Sapphire Pulse RX 570 and RX 580 | Level One Techs

Not much, maybe 2 watts lower? But that is how good Polaris was at launch for it's efficiency. Miners saw an increase in profits as energy costs were lowered with this architecture.
Much of the improvement in the RX 500s was gleaned simply from higher yields of better performing binned chips previously sold only to the commercial market. The best Polaris silicon during the RX 480 launch was binned for the lowest wattage embedded solutions chips, giving them much higher clockspeed headroom and the ability to stay cool in small enclosures under constant operation. I believe we saw this lower TDP chip with the Golden Sample XFX RX 480 on JayTwoCents vide0 review, the watts used and temps stayed low on AIR with OC to 1475Mhz, very close to the factory OC of the RX 580.
Banks of these cards can be spaced closely together as they waste little energy as heat, which is great for mining rigs.

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Ah, so really the 400 series is also a good investment for mining, if one can't find any or enough of the 500 series, but obviously the 500 series is the better choice. Makes sense, thanks for the explanation.