Pictures show two “Polaris” circuits on a graphics card – dual Radeon RX 570 for mining

In 2016, AMD aimed at the middle class with the graphics architecture “Polaris”, with the Radeon RX 480 around the SEK 2,000 mark as the first contribution. The architecture lived on in the lower segments when the RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 were launched, but then in a slightly twisted variant and as the RX 500 family. The “Polaris” -based cards were not the sharpest in games, but all the better at breaking cryptocurrency.

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When interest picked up properly around 2018, the “Polaris” graphics cards were therefore hard currency, just as Nvidia’s Geforce RTX 3000 series has been during the past year. Pictures found on the web now suggest that five-year-old “Polaris” is not dead and buried, but that Sapphire rubbed the genitals to put together a card for mining by mounting dual graphics circuits on one card.

The pictures come from the forum Saraba1st, which in turn was intercepted by the technology site Videocardz. The image material contains an excerpt from GPU-Z which confirms that it is precisely the Radeon RX 570, which comes with 8 GB of graphics memory and 2048 stream processors. Photographs of the back of the card show two mounts for the coolers and also the characteristic accumulation of surface-mounted components is available in a double set.

That the images represent a graphics card intended for mining revealed by the card’s single image output, which is an HDMI connection at the rear edge. The power outlet is reportedly a total of 125 watts and this gives one hashrate of 59.72 MH / s, which can be compared to Nvidia’s dedicated graphics card for cryptocurrency breaking in the CMP series. The three simplest models use the Turing architecture and the 30HX variant powers 26 MH / s with a power output of 125 watts.

The dual fan cooler is reminiscent of a Sapphire-signed variant, but the manufacturer has not left any conspicuous imprint on the product. The connection to the Sapphire is, however, on part of the power supply, which can be seen under the plastic cover that covers the aluminum heat sink. Videocardz puts forward the hypothesis that during the current shortage of circuits, it is not in high demand among graphics card buyers that companies trumpet miningproducts, which may be a reason for the very discreet logo placement.

It remains to be seen if “Polaris” will seriously make a return visit through crypto-breaking hardware, but it can be added that interest has begun to cool. Despite this, the shortage of graphics cards seems to persist, where it has previously been reported that Nvidia has used residual stock and older nodes to bring older graphics cards to market. It is not impossible for AMD and partner manufacturers to apply a similar strategy, as “Polaris” uses less advanced nodes that may have slightly lower pressures than the very latest ones. The future will show if even playing cards with “Polaris” return.

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