China is no stranger to this kind of nonsense… And for good reason, a 16 GB RX 580 has been spotted there. This doubles the memory capacity of the card, but is it really useful? Not really, in fact, it smacks of recycling!
RX 580 16 GB: double the memory capacity!
The main feature of this card is its doubled memory capacity compared to the original model. What’s more, it features a GPU with 2048 stream processors. This neutered version was intended for the Asian market, where it met with some success.
In short, the brand offering this model, Kinology, is more akin to reconditioning than anything else. Moreover, according to VideoCardz, this brand is not even listed as an official AMD partner.
But let’s get back to business. The existence of this card is akin to DIY. In fact, it’s not impossible that it was originally a card used in a crypto farm. Over time, we can imagine that the memory chips began to tire and had to be replaced. While we’re at it, we might as well boost VRAM capacity. It’s an entirely plausible scenario, especially when you consider how successful this type of card has been in the field.
The “funniest” part of the story is that benchmarks have been provided. On Ludashi, a software program used in China, the card is just on a par with a GTX 1060 6GB. We can’t say that those 16 GB are really useful. On the other hand, the card seems to fully support AMD’s official drivers.
What’s even more surprising is that this card is still on sale in France, with a few models here and there… Even five years later.