ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming U - Review
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Category: Gaming Zone
Forum Name: ASRock e-Sport&Gaming Feature Discussion
Forum Description: ASRock e-Sport/Gaming Feature Discussion
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=12554
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Topic: ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming U - Review
Posted By: Xaltar
Subject: ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming U - Review
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2019 at 4:26pm
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I have gotten my hands on ASRock's RX 590 Phantom Gaming U and have been putting it through it's paces for a few weeks now. This is ASRock's second RX 590 iteration with the only real difference over the RX 590 Phantom Gaming X being the addition of an RGB Phantom Gaming logo and an internal mini Display Port output. There are already plenty of reviews on the RX 590 out there for those of you looking for every detail, component and technical stat on the GPU itself so for this review I will focus on my experience with this GPU, my impressions and ultimately, verdict. Product page can be found here: https://www.asrock.com/Graphics-Card/AMD/Phantom%20Gaming%20U%20Radeon%20RX%20590%208G%20OC/index.asp  In the box was the GPU, a driver disk and a quick installation guide. No frills, no nonsense, just the goods. Every extra item that you don't need just adds cost that you have to pay for so I am all for keeping it simple.  The GPU itself is fairly basic in appearance, ASRock did not go over the top at all here. A simple plastic shroud housing 2 double ball bearing fans.  A nice clean looking backplate adorned with ASRock's Phantom Gaming livery. The design is subtle and unobtrusive and should fit well with most system's color schemes and aesthetics. ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2019 at 4:48pm
 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. -------------
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2019 at 4:57pm
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ASRock Polychrome RGB If you don't have a motherboard with addressable RGB headers you will not be able to install and use the RGB tool. Even on my X399 Phantom Gaming 6 which does have an ARGB header I was unable to change the RGB on the GPU with the tool from my motherboard's download page and the one that is on the GPU's download page does not work with the X399 motherboard (no compatible product found). I was however able to get it working on my X570 Taichi. Both the motherboard's version and the GPU's version worked without fault. ASRock is not alone in issues with RGB. It seems there are far too many different ways to implement RGB and no proper standards set. I suspect we won't see universally stable and compatible RGB software until that changes. If you are looking at picking up an ASRock RX 590, don't have an ASRock motherboard with ARGB and don't like the idea of being stuck with the default rainbow puke RGB setting on your GPU then get the RX 590 Phantom Gaming X version that has no RGB. It sounds a bit harsh but what is the point of RGB if there is no way to control it? You should be fine with 400 series Steel Legend, Taichi and Phantom Gaming boards and any X570 boards with RGB. On intel you should be OK with newer boards too. Just have a look at the product page and if it has a rainbow lighting effect on the board's chipset heatsink it will probably work with the RX 590 Phantom Gaming U's RGB. This is an area ASRock really need to work on. If I were them I would adopt and open source platform for RGB control and make their RGB data available to 3rd party developers. Better to have a 3rd party tool that works than a proprietary one that doesn't. Benchmarks Test system: CPU: Ryzen 5 3600 (stock) Motherboard: ASRock X570 Taichi RAM: 16gb DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance LPX @3600 GPU: ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming U GPU1: RX 470 8gb GPU2: GTX 960 2gb AMD Driver: AMD Adrenalin 19.9.2 Nvidia Driver: 436.30 Please note that the RX 570 performance is simulated by overclocking the RX 470 to RX 570/higher clocks. For those that are not aware, that is the only difference between the two models. The "RX 570" score is achieved with a 1400mhz core and 2000mhz vRAM overclock on the RX 470. It's a fair bit higher than stock RX 570 clocks but the clocks are easily attainable on almost any RX 470/570. I tailored the test system to fit the price/performance of the RX 590. Synthetics: 3D Mark has been a mainstay in my benchmarking for decades now. I have only included the GPU score of the benchmarks to keep the graphs tidy and easy to follow. Firestrike:  If you have been wondering if something like an RX 590 is worth upgrading to from GTX 960 class performance, this should be all the proof you need. The RX 590 more than doubles the GTX 960's score. Both the RX 470 and RX 570 put up a good showing here too. Time Spy:  The RX 590 completely slaughters the GTX 960 here in the DX12 Time Spy benchmark. IMO, the RX 590 is the sweet spot for price to performance in the mid range right now. Games: Games benchmarked: Shadow of the Tomb Raider Battlefield V Resident Evil 2 Remake Gears of War 5 I am not a huge gamer but these are some of the newer titles I own and I feel that between them they should put these GPUs through the ringer. All games were benchmarked at both 1080p and 1440p. -------------
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2019 at 5:08pm
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. -------------
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 30 Sep 2019 at 5:16pm
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Performance conclusion: The RX 590 Phantom Gaming U delivers exactly what it should as a mildly factory overclocked GPU. Performance is directly in line with other RX 590 variants with similar clocks. For 1080p gaming this is an absolute beast of a card and can handle most, if not all new AAA titles with maxed out settings and near enough 60fps. 1440p is also well within reach with maxed settings on the table for a lot of titles. Where more demanding titles bring averages too low taking quality settings down a notch is typically enough to get you back to smooth 60fps sailing. Temperatures and Fan Noise  The cooling solution on the RX 590 Phantom Gaming U is perfectly in line with ASRock's mid range motherboard offerings; solid, reliable and adequate. It doesn't do anything more than it needs to and you get a solid price/performance GPU out of the deal. This is what I believe ASRock was aiming for at least. In this case, I feel they cut it a bit too close. The component quality is second to none, the dual ball bearing fans used are very high quality and should last practically forever but... A bit more spent on the heatsink setup would have made all the difference here. The noise situation improved significantly once the thermal compound they used cured and reached it's full efficiency but even now, this card is very clearly audible even in a noisy environment. It isn't deafening or even intolerable but is is just at that point where I would call it uncomfortably loud. The cooling solution on my ASUS RX 470 isn't any better however, it is only a fraction quieter and only when it isn't overclocked (which it always is). The cooling solution is adequate, it does it's job and keeps the GPU within perfectly safe thermal parameters. It isn't cheap or poor quality either. You do have to put up with a bit more noise than a higher end RX 590 but performance does not suffer for it. Throughout my testing the GPU consistently hit it's 1560 boost clock and seldomly dropped below 1500. If you pick up one of these, bare in mind the thermal compound will likely need to cure at high temps for a while after all the jostling and bumping about in shipping. My card's cooling efficiency improved significantly after about 3 hours or so of benchmarking. The noise levels decreased noticeably. It is also very helpful to have good airflow in your case, particularly exhaust. The faster you get the hot air out the cooler the GPU will run and the lower the noise levels. Conclusion Considering ASRock only entered the GPU market very recently and this GPU was one of the earliest (along with the rest of the RX 500 series) GPUs they designed I have to say they did a great job with it. Yes, it's a bit loud but is is also the dead cheapest RX 590 you can buy, cheaper even than quite a few RX 580 models. This is why I feel ASRock's RX 590 Phantom Gaming X and U GPUs are quite possibly the best bang for your buck in the current market. IMO, the RX 590 is a sweet spot GPU in the current market. With pricing having come down to near RX 580 pricing the RX 580's lower clocks and no guarantee of achieving RX 590 level overclocks make the RX 590 the better choice. ASRock's RX 590 Phantom Gaming X and U models are the cheapest RX 590s around so make a great choice for someone on a budget looking for solid 1080p or 1440p gaming without shelling out $300+ on only slightly faster alternatives. If your budget is even tighter still, check out ASRock's RX 570 Phantom Gaming D 4gb and 8gb models. As you can see from my benchmarks the RX 570 is a very solid contender for considerably less money than Nvidia equivalents. Build Quality: Solid The GPU is well put together, does not feel or look cheap and performs as it should. Cooling: Adequate The slightly anemic heatsink is compensated for by the powerful, if loud, double ball bearing fans. While I would have liked to have seen a better heatsink design, the RX 590 Phantom Gaming U stays cool and does not throttle. Performance: Right on point The RX 590 Phantom Gaming U performs exactly as it should and sacrifices nothing performance wise for it's low price point. Aesthetics: Decent The design is simplistic, unobtrusive and functional. Not quite the bling and flash of it's competitors but it is priced quite a bit lower than said competition. For what it costs the aesthetics are actually better than I would have expected. Overall: Bang for your buck! A quick price search and you can find these for under $200 or 200 Euro in many places. I am aware that in a lot of countries prices will be higher but the lower cost of the GPU should still make it a viable option vs other RX 590s. The quality is solid and it lacks nothing in regards to features. Checking newegg reviews most of the complaints are about the noise. It is loud but at the price, you can choose a quieter, slower GPU or get this and put up with some fan noise. Personal experience: After a while I got used to the fan noise and began enjoying the rather huge performance uplift over my old GTX 960. It has been a long time since I was able to play a new title maxed out with decent FPS. It's funny how you can get used to loading up a new game setting it to max quality and laughing at the slide show before dropping things to low/ medium to actually play it. That wraps up my review on the ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming U  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below  -------------
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