ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming U - Review

The Phantom Gaming U edition also adds an addressable RGB logo so you
can get your RGBling on.



Taking a look around the GPU one of the first things I noticed was the
internal mini Display Port output. At first I thought it was a bit odd, what
could you possibly need an internal output for? After a bit of research however
I discovered it is most likely included as a pass-through. There is a matching port
present on several of ASRock's newer high end boards so I suspect you will be
able to hook up a mini DP cable between the GPU and board and utilize the
board's display output. I think you may also be able to use it for Thunderbolt
pass-through. It would also be awesome for mounting a small internal display
for modding purposes, or even one of those side panels with a translucent display
instead of a window.



The rear IO sports 2 display port 1.4 outputs, 2 HDMI 2.0 outputs and a
single DVI-D output. This brings the display outputs to a total of 6 if you
include the internal mini display port but the specs claim 5 simultaneous outputs.
Still, no shortage of outputs here.

Technical specs from the product page:



Installation was simple as you would expect and everything worked out of the box.
I downloaded and installed the latest AMD drivers and was ready to benchmark.


Software

There are only really 2 things to install with the RX 590 Phantom Gaming U
should you be so inclined. Phantom Gaming Tweak and ASRock Polychrome RGB.



Phantom Gaming Tweak:

The tweak tool looks pretty streamlined and sports a Phantom Gaming theme.
You are able to select between "OC mode" "Default" "Silent mode" and
"User Mode"

OC Mode:
It works but ramps fans up way too loud and temps still climb high
enough to throttle the GPU in intensive scenes. Avoid using it, better to set your own
OC in the User Mode or just use the built in Wattman overclocking tool with your
display driver.

Default:
Do I need to say more? This is the factory default setting. The RX 590
Phantom Gaming U has a small factory overclock on the core of 1560 (vs 1545)

Silent Mode:
Not silent and you take a performance hit. A pointless setting for this
particular GPU. Given the same tool is used for other GPUs in the Phantom Gaming
line it is likely that this setting is more useful on less power hungry models. Don't
bother with this setting on this GPU.

User Mode:
This is where you can dial in your own custom clocks, power target, voltage etc.
It does work but often causes crashing and freezing if you have any graphical task
running in the background. A lot of tools do this but I prefer to use the tools I am
more familiar with.

The Tweak tool lacks any kind of data logging ability. Not a bad tool overall, like
ASRock's GPU lineup it could benefit from a bit more refinement A solid bit of
software for their first time out. I will stick to the tools I am more familiar with
however.

The one thing I would recommend is setting a custom fan curve, be it in the ASRock
tweak tool or another app. The "0db silent cooling" where the fans stop under a
low load/heat is just annoying as the fans constantly turn off then come back on again
a few seconds later and rev up audibly louder than they need to resulting in a constant
pulsing coming from your case. Setting your fans to stay on at a low speed in this
state is much quieter and less annoying.

Edited by Xaltar - 30 Sep 2019 at 4:56pm

Shadow of the Tomb Raider:



For this game I used the included benchmark under Graphics settings for consistency.
Each GPU was benchmarked 3 times at each resolution/preset used and an average
was taken.

At 1080p the RX 590 is able to manage a solid 60+fps average on the highest graphics
preset. Settings can be manually tweaked higher but I am testing the default presets.
There is something to be said for maxing out the quality preset and still getting a 60+fps
in a new(ish) title like this and SotR really does look amazing at this quality level.

Cranking things up to 1440p requires the preset to be lowered to High for a mid to high
50's average but the difference between high and highest is only noticeable if you really
look closely at a side by side comparison. With custom settings you can achieve the best
possible quality and 60+ fps if you make a few trade-offs. That said, even though we are
not quite hitting a 60 fps average here, gameplay is very smooth and there is no stutter on
the RX 470 and up.

The GTX 960 was not able to deliver even 30fps on average here so if you are using
something in this performance class and are looking to upgrade to a 1440p display
you will likely be wanting a new GPU to go with it. By the time you drop the settings
low enough to get a decent experience out of the 960 the quality drop is very
noticeable. You can still get by but 1440p really needs an RX 470 or better to get the
most out of this title.

Battlefield V:



For Battlefield V I played a single player level (Nijmegen Bridge) for 60mins on each GPU
then using MSI Afterburner captured the average, low and 0.1% low figures for the entire
1 hour run. By using a 1 hour testing window I can at least mostly compensate for the
benchmark not being identical between all GPUs tested.

Naturally, RTX is not supported on an AMD GPU.

Here again at 1080p the RX 590 is powerful enough to handle the Ultra preset, this time
bringing home over 90fps on average. This is taken over an hour of gameplay so the fps
remaining this high in dynamic situations says a lot. The RX 590 is easily be able
to push a 144hz display with some tweaked quality settings for some epic 1080p
multiplayer.

At 1440p Ultra the RX 590 still delivers an impressive 63fps average in this game level.
For this title the RX 590 is quite capable of delivering an excellent 1440p experience.
Yet again, my poor GTX 960 shows it's age though is able to manage playable fps
at 1080p and 1440p with reduced quality settings without anywhere near as much
of a visual downgrade as seen in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Still, if you have been
holding out with something like it for a while now, an upgrade will certainly not go
amiss.



Resident Evil 2 Remake



Now this is a game I just had to get my hands on. I remember being awed by the original
an embarrassingly long time ago and this remake absolutely does not disappoint. The
remake stays marvelously close to the original while adding modern, rather stunning
graphics and updated gameplay. This much awesome does come at a cost however as this
game can really tax a system. Testing was done in DX 11 as it performs better and DX 12
offers no benefit, visually or performance wise.

And, after saying all that the RX 590 slides home with over a hundred fps on "Max" settings
at 1080p. This was with me roaming about one of my saves for an hour on each GPU.
ASRock's RX 590 Phantom Gaming U delivers the performance but does somewhat
break immersion with the amount of noise the fans pump out. While it isn't the loudest
GPU cooling solution I have used, that title goes to my old blower cooled HD 5850, it
certainly isn't quiet. Under load this thing sounds like a portable car vacuum cleaner.

1440p once again yields a healthy 60+ FPS average at "Max" settings for the RX 590.
This game relies heavily on atmosphere and with the settings all cranked it certainly
keeps you on your toes.

The GTX 960 is really hurt by it's lacking 2gb framebuffer here. Lowering vRAM intensive
settings improves things significantly but the overall experience is very lacking as this
game really looks bad at low quality settings. An RX 470 or better will see you sitting
pretty at high/max settings even at 1440p however.



Gears of War 5:



This franchise caught me by surprise. I am not an FPS fan, Battlefield comes with origin
access and was only downloaded for this review. While I enjoy the occasional bloodlust
fueled pixel slaying fest I prefer my games to have a bit more narrative. The Gears series
delivers a surprisingly decent story that also has plenty of mutant alien creatures to slay
and characters that you love and love to hate along the way. It's far from perfect but
delivered far more than I expected.

The benchmarking was done using the built in benchmark as with Shadow of the Tomb
Raider and again, 3 runs per resolution per GPU. This game is brilliantly optimized and
uses some very welcome tricks to keep fps smooth and silky. Tricks that should have been
used this well long before now. I am ofcoarse referring to dynamic variable resolution
scaling. Wonderful as I think it is, it was disabled for all my benchmarking.

Looking at the graph, its instantly clear this is the newest, most demanding title in my
lineup. The RX 590 falls just short of 60fps on ultra at 1080p. Sure, its not even a whole
fps short but this is an average where there were periods over 70fps and drops down
into the high 40s. The dynamic resolution scaling smooths this out brilliantly and keeps
things nice and smooth when enabled however.

1440p requires settings to be lowered to high for a smooth experience but honestly, I
could not tell the difference between high and ultra visually.

This game really needs custom settings to get the most out of it. Beyond it's neat trick
it also gives you the tools you need to really eek out every little bit of quality while
keeping the FPS solid. Each setting has a description along with a little legend that tells
you how intensive it is on the CPU, GPU and vRAM. If you play this title do yourself
a favor and take the time to set up the quality manually, it really will improve your
experience over the presets. This is what I use to get a 60fps average at without
sacrificing anything noticeable at 1440p:



Enabling a "minimum framerate" of 60 will allow you to push these settings even
higher.

Edited by Xaltar - 30 Sep 2019 at 5:15pm