It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind week main up as we speak’s launch of AMD’s Radeon RX 5600 XT. Dubbed the “ultimate” bestest best graphics card for 1080p gaming, the RX 5600 XT was initially meant to be AMD’s reply to Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, coming in at an an identical value of $279. Nvidia, nonetheless, fought again, decreasing the worth of their subsequent card up, the ray-tracing enabled RTX 2060, to £275 / $299 on the finish of final week. Cue one other scramble over the weekend the place stories have been flying round that a great deal of RX 5600 XT producers have been now elevating the clock pace of their new graphics playing cards to make them extra aggressive with Nvidia’s RTX 2060. Amazing what having a little bit of competitors can do, eh?
The result’s, properly, a card that’s just about neck and neck with Nvidia’s RTX 2060, however doesn’t have any ray tracing help. I’ll get into the nitty gritty of what meaning afterward, however successfully, the RX 5600 XT does certainly dwell as much as its identify as AMD’s final 1080p graphics card, providing considerably sooner speeds than both of their entry-level RX 5500 XT playing cards at this decision, and even runs the danger of stepping on the toes of their lower-end (however nonetheless excellent) 1440p oriented graphics card, the RX 5700. The GTX 1660 Ti doesn’t even come near it.
To check the RX 5600 XT, I’ve been having a look at Sapphire’s Radeon RX 5600 XT Pulse card. At £255 (US pricing TBC), that is set to be one of many cheaper RX 5600 XTs obtainable once they go on sale later as we speak, so it ought to give us a superb indication of what this card is able to throughout the board. Armed with 6GB of GDDR6 reminiscence, this twin fan mannequin is a little bit of a beast size-wise, however it wasn’t overly loud or noisy throughout my testing.
Just like its RTX 2060 rival, the RX 5600 XT is greater than able to hitting 60fps on the very best high quality settings at 1920×1080, and might be overkill for anybody with an everyday 60Hz monitor at this decision. Really, you’ll wish to have a display screen with a refresh price of not less than 75Hz to benefit from the RX 5600 XT, as this card’s body price frequently pushed into the 70s and 80s throughout testing.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, for instance, I noticed a mean of 61fps on Highest with the game’s demanding SMAAx4 anti-aliasing enabled, and a mean of 89fps after I dropped the AA right down to its SMAATx2 setting. In every case, that’s a handful of frames behind Nvidia’s RTX 2060 – a mean of simply 4fps – however not something you’ll discover in apply with out the help of a body price counter.
It was an identical image in Total War: Three Kingdoms as properly. The RX 5600 XT managed a mean of 60fps on Ultra and 85fps on High, whereas the RTX 2060 got here in with respective scores of 66fps and 88fps. Once once more, although, I don’t suppose I’d be capable of inform the distinction in-game, particularly when the RX 5600 XT solely noticed lows of 53fps versus the RTX 2060’s 56fps. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was maybe a contact extra secure on the RTX 2060, which managed a mean of bang-on 60fps on Ultra High versus the RX 5600 XT’s 54fps common, however to my eyes they felt just about an identical. The similar goes for Monster Hunter: World, too, the place the RTX 2060’s common of 70fps out within the subject felt roughly the identical because the RX 5600 XT’s common of 64fps.
Over in Metro Exodus, in the meantime, it was the opposite approach round, with the RX 5600 XT managing a mean of 57fps on Ultra versus the RTX 2060’s 52fps common. Just like earlier than, I believe you’d be hard-pushed to note a lot distinction right here with out that all-important body price counter, as each playing cards stuttered right down to 30fps within the game’s robust inner benchmarking software.
It was an identical situation in Final Fantasy XV as properly. Here, the RX 5600 XT got here out in entrance with a mean body price of 71fps on Highest versus Nvidia’s 65fps, however general each playing cards felt just about an identical in pace. That mentioned, I used to be shocked by how properly the RX 5600 XT carried out right here, as AMD playing cards usually don’t cope very properly with FFXV. I used to be significantly impressed with the way it managed to achieve a excessive of 82fps after I was trudging up and down the hills of Duscae, too, placing it 14fps forward of the very best body price I noticed on my RTX 2060. Naturally, the RTX 2060 is best positioned to reap the benefits of FFXV’s additional Nvidia results, comparable to TurfEffects and HairWorks, however the RX 5600 XT nonetheless places in a rattling good displaying nonetheless.
In Forza Horizon 4, alternatively, the RX 5600 XT was completely streets forward. Whereas the RTX 2060 completed with a mean of 98fps on Ultra, the RX 5600 XT zoomed over the end line with a mean of 136fps. It made a a lot better fist of The Witcher III as properly, averaging 92fps on Ultra in contrast with the RTX 2060’s 83fps common.
That’s 4 games the place AMD comes out on high, and 4 games for Nvidia. In the vast majority of circumstances, although, I wouldn’t say both card places in a very convincing lead over the opposite, as most of their common 1080p scores have been all inside round 5fps of one another. Forza Horizon Four and The Witcher III do swing it extra closely in AMD’s favour, however even then you definately’ll solely be capable of see the distinction if in case you have a monitor with a excessive refresh price. To all intents and functions, then, we’re speaking just about an identical efficiency throughout the board at this decision.
The RX 5600 XT can be a really competent card for taking part in games at 2560×1440, too. Once once more, the common body charges you may count on to see are just about toe to toe with the RTX 2060 at this decision, making for one more extraordinarily tight set of benchmarking outcomes. Like its Nvidia rival, it’s not fairly a “60fps on max settings” sort of card at this decision, however there’s greater than sufficient energy right here to hit that sort of pace on High, making this an ideal 1440p card for anybody seeking to save a bit of cash.
If something, the RX 5600 XT truly places AMD’s personal Radeon RX 5700 card in a little bit of a clumsy place right here, as there have been many situations the place the RX 5600 XT was solely a mean of 5fps behind its £300 / $330 RX 5700 sibling. AMD have assured me the RX 5600 XT won’t be changing the RX 5700, however it might as properly be given the proximity of their general efficiency figures. Watch out for some graphs collectively later within the week to see what I imply.
For now, although, let’s stick to the RTX 2060. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, for example, I may have sworn blind I’d examined the identical card twice, because the RX 5600 XT got here in with a mean of 59fps on Highest with SMAATx2 enabled, whereas the RTX 2060 managed a mean of 57fps. I may say the identical factor about Final Fantasy XV, too, the place the RX 5600 XT managed a mean of 55fps on High versus the RTX 2060’s 56fps common. Monster Hunter: World noticed very comparable speeds as properly, with the RX 5600 XT averaging 59fps in contrast with the RTX 2060’s 62fps, as did Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, with the RX 5600 XT coming in with a mean of 64fps on High and the RTX 2060 with 65fps. I child you not.
Total War: Three Kingdoms noticed the RTX 2060 take a slight lead, averaging 58fps on High in contrast with the RX 5600 XT’s 54fps, however Metro Exodus noticed it swing the opposite approach once more, with the RX 5600 XT averaging a noticeably smoother 54fps on High versus the RTX 2060’s 48fps. The RX 5600 XT maintained its lead in The Witcher III and Forza Horizon Four as properly. In the previous, it managed a mean of 67fps on Ultra, placing it 7fps forward of its Nvidia rival, whereas the latter noticed it leap forward by nearly 30fps, averaging 107fps on Ultra in contrast with the RTX 2060’s 80fps common.
On stability, then, you can argue the RX 5600 XT has the sting on the RTX 2060, particularly when the £255 Sapphire mannequin I’ve bought right here goes for £20 lower than the most affordable RTX 2060 I can discover proper now, which is Zotac’s Twin Fan mannequin. The RX 5600 XT additionally comes with three months value of Xbox Game Pass for PC, too, though when you may nonetheless join Microsoft’s three months for £1 offer, that’s probably not including that a lot additional worth to it. Sadly, neither card at present include a free game bundle, which is a disgrace given you will get a free copy of Monster Hunter World’s Iceborne Master version with the RX 5500 XT.
The query actually turns into, then, whether or not you’re determined for the RTX 2060’s additional ray tracing help. Personally, I may take or go away ray tracing in the intervening time. While extra ray tracing games are because of hit later this yr, the variety of games that help it proper now continues to be fairly small, and none of them besides Control’s RTX options have actually wowed me with what it could possibly do. If Cyberpunk 2077 was nonetheless releasing in April, there could also be trigger to err on the aspect of ray tracing, however now that’s been pushed back to September (and there’s no assure it would have ray tracing at launch, both *cough*Wolfenstein-Youngblood’s-six-month-delay*cough*), the one massive ray tracing games on the rapid horizon are Watch Dogs Legion and Doom Eternal, the latter of which has had subsequent to nothing proven off about what its ray tracing help will truly entail.
There’ll even be Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 and Dying gentle 2 sooner or later this yr, however I can’t say that any of their respective ray tracing demos have left me significantly impressed up to now. Indeed, Minecraft is the one ray tracing game arising that’s left any sort of impression on me up to now, however even that’s restricted to the Windows 10 model of the game, and, as I discussed in my Minecraft RTX preview, I’ve additionally bought critical considerations about how properly it’s truly run on lower-end RTX playing cards when it lastly comes out.
Plus, there’s nonetheless the age-old query of “will these games actually get ray tracing at launch?” to think about as properly. With a number of of the games I’ve simply talked about pushed again towards the latter half of the yr, if any of them undergo one other six-month delay to their ray tracing like Wolfenstein: Youngblood did, then it could possibly be this time subsequent yr, if not later, earlier than you are able to do something with it.
As a outcome, I reckon will probably be not less than one other yr, if not two, earlier than we actually begin seeing ray tracing come into its personal, if solely as a result of extra devs can be making games for the next-gen console bins by then, which additionally help ray tracing. At which level, there’ll nearly definitely be newer, sooner, extra highly effective graphics playing cards on the market that may do ray tracing correctly – and (hopefully) with out taking as a lot of a efficiency hit. On stability, I’d be inclined to say, “Worry about ray tracing when you next come to upgrade your graphics card, because there sure ain’t many compelling reasons to get one right this second.”
You might disagree, in fact, and that’s advantageous. No one’s stopping you from leaping in with Nvidia. But in terms of uncooked efficiency, I believe AMD’s Radeon RX 5600 XT places in a rattling good displaying for simply over £250, and is properly value contemplating as a substitute for the RTX 2060, particularly given its marginally lower cost. One factor’s for positive, although – the RX 5600 XT is certainly value shopping for over the GTX 1660 Ti, which might nonetheless be discovered floating across the £250 / $280 mark, and I’d even go so far as saying it is best to in all probability get this as a substitute of AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 in the event you’re on the lookout for one thing that may supply a superb 1440p expertise as properly. The RX 5700 does supply marginally higher speeds at 1440p, however as I discussed above, I don’t actually suppose it’s sufficient to justify spending one other £50 / $50 on it.
That mentioned, I additionally don’t suppose you should spend £250 to get an honest 1080p graphics card. If all you’re after is one thing low cost and cheerful and aren’t too fussed about taking part in games on the very best settings, then the 4GB model of AMD’s Radeon RX 5500 XT card continues to be my primary suggestion for what you can purchase at this decision. After all, this may nonetheless get you not less than 60fps on Medium settings in most of as we speak’s massive games, and someplace within the mid-50s while you transfer as much as High. That’s greater than sufficient for most individuals, and can solely set you again £170 / $180 in addition.
However, tor these after a card that may pull double decision duties, providing a brilliant quick 1080p expertise in addition to spectacular 1440p speeds, then the RX 5600 XT is a troublesome act to beat.
