ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO Review

1. Introduction
2. Test System Specs & Synthetic Benchmarks
3. Benchmarks - 1080p
4. Benchmarks - 1440p
5. Benchmarks - 4K
6. Temp & Power
7. What's Hot, What's Not & Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

ASUS fixes up its two Radeon RX 5700 series cards in the TUF Gaming family -- with this card in particular kicking some serious ass in its price range. It has 8GB of RAM over the 6GB on the RX 5600 XT, making it worth the additional $30. Nice work, ASUS!

Buy at Amazon

Introduction

ASUS sent over their two newly revised TUF Gaming Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards, with my review on the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 XT EVO praising the re-worked cooler. The new thermal design brings the card, as too with the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO model here today, down from its stratospheric temps -- to one of the coolest operating cards I've ever tested.

I was thoroughly impressed with my testing of the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 XT EVO, after reading so much bad feedback on it (from consumer reports and reviews). That same energy went directly into the Radeon RX 5700 version of the card, with even better results than I could've asked for.

The GPU temperatures on the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO are some of the best I've ever seen, and while the new Radeon RX 5600 XT is here and gets close to it -- some gamers want the 8GB of VRAM that the Radeon RX 5700 offers, up from the 6GB tacked onto the RX 5600 XT.

The ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO is $333 on Amazon right now, while the Radeon RX 5600 XT version of the card is $310 -- a $20-$25 premium for the slightly faster speeds you get with the RX 5700, and the larger 8GB of VRAM over 6GB on the RX 5600 XT.

ASUS leaps out of the gate with a triple-fan cooler on its TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO graphics card, with ASUS putting in some engineering effort into the TUF card. The company is using "space-grade lubricant" here on the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO, with the sleeve bearings delivering a quieter gaming experience over dual ball bearings -- at least according to ASUS.

The company says it puts its TUF Gaming graphics cards through a huge 144-hour validation process, where each TUF Gaming card needs to meet the "rigorous performance and reliability standards before it ships. Performance and stress tests are run with the latest chart-topping titles like Fortnite, League of Legends, Overwatch, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. We also carry out reliability trials that include a 144-hour stability test and a series of 3DMark benchmarking runs to ensure the card performs well when pushed to the limits".

List of reviewed Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics cards so far:

• AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT reference
• MSI Radeon RX 5700 GAMING X
• SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 5700 XT NITRO+ OC
• SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 5700 XT PULSE OC
• MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT GAMING X
• ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi OC+
• XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC II ULTRA

ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO Details

A little more detail on the "space-grade lubricant" ASUS is using on the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO graphics card.

ASUS puts a bunch of engineering work into its products, and the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO is no different. This is why it'll be interesting to see later on in the review how the thermal results are on this card given the drama it is causing online in the early reviews of the card.

I'm a big fan of graphics card backplates, and while the TUF Gaming variant is a cheaper model compared to the ROG Strix RX 5700 it still rocks a great-looking backplate.

What is TUF Gaming?

TUF Gaming is the second highest brand in the ASUS catalogue, under the ROG (Republic of Gamers). The ASUS TUF Gaming and TUF Gaming Alliance products from ASUS partners goes through a bunch of different validation tests in order to give a "seamless plug-and-play experience".

ASUS ensures that all TUF Gaming products share a common design language, meaning that your PC has an unified aesthetic -- and that is very important. A full TUF Gaming PC looks, well, TUF. I mean, the slogan for TUF is 'The Ultimate Force' -- get it... TUF! Furthermore "stay cool, be TUF". So ASUS is telling you to stay cool (your TUF product) because you're The Ultimate Force, or TUF.

ASUS has some wicked custom TUF case mods from modders throughout the world, with the ASUS TUF Case Mod: Rockcrawler X99, Tiger Soul, Sabranco Humvee, Immortal, Hammer, and so much more. Check them all out here.

Detailed Specs

Detailed Look

The front and back of the box are identical to the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO variant, but you know -- minus the 'XT'.

From the front of the card, we have the triple-fan cooler and 'TUF GAMING' branding at the bottom.

From the back, a nice and clean -- but almost militarized backplate.

We have 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI for display connectivity on the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO graphics card.

The end of the card.

From the top of the card, it's quite chunky -- scope out the improved heat sink that covers the GDDR6 chips.

You will need 8 + 6-pin PCIe connectors to get it up and running.

ASUS TUF Gaming X3 AMD Radeon RX 5700 Overclocked 8G

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$149.99	$149.99	$149.99	$169.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/29/2024 at 3:50 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

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.

52

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.

52

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

52

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

52

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.

52

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.

52

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.

52

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

We start off the benchmarks with the ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO hitting 124FPS in Shadow of War -- not bad considering the higher-end RX 5700 XT (TUF Gaming X3 OC model) has 127FPS average.

Metro Exodus is close, with 68FPS average -- identical to the GeForce RTX 2070, and 4FPS away from the reference RX 5700 XT. Far Cry New Dawn performance is no surprise, with over 100FPS average out of the card while Shadow of the Tomb Raider has 132FPS average -- identical to the GTX 1080 Ti.

Benchmarks - 1440p

1440p Benchmarks

52

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.

52

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.

52

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.

52

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 have 84FPS average out of the ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO, which is 2FPS more than reference, and 7FPS behind the GTX 1080 Ti and RX 5700 XT graphics cards. Not a bad start here, and it beats the pants off of the RX 5600 XT here at 1440p in Shadow of War.

Metro Exodus gets close to 60FPS out of the RX 5700 here from ASUS, which is 1FPS better than reference -- but just 3FPS behind the higher-end RX 5700 XT.

95FPS from Far Cry New Dawn is a stellar result, just 3FPS shy of the higher-end RX 5700 XT -- while Shadow of the Tomb Raider hums along with 87FPS average at 2560 x 1440.

Benchmarks - 4K

4K Benchmarks

52

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.

52

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.

52

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.

52

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 don't recommend the Radeon RX 5700 for 4K gaming, but I still benchmarked the card at 3840 x 2160 -- with surprising results. Shadow of War pumps away at 53FPS on the ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO, which is 4FPS above reference, and just 2FPS lower than the higher-end RX 5700 XT. Not too damn bad at all.

Metro Exodus is not so forgiving on graphics cards, with 32FPS average at 4K -- 1FPS away from RX 5700 XT reference. Far Cry New Dawn plays well at 53FPS average, so with some in-game visual adjustments you could hit 60FPS average without a problem.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn't far behind, with 49FPS average -- the RX 5700 XT is a bit better here with 54FPS average at 4K.

Temp & Power

TUF Cooler? Not Before, But Maybe Now...

I wanted to spend more time testing the thermals on the ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO graphics card more than I would normally do -- to see how much ASUS improved the thermal design on the revised cooler. So for this review and my review on the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 XT EVO -- I added some new charts to this page of the review.

We have some impressive results from ASUS and while it doesn't beat all of the other cards, it's a hell of a lot better than the first wave of cards and the lackluster (pathetic) cooling that the original TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO card had. Seriously, over 100C on the GDDR6 chips is not good at all.

I re-tested all of my Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT graphics cards that I have here in the TweakTown GPU labs, including:

• AMD Radeon RX 5700 (reference) (my review here)
• AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (reference) (my review here)
• MSI RX 5700 XT GAMING X (my review here)
• SAPPHIRE RX 5700 XT Nitro+ OC (my review here)
• ASRock RX 5700 XT Taichi OC+ (my review here)
• ASUS TUF Gaming X3 RX 5700 XT EVO (my review here)
• ASUS TUF Gaming X3 RX 5700 EVO (this review)

GPU, GPU Hotspot, Memory, GPU VRM temps

ASUS radically improved the thermal design on its new TUF Gaming X3 EVO graphics cards, with the custom Radeon RX 5700 offering some impressive thermals here. We have 59C on the GPU which is ridiculously good, and 76C on the GDDR6 chips -- down from the high 80s on the rest of the custom cards I've tested.

Max GPU Boost

ASUS keeps GPU clocks on its TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO virtually identical to the reference Radeon RX 5700 from AMD -- 1710MHz. But that also helps the card stay nice and chilly in the temperature testing below.

Temps

Just like the ASUS TUF Gaming X3 RX 5700 XT EVO we have some super impressive GPU temperatures here, with the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO operating at just 59C -- the coolest on my large list of cards tested.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO is right on the money against the reference Radeon RX 5700 -- using 5W more in my Core i7-8700K test bed at 215W total.

What's Hot, What's Not & Final Thoughts

What's Hot

• Improved cooling: This is a point I made in my review of the ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 XT EVO. The company has made used an improved thermal solution, and the proof is in the pudding. We have the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO being the coolest operating card that I've tested in years.
• TUF style: I actually kinda dig the styling choices ASUS made with the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO, the backplate is one of the best styled for its price range and the triple-fan cooler looks mean AF.
• 8GB over 6GB on RX 5600 XT: The 8GB of GDDR6 is going to be a big selling point between this (the RX 5700) and the RX 5600 XT which is $30 cheaper. You won't use 8GB of VRAM in every game, but there are games where 6GB is just not enough -- spending $30 to "future proof" your PC is definitely a selling point of the cheaper RX 5700 that ASUS has here with its TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO.
• Great 1080p/1440p performance: Another thing that the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO has on its side is kick ass 1080p and 1440p performance. You will maintain high FPS at these resolutions, and 100FPS+ in esports titles. The 8GB of VRAM comes in handy as the resolutions increase, too.

What's Not

There's actually nothing wrong here with the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO. The first version of the card had its faults, but the revised thermal solution and $30 premium over the TUF Gaming RX 5600 XT -- along with its 8GB of VRAM over the 6GB on the RX 5600 XT make it a fine choice for your money.

Final Thoughts

The easy sell on the TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO is that you're going to be someone who is looking at either the Radeon RX 5600 XT or the Radeon RX 5700 XT. I'm not going to sit here and convince you to buy NVIDIA because you've already made your mind up on that.

What I do think the big selling point of the ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700 EVO is that the 8GB of VRAM begins to make the RX 5700 a better purchase than the RX 5600 XT for the additional $30. The Radeon RX 5600 XT is a great card but the RX 5700 has more GDDR6 that helps it at 1440p and 4K.

ASUS has made some gigantic changes to the thermal solution on its new TUF Gaming X3 EVO variants of the Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT -- and it shows. We have some of the best thermal performance of any of the custom Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT graphics cards that I've tested so far.

It has actually made me want to hunt down as many as I can of them to do one big gigantic Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT round up.

ASUS has really turned things around with its TUF Gaming graphics cards, and I hope we don't see a return to the bad form of the original cards. The new work here on the revised thermal solution needs a congratulations to the ASUS team, for listening to feedback and replying with an improved card.

This card is so radically better than the original cards, it would be nice to see ASUS come good and replace any purchase of the original version of this card, with the new TUF Gaming X3 EVO variant. It's such a good card in comparison, and would really go a long way of making good with ASUS customers.

Once again, nice work on this revised card, ASUS!