MSI Prepares Another Version of AMD Radeon RX 580 Armor Graphics Card

[Raevenlord]

While AMD is giving all signs of being preparing to release their latest entries into the midrange graphics card market in the form of the RX 5500 and RX 5300 series of graphics cards based on Navi, AMD's AIB partners are giving the slow burn on existing inventories of AMD's Polaris graphics chips. MSI, in this case, seems to have bet on a slight redesign of their previously-released RX 580 Armor and Armor MK2.

Changed is the color scheme - MSI went full black on this one. There's also a redesigned PCB, a redesigned I/O bracket (which keeps four display connectors), and a new cooler shroud. The heatsink's surface area also seems to have been increased, which should provide lower operating temperatures (anything beyond that, such as higher overclockability and longer lifespan, are speculations). The redesigned Armor keeps the single 8-pin PCIe power connector. No other details are available at time of writing.



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[ZoneDymo]

sigh..... why?

 

[windwhirl]

sigh..... why?

My thoughts exactly. However, I'm more surprised there are still that many RX 5xx cards in AIBs inventories...

I mean, how many do they have that they would consider pushing another new design? Wouldn't that be a waste of time and money if they didn't have a lot of cards sitting somewhere, collecting dust...?

 

[xkm1948]

That mining crash REALLY accumulated this much of Polaris overstock I guess. I mean as long as they keep the price of these stuff low they will sell.

 

[Kinestron]

sigh..... why?

Well, since they don't have any Navi products anywhere near this price range...you do the math. You really want to spend $300 on a 5700 just to do 1080p? And that is for the noisy blower style. Get a 5700 with a decent/quiet blowers and the price jumps by $50. Until the 5500/5600 series cards are widely available in retail, they still need Polaris to cover mainstream gaming.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Good old Polaris, worse performance per watt than Maxwell. But then Maxwell was awesome.

 

[potato580+]

never have chance to taste amd msi, probably pay for this for sure, if the price is good tho

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

sigh..... why?

To be fair did you see the last version, they had no chance of shifting them against well, any other aib.

 

[eidairaman1]

Armor to me was geared at miners. Msi hasnt really taken amd parts seriously. During skt a-939 they did.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Armor to me was geared at miners. Msi hasnt really taken amd parts seriously. During skt a-939 they did.

I don't know I liked the r9 390 i had , a red dragon model , it was no Rog in looks but it wasn't the last miner version armour, cheap it screamed cheap to manufacture and buy the cooler i mean.

 

[s3thra]

Armor to me was geared at miners. Msi hasnt really taken amd parts seriously. During skt a-939 they did.

I enjoyed their R9 270X in 2013. Still a good looking card in my opinion. Ran two of these babies in CrossFire:

And I quite like their current AMD motherboards - I can't complain with my B450 Gaming Plus.

 

[biffzinker]

I enjoyed their R9 270X in 2013. Still a good looking card in my opinion. Ran two of these babies in CrossFire:
View attachment 136630
And I quite like their current AMD motherboards - I can't complain with my B450 Gaming Plus.

The B450 Tomahawk has been great for me. With the EVGA Nu Audio card installed the onboard Realtek ALC892 isn't such sore spot.

 

[potato580+]

I enjoyed their R9 270X in 2013. Still a good looking card in my opinion. Ran two of these babies in CrossFire:
View attachment 136630
And I quite like their current AMD motherboards - I can't complain with my B450 Gaming Plus.

looks like gaming x design, best match black&red, anyway sometimes i guessing wrong abt the logo, it just looks like colorful signature also red dragon from poworcolor

The B450 Tomahawk has been great for me. With the EVGA Nu Audio installed the onboard Realtek ALC892 isn't such sore spot.

i loved my msi pc mate, hasnt encounter any issue since i bought it last year heh

 

[notb]

RX500-series haven't been discontinued and AMD still makes the chips, so AIBs still make cards.

@Raevenlord you should check before posting theories like this:
"AMD's AIB partners are giving the slow burn on existing inventories of AMD's Polaris graphics chips "
You've referenced Videocardz as a source, but they haven't suggested anything of the sort.

 

[Casecutter]

As this appears to just use a aluminum extrusion with two swedged heat-pipes it a economy build.
So, MSI seems to have updated their lowly Armor (construction/cost) part to keep a respectable 1080p card as today's for the "Entry" status. Now if this can be priced at $160 and rebates can get it like $145 it's nice BfB.

 

[bug]

sigh..... why?

Either they found a cheaper way to make these or the existing ones has some kind of flaw/weakness they figured should be taken care of. Either way, it shows they expect to keep selling these, which in turn means they don't expect to have a replacement anytime soon. Kinda weird when you think of the incoming 5300 and 5500 (and the spot left open for the 5600).

 

[cyberloner]

rx580 still strong

 

[R0H1T]

That mining crash REALLY accumulated this much of Polaris overstock I guess. I mean as long as they keep the price of these stuff low they will sell.

Right, nearly after 2 years of the bust? I dunno could it have something to do with that thing called WSA

 

[notb]

Either way, it shows they expect to keep selling these, which in turn means they don't expect to have a replacement anytime soon. Kinda weird when you think of the incoming 5300 and 5500 (and the spot left open for the 5600).

Navi is made on a limited 7nm. So it's really nice that AMD designed a full lineup, but it's very unlikely they can actually make enough of them to replace Polaris.
Until 7nm becomes easily available in quantities AMD needs (which is: next year - when Apple moves to 5nm), AMD will have to look for workarounds.

Zen2 CPUs got a 14nm I/O (which was quite smart). Zen2-based APUs (next year) will likely still use 14nm Vega GPUs (not so smart if true).

With GPUs AMD went the more obvious route. They push 7nm to the expensive parts and keep making 14nm Polaris and Vega to temporarily fill the lower end.

Keep in mind they've contracted MILLIONS of 7nm Navi GPUs to Sony and Microsoft.

 

[Platinum certified Husky]

Looks like a one-piece extruded aluminum heatsink.
OOF

 

[Valantar]

Well, since they don't have any Navi products anywhere near this price range...you do the math. You really want to spend $300 on a 5700 just to do 1080p? And that is for the noisy blower style. Get a 5700 with a decent/quiet blowers and the price jumps by $50. Until the 5500/5600 series cards are widely available in retail, they still need Polaris to cover mainstream gaming.

The 5500 is coming in a month or so and will beat this hands down for not a lot of money at all.

Navi is made on a limited 7nm. So it's really nice that AMD designed a full lineup, but it's very unlikely they can actually make enough of them to replace Polaris.
Until 7nm becomes easily available in quantities AMD needs (which is: next year - when Apple moves to 5nm), AMD will have to look for workarounds.

Zen2 CPUs got a 14nm I/O (which was quite smart). Zen2-based APUs (next year) will likely still use 14nm Vega GPUs (not so smart if true).

With GPUs AMD went the more obvious route. They push 7nm to the expensive parts and keep making 14nm Polaris and Vega to temporarily fill the lower end.

Keep in mind they've contracted MILLIONS of 7nm Navi GPUs to Sony and Microsoft.

I don't think we should read too much into 7nm being crowded - AMD is becoming a big (and likely lucrative) customer for TSMC. They're no Apple, but still quite substantial given the popularity of Zen2 and Navi. Also, Navi 14 is small enough (158mm2) that there should be plenty of chips per wafer. Even for a high volume segment like <$200 GPUs a die of that size should be easily produced in high enough numbers to meet demand. Sure, there'll be a transition period when discounted RX 5xx series cards are still being sold, but it shouldn't be that long.

 

[Casecutter]

From my thinking the Navi nomenclature is working odd-numbered of 5X00. Back some 90-100 days ago I think the speculation was for a 5600, but more resent new's is no longer pointing to that or at least for the time being. I mean yea like a "R9 590" it could show later, but I might see it as a full gelded Navi 10 once thr process collects enough, as where things like the 7870 XT (Tahiti LE) or HD 6790 (Barts LE).

Or, they look to do a quick dirty "re-name" to 6X00 with even-numbers once the Big Navi shows in say mid-2020 and these SKU's juggle down a notch in nomenclature and price points.

 

[notb]

I don't think we should read too much into 7nm being crowded - AMD is becoming a big (and likely lucrative) customer for TSMC.

This has absolutely no importance whether AMD is big. Lucrative? Maybe, maybe not. It's almost unthinkable that AMD could pay TSMC the kind of premium Apple or Nvidia do. Especially when you look at AMD's own profit margin.
Of course TSMC would love to be an exclusive manufacturer of high-profit CPUs, so maybe they're playing the long game - hoping that one day AMD will raise prices and be able to pay more.

Anyway, whatever supply of 7nm AMD has, it remains quite limited and contracted for a long period. On the other hand: AMD's has to supply a huge number of Navi chips next year, while Zen2 (especially for servers) is their current flagship product.
Navi GPU for PC is the least important 7nm product AMD makes at the moment. It would be quite weird if they decided to waste 7nm on it.

But hey: in 2 months we'll know what's inside next gen APU.
If it turns out to be a 14nm Vega, will you find the "7nm being crowded" idea more probable?

 

[Kinestron]

The 5500 is coming in a month or so and will beat this hands down for not a lot of money at all.

Around the $250 range not the $150-$200 that Polaris currently covers. Not sure what Navi can offer at 1080p that Polaris doesn't cover now.

 

[bug]

Around the $250 range not the $150-$200 that Polaris currently covers. Not sure what Navi can offer at 1080p that Polaris doesn't cover now.

Lower prices, but 7nm may stand in the way of that. Failing that, maybe better perf/W?