Radeon RX 580 2048SP vs Sky 500

Place in the ranking	401	274
Place by popularity	not in top-100	61
Power efficiency	5.97	9.77
Architecture	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)	GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code name	Pitcairn	Polaris 20
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	27 March 2013 (11 years ago)	15 October 2018 (5 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1280	2048
Core clock speed	950 MHz	1168 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1284 MHz
Number of transistors	2,800 million	5,700 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	150 Watt
Texture fill rate	76.00	164.4
Floating-point processing power	2.432 TFLOPS	5.259 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	32
TMUs	80	128

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus support	PCIe 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	242 mm	241 mm
Width	1-slot	2-slot
Form factor	full height / full length	no data
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin	1x 8-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1200 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	154 GB/s	224.0 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	1x DisplayPort	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
HDMI	-	+
DisplayPort count	1	no data
Dual-link DVI support	+	-

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	5.1	6.4
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.2.131

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

Sky 500 12.21

RX 580 2048SP 19.96
+63.5%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Sky 500 4709

RX 580 2048SP 7698
+63.5%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	12.21	19.96
Recency	27 March 2013	15 October 2018
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	14 nm

RX 580 2048SP has a 63.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 100% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 580 2048SP is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon Sky 500 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.