XFX RX590 Fatboy Review

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Normally boxes don’t really require much discussion. It’s such a simple formula; product image, brand name, model name, feature or two, bosh. It does make us wonder why the Fatboy product image is off to the side of the box, leaving tons of nothing on the left hand side. Where the designers expecting a free game bit to go there or something? The reverse of the package has the same issue, with everything left justified and a bunch of nothing on the right. Weird.

  
  

If the box doesn’t give a great first impression, then the card itself does nothing to redress the balance. We don’t expect glorious gold-plated events at this end of the price spectrum, but the thick plastic shroud looks a bit cheap, and carbon effect can either be amazing or chintzy and this carbon laminate definitely falls at the “brought from the local dollar store” end of the spectrum.

  

Fortunately the rear of the card is much nicer, as this is the side you’ll spend the majority of your time looking at. Even if the thick copper heatpipes don’t really blend in with the silver of the heatsink. It’s almost like this heatsink was designed for a totally different card.

  

We know we’re not often harsh on the looks of a card, but this really doesn’t blend anything well together. It has to be plastic because of the cost, but big thick plastic in a dodgy carbon coating with massive gaps and stuff really doesn’t pretend that this card cost anything other than what it did.

  
  

Like the PowerColor Red Devil the Fatboy has 6+8pin PCIe power inputs to keep the card fed with power through your gaming exploits, and outputs to a DVI, HDMI and three DisplayPort adaptors, allowing you to connect the Fatboy regardless of how old your display.