Vega 64. This is great news for buyers, but it also means that the Vega 56 is no longer worth it. I have already removed the Vega 56 from the US list; and if the price does not make sense in other countries, it will be removed there, too.
Because of the prices going back to normal, all the GPUs in the Great -> Modest tiers are shifted down a tier, with the RX 460 in Entry getting removed. The RX 590 fills the gap, by becoming the new Great GPU.
To summarize:
- The Vega 56 is being removed from Superb and Excellent (unless the price is logical in some countries)
- All GPUs from Great -> Modest are getting shifted by one tier, to their rightful spots
- The RX 590 is being added to Great
Sources:
(Many thanks to the /r/buildapc folks who put all these reviews in a single link!)