XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra Review

1. Introduction
2. Cooling Tech & Design
3. Detailed Look
4. Test System Specs
5. Benchmarks - Synthetic
6. Benchmarks - 1080p
7. Benchmarks - 1440p
8. Benchmarks - 4K
9. Thermals & Power
10. Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 93%

The Bottom Line

XFX stumbles at first, but gets back up with its Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra offering some GREAT performance with its custom Navi. One of the slickest, most unique graphics cards EVER.

Introduction

I received the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra in the first wave of review cards sent out, but after a disastrous first couple of days with it, I shelved it and continued on with the mountain of work behind me.

Now that I'm back around to having some time to play with the RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra, it has given me some clarity and an interesting take on my review versus other first-wave reviews of XFX's return to flagship Radeon cards. I would NOT have recommended this card if I had reviewed it in the first few days of receiving it.

Nope, I would not have recommended the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra... but now? Heck yes I do.

At first, I had the same issue as the first wave of cards -- the fan speed problems were atrocious. My card would sit there under load with the fans not doing a damn thing, letting the GPU temps raise past 90C before they kicked in to sound like a jet engine roaring up until the temps came back down to reality.

XFX did reach out and provide me with another BIOS, but this is where things get interesting -- I have just installed the card into my Core i7-8700K test bed with the latest Radeon Adrenalin 19.10.2 drivers and the fan speed issues weren't a thing.

It looks like AMD has used some magic in their drivers to fix the issues here? Because I still have a wave-one card, and have NOT installed a new BIOS on it. This is how I received the card, then I had the issues and didn't have the time to test it afterwards because of the utter insane flow of samples arriving between custom Navi and custom SUPER cards.

But now? I take it from my shelf and throw it into the machine to do some benchmarking and I discover the fan speed issues are gone. Cool.

Detailed Specs

XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra 8GB GDDR6

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$249.99	$249.99	$249.99	$249.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/15/2024 at 7:13 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Cooling Tech & Design

XFX doesn't have much on their website when it comes to explaining the cooling tech on their Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra, but they do list that they're using Zero DB Auto Load Sensing Fans (which didn't work at first for me, but now do). The new revisions of the card do NOT have this problem either.

XFX uses its Ghost Thermal 2.0 design on the Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra, which has a huge amount of heat sink surface area and 35% less fan noise than previous coolers from XFX.

XFX's Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra is a dual-fan card, but there is now the THICC III Ultra with a triple-fan cooler out. Once this review is done and dusted, I'll reach out to the folks at XFX and see if I can get one for some direct comparison work.

Detailed Look

Let's take a look at XFX's new Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra graphics card, where we'll first look at the packaging.

XFX ships its flagship Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra in a decently-attractive box, and will most likely grab your eye on a retail shelf somewhere just from its 'THICC' branding.

On the back we have some small details on the RDNA architecture, and some details on the AMD technology included like FreeSync 2 HDR, FidelityFX, Image Sharpening, and Anti-Lag technologies.

Here we have it: XFX's new Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra in all its glory from the front. It looks good from here, but there are better angles of this card.

The backplate on the back looks great, and keeps the card cool -- even after hours under load the backplate wasn't too hot to touch.

From the bottom, we have a thicc (geddit) card that comes in as a 2.5-slot card.

From the top, we can spot an 8+6-pin PCIe power configuration.

You'll need an 8-pin as well as a 6-pin PCIe power connector to get the XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra up and running.

Some of the finishings on the card like this chrome-like style on the edge of the card adds to the overall hot rod look.

But man, it's this grill at the end of the card that makes the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra stand out. In the right system, it just looks mean. I can see some modded car-style PCs being made from this card.

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.

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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.

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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

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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

Gears 5 is the latest in The Coalition's huge franchise, with the game made on Unreal Engine 4. It looks great, and chews through even the latest GPUs. I benchmarked it at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K in a separate article and even did some 8K benchmarking at 7680 x 4320.

Borderlands 3 is also made on Unreal Engine 4 but developer Gearbox Software took it in a different route visually, to say the least. You'll want some high FPS in this game, and some of the more 'mid-range' cards do well while the game looks great. Once again, I tested this at 8K here.

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.

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.

1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

XFX has some great performance here at 1080p in Gears 5 -- offering nearly 120FPS average, beating out the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER by 1FPS. Borderlands 3 maintains 80FPS average, identical results to the reference RX 5700 XT from AMD but that is fine -- it does so much cooler, and much quieter than AMD's reference RX 5700 XT.

Shadow of War performance is within spec, at just 1FPS difference between the reference RX 5700 XT and 2FPS away from the RTX 2060 SUPER -- while having identical performance to AMD's higher-end Radeon VII with 16GB of HBM2.

Overall, better than reference RX 5700 XT performance all while looking way cooler, and being actually physically (much) cooler.

Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p Benchmarks

Gears 5 is the latest in The Coalition's huge franchise, with the game made on Unreal Engine 4. It looks great, and chews through even the latest GPUs. I benchmarked it at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K in a separate article and even did some 8K benchmarking at 7680 x 4320.

Borderlands 3 is also made on Unreal Engine 4 but developer Gearbox Software took it in a different route visually, to say the least. You'll want some high FPS in this game, and some of the more 'mid-range' cards do well while the game looks great. Once again, I tested this at 8K here.

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.

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.

1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

We're looking at some great Gears 5 performance at 1440p which is a resolution where AMD's Radeon RX 5700 XT really shines, and so too does the custom XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra. We have 76FPS average in Gears 5 at 1440p, up from the 74FPS average on the reference RX 5700 XT and better performance than the GeForce RTX 2070 with its 71FPS average.

Borderlands 3 sees the XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra with 57FPS average, just shy of that magic 60FPS mark -- but with a detail or two turned down, you'll hit 60FPS easy. This is definitely better than the 54FPS on the reference RX 5700 XT and while it might not seem like much, 57FPS average is much closer to 60FPS than 54FPS average and that is good in my book.

Shadow of War, Far Cry New Dawn and Shadow of the Tomb Raider all see virtually identical performance to the regular Radeon RX 5700 XT as the custom XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra... XFX just do it looking way cooler, operating cooler, and especially quieter.

Benchmarks - 4K

4K Benchmarks

Gears 5 is the latest in The Coalition's huge franchise, with the game made on Unreal Engine 4. It looks great, and chews through even the latest GPUs. I benchmarked it at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K in a separate article and even did some 8K benchmarking at 7680 x 4320.

Borderlands 3 is also made on Unreal Engine 4 but developer Gearbox Software took it in a different route visually, to say the least. You'll want some high FPS in this game, and some of the more 'mid-range' cards do well while the game looks great. Once again, I tested this at 8K here.

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.

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.

4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I won't recommend any Radeon RX 5700 XT for 4K gaming but that doesn't mean it's not possible... we have 41FPS average at 4K on Gears 5 with the new XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra. Not bad, but not great. It's just 2FPS more than the reference RX 5700 XT and 1FPS better than NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2070.

Borderlands 3 spits up only 33FPS average on XFX's custom RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra, which is identical to the reference RX 5700 XT and even the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER.

You can still run Shadow of War at nearly 60FPS average on XFX's custom RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra, while Far Cry New Dawn hits exactly 60FPS average at 4K and Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn't far behind with 58FPS average at 4K.

Thermals & Power

Power

The power on the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra falls right in line with my entire Intel Core i7-8700K test bench using 320W -- it's just above the SAPPHIRE RX 5700 XT PULSE at 315W and above the 285W on the reference RX 5700 XT.

Thermals

Thermals are very impressive on the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra with my sample running at just 62C, one of the coolest cards on my stack. Compare this to the reference RX 5700 XT at 84C, the difference is night and day. Excellent work here from XFX.

Final Thoughts

XFX has quite a kick ass custom Navi graphics cards on its hands with the Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra, with its unique hot rod-style car looks mixed with the latest AMD has to offer in graphics cards.

Just like the reference Radeon RX 5700 XT and all of the other custom Radeon RX 5700 XT cards, XFX has a really good offering here. We have stellar 1080p and 1440p performance, mixed with a quite operating card (62C or so under load) while maintaining kick ass performance levels of nearly 2GHz GPU clocks on the Navi 10.

XFX and its new Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra offer better performance than NVIDIA's new-ish GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, and it comes close to the higher-end GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER in some games and tests.

Would you buy this over another custom RX 5700 XT? That is up to you. Personally, it comes down to the style of the card -- all custom Radeon RX 5700 XT cards are going to offer roughly the same performance, falling into around 5% performance variance between all of the custom cards and AMD's own reference RX 5700 XT.

Wrapping up, XFX has a seriously kick ass offering here with its Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II Ultra, and now I want to try out the new triple-fan THICC III Ultra to see how/where XFX has improved on their custom Navi craft.