ASRock unveils AMD-based Phantom Gaming graphics cards

ASRock hinted a couple of weeks ago that it would soon be muscling in on the graphics card business, and today it made the move official, unveiling a new lineup of Phantom Gaming display adapters based on AMD's Radeon RX 500 series GPUs. 

"ASRock finally expands into the graphics card field," CEO LL Shiu said. "We are happy and proud to team up with AMD, our strong and reliable partner, and of course we look forward to bringing out more interesting and competitive products in future." 

Phantom Gaming cards will be available in four flavors to start: The 2GB/4GB Radeon RX 550 and RX 560, and the 8GB Radeon RX 570 and RX 580 models. All four cards will offer DisplayPort (3x on the 570 and 580 models), HDMI, and DVI outputs, and promise "excellent overclocking capabilities," with dual ball-bearing fans and an "extra-large copper-base aluminum alloy composite heat pipe-equipped heatsink design." 

"The new ASRock Phantom Gaming Series, based on the powerful Radeon RX 500 Series graphics cards, will provide gamers the best of Radeon features and performance which will include FreeSync, the ultimate technology for smooth and stutter-free gaming, Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition for seamless streaming, sharing and gameplay capture now with mobile device functionality, and Radeon graphic's highly optimized DirectX 12 and Vulkan performance," Radeon Technologies Group VP Scott Herkelman said. 

ASRock didn't say when the new cards will come to market, but a rundown of individual card specs (subject to change), capabilities, and included software is available at asrock.com. There's also no word on pricing, though there's hope that by the time these arrive, the cryptocurrency fueled shortage will finally be over. Fingers crossed.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.