Radeon 500 series

Radeon 500 Series
An XFX Radeon RX 570 8GB
Release dateApril 18, 2017 (2017-04-18)
CodenamePolaris
ArchitectureGCN 1st gen
GCN 3rd gen
GCN 4th gen
Transistors
  • 690M (Banks) 28 nm
  • 1.550M (Weston) 28 nm
  • 2.200M (Lexa) 14 nm
  • 3.000M (Baffin) 14 nm
  • 3.000M (Polaris 21) 14 nm
  • 5.700M (Polaris 20) 14 nm
  • 5.700M (Polaris 30) 12 nm
Fabrication processTSMC 28 nm (CMOS)
Samsung/GloFo 14 nm (FinFET)
Samsung/GloFo 12 nm (FinFET)
Cards
Entry-level
  • Radeon 520
  • Radeon 530
  • Radeon 535
  • Radeon 540
  • Radeon 540X
  • Radeon 550X
  • Radeon RX 540
  • Radeon RX 540X
Mid-range
  • Radeon RX 550
  • Radeon RX 550X
  • Radeon RX 560
  • Radeon RX 560X
High-end
  • Radeon RX 570
  • Radeon RX 570X
  • Radeon RX 580
  • Radeon RX 580X
Enthusiast
  • Radeon RX 590
API support
OpenCLOpenCL 2.1
OpenGLOpenGL 4.5
OpenGL 4.6 (Windows 7+ and Adrenalin 18.4.1+, Linux)
VulkanVulkan 1.2 (GCN 1st gen and GCN 3rd gen for Windows)
Vulkan 1.3 (GCN 4th gen for Windows, GCN 1st gen or newer for Linux)
SPIR-V
History
PredecessorRadeon 400 series
Successor
Support status
GCN 4 cards supported

The Radeon 500 series is a series of graphics processors developed by AMD. These cards are based on the fourth iteration of the Graphics Core Next architecture, featuring GPUs based on Polaris 30, Polaris 20, Polaris 11, and Polaris 12 chips. Thus the RX 500 series uses the same microarchitecture and instruction set as its predecessor, while making use of improvements in the manufacturing process to enable higher clock rates.

Third-generation GCN chips are produced on a 28 nm CMOS process. Polaris (fourth-generation GCN) chips (except for Polaris 30) are produced on a 14 nm FinFET process, developed by Samsung Electronics and licensed to GlobalFoundries. Polaris 30 chips are produced on a 12 nm FinFET process, developed by Samsung and GlobalFoundries.