AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000) vs AMD Radeon RX 540 vs AMD Radeon RX 570 (Desktop)

AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000)

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 is an integrated GPU for notebooks. It is used for the Ryzen 5 APUs, which were launched in the end of 2017. The GPU is based on the Vega architecture (5th generation GCN) and has 8 CUs (= 512 of the 704 shaders) clocked at up to 1100 MHz (Ryzen 5 2500U). The performance depends on the configured TDP (12-25 W at launch), the clocks, the cooling, and the memory configuration). The GPU should benefit from fast dual-channel DDR4-2400 RAM (contrary to DDR4-2133 single-channel, which is also possible).

The Vega architecture offers some improvements over the Polaris generation and now supports DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1. More information is available in our dedicated article about the Raven Ridge architecture.

AMD's reference design GPU is sitting between the GeForce 940MX / Radeon Pro 450 and GeForce MX150 / Radeon Pro 555. It can handle smooth gameplay in simple titles like League of Legends (med), Dota 2 (low), Overwatch (low), CS:GO (med), and Quake Champions (high) in 720p up to 1080p according to AMD.

Thanks to the 14nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD), so the graphics card can also be used for slim and light notebooks.

AMD Radeon RX 540

The AMD Radeon RX 540 is mobile mid-range graphics card for laptops based on the Polaris 12 chip (most likely). It is manufactured in an improved 14 nm FinFET process at Globalfoundries. The performance should be between the Radeon Pro 450 and 455 in the MacBook Pro 2016 range that is also based on the Polaris architecture. AMD specifies the RX 450 at 1.2 TFLOPS (Pro 450 1 TFLOP, Pro 455 1.3 TFLOPs). Compared to Nvidia graphics cards, the gaming performance should be between the GeForce GTX 950M and GTX 960M.

The features of the Radeon RX 540 are identical to the faster RX 460 and all other Polaris chips. See more details on the Polaris architecture here.

The power envelope of the faster Radeon Pro 460 is rated at 35 Watt according to the AMD blog post. Due to the slower specs, the Radeon RX 540 use slightly less.

AMD Radeon RX 570 (Desktop)

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a mainstream graphics card for desktop PCs. It was announced in April 2017 and is based on the Polaris 20 chip. It is a refresh of the RX 470 and uses the same chip as the RX 580 (and 580X) with less shaders. The clock speeds are specified as 1,168 - 1,244 (Boost). The VRAM is connected by a 256 Bit bus and clocks at 1,750 MHz (effective 7,000 MHz) which leads to a 224 GB/s memory bandwidth.

At launch, the performance of the Radeon RX 570 was slightly below a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060. Therefore, the GPU is best used for 1920x1080 and high detail settings for demanding games of 2019.

The TDP of the Radeon RX 570 is specified with 120 Watts by AMD, so a single 6-pin power connector is sufficient.