Full HD gaming with the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT

A current AMD platform based on the MSI MEG X570 Godlike serves as the test system. The CPU (AMD Ryzen 9 3900X) offers good CPU performance and we use an AIO (Alphacool Eisbaer Aurora 360) for cooling. The 16 GB RAM comes from G-Skill and clocks at 3,600 MHz. We use the Acer Predator XB321HK as a monitor. This does not restrict us due to its UHD suitability. Our thanks go to AMD for providing the test platform.

The clock rates of the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT are slightly above the factory specifications from AMD. The graphics card has a dual BIOS, which can be selected directly on the card using a slider. For the tests, we only used the performance BIOS to get the best performance out of the graphics card. Shortly before the release of the Radeon RX 5600 XT, new BIOS versions were released, which increase the clock rates and the maximum TDP. Our test sample reaches up to 1,750 MHz in boost and 14 GHz in VRAM. The TDP was also increased slightly by 10 watts to 160 watts. If the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT is used with the Silent BIOS, the power consumption drops to 135 watts. Also, the boost clock is only at 1,620 MHz and the VRAM is slowed down somewhat at only 12 GHz.

The maximum power consumption of the graphics card is 160 watts in theory. When idling, the system is content with 112 watts without a monitor, although an average of 321 watts of energy is drawn from the socket during the stress test. If we increase the power target by 20%, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT can use up to 192 watts, which ensures a higher and more stable boost clock.

In comparison, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT is on par with the older AMD Radeon RX 570, which however offers significantly less performance. This clearly shows that the performance per watt could be increased considerably. The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT also does quite well against the graphics cards from Nvidia. However, the competition's GTX models are much more economical.

The temperatures of the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT are in the green in normal use. Nevertheless, there is also a GPU hotspot of 95 °C during the stress test, which even rises to 99 °C due to the increased power target. The two axial fans have their hands full in regard to cooling the graphics card. Nevertheless, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT remains pleasantly quiet under load. In the stress test, the two fans turned at almost 2,200 rotations per minute.