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AMD launches Radeon RX 590: it's an RX 580 refresh
Basically, it's the same die as the RX 580 on a kinda sorta new process node. The "new" node is nominally called 12 nm, while the old was 14 nm, but it's the same transistor count on the same die size. The advantage of the new node is that it can clock higher or use less power. AMD chose to clock higher at the cost of burning more power. This is the same move that they made in going from first generation to second generation Ryzen, though for the CPU, they also modified some parts for better latency.
If you were hoping for something kind of like a Radeon RX 580, except clocked about 15% higher for typically 10%-15% better performance, than this is it. It generally beats a GeForce GTX 1060 and loses to a GTX 1070.
If you were hoping for something higher end, or with better efficiency in some metric (whether performance per mm^2, performance per watt, or performance per dollar), then you'll need to wait for Navi. On the whole, I'd regard the existence of this part as bad news, as it means that a launch of 7 nm parts in this price/performance range isn't imminent.
That said, it doesn't automatically mean that Navi is far off. It's possible that AMD will leave roughly this level of performance on 14 nm for a long time to come, even after 7 nm parts arrive. For example, the cheap, low end GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia are still on 28 nm. Or perhaps that 7 nm parts will initially be higher end, and only come down the stack a year or so later, like how 14 nm's bottom of the line Radeon RX 550 launched about ten months after the RX 480.
Furthermore, this isn't a massive redesign like Nvidia's Turing. It's just a simple move to a "new" process node that is generally compatible with the old. It's also notable that AMD didn't do the same with Vega 10 and isn't rumored to. So it's still plausible that we could see a 7 nm Navi replacement for the Vega cards or even something to challenge the higher end Turing cards in early 2019. Or that that might not arrive until much later.
If you were hoping for something kind of like a Radeon RX 580, except clocked about 15% higher for typically 10%-15% better performance, than this is it. It generally beats a GeForce GTX 1060 and loses to a GTX 1070.
If you were hoping for something higher end, or with better efficiency in some metric (whether performance per mm^2, performance per watt, or performance per dollar), then you'll need to wait for Navi. On the whole, I'd regard the existence of this part as bad news, as it means that a launch of 7 nm parts in this price/performance range isn't imminent.
That said, it doesn't automatically mean that Navi is far off. It's possible that AMD will leave roughly this level of performance on 14 nm for a long time to come, even after 7 nm parts arrive. For example, the cheap, low end GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia are still on 28 nm. Or perhaps that 7 nm parts will initially be higher end, and only come down the stack a year or so later, like how 14 nm's bottom of the line Radeon RX 550 launched about ten months after the RX 480.
Furthermore, this isn't a massive redesign like Nvidia's Turing. It's just a simple move to a "new" process node that is generally compatible with the old. It's also notable that AMD didn't do the same with Vega 10 and isn't rumored to. So it's still plausible that we could see a 7 nm Navi replacement for the Vega cards or even something to challenge the higher end Turing cards in early 2019. Or that that might not arrive until much later.
Comments
If there's only one bin of the new die, it also makes me wonder what happens to chips that can't meet that bin. Are they going to sell them as Radeon RX 580s and RX 570s? So long as it meets the specs for those cards, I'd regard that as a legitimate thing to do, as it's not architecturally different. If not, then are the RX 580 and RX 570 going to go away?
At least AMD didn't decide to increment their whole lineup by 100 and call it a Radeon RX 680.
if they are salvage parts or just a product of overproduction now that mining has gone away (entirely likely, nV just took a huge write down on inventory they couldn't move) - I couldn’t say
i would like more performance for less price, don’t get me wrong. But from what I’m seeing, it appears to be priced about right. It seems to beat a 1060 6G more often than not and is priced meaningfully less.
Given the 580 may not be going anywhere anytime soon — Id love to see a lower price on a 590 but I don’t think it’s grossly overpriced.