Based on 12nm Polaris 30 GPU, which is pretty much the same as the Radeon RX 480/580 except the obvious 12nm shrink, the Radeon RX 590 packs 36 Compute Units, for a total of 2,304 Stream Processors, 32 ROPs, and 144 TMUs. It still comes with 8GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit memory interface.

Thanks to the 12nm manufacturing process, AMD and its AIB partners, managed to significantly raise the GPU clocks, pushing the base and boost GPU clock from 1,257/1,340MHz on the RX 580, up to 1,469/1,545MHz, with some partners even going as high as 1,580MHz for the GPU Boost clock. According to AMD, this should translate to about up to 15 percent higher performance compared to the RX 580 and up to 20 percent or higher performance-per-dollar compared to the competition.

Unfortunately, higher clocks also raised the power consumption according to some reviews and reports, but it should still be somewhere around 250W, at least in gaming. Nvidia has done a much better job there and its mid-range GPUs are well below or around 150W, depending on which graphics card are you looking at.

Of course, AMD has another ace or two up its sleeve, and that is the support for FreeSync gaming display technology, which gives it additional value. It also launched the new "Raise the Game Fully Loaded" bundle, which includes Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry 5 and Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 games, adding around $100 to the value. Bear in mind that the same bundle is also available on RX Vega series cards as well as PC systems based on those two graphics cards, while those that buy the RX 580 or the RX 570 get two choose two games for free.

“This new graphics card provides beautiful visuals, blistering frame rates, and the latest and greatest features for PC gaming”, said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Radeon Technologies Group at AMD. “Combined with AMD Radeon FreeSync technology for smooth, stutter-free gaming, game Day-0 launch performance updates and an ever-expanding Radeon Software feature set, the Radeon RX 590 graphics card provides an amazing experience for the legions of performance and hard-core gamers everywhere.”

AMD put a $279 suggested retail price for the Radeon RX 590, which is a bit on the high side, especially considering the recent price cut on NVidia's mid-range offering (around $230 for the GTX 1060), as well as the price of the RX 570 and RX 580, which now stand at around $150 and $200, respectively.

AMD should have no trouble selling the Radeon RX 590 during the holiday season, although previous Polaris cards, the RX 570 and RX 580, are now reasonably priced and should sell like hotcakes while the supply lasts.