AMD Radeon RX 580 Mobile

Memory Subsystem

The AMD Radeon RX 580 Mobile pairs a full 8 GB GDDR5 frame buffer with a 256-bit memory interface, yielding a peak bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. That 8 GB capacity is generous for a mobile GPU from this generation, allowing high-resolution textures and large scene data to remain resident without spilling to system memory. At 4K, the 256-bit bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth provide enough throughput for the card’s compute capabilities, though the effective memory clock of 8 Gbps is modest by modern standards. For 1440p gaming, the combination of capacity and bandwidth is balanced; the frame buffer size is rarely the limiting factor, but the bandwidth ceiling can constrain performance in scenes with heavy texture streaming or high MSAA factors. The 256-bit width is a key advantage over narrower-bus rivals, as it sustains higher fill rates per clock under memory-intensive loads. Benchmark results indicate that the memory subsystem is well matched to the GPU’s 4.963 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, preventing severe starvation in most workloads. That said, the 8 GB capacity does not translate into a linear performance advantage at lower resolutions, where the bottleneck shifts to shader throughput and ROP efficiency.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The RX 580 Mobile is built on the GCN 4.0 architecture, fabricated on GlobalFoundries’ 14 nm process. It does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores; the FACT PACK lists neither field with a value. Consequently, hardware-accelerated ray tracing is absent from this GPU. Feature support is instead defined by API compatibility: DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3 are all present. The Vulkan 1.3 support is particularly notable, as it enables modern compute and async pipeline features that can improve utilization in titles that leverage explicit APIs. The DirectX 12_0 feature level covers standard D3D12 rendering, but lacks the ray tracing tier found in newer hardware. For rasterization-based effects, the 34.46 GPixel/s pixel rate and 155.1 GTexel/s texture rate provide the raw throughput needed for high-fidelity shadows, post-processing, and particle effects. The absence of RT cores means any ray-traced effects would fall back to compute shaders, which would incur a significant performance penalty given the 1:1 FP16/FP32 ratio of 4.963 TFLOPS — the card does not accelerate FP16 workloads. In practice, this GPU is best suited to conventional rasterized rendering, with API-level compatibility for modern engines but no dedicated hardware for emerging ray-tracing workloads.

Power and Cooling

The TDP for the RX 580 Mobile is rated at 100 W. This is a modest power envelope for a Polaris 20 chip with 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, reflecting the mobile tuning of the design. The card uses an MXM Module form factor with a bus interface of MXM-B (3.0), meaning it is not a self-contained PCIe card but a replaceable mobile module. The FACT PACK lists no power connectors, as the module draws power through the MXM slot itself, and no suggested PSU rating is provided. Cooling is dependent on the host laptop’s thermal solution; the slot width of MXM Module indicates that the card is designed for modular laptops and workstations with dedicated cooling chambers. Given the 100 W TDP, the thermal load is manageable for a dual-fan or vapor-chamber solution, but thinner chassis may struggle to sustain boost clocks under sustained loads. The base clock of 1000 MHz and boost clock of 1077 MHz are close, which suggests the card is power-limited rather than thermally limited in most implementations. Users should ensure adequate airflow around the MXM bay, as the module’s cooling is entirely passive from the card’s perspective — no onboard fans are listed. The 14 nm process helps keep leakage low, but the 5,700 million transistor count still generates substantial heat under full load.

How It Compares

The nearest rivals list for the RX 580 Mobile is empty in the FACT PACK, so direct comparative analysis against specific competing GPUs is not possible from the provided data. However, the percentile vs all GPUs is 50, which places this card exactly at the median of the database’s tracked GPUs. That median position indicates that the RX 580 Mobile sits in the middle of the performance distribution — neither a high-end enthusiast part nor a low-end budget chip. The average benchmark score is 0, which further complicates direct performance ranking, but the percentile field provides a meaningful anchor. Without named rivals, the comparison must rely on the broader percentile context: half of all GPUs in the database score higher, and half score lower. That puts the RX 580 Mobile in a competitive middle ground for its era, likely facing pressure from newer mid-range mobile GPUs that offer better efficiency, but also outpacing older and lower-tier parts. The 8 GB memory capacity is a strength relative to older 4 GB cards, but the absence of modern features like RT cores means it lags in feature-specific workloads against newer architectures. The production status is end-of-life, and the release date is April 17, 2017, so this card is firmly in the legacy tier.

Benchmark Performance

The FACT PACK provides no benchmark scores or deltas for the RX 580 Mobile, and the nearestRivals array is empty. The only performance-related quantitative data available are the compute and fillrate figures: 4.963 TFLOPS FP32, 4.963 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1), 34.46 GPixel/s pixel rate, and 155.1 GTexel/s texture rate. The 1:1 FP16 ratio is notable — many GPUs from this generation offered half-rate FP16, but this card delivers equal throughput, which can benefit compute workloads that use mixed precision. The 155.1 GTexel/s texture rate is respectable for a 100 W mobile part, indicating strong texel fetch throughput for scene complexity. The pixel rate of 34.46 GPixel/s, derived from 32 ROPs at the boost clock of 1077 MHz, caps fill-rate-bound scenarios like heavy alpha blending or high-resolution shadow maps. In aggregate, these figures suggest a GPU that is compute-balanced but ROP-limited relative to its shader count of 2304 shading units and 144 TMUs. The percentile of 50 versus all GPUs implies that in real-world gaming benchmarks, this card would trade blows with other mid-range parts from its generation, though the lack of specific rival scores prevents precise percentage deltas. The 8 GB VRAM and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are the standout features, as they allow the card to handle modern game assets at 1080p and 1440p without capacity-related stutter. However, the 100 W TDP and MXM form factor restrict it to laptops that can accommodate that power draw, and the end-of-life status means driver optimizations are likely frozen. Benchmark results — if they existed in the pack — would likely show the card performing strongest in DX11 and Vulkan titles, with weaker showing in heavily threaded DX12 workloads due to the older GCN architecture. The absence of tensor and RT cores further limits its appeal for AI-assisted upscaling or ray-traced effects, where newer cards would dominate. In summary, the RX 580 Mobile is a competent mid-range mobile GPU for its time, with balanced compute and memory, but it lacks the modern feature set and efficiency of subsequent generations. Its 50th percentile ranking underscores its position as a median performer — not a class leader, but far from obsolete in rasterized gaming.