AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT overview: now priced towards Nvidia’s RTX 2060 Super Navi’s wanting good

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

The AMD Navi title has been bandied round in hushed whispers for a few years now, however lastly the crimson crew is shouting it loud and proud, and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is the primary graphics card on the planet to make use of the model new, gaming-focused Navi GPU structure. And it’s right here, in our take a look at rigs, and it’s one of many best-looking AMD graphics playing cards I’ve ever examined.

But magnificence is barely skin-deep; what can the brand new AMD Navi RDNA GPU contained in the curvy/dented shroud truly ship by way of gaming efficiency? And how does it arise towards the newly minted Nvidia RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2060 Super playing cards now that AMD has minimize its preliminary retail value simply days earlier than launch?

When AMD first introduced the brand new GPUs again at E3 its sights have been very a lot educated on the unique Turing-based RTX 2070 and RTX 2060 playing cards from Nvidia, however now the objective posts have shifted with the newest GeForce launch pushing the efficiency targets up, however with out altering the amount of cash you’re being anticipated to pay for it. And AMD has needed to reply accordingly.

While not the primary 7nm graphics playing cards to hit our gaming PCs – the short-lived Radeon VII has that doubtful distinction – the brand new Radeon RX 5700 XT is the primary to mix TSMC’s 7nm manufacturing course of with a model new graphics structure. The Navi RDNA GPUs characterize the primary time in a very long time that AMD has centered a design purely on gaming, leaving the GCN structure to maintain rocking on the compute tip for the skilled degree server chips of the longer term.

Though there’s a slight concern concerning the RX 5700-series’ use of the 7nm lithography and the truth that each this RX 5700 XT and the cut-down RX 5700 are launching on the identical day as the brand new 7nm Ryzen 3000 processors. Can AMD and TSMC manufacture sufficient of each to maintain the ravening hordes of PC peops fed with 7nm silicon?

At least AMD now has its personal retail channel, through the store at amd.com, to have the ability to guarantee there are reference-priced playing cards out there each time there’s inventory. AMD hasn’t traditionally been capable of present any form of management over what occurs to pricing when availability turns into tight in instances previous, leaving costs to spiral uncontrolled as inventory dwindles at on-line retailers. AMD nonetheless can’t instantly train any management over them to cease that taking place, however with its personal retailer promoting at MSRP the crimson crew can now present an alternate channel.

AMD Navi RDNA GPU

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT specs

We’ve coated off the main points of the brand new GPU design in our AMD Navi RDNA architecture deep-dive piece, however the largest change the crimson crew has made between Navi and Vega silicon is within the make up of the brand new Compute Unit. The RDNA CU is designed round ‘workgroup processors,’ or basically a pair of compute items strapped collectively, sharing some sources to operate higher on bigger workloads collectively.

But regardless of sharing sure sources, the RDNA compute items in Navi even have extra devoted silicon inside them in contrast with a conventional GCN compute unit. Each CU now has one further scheduler and one further scalar unit, doubling up their counts on each scores. And that’s particularly to supply double the potential instruction fee with the intention to create a extra environment friendly compute unit devoted to straightforward gaming graphics workloads.

AMD Navi RDNA compute unit

This tailoring for gaming is most blatant in arguably the largest architectural change of the RDNA structure: boosted directions per clock. Basically AMD has centered on enhancing the straight line gaming efficiency of its GPUs the place earlier than, with Vega, it was wanting extra in direction of the parallelism mandatory for improved compute workloads.

That’s why these Navi RDNA chips are devoted gaming chips.

In phrases of the particular specs for the RX 5700 XT card and its model of the 7nm Navi 10 GPU, it’s sporting the total 40 CU implementation of the chip and which means you’re getting 2,560 RDNA cores at its coronary heart. Allied to that 251mm2 GPU is 8GB of GDDR6 reminiscence operating at 14Gbps throughout a 256-bit reminiscence bus.

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary Ed. Radeon RX 5700 XT Radeon RX 5700
GPU AMD Navi 10 AMD Navi 10 AMD Navi 10
Lithography 7nm FinFET 7nm FinFET 7nm FinFET
Compute items 40 40 36
RDNA Cores 2,560 2,560 2,304
Memory 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6 8GB GDDR6
Memory bandwidth 448GB/s 448GB/s 448GB/s
Boost clock 1,980MHz 1,905MHz 1,725MHz
Game clock 1,830MHz 1,755MHz 1,625MHz
Base clock 1,680MHz 1,605MHz 1,465MHz
Transistors 10.3bn 10.3bn 10.3bn
Die dimension 251mm2 251mm2 251mm2
TDP 225W 225W 180W
Price $449 | £429 $399 | £380 $349 | £340

In quick, that’s the identical important reminiscence configuration that Nvidia has now delivered to bear on all of its non-Ti RTX 20-series graphics playing cards. And it wouldn’t be a lot of a shock if that change with the Super version GeForce playing cards is predicated on the truth that AMD has been resolutely providing superior reminiscence specs with its GPUs for generations.

The reporting of the RX 5700 XT’s graphics silicon clock velocity frequency has modified a little bit on this new era of AMD playing cards, nonetheless. In an analogous solution to how the Radeon VII was marketed with a peak engine clock past what you’d see generally gaming use, the RX 5700-series playing cards have a lift clock which ostensibly fulfils the identical function. The game clock then is the determine you’re more likely to see extra typically if you’re operating game workloads by way of your graphics processor.

But, that stated, throughout testing our RX 5700 XT card comfortably topped its rated game clock by a good margin. While the Navi 10 GPU inside has a rated game clock of 1,755MHz we noticed the frequency transferring between a low of 1,785MHz and 1,943MHz throughout an prolonged interval of back-to-back Metro Exodus runs. As a minimal that’s greater than the game clock and goes past the 1,905MHz rated enhance clock on the RX 5700 XT specs sheet.

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

AMD Radeon RX 5700XT benchmarks

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT efficiency

If you’re taking the RX 5700 XT gaming efficiency in isolation, wanting on the efficiency distinction between the last-gen Vega playing cards and the brand new Navi GPU, the quantity of progress that AMD has made in the mean time turns into clear.

Unfortunately we don’t have our previous Radeon VII to run full comparative testing on proper now – a mix-up between The Sun newspaper, Razer, and AMD has meant some UK courier has wandered off with a $699 graphics card totally free – however we do have a few referential benchmarks that make for fascinating studying. And from these you possibly can glean there may be basically subsequent to no distinction between the efficiency of the RX 5700 XT and the Radeon VII… and the brand new card is now $300 much less.

38% FEWER SHADERS THAN THE VEGA 64 AND YET DELIVERS 20% HIGHER FPS

So, the costly inaugural 7nm card which launched in February – precisely 5 months in the past to the day – has been immediately rendered out of date by the brand new prime Navi GPU. Anyone who spent $699 on that card ought to rightly really feel a little bit sick right this moment.

The Radeon Vega 64, a $499 card when it first launched (although one which subsequently went as much as over $1,00zero at instances on account of restricted inventory and loopy miners), is notably off the tempo too. In common phrases the RX 5700 XT is round 20% faster than the Vega 64 whereas consuming a contact much less energy too.

The comparability with the large Vega GPUs is fascinating, and exhibits how a lot smarter the gaming-focused RDNA design of the Navi graphics silicon is. With a 3rd fewer compute items and unified shaders than the 7nm Vega the equally 7nm Navi 10 can ship the identical ranges of gaming efficiency. Against the 14nm Vega the distinction is much more stark – the RX 5700 XT has 38% fewer compute items and shaders than the Vega 64 and but delivers 20% greater frames per second.

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

Were we purely a generation-to-generation comparability for the brand new AMD playing cards the top-spec Navi simply appears like a genuinely high quality graphics card for the plenty.

But we’re not simply wanting on the Radeon GPUs in isolation. With the discharge of the RTX 2070 and RTX 2060 Super playing cards, and the efficient retiring of the unique RTX 2070, Nvidia is forcing us to make the mandatory comparisons between these new GPUs and the outcomes weren’t almost as beneficial for AMD as they might have been simply a few weeks in the past.

IT’S NOW HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH THE RTX 2060 SUPER AND IN THAT FIGHT THE RADEON CARD COMES OUT TOP

Against the OG RTX 2070 we have been anticipating the RX 5700 XT to win some and lose some by way of benchmarks, however towards the brand new RTX 2070 Super variant it’s an outlined loss throughout the board.

Before the Super playing cards’ launched AMD additionally dropped a observe into its reviewer’s information to remind us the unique RTX 2070 Founders Edition we may be testing towards was truly offered on the greater value of $599. In that state of affairs, with the 2070 and 5700 XT buying and selling gaming blows, and being offered at $449, the cheaper Radeon card would have regarded an actual cut price. But not solely has that previous 2070 now been retired, so has the Founders Edition schtick too. So the $499 RTX 2070 Super is the bottom value, and that further $50 over the 5700 XT’s unique value was matched by the additional efficiency of the GeForce GPU.

The shifting sands of the GPU market, nonetheless, has inspired AMD to slash the pricing of its new RX 5700-series playing cards pre-launch with the intention to change their respective targets. Now the RX 5700 XT is priced head-to-head with the RTX 2060 Super, whereas leaving the RTX 2070 Super as the cardboard providing GTX 1080 Ti efficiency for significantly lower than the RTX 2080 was providing it for lower than a yr in the past. But on this newly centered struggle decrease down the GPU stack the Radeon card does come out prime.

There are just a few events the place the RTX 2060 Super manages to attain some degree of gaming parity with the XT, however on the entire the Navi-based card completely has the sting.

It’s additionally not vastly off the tempo in contrast with the RTX 2070 Super card – typically the efficiency delta is lower than 10% – and when it’s priced $100 cheaper you possibly can see the crimson crew has actually gone for the GeForce jugular on pricing. But the Navi 10 GPU has nowhere to go from right here, it’s successfully operating on the ragged edge, as is commonly the best way with AMD’s graphics playing cards, and has been pushed so far as it will possibly go to have the ability to supply this degree of efficiency.

The Nvidia card, with it’s a lot decrease temps and extra environment friendly GPU, can have extra overclocking efficiency within the tank, which we’ll make sure you uncover as soon as we’ve acquired extra OC-friendly launch drivers to play with so we will measure their relative potential.

You are, after all, additionally gaining access to the present and future real-time ray tracing results being added to increasingly more games with the GeForce GPUs. Were the pricing nonetheless principally equal I’d have comfortably advisable the RTX 2070 Super as absolutely the go-to GPU for players in search of high-end efficiency and its help for next-gen visible results, however in straight body fee phrases the $100 cheaper RX 5700 XT now makes it a more durable choose.

If you had the cash you’d nonetheless need the RTX 2070 Super, however AMD is now providing near the fundamental rasterised efficiency for lots much less money.

AMD Radeon RX 5700-series

We do, nonetheless, want to speak about extra than simply straight body fee efficiency too; we have to speak about energy and thermals. That horny, curvy new shroud appears improbable – truthfully, even higher within the flesh – however regardless of the very fact we’re now speaking a couple of 7nm GPU that’s meant to be way more environment friendly than its 14nm forebears, we’re nonetheless wanting on the identical actual thermal efficiency because the RX Vega 64.

THE RTX 2060 SUPER RUNS 20°C COOLER, IS FAR QUIETER, AND DELIVERS SIMILAR GAMING WITH FAR LESS POWER

That is to say: sizzling. And loud. We can’t neglect or forgive the truth that when it’s operating the GPU exhausting the cooling followers spin as much as basic AMD turbine ranges.

The 12nm Nvidia RTX 2060 Super, against this, runs virtually 20°C cooler, operates far quieter, and nonetheless delivers related gaming efficiency whereas utilizing far much less energy. And all that from a GPU which is 77% larger too.

That ought to inform you all it’s essential know concerning the relative effectivity of the Nvidia Turing graphics structure vs the AMD Navi design. Try as it would AMD merely can not deploy a GPU as highly effective, as cool, or as environment friendly as Nvidia’s engineers can. Just take into consideration how a lot extra environment friendly Turing could possibly be at 7nm…

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

AMD Radeon RX 5700 verdict

This is precisely why elevated competitors available in the market goes to be nice for players. AMD publicizes the RX 5700 XT at $450, guarantees it is going to beat an RTX 2070, after which Nvidia responds by altering its pricing mannequin and introducing a sooner model of its previous card for a similar value. Then AMD hits again and slashes the value of its Navi-based GPUs simply days earlier than the launch and shakes up the graphics card market as soon as extra. It’s been a wild couple of weeks.

Before the XT value drop it actually wasn’t wanting so good for AMD. The card’s sizzling, energy hungry, and slower than the beforehand equally priced RTX 2070 Super. The further $50 Nvidia was then asking appeared about proper for what you have been getting in return with its greater efficiency and the extra next-gen function set.

But the place it’s value is now $100 lower than the brand new Nvidia card, and sometimes solely 10% behind in customary, rasterised gaming tempo, the RX 5700 XT is a much more tantalising possibility. And wanting on the gen-on-gen efficiency distinction towards the $499 RX Vega 64, and the $699 Radeon VII, the progress AMD has made with the Navi RDNA structure is clear.

Though spare a thought for the poor bastards who went out and acquired a Radeon VII in February. They’ve acquired to be furious about now. The 7nm early adopters have actually been minimize adrift.

Power and thermals are nonetheless a difficulty although, particularly contemplating this is a 7nm half. But when the third-party playing cards are launched, with improved cooling choices, it’s going to virtually be a no brainer if it will possibly preserve this extremely aggressive pricing.

Unless you’re 100% on board the ray-tracing hype practice that’s, and, given the noises coming from game devs at E3 final month, quite a lot of the gaming trade is… together with Sony and Microsoft. And if the consoles are demanding ray traced visible results for the following era then it’s going to grow to be virtually customary for next-gen titles. And Nvidia has already laid quite a lot of the bottom work for PC players.

AMD Radeon RX 5700

One different observe of warning does should be heeded, nonetheless. AMD hadn’t launched an overclocking-friendly driver for the brand new Navi playing cards till just a few hours earlier than launch, so we haven’t been capable of take a look at how a lot further we will get out of the brand new RDNA-powered GPUs.

Personally, with the RX 5700 XT topping out at 87°C as customary in our thermal take a look at, I’m not satisfied we’ll get way more out of this card’s silicon. But the RX 5700, a card that’s now simply $50 much less, and with solely a really barely cut-down Navi GPU, does look to have some headroom left. And so does the RTX 2060 Super, to be truthful.

The decrease caste Radeon chip isn’t clocked as excessive out of the field and it doesn’t get to the identical degree of maximum GPU temps both. Because of that I wouldn’t be stunned if the straight RX 5700 will get extremely near the XT by way of gaming efficiency with a little bit mild overclocking, which might make the argument for the more-expensive XT model a little bit of a more durable name.

But proper now, with out that testing, the RX 5700 XT nonetheless appears like a fantastic straight rasterised rendering card. It could have taken some value massaging to essentially make the RX 5700 XT the aggressive half it deserves to be, however the place it stands now – knocking out the RTX 2060 Super and genuinely pushing the way more costly, however nonetheless sooner, RTX 2070 Super – AMD has made a hell of a return to the graphics card game with its model new Navi structure.

 
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