The Bottom Line
Introduction, Pricing & Detailed Look
I haven't reviewed a PowerColor product in the entire time I've been reviewing graphics cards for TweakTown now, which is close to 7 years. In my hands today my friends, I have the PowerColor Radeon RX 5600 XT Red Dragon -- and it is one of the best custom Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics cards so far.
So far there have been 4 different Radeon RX 5600 XT roll through my lab, and I still have a couple to go over (the ASUS ROG STRIX and XFX THICC ULTRA III) and then I'm going to do a Mega Radeon RX 5600 XT Round Up comparing them all because there are some great models here.
One of those is the PowerColor RX 5600 XT Red Dragon, which features a slick dual-slot design and dual-fan cooler. It has some of the best performance so far, all while keeping it nice and compact in its dual-slot design. It's not as over-the-top as the RED DEVIL -- and that's something I want to ask Beezelbub for next.
I have taken a look at the the following custom AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics cards so far:
- ASRock Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC
- MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT GAMING X
- SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 5600 XT PULSE OC
Detailed Look
PowerColor uses a dual-fan cooler on the RX 5600 XT Red Dragon, looking all nice in our shot here.
One of the best-looking backplates of the RX 5600 XT cards so far.
Yep.
Display configuration: 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI.
I'm digging the dual-fan and dual-slot design on this card, it looks great in a machine. You can also see the PCB is distanced from the backplate here, too.
Heat pipes and heat sink goodness at the end of the card.
You need just a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.
There's also a Silent BIOS that you can enable, which is separate to the OC BIOS it ships with.
Test System Specs & Synthetic Benchmarks
GPU Test Rig Specs
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.
Anthony's Test System Specifications
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 (buy from Amazon)
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5GHz (buy from Amazon)
- Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO (buy from Amazon)
- Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Predator DDR4-2933 (buy from Amazon)
- SSD: 1TB Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2 (buy from Amazon)
- SSD: 512GB Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2 (buy from Amazon)
- Power Supply: InWin 1065W
- Case: InWin X-Frame
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (buy from Amazon)
Additional Images
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.
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.
1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts
PowerColor is performing quite well here at 1080p where in Shadow of War we have 105FPS average, beating the Radeon RX Vega 56 and the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X. We have 63FPS average in Metro Exodus, 1FPS faster than the MSI RX 5600 XT and Vega 56.
We're looking at over 100FPS average in Far Cry New Dawn at 1080p, a great result -- while Shadow of the Tomb Raider is just a single frame per second under 120FPS average. 1080p and over 100FPS ain't bad at all. In esports games like Fortnite and Apex Legends, you're going to see well over 100FPS with some tweaks to in-game visuals you will be looking at 144-160FPS+.
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.
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.
1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts
This is where the faster GDDR6 memory comes into play: 2560 x 1440. PowerColor takes out Shadow of War at 1440p and equals the Radeon RX Vega 56 with 72FPS, and beats the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X by a single FPS.
We're getting 50FPS average in Metro Exodus, which is another 1FPS faster -- PowerColor is keeping just ahead of MSI in the benchmarks at both 1080p and 1440p. The same goes for Far Cry New Dawn where the PowerColor RX 5600 XT Red Dragon is pushing 90FPS at 1440p, leaving just 2FPS between it and the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider hums along at 80FPS average, just 2FPS better than the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X.
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.
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.
4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts
Note: Please don't buy the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER for 4K gaming, but I thought I would run the results and check them out for myself.
Shadow of War at 3840 x 2160 on a sub $200 graphics card with nearly 30FPS average? Hot damn. That's the magic of GDDR6 on a lower-end card, but wow-oh-wow does the GTX 980 Ti show its strength in its old age at 33FPS average at 4K.
Metro Exodus drops to just 12FPS, Far Cry New Dawn to 23FPS, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider to 21FPS. This isn't playable to me, period and I do not recommend it.
Temp & Power
Temperatures
PowerColor's custom Radeon RX 5600 XT RED DRAGON is definitely not the coolest-operating RX 5600 XT that I've tested, with my sample running at 74C under load. To put this into comparison the ASRock RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming runs at 59C, the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X at 68C and the SAPPHIRE RX 5600 XT PULSE OC at 58C.
Power Consumption
The PowerColor RX 5600 XT RED DRAGON falls roughly into line with the other custom RX 5600 XT graphics cards, with my entire Intel Core i7-8700K test bed consuming 210W with the card installed. This is up 20W from the ASRock RX 5600 XT which consumes 190W in the test bed.
What's Hot, What's Not & Final Thoughts
What's Hot
- Great performance: PowerColor has some great performance here with its Radeon RX 5600 XT Red Dragon graphics card, offering great 1080p and 1440p gaming.
- GDDR6 memory: GDDR6 is a huge win for both AMD and NVIDIA, with the Radeon RX 5600 XT one of the cards that has benefitted from it the most. We have some punching-above-the-belt performance at 2560 x 1440 on the RX 5600 XT thanks to last-minute changes from AMD.
- Last minute BIOS upgrade from AMD: Speaking of which, thanks for those last minute changes on the RX 5600 XT and the GDDR6 spec at the last minute, AMD. PowerColor and everyone else get to benefit -- so enjoy the additional performance.
- Silent BIOS: The option here for a 'silent' BIOS is nice.
- OC BIOS: This is what you want out of the box.
What's Hot
- No DRAGON design: Come on, PowerColor -- I wanted a bit more... mean? Fierce? Angry? DEMONIC?! Something from a card branded 'RED DRAGON'. PowerColor does have the RED DEVIL variant of the card, maybe I need to do a side-by-side with the bigger, meaner brother in the DRAGON series from PowerColor.
- Runs warm: I guess it's not warm in Hell, either.
Final Thoughts
PowerColor has a strong offering with the Radeon RX 5600 XT Red Dragon, with some kick ass performance that it equals or betters its rivals with in the benchmark ring.
Is there any particular reason you would get the RX 5600 XT Red Dragon from PowerColor over something from ASUS, MSI, SAPPHIRE or XFX? Probably not. But at this point with the custom RX 5600 XTs they are really all the same. The new BIOS upgrade push from AMD has allowed faster VRAM on all cards and near identical boost GPU clocks.
PowerColor doesn't have the warmest-operating Radeon RX 5600 XT that I've tested, but it's definitely one of the warmer ones. It is silent until it's under gaming strains, while not throwing you into a fit through its RGB lighting.
I love the dual-slot design of the card and its plainer aesthetics at times, it's a nice change from the crazy over-the-top cards we usually see. PowerColor could've gone with a meaner style given the Red Dragon branding, but that's a small thing really.
Overall, PowerColor has a kick ass card in its arsenal with the Radeon RX 5600 XT Red Dragon -- something the Devil himself would be happy to run, if he wanted a mid-range system to play around on. Come on guys, we all know the Devil himself would be running some kind of gaming PC from the future or something.