Aorus Radeon RX 570 review: The best graphics card you can buy under $200, barely changed
This Polaris refresh is more of a side-grade than an upgrade, but it's still the best option in its price class.
By Brad Chacos
Senior Editor, PCWorld | PT
- Meet AMD’s Radeon RX 570
- Test system/Division benchmarks
- Hitman
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Far Cry Primal
- Ashes of the Singularity
- Synthetics, VR, power, and heat
- Bottom line
Power
We test power under load by plugging the entire system into a Watts Up meter, running the intensive Division benchmark at 4K resolution, and noting the peak power draw. Idle power is measured after sitting on the Windows desktop for three minutes with no extra programs or processes running.
Brad Chacos/IDGOnce more, there’s no surprises here. The 3GB GTX 1060 still consumes significantly less power than the RX 470, while the cranked clock speeds of the RX 570 consume more power than its predecessor. AMD said the new cards have better power efficiency at idle and it shows here: The Aorus RX 570 displays slightly lower idle temps than the XFX RX 470 despite its significantly higher clock speeds.
Radeon Chill can drastically drop the temperature and power use of AMD’s graphics cards, but only in the 19 games that support it. On the plus side, those 19 games are among the most-played games in the world.
Heat
We test heat during the same intensive Division benchmark, by running SpeedFan in the background and noting the maximum GPU temperature once the run is over.
Brad Chacos/IDGThe Aorus RX 570’s cooler is beefier than you typically find on sub-$200 graphics cards, and it offers the most impressive temperatures, staying under 70 degrees Celsius at all times. While Nvidia’s GPU doesn’t need anywhere as much power as the Radeon GPUs, the single-fan cooling solution means the EVGA GTX 1060 runs toastier than its rivals—though still far from dangerously so.
Next page: Bottom line