The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Review, Feat. Sapphire Pulse: A New Challenger For Mainstream Gaming
by Ryan Smith on January 21, 2020 9:01 AM ESTThe Test
As is usually the case for launches without reference hardware, we’ve had to dial down our Sapphire cards slightly to meet AMD’s reference specifications. In this case, Sapphire’s secondary (quiet) BIOS offers reference power and memory settings, so for our reference-spec testing, we’re using that BIOS, with the GPU underclocked by 85Mhz to meet AMD’s official specs.
Finally, as the RX 5600 series is focused on 1080p gaming, this is what our benchmark results will focus on. Though I have also tested the card at our 1440p settings to see just how well it might do as a 1440p card – the lack of VRAM admittedly not doing it any big favors there – and these are posted below our 1080p results.
Finally, we’re using the latest drivers from AMD and NVIDIA.
CPU: | Intel Core i9-9900K @ 5.0GHz |
Motherboard: | ASRock Z390 Taichi |
Power Supply: | Corsair AX1200i |
Hard Disk: | Phison E12 PCIe NVMe SSD (960GB) |
Memory: | G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 2 x 16GB (17-18-18-38) |
Case: | NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition |
Monitor: | Asus PQ321 |
Video Cards: | AMD Radeon RX 5700 Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB AMD Radeon RX 590 AMD Radeon RX 580 AMD Radeon R9 390X NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB |
Video Drivers: | NVIDIA Release 441.87 AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.1.1 |
OS: | Windows 10 Pro (1903) |
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SilthDraeth - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
Er... 2nd sentence. Anyway.koekkoe - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
25 percent fan speed - How many RPM this is?Ryan Smith - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
~750 RPM.kobblestown - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
Thanks for including an R9 390X. I actually have one of those.maroon1 - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
So equal price per dollar to RTX 2060But why would I buy 5600XT when the price difference too small, and I get slightly faster card with more features like DLSS, ray tracing and VRS ??
RTX 2060 is clearly better card to buy out of the two
maroon1 - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
*Performance per dollar I meanKorguz - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
really depends on your usage... for ray tracing, meh.. at the entry level, the 2060 is almost useless for RT, unless something has changed in the last few months, to big of a hit to use it. but looking at the prices for the 5600xt, 2060 and 2060S, at least with Asus' cards, there is $40 cdn difference between the entry card for these 3, and at the top end for these 3 cards there is an almost $200 cdn price difference, and yes, the 2060S is the most expensive at $650. for me, i would go with the 5600xt, only because i dont play, and dont plan on playing any games that use RT, so that is a feature i could care less about right now. it really boils down to what a person would do with the video card they were to get....Irata - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
If it's better for you, go get it.That said, the 5600XT is still cheaper, if only by a few $, but you get only slightly lower fps (depends on the game engine really, some are quite a bit faster on the 2060, others quite a bit faster on the 5600 XT).
On the plus side, you get lower noise, lower power consumption and it's not that Navi does not have any other features.
Afaik, the one that really makes a difference in the 2060's favor is Ray Tracing, which only gives playable fps at lower resolutions on that particular card.
So really, it comes down to preference. If you can get a 2060 Founder's edition for $299 including shipping then hey, not a bad buy.
If you get a Sapphire or similar OC RX 5600XT for $289 - hey, also not a bad buy.
eva02langley - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
Honestly, DLSS and RTX are not even a matter. It is in what...? 5 games? Also, a 2060 RTX is definitely not enought for Ray Tracing unless playing at 720p 60Hz is your thing.Cooe - Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - link
Lol, the 2060 is absolutely useless for ray-tracing, so if that's the reason anyone is buying one, you are absolutely doing it wrong. And DLSS is literally a game dehancer, not enhancer.