AMD’s RX 8000 new graphics cards are coming in hot, with leaks suggesting we could see four shiny new GPUs before the year is out. But those aren’t the cards I’m here to talk about today, no sir: Taiwanese manufacturer Biostar has inexplicably just unveiled a new model of the Radeon RX 580, which originally launched back in April 2017.
The RX 580 was (and still is, frankly) an excellent choice of GPU for 1080p gaming on a budget. We gave it four stars in our review, noting that – at the time – it stole the budget gaming crown from Nvidia’s competing GeForce GTX 1060, a card that held the top spot on Steam’s most-used GPUs for a long, long time.
But as much as I liked the RX 580, at the end of the day, it’s a seven-year-old GPU; six years old if you want to be specific, since this model technically uses the slightly new 2048 core architecture version of the chip, which launched in 2018. Why launch a new model now?
Everything has its place
While Biostar itself hasn’t been publicly forthcoming about why it has chosen to revive this once-popular GPU (I’ve reached out for a comment, naturally), a look at the current state of the GPU market could be rather enlightening.
AMD’s recent statements about backing down from the flagship GPU battle, combined with a renewed focus on AI for the company, mean that the top-end card in its initial next-gen RDNA 4 lineup could just be an RX 8700 XT, with no RX 8900 XTX in sight. Meanwhile, big dog Nvidia is raking in the AI cash and forging ahead with plans for high-powered RTX 5080 and 5090 cards. Right now, sticking to the low- to mid-range space might actually be a very smart idea.
Besides, a lot of PC gamers don’t have loads of money to blow on the very best graphics cards right now. We’re in a time of great economic inequality, and many people looking to break into PC gaming or build their first custom PC to replace a dated laptop might benefit from an affordable 1080p card like this.
Although Biostar hasn’t released any pricing info just yet, we can reasonably assume that this card will debut somewhere around the $100 / £100 / AU$200 mark, based on current RX 580 pricing region to region. That’s a very agreeable price for anyone looking to assemble a budget gaming rig.
There’s one downside here: AMD is technically no longer supporting the RX 580 in its main driver update branch, with its focus shifting to the RDNA series (which started with the Radeon RX 5000 cards in 2019). These older GPUs will still receive some updates, but it should be noted that they can’t really be considered ‘future-proof’ at this point – but then again, if you’re looking for a GPU to play older games at 1080p, this could be a great choice.
