AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT/RX 5700: A Step In The Right Direction

Introduction & Pricing

I wanted to have weeks to write this review but after 18-hour days for the past couple of weeks to endure all of the industry events like Computex 2019 and AMD's own Next Horizon Gaming event in LA, I'm pooped. I had to move both my house and my office in between these trips and now, with NVIDIA launching its new SUPER cards in the middle of it, and AMD seeding out its next-gen 7nm products in Zen 2 and Navi. It has been a rough month.

So without sugar coating it, let's dive right into it -- we have AMD's new Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards here to review today with the two cards including the Radeon RX 5700 XT and Radeon RX 5700.

AMD compares the Radeon RX 5700 XT against its older Radeon RX Vega 56 in its own charts, teasing some huge 30% average increases in performance at max/ultra settings in a bunch of games at 1440p.

Even when compared against the GeForce RTX 2070 (non SUPER) the new RX 5700 XT supposedly delivers near identical performance at 1440p, but I've got my own charts you can check out over the course of the review, don't worry.

New Pricing

AMD says it dropped the prices because it "embraces competition, which drives innovation to the benefit of gamers. In that spirit, we are updating the pricing of our Radeon RX 5700 Series graphics cards, launching July 7". The new prices on the Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 series are as follows:

• 50th Anniversary Edition AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT -- $449 USD SEP
• AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card -- $399 USD SEP
• AMD Radeon RX 5700 graphics card -- $349 USD SEP

AMD continues: "We know that gamers will be thrilled once they have the opportunity to experience the amazing performance, stunning visual fidelity and highly responsive gameplay these new graphics cards provide. Making history on 7/7 as the first company to launch gaming CPUs and GPUs together - the first in 7nm and PCIe 4.0 - is all about pushing the ultimate gaming experience forward for as many gamers as possible".

Price Drop 48 Hours Before Launch

This is one thing that I did not like from AMD -- their strategy for marketing the price of Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700. AMD debuted the cards at the Next Horizon Gaming event during E3 2019 a few weeks ago and even then, I said to not just myself and other tech press friends and AMD staffers that it was too expensive and that I expected $399 for the 5700 XT and even that was expensive.

That was in a world with no SUPER cards unveiled and just the RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 on either side of Navi, but then the $449 price came out and I said it was too much. AMD's new Radeon RX 5700 XT was not good enough for $449, and even $399 is expensive - especially compared to the competitive threads/price performance between Ryzen CPUs and Intel's range of CPUs. It seems AMD can't be cut throat competitive with pricing on Navi.

Secondly, it pisses me off that AMD did it this way. Now ex-TweakTown and ex-AMD staffer Jason Evangelho tweeted that it:

1. Throws off competition
2. Pleases consumers who now think they're getting something great for less than expected
3. Generates additional headlines

I don't agree with Jason's stance on throwing off the competition, NVIDIA had the game won without the need of SUPER or even a price drop. Yes, AMD is definitely pleasing consumers with "OMG here's a surprise price drop" but it is no surprise. I think the Radeon RX 5700 XT was always meant to be $399 but they jacked the price up amongst the Zen 2 / Navi hype leading up into, during, and after E3 2019/Next Horizon Gaming and got away with it.

$449 wasn't too bad for a brand new Navi-based card with GDDR6 and finally some good performance, you can kinda swallow the price because it's finally something new from Radeon. But, it was too expensive and now 48 hours before the launch, AMD has changed their tune and "slashed" the pricing before launch. Jebaited, I guess?

Specs: RDNA Powers Navi GPU Architecture

RDNA Architecture

AMD designed the RDNA architecture for the future of gaming, with the Navi GPU architecture created for next-gen consoles in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett consoles coming in 2020, so we are getting to enjoy Navi 10 ahead of time in its current form.

What RDNA brings to the table is a new Compute Unit design which delivers greater efficiency for today's games, multi-level cache hierarchy with lower latency, higher bandwidth, and lower power consumption (another big nod is to 7nm -- more on that later) and a streamlined graphics pipeline which allows for great performance at higher GPU clocks.

That's the skinny on the RDNA architecture and what it delivers.

Specs: Navi GPU + 7nm Node + PCIe 4.0

Navi GPU Detailed

RDNA is at the heart of the new Navi GPU architecture, which delivers improvements at virtually all levels over the Polaris and Vega GPU architectures. The main component here is the 7nm process, mixed in with the use of GDDR6 memory (over HBM2 on Vega) as well as the huge step into PCIe 4.0 technology.

We can expect some big wins here with power and performance, with AMD tapping some of the knowledge it discovered with the Zen CPU architecture inside of Navi and RDNA.

This is the big difference between RDNA and the GCN (GraphicsCore Next) architectures, with AMD promising up to 50% performance gains -- breaking this up into around 60% performance-per-clock enhancements, 25% of it from the new 7nm node, and the rest in design frequency and power improvements.

AMD compares the new Navi 10 GPU directly against the Vega 10 used in the Radeon RX Vega 64 showing a 14% increase in performance, while using 23% less power. Vega 64 had a huge 495mm2 die while the new Navi 10 is on 7nm and using just 251mm2 in comparison. Overall, we're looking at a huge 2.3x increase in performance per area.

Don't worry, it isn't just going to be RDNA as RDNA is coming in 2020 on 7nm+.

PCI Express 4.0

AMD's new Ryzen 3000 series CPUs have been made with the new X570 chipset in mind, the first to market with PCIe 4.0 -- and the new Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards are the first to market with PCIe 4.0 support. There is no gaming benefits right now, as PCIe 4.0 is more for storage and high-end tasks on GPUs that are bandwidth restrained. Gamers don't need to really care about PCIe 4.0, for now.

Specs Compare: Radeon RX 5700 XT vs RX 5700

There are some changes to the Navi 10 GPUs used on the higher-end Radeon RX 5700 XT and the normal RX 5700. The biggest of which are the 40 vs 36 compute units and 2560 vs 2304 stream processors that stand out, but the up to 1905MHz boost clock on the RX 5700 XT versus the up to 1725MHz on the RX 5700.

We have the same 8GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit memory bus providing 448GB/sec memory bus, the same as NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER.

Both of the new Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards are PCIe 4.0 compatible, with the RX 5700 XT with a 225W total board power and the RX 5700 with 180W total board power. A good improvement over the 280-300W on the Radeon RX Vega 56 and 64 graphics cards.

AMD has a new way of measuring GPU clocks in something it calls Boost, Game, and Base clocks - with Game clock being the new one that is a clock target under typical gaming loads.

We have a new Radeon Display Engine capable of driving DisplayPort 1.4 HDR and HDMI 2.0b with 4K 240Hz, 4K 120Hz with HDR and 8K 60Hz with HDR support.

This is the monitor that dreams are made of, something you'll want to pair with a Radeon RX 5700 XT.

Cooling Tech: Radeon RX 5700 XT vs RX 5700

Radeon RX 5700 XT: Designed to Perform

AMD put much more effort into the reference model of its Radeon RX 5700 XT this time around not just in style, but in cooling technology. Radeon RX Vega 56 and 64 reference cards were a hot mess, as they were simply so freaking loud and hot no matter what you did. Navi is on 7nm so a lot of that heavy lifting comes from the node process, but the tweaks AMD did into RDNA and the use of GDDR6 make a big difference, too.

Under the hood of the Radeon RX 5700 XT reference card is actually a great cooler (especially when compared to the lower-end Radeon RX 5700 cooler) with an aluminum alloy shroud and backplate, with air flow optimized and "acoustically tuned" contour design. Don't worry, virtually all of the tech press at the AMD Next Horizon Gaming event all joked about the design and style of the contour on Radeon RX 5700 XT.

AMD is using vapor chamber cooling mixed with an efficient heat diffusion with graphite thermal interface material (TIM), another big difference between the 5700 XT and stock 5700. The Radeon RX 5700 XT actually has a great cooler, keeping it cooler than the Radeon RX 5700.

Detailed Look: Radeon RX 5700 XT vs RX 5700

AMD has had some cool packaging for previous Radeon graphics cards, and while the Radeon RX 5700 XT isn't the most premium, it is better than bad packaging and definitely better than the lower-end RX 5700 packaging. It reminds me so much of the Founders Edition packaging from NVIDIA for both the GeForce GTX 10 and RTX 20 series cards. Anyway, I dig the style -- check it out:

Here is the front of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT reference card box.

Once you open the box, AMD wants you to Bend The Rules with Radeon RX 5700 XT.

Here it is! AMD's new Navi-based 7nm-built Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card in all its glory... FINALLY!!!

I really dig the back of the Radeon RX 5700 XT, except I would've liked the GPU Tach from Vega on Navi. Sigh. The black backplate and red racing stripes... love it.

The end of the RX 5700 XT.

From the top.

AMD requires an 8+6-pin PCIe power connector on the new Radeon RX 5700 XT.

The iconic KINK, which I like.

AMD provides 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI for video outputs on the Radeon RX 5700 XT.

Detailed Look: AMD Radeon RX 5700

The box of the Radeon RX 5700 in comparison is... well... boring.

On the front of the regular Radeon RX 5700 it is much more plain, and not as exotic as the Radeon RX 5700 XT.

No backplate on the RX 5700 reference model.

Not much going on at the end of the RX 5700, unlike the Radeon branding on the RX 5700 XT.

The top of the Radeon RX 5700 is plain again, I would like some larger Radeon branding here.

AMD requires 8+6-pin PCIe power connectors on the Radeon RX 5700 reference card.

AMD provides 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI for video outputs on the Radeon RX 5700.

Test System Specs

Our New GPU Test Rig

Welcome to the latest revision of our GPU test bed, with our system being upgraded from the Intel Core i7-7700K to the Core i7-8700K. The CPU is cooled by the Corsair H115i PRO cooler, with the 8700K overclocked to 5GHz. We've stayed with GIGABYTE for our motherboard with their awesome Z370 AORUS Gaming 7.

We approached our friends at HyperX for a kit of their kick ass HyperX Predator DDR4-2933MHz RAM (HX429C15PB3AK4/32), with 2 x 8GB sticks for a total of 16GB DDR4-2933. The RAM stands out through every minute of our testing as it has beautiful RGB lights giving the system a slick look while benchmarking our lives away, while the Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 motherboard joins in with its own array of RGB lighting.

Detailed Tech Specs

• CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5GHz
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO
• MB: Z370 AORUS Gaming 7
• RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Predator DDR4-2933
• SSD: 1TB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
• SSD: 512GB OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2
• PSU: InWin 1065W PSU
• Chassis: In Win X-Frame
• OS: Windows 10 Pro x64

Additional Images

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike - 1080p

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike - 1440p

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike - 4K

3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

3DMark TimeSpy

3DMark TimeSpy Extreme

Heaven - 1080p

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

Heaven - 1440p

Heaven - 4K

Benchmarks - 1080p

1080p Benchmarks

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p Benchmarks

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

Benchmarks - 4K

4K Benchmarks

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

Rainbow Six: Siege has been a strong entry into the franchise, popular for its realistic feel and great graphics. Stable as a rock for benchmarking, right up to 3440x1440 and 4K.

Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

Thermals, Power & Noise

Thermals

I haven't had as much time with the new Radeon RX 5700 series as I did with GeForce RTX 20 SUPER cards, but I have been working 18-hour days for two weeks to get all of this done and in that time I have spent a chunk of it with Navi. I wasn't expecting much out of the reference Radeon RX 5700 XT, but AMD easily proved me wrong.

During my Vega 56/64 testing (back when I reviewed the cards, and even now) they are near impossible to touch after a few hours of heavy benchmark sessions. They're simply too hot, but the new 7nm node and a much better cooler help the Radeon RX 5700 XT achieve a really kick ass operating temperature that allowed me to continue to touch the card during testing without burning my hand, and not sizzling it off when I removed the card from the system.

Kudos, AMD - this is one of your best reference cards yet. I kinda like the kink in the card, too...

Power Consumption

AMD reigns in its power consumption in a big way with Navi when compared to Vega, but the power efficiency of Turing is far superior as the much faster GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti barely use any more power compared to the Radeon RX 5700 XT. Sure, look at the numbers -- our full system with the Radeon RX Vega 64 (14nm + HBM2) uses 360W+ while the Radeon RX 5700 XT uses 285W or so and keeps up with, sometimes loses to, and sometimes beats Vega 64.

The lower-end Radeon RX 5700 isn't too bad at all with power consumption, coming in under the GeForce RTX 2060 and its 220W and the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with 225W.

Overclocking

Overclocking Navi + RX 5700 XT/5700

Just like NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2060/2070 SUPER graphics cards I simply haven't had the time to play around with too much overclocking, and put my time and effort into re-benchmarking every single game and synthetic test in my suite instead. I have briefly played with overclocking, but will explore this in a different article in the coming weeks once I deep dive into playing with Navi and SUPER cards.

Once I've done this, I'll update this page with a link to the results and some charts with overclocking performance.

Performance Thoughts

AMD concentrated on both 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 gaming results with its new Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700, which is where I'll be concentrating my performance thoughts on. No one is going to be buying a new Radeon RX 5700 series card for 4K.

We'll start with Middle-earth: Shadow of War like I did with my performance thoughts on the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, with the new Radeon RX 5700 XT beating out the HBM2-based Radeon VII by a single frame per second. The new Radeon RX 5700 XT scores 129FPS average in Shadow of War at 1080p Ultra, beating the GTX 1080 Ti and is neck and neck with the new GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER with its 130FPS (but slays the normal RTX 2060 and its 100FPS average).

Far Cry New Dawn sees some more great performance with 104FPS average from the Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700, smack bang in the middle of the RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 SUPER.

Metro Exodus reduces GPUs to dust and there's a big challenge taken by the new Navi GPU and the Radeon RX 5700 XT with 72FPS average, just 1FPS from the Radeon VII and here we see it beating out the RTX 2060, RTX 2060 SUPER, and even the RTX 2070 losing to the new RTX 2070 SUPER by just 4FPS.

1440p Performance Thoughts

This is where things get serious, as the Radeon RX 5700 XT and its GDDR6 are no match for the brute force of GeForce RTX cards - hell, even the older-gen GTX 1080 Ti matches the brand new RX 5700 XT in Shadow of War at 1440p Ultra. The new RTX 2060 SUPER beats the RX 5700 XT by 2FPS, while it kicks the regular RTX 2060s ass as that scores just 72FPS versus the RX 5700 XT and its 91FPS average.

Taking a look at Shadow of the Tomb Raider we have the Radeon RX 5700 XT pushing out 104FPS average which is virtually identical to the Radeon VII, and beating out the RTX 2060 by a huge margin as the RTX 2060 is only capable of 63FPS here -- meaning the RX 5700 XT is 65% faster. The new RTX 2060 SUPER even loses to the Radeon RX 5700 XT, and so too does the regular RTX 2070 -- it's only the new RTX 2070 SUPER that beats the RX 5700 XT in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1440p Ultra.

I have some real-world gaming performance numbers with Overwatch and Apex Legends coming soon, so stay tuned!

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

Great Performance: This is the type of performance I was expecting: edging out the older Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, but AMD needed the new 7nm node to get over that line. The gains are there, and in some cases the new Radeon RX 5700 XT beats out the RTX 2060, RTX 2060 SUPER, and even the RTX 2070 SUPER. I can see a higher-end Radeon RX 5800 XT or RX 5900 XT coming out and beating the RTX 2080, RTX 2080 SUPER and possibly, just possibly, even the RTX 2080 Ti. Navi 20, perhaps.

AMD Is First With 7nm GPU: AMD had the world's first 7nm GPU with Vega 20 and the Radeon VII, but this is the world's first proper 7nm gaming GPU: Navi 10. The new Radeon RX 5700 XT has its 7nm GPU as its heart, and showing that AMD is still like its old self -- pushing technological boundaries that its much bigger competitor hasn't done just yet. AMD has both 7nm GPUs and CPUs on the market now, as of 7/7.

GDDR6 Memory: I'm a huge fan of the shift from HBM and HBM2 on the Radeon RX Vega 56/64 and Radeon VII cards, respectively, to GDDR6. GDDR6 is nowhere near the GPU so we have less heat, and it can have tons of bandwidth and in some cases - near equal performance to the HBM2 on the Radeon VII, which is a much faster, and much more expensive graphics card. It also brings AMD up to VRAM parity with NVIDIA.

Great-Looking Card + Packaging:The physical aesthetics of the retail packaging might not sound like much but as someone who worked in IT retail selling this type of hardware, it'll go along way to draw eyes to it on retail shelves. The card itself I really dig the look of, too.

Navi's New Features: AMD has a lot of new features under the Navi GPU hood, something I plan to explore in the coming weeks. Radeon Anti-Lag, and the like are all exciting new toys for gamers (and especially reviewers) to play with extensively.

Last Minute Price Drop: In the 48 hours leading up to the NDA lifting on the Radeon RX 5700 XT and Radeon RX 5700 reviews, AMD dropped the price of the cards. The original $449 price on the RX 5700 XT drops to $399 and the original $379 price on the RX 5700 down to $349. It's good, but it would've been better if it had been from the start. Still, can't complain about paying less for something, can we?

What's Not

Last Minute Price Drop: Would've been nice to have this price from the start...

2016 Era Performance: It's the second half of 2019 and we're enjoying 2016 performance on the latest and greatest 7nm node and GDDR6 memory... I want more performance, so I'm hoping to see something better from AMD, and soon. I'm hearing rumbles that Navi 20 will be much more powerful, so here's hoping.

Final Thoughts

AMD has pulled off a successful launch of so many new products with the next-gen Zen 2 CPU architecture and Navi GPU architecture both hitting 7nm on 7/7, AMD is also using numerology on its side for some kind of voodoo magic I guess. The new Zen 2 processors are something we've also looked at today with Steven's review on those here, and as the GPU editor I will be doing some benchmarking on the new Ryzen 7 3700X and X570/PCIe 4.0 platform in the coming weeks through my entire suite -- that work has already started.

The new Radeon RX 5700 XT might not be the best graphics card on the market but it doesn't need to be, it needed to land somewhere better than Vega and somewhere under or equal to SUPER, and it does just that. In some things it loses, in some games it equals, and in some games it beats its competitors (either in itself with Vega, or with NVIDIA and GeForce GTX/RTX series graphics cards).

Wrapping things up, AMD has done a great job here with the Radeon RX 5700 XT. I don't like the RX 5700 as much as I hoped, but the RX 5700 XT is a surprising card that has me wanting to test it much more. Not just in reference form but in custom cards from the likes of MSI and SAPPHIRE... I can't wait to see how far the Navi 10 GPU can be pushed with additional cooling and power limits removed or lifted.

For now, I want to hear YOUR thoughts on the Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 whether it be from my review or other reviews/data you've seen online. What do you think? Are you impressed with Navi so far? What do you think about the performance? What about the pricing? Will you be upgrading, and if so -- is Navi enough to pull you away from SUPER?