The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT has finally arrived and while the launch didn't go smooth, the end product is a card that should definitely spice up the mainstream graphics segment. The Radeon 5600 XT is positioned not only against NVIDIA's Turing GeForce GTX lineup but also GeForce RTX lineup of graphics cards, with a starting price of $279 US.
The Radeon RX 5600 series uplifts AMD by bringing a modern architecture design and moving away from its GCN design featured on the Polaris GPUs. This allows AMD to bring more streamlined graphics performance in modern workloads and gaming titles. AMD was already ahead of the curve in utilizing new techs such as HBM and smaller process nodes and Navi is no exception. Aside from the new graphics architecture, AMD has also introduced GDDR6 memory and a smaller 7nm process node for their mainstream lineup which is a big update from the 14nm process on Polaris and Vega series cards.
While the Radeon RX 5600 series cards bring new technologies and features to the segment, the tech itself doesn't come cheap. We can see this in the table illustrating previous mainstream cards and their price segments. In that regard, the RX 5600 XT has definitely seen a markup in the prices of mainstream graphics cards. Also, there was the whole performance upgrade scene where AMD had to change the specifications of the card at the very last minute to compete against the NVIDIA price cuts for their GeForce RTX 2060. We will talk more about this in the review ahead.
AMD Radeon GPU Segment/Tier Prices
| Graphics Segment | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ultra Enthusiast Tier | Radeon R9 Fury X Radeon R9 Fury Radeon R9 Nano |
Radeon R9 Fury X Radeon R9 Fury Radeon R9 Nano |
Radeon RX Vega 64 | Radeon RX Vega 64 | Radeon VII |
| Price | $649 US $549 US $649 US |
$649 US $549 US $649 US |
$499 US | $499 US | $699 US |
| Enthusiast Tier | Radeon R9 390X | Radeon R9 390X | Radeon RX Vega 56 | Radeon RX Vega 56 | Radeon RX 5700 XT |
| Price | $429 US | $429 US | $399 US | $399 US | $399 US |
| High-End Tier | Radeon R9 390 | Radeon R9 390 | N/A |
Radeon RX 590 | Radeon RX 5700 |
| Price | $329 US | $329 US | N/A | $279 US | $349 US |
| Mainstream Tier | Radeon R9 380X Radeon R9 380 Radeon R9 370X Radeon R9 370 |
Radeon RX 480 Radeon RX 470 |
Radeon RX 580 Radeon RX 570 |
Radeon RX 580 Radeon RX 570 |
Radeon RX 5600 XT |
| Price | $229 US $199 US $199 US $179 US |
$229 US $179 US |
$229 US $169 US |
$229 US $169 US |
$279 US |
| Entry Tier | Radeon R7 360 | Radeon RX 460 | Radeon RX 560 | Radeon RX 560 | Radeon RX 5500 XT Radeon RX 5500 XT |
| Price | $109 US | $129 US | $99 US | $99 US | $199 US $169 US |
Well, in terms of performance the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB is supposed to be much faster than the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti at about 20% average. This would allow AMD to reach near RTX 2060 performance at a lower price point which is very impressive on paper. To cut down the costs, AMD had to go with 6 GB GDDR6 memory whereas their RX 5500 XT supports up to 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM. It is quite the sacrifice but in the market where the RX 5600 XT is competing, you won't find much aside from 6 GB cards (RTX 2060, GTX 1660 Ti, GTX 1660 SUPER).
Unlike the GeForce RTX cards which had some feature advantage over the Radeon RX 5700 series cards, the GeForce GTX cards don't feature RTX/DLSS support. This puts them just on par with the Radeon RX 5600 series in feature set with the exception of the Turing NVENC encoder which does an exceptional job for gamers on a budget. The Radeon RX 5600 is supported by the latest AMD Adrenaline 2020 Edition bringing features such as Radeon Boost, Integer Scaling, Radeon Image Sharpening, Radeon Anti-Lag, and Freesync support. These are an impressive list of features on their own and something to really consider when comparing AMD's and NVIDIA's budget tier range of cards.
So for this review, I will be taking a look at the MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z. This is MSI's new and flagship custom design for the Navi 10 GPU that features dual TORX 3.0 fans along with the renowned MSI features such as Zero Frozr and Smooth heat pipe design. The card has an MSRP of $339.99 US which is a hefty $60 US premium over the reference MSRP.
The AMD Radeon RX 5600 Series Family
The AMD Radeon RX 5600 series lineup is made up of a single desktop and mobility variant. The desktop variant is the Radeon RX 5600 XT which I will be testing today in custom flavor from MSI while the mobility variant is the upcoming Radeon RX 5600M which should feature similar specs as the Radeon RX 5600 XT but with notebook optimized clock speeds and TDP.
AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB Official Specifications ($279 USD MSRP)
Rocking 36 Compute Units or 2304 stream processors on its Navi 10 XLE GPU, this card offers the same core count as the Radeon RX 5700. The clock speeds for the Radeon RX 5600 XT are tuned at 1130 MHz base, 1375 MHz game, and 1560 MHz boost. This would also lead to much lower TDP, around the 160W range while the Radeon RX 5700 has a TDP of 180W. The card will be able to put out 7.19 TFLOPs of Compute horsepower.
Coming to the memory design, this is where we start seeing major differences between the Radeon RX 5700 and the Radeon RX 5600 XT. While the Radeon RX 5700 rocks an 8 GB GDDR6 memory with a 256-bit wide bus interface, the Radeon RX 5600 XT would rock a 6 GB GDDR6 memory with a 192-bit bus interface. The Radeon RX 5700 also delivers a higher 448 GB/s bandwidth, utilizing the 14 Gbps DRAM dies while the Radeon RX 5600 XT would offer 288 GB/s bandwidth, utilizing slower 12 Gbps DRAM dies. The card will require a single 8-pin power connector & display outputs include a single HDMI 2.0b and triple DisplayPort 1.4 ports.
Do note that these are the reference specifications which are since the cards release not being followed by AIBs. AIBs are instead using custom BIOS's to deliver higher clocks for both GPU and VRAM along with higher TDP limits of up to 160W.
AMD Radeon RX 5000 '7nm Navi RDNA' GPU Lineup Specs:
| Graphics Card | Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary | Radeon RX 5700 XT | Radeon RX 5700 | Radeon RX 5600 XT | Radeon RX 5500 XT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Architecture | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) | 7nm Navi (RDNA 1st Gen) |
| Stream Processors | 2560 SPs | 2560 SPs | 2304 SPs | 2304 SPs | 1408 SPs |
| TMUs / ROPs | 160 / 64 | 160 / 64 | 144 / 64 | 144 / 64 | 88 / 32 |
| Base Clock | 1680 MHz | 1605 MHz | 1465 MHz | 1130 MHz | 1670 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1980 MHz | 1905 MHz | 1725 MHz | 1560 MHz | 1845 MHz |
| Game Clock | 1830 MHz | 1755 MHz | 1625 MHz | 1375 MHz | 1717 MHz |
| Compute Power | 10.14 TFLOPs | 9.75 TFLOPs | 7.95 TFLOPs | 7.19 TFLOPs | 5.19 TFLOPs |
| VRAM | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 6 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Bus Interface | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit |
| Bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 288 GB/s | 224 GB/s |
| TBP | 235W | 225W | 180W | 150W | 130W |
| Price | $449 US | $399 US | $349 US | $279 US | $169 US (4 GB) $199 US (8 GB) |
| Launch | 7th July 2019 | 7th July 2019 | 7th July 2019 | 21st January, 2020 | 7th October 2019 |
Radeon RX 5600 "7nm Navi RDNA GPU" Feature Set and A Word on HW-Enabled Ray Tracing
While we would share a few tidbits of the RDNA architecture itself below, there are also some highlights we should mention for the Navi GPU. According to AMD themselves, the Navi 10 GPU will be 14% faster at the same power and should consume 23% lower power at the same clock speeds as Vega 64 GPU. The AMD Navi GPU has a die size of 251mm2 and delivers 2.3x perf per area over Vega 64. The chip packs 10.3 Billion transistors while the Vega 10 GPU packed 12.5 Billion transistors on almost twice the die space.
Also, when it comes to ray tracing, AMD is indeed developing their own suite around it. According to their vision, current GCN and RDNA architecture will be able to perform ray tracing on shaders which will be used through ProRender for creators and Radeon Rays for developers. In next-gen RDNA which is supposed to launch in 2020 on 7nm+ node, AMD will be bringing hardware-enabled ray tracing with select lighting effects for real-time gaming. AMD will also enable full-scene ray tracing which would be leveraged through cloud computing.
New Compute Unit Design
Great Compute Efficiency For Diverse Workloads
- 2x Instruction Rate (enabled by 2x Scalar Units and 2x Schedulers)
- Single Cycle Issue (enabled by Executing Wwave32 on SIMD32)
- Dual Mode Execution (Wave 32 and Wave 64 Modes Adapt for Workloads)
- Resource Pooling (2 CUs Coordinate as a Work Group Processor)
As you can tell, AMD is changing a lot in terms of architecture with RDNA (Radeon DNA) compared to GCN. There's a new Compute unity design, a more streamlined Graphics pipeline & a multi-level cache hierarchy. Aside from the GPU architecture, support for GDDR6 memory is another major change that brings AMD's graphics cards on par with NVIDIA in utilizing modern memory designs for higher bandwidth.
During AMD's CES 2020 Press Conference the company revealed the Radeon RX 5600 XT to the world. The RX 5600 XT boasted some fairly competent specs but downplayed enough to keep it far enough away from the existing RX 5700 Series so that it made sense in the market. It appeared to be well-positioned with AMD showing wins over the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti so the asking price of $279 wasn't bad.
They announced the full specifications of the card, from Stream Processor count, core clocks, memory clocks, and TDP. Everything was shaping up nicely. After having it point out to them that the GTX 1660 SUPER offered a better value than the GTX 1660 Ti in the same market they even went back and updated with new slides showing how it compared to the SUPER variant. Later in the week, we got to see a new GeForce RTX 2060 KO model from EVGA that was set to be priced at $299 or less when it hit store shelves immediately following the event. It wasn't long behind that when we got the announcement that the now one-year-old GeForce RTX 2060 was seeing an official drop to $299.
This put AMD in an interesting spot where we knew based on the preliminary numbers the RX 5600 XT should find itself close to the RTX 2060 but now was only finding itself within $20 of what it would ultimately compete with in regards to performance. Unlike the 5700 Series there is either not much room for price shifting or they simply refused to budge on margins, either are fine at that price point, but what AMD did do was go back to the drawing board with the clock speeds and power target.
Since AMD was not releasing a reference SKU of this card the decision to boost the clocks was a bit of an odd decision. Why? Because we knew these cards would be coming only from AIBs and they would more likely than not be overclocked already. But it seemed that AMD was working with board partners to boost the performance already according to the quote shared by ETEKNIX regarding the changes.
“Based on ongoing testing with our board partners, we have raised the GPU core and memory frequencies for overclocked Radeon RX 5600 XT SKUs to take advantage of increased thermal and electrical headroom built into partner’s custom designs. The updated VBIOS has been made available to our board partners for inclusion in select OC SKUs at launch. AMD is dedicated to disrupting the market with industry-leading compute products, and the new VBIOS makes the Radeon RX 5600 XT an even more powerful contender for high-performance 1080p gaming. Previously announced product specs are unchanged, as they remain AMD’s recommended reference design specs.”
This did not, however, change the basic specifications for the RX 5600 XT according to AMD's product page. But, I found the information under the RX 5600 Series page to be formatted quite a bit differently than how they've done in the past if you compare it to the RX 5700 Series page. This at least confirms that the original spec has gone unchanged. But AIB cards have seen quite the confusing launch.
As far as I'm aware not one reviewer's card they received had an updated BIOS and subsequently resulted in them having to rerun benchmarks again with a new BIOS to get results. The problem with that is most of the cards available now were likely in the channel and headed out to retail spaces at that time. So, at the last minute, they found this 'extra' performance? Those who were first in line to pick up the new Radeon RX 5600 XT were greeting with the original 'slower' BIOS so they'll be required to update, on their own, to the latest that reviewers used or be left with sub-review performance. Gamers Nexus did an excellent guide on how to do this is the safest way possible, I recommend you check out their article.
Our understanding is that cards available next calendar month should have the latest BIOS available as right now vendors are up against the wall with Chinese New Year staring us all in the face.
What Could Go Wrong
So flash and dash right? Hold on there, it's not quite that simple. Sure all the cards that reviewers, including ourselves, got sent out received bios updates, sometimes two, or even a third revision, but it's not quite that simple that everyone should just assume their cards is good to go. The problem comes down to a specification to which the board partners built, and that specification was the same as what was laid out during CES. These cards were built with a TDP and memory specification in mind. Sure there are higher tier cards that are overbuilt that would be okay to handle higher tolerances, but what about those entry-level boards at the $279 price point?
Despite the common perception, MSI has made it very clear that NOT all cards can do 14Gbps memory like many of the BIOS updates are pushing. These cards, even the better ones, were specced for 12Gbps so you're now down almost to the silicon lottery when it comes to the longevity and stability of the card. According to the video by MSI they claim that the memory may be 14Gbps but they were not validated for the speed, only the 12Gbps. But it is worth noting again that the initial specification did not change the memory speed. MSI even found that there were quite a significant amount of issues after testing with the faster memory on a large number of cards.
What makes the memory speed such an issue is that we are now seeing a mixture of cards that can be flash, and will later ship with, the faster memory mixed in with cards of the slower memory. The problem is with the lack of reviews, kudos to those who included preflash results, that showcase anything but the best-case scenario. If all future cards come with the faster memory, great, if not it's most certainly a buyer beware moment, as Brad Chacos of PC World so elegantly put it.
Thanks to a list compiled by Computer base we can get a snapshot of the market for RX 5600 XT models of which have a BIOS update available and which do not. According to the list, it appears that MSI is taking the safe approach with their Gaming and Mech models by not planning to allow for an update on those models. While Asus is still open the others on the list are allowing for an update to their cards. At this point, I would highly recommend going with a vendor whose warranty is best in your region. Another point of advice will be to find a review of the SPECIFIC card you're looking to purchase because there could be a 10% or better performance swing between RX 5600 XT models, and that's a big enough difference to be in a different performance class.
The price change that was made at the launch of the RX 5700 Series was a simple one to follow. The launch of the RX 5500 XT came and delivered just as expected. But, the launch of the RX 5600 XT was set up to be another solid launch for the red team but was marred by last-minute confusion on BIOS selection, changes, questions of who did what. What may have been an effort to confuse the competition has resulted in confusion for the customer and even some reviews to add disclaimers in regards to the BIOS. I don't think there's been this much confusion since the RX Vega post-launch pricing fiasco.
We have seen several variants of the MSI Gaming series, mostly those that come with MSI's renowned Twin Frozr 7 and Tri-Frozr cooling but the Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z is a beast of its own. Featuring a new design scheme and a new look for the Twin Frozr 7 cooler, the RX 5600 XT Gaming Z boasts some really impressive specs.
In addition to the custom design, the Radeon RX 5600 Gaming Z comes with a non-reference PCB that ships with a higher factory overclock, featuring a 7+1 phase design that features higher quality components than the reference variant which is already a really good design by itself. In terms of clock speeds, the graphics card features the same base frequency of 1685 MHz and a maximum boost clock of 1845 MHz. Following are the main features of the Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z graphics card:
Core / Memory
- Boost Clock / Game Clock / Base Clock / Memory Speed
Up to 1845 MHz / Up to 1737 MHz / 1685 MHz / 14Gbps - 8GB GDDR6
- DisplayPort x 3 (v1.4) / HDMI 2.0b x 1
TORX FAN 3.0: Supremely silent
- Dispersion fan blade: Steeper curved blade accelerating the airflow.
- Traditional fan blade: Provides steady airflow to massive heat sink below.
RGB Mystic Light
- Customize colors and LED effects with exclusive MSI software and synchronize the look & feel with other components.
Afterburner Overclocking Utility
- Wireless control through Android / iOS devices.
- Predator: In-game video recording.
Dragon Center
- A consolidated platform that offers all software including MYSTIC LIGHT functionality for your MSI Gaming product.
MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z Graphics Card Gallery:
MSI Twin Frozr 7 With Refreshing New Design For Navi
With the differences out of the way, now let's talk about the similarities and the main highlights of the Gaming Z cards. The MSI Radeon RX 5000 Gaming Z lineup is designed to be the best custom solution for AMD's RDNA GPUs. The card is huge and bulky, featuring two TORX 3.0 fans in a 2.7 slot design, a custom PCB that is designed for overclocking and a huge heatsink featuring the new wave curved II design.
The much anticipated return of MSI’s iconic dual fan GAMING series. Combining a mix of black and gunmetal grey with a classy brushed metal backplate, this masterpiece provides you premium design with magnificent and smooth RGB light effects on the outside. The new MSI GAMING card is designed to amaze you!
MSI has incorporated and refined a couple of things in the new Gaming series graphics cards. First is the TORX fan 3.0 which uses both traditional and dispersion fan blades to accelerate airflow and push it down in a steady stream. These fans are made up of an extended life bearing design which ensures silent functionality in heavy loads.
The fans are fully compliant with the Zero Frozr Technology and are actually comprised of three areas. All of these would stay at 0 RPM (idle state) if the temperatures don't exceed 60C. When it does exceed 60C, all fans would start spinning. You can change that through the MSI configuration panel if you want more cooling performance over noise load but it's a nifty feature which I do like.
In addition to the cooling fans, the heatsink has been designed to be denser by using a wave curved fin design. It allows more air to pass through the fins smoothly, without causing any turbulence that would result in unwanted noise. Airflow Control Technology guides the airflow directly onto the heat pipes, while simultaneously creating more surface area for the air to absorb more heat before leaving the heatsink.
Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is comprised of five 6mm and a single 8mm copper squared shaped heat pipes with a more concentrated design to transfer heat from the copper base to the heatsink more effectively. The base itself is a solid nickel-plated base plate, transferring heat to the heat pipes in a very effective manner. To top it all off, MSI uses their exclusive Thermal Compound X which is said to offer higher thermal interface and heat transfer compared to traditional TIM applications.
On the back of the Gaming Z graphics card is a solid backplate with a dual-tone design which comes in brushed aluminum and matte silver finish. It also strengthens the card and thanks to some cleverly placed thermal pads even helps to keep temperatures low.
A die-cast metal sheet acts as a Close Quarters Heatsink for the memory modules and doubles as an Anti-Bending safeguard by connecting to the IO Bracket. The power phases towards the right side are covered by a plate that is fused directly to the heatsink for excellent cooling.
MSI has bundled its exclusive software such as Dragon Center that now comes with a creator mode. The creator mode is specifically tuned for Gaming Z series graphics cards, offering peak performance and greater stability in multiple productivity workloads.
The MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z graphics card comes inside a large cardboard box. The front of both packages has a large "MSI" logo on the top left corner & the "Gaming X" series branding on the lower-left corner. A large picture of the graphics card itself is depicted on the front which gives a nice preview of the new EVOKE design.
The packaging also comes with an AMD 50 sticker since the red team celebrated its 50th year anniversary in 2019. Other features of the graphics card are also mentioned such as the RDNA architecture, 7nm, Fidelity FX, Freesync 2 HDR along with some specs such as 6 GB GDDR6, AMD Fiedility FX and PCIe 4.0.
The back of the box is very typical, highlighting the main features and specifications of the cards. The three key aspects of MSI's top tier custom cards are its new TORX Fan 3.0 cooling system, the Twin Frozr 7 thermal design, and the wave curved heatsink. A large list of product specifications and features are also mentioned which you can see in the picture below.
The sides of the box once again greet us with the large Radeon RX branding. There's also the mention of 6 GB GDDR6 memory available on the card. The higher memory bandwidth delivered through the new GDDR6 interface would help improve performance in gaming titles at higher resolution over GDDR5 based graphics cards.
Outside of the box, the graphics card and the accessory package are held firmly by foam packaging. The graphics card comes with a few accessories and manuals which might not be of much use for hardcore enthusiasts but can be useful for the mainstream gaming audience. The card is nicely wrapped within an anti-static cover which is useful to prevent any unwanted static discharges on various surfaces that might harm the graphics card.
Useful manuals and installation guides are packed within an MSI labeled letter case. There is an MSI Quick Users Guide, a Support bracket installation guide, a sticker letter, the MSI DIY comic, and a single driver disk. It's best to ignore the driver disk and install the latest software and graphics drivers directly from the AMD and MSI official web pages as the ones shipped in the disks could be older versions and not deliver optimal performance for your graphics cards.
After the package is taken care of, I can finally start talking about the card itself. The card itself is simply stunning to look at and the shroud is really well-built with great texturing along the sides.
MSI’s Twin Frozr heat sinks are some of the most iconic heatsink cooling solutions that I have ever tested. With the Radeon RX 5600 series cards, MSI is offering a brand new Twin Frozr 7 design. The Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z measures at 297 x 85 x 140 mm while it is also slightly taller, taking up 2.5 slots of space.
The design of the MSI RX Gaming series is brand new, as in we haven't seen a similar shroud and backplate design on any other cards even though there have been several Twin Frozr variants that came before it. The red and black color scheme along with the brushed aluminum finish does look good, offering a cleaner look than the more futuristic-looking GeForce based Twin Frozr cards.
The back of the card features a solid backplate which looks stunning with its dual-tone finish that comes in matte grey and brushed aluminum colors. The backplate is made out of solid metal and has several heat pads to dissipate heat off the back.
The dual fan Torx Fan 3.0 has already been seen on MSI's Gaming (Twin Frozr) variants but the Gaming Z series for Radeon RX 5600 just has that unique feeling which I got when I tested their Evoke OC series card last month.
The new heatsink is a slightly modified version of the one used on MSI's Gaming Z series with the main changes being the shroud and a massive wave-curved heatsink design that takes up most of the space on this behemoth.
Coming to the fans, the card actually features two based on the Torx 3.0 system. Both fans combine traditional and dispersion fan blade technology to offer better cooling performance.
The dispersion fan blade technology has a steeper curved blade that accelerates airflow and as such increases effectiveness in keeping the GPU cool. All fans deploy double ball bearing design and can last a long time while operating silently.
The MSI TORX 3.0 fans deliver 50% more air pressure than standard blade fans and 15% more air pressure than MSI's TORX 2.0 fans. Utilizing the dispersion blade fan technology allows for higher static pressure and air to be pushed through the aluminum fin heatsink.
MSI also features their Zero Frozr technology on the Twin Frozr heatsink. This feature won’t spin the fans on the card unless they reach a certain threshold. In the case of the Twin Frozr heatsink, that limit is set to 60C. If the card is operating under 60C, the fans won’t spin which means no extra noise would be generated.
I am back at talking about the full-coverage, full metal-based backplate which both card use. The whole plate is made of solid metal with rounded edges that add to the durability of this card. The matte and brushed aluminum finish on the backplate gives a unique aesthetic.
We can also see the MSI Dragon logo on the back which looks stunning. MSI is also using heat pads beneath the backplate which offer more cooling to the electrical circuitry on the PCB.
There's no multi-GPU connector on the card as AMD uses its XDMA architecture for CrossFireX capabilities. This allows GPUs to communicate directly over the PCIe bus rather than an external bridge.
With the outsides of the card done, I will now start taking a glance at what's beneath the hood of these monster graphics cards. The first thing to catch my eye is the humungous fin stack that's part of the beefy heatsink which the cards utilize.
The dual fin stacks run all the way from the front and to the back of the PCB. It also comes with the wave-curved fin stack design which I want to shed some light on as it is a turn away from traditional fin design and one that may actually offer better cooling on this monster graphics card.
You can see that through large copper heat pipes run through the aluminum finned heatsink. The copper heat pipes come out from the GPU block and cover the entire aluminum heatsink block.
Talking about the heatsink, the massive block is comprised of five 6mm and a single 10mm super copper squared shaped heat pipes with a more concentrated design to transfer heat from the copper base to the heatsink more effectively. The base itself is a solid nickel-plated base plate, transferring heat to the heat pipes in a very effective manner. To top it all off, MSI uses its exclusive Thermal Compound X which is said to offer higher thermal interface and heat transfer compared to traditional TIM applications.
I/O on the graphics card sticks with the reference scheme which includes three Display Port 1.4a, & a single HDMI 2.0b.
MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z Teardown:
The MSI Radeon RX 5600 Gaming Z makes use of a full non-reference PCB design, featuring an 8+1 Phase design and coupled with better components such as solid-state capacitors along with a series of higher-quality chokes. MSI also uses several thermal pads and an anti-bending bracket, however, the two top-most heat pad only covers 60% of the DRAM surface area which may not be an ideal scenario for a card that costs almost $350 US.
The MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z has dual 8 pin power connectors that feed the card. The Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z has a rated TDP of 160W.
We used the following test system for comparison between the different graphics cards. The latest drivers that were available at the time of testing were used from AMD and NVIDIA on an updated version of Windows 10. All games that were tested were patched to the latest version for better performance optimization for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs.
| CPU | Intel Core i9-9900K @ 4.70 GHz |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | AORUS Z390 Master |
| Video Cards | MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z MSI Radeon RX 5700 Gaming X MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X ASUS ROG GeForce RTX 2070 STRIX OC MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming Z MSI GeForce RTX 2060 Gaming Z MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER Gaming X |
| Memory | G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series 32GB (4 X 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz |
| Storage | Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB) |
| Power Supply | ASUS ROG THOR 1200W PSU |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit |
- All games were tested on 1920x1080 (HD), 2560×1440 (2K) and 3840×2160 (4K) resolutions.
- Image Quality and graphics configurations have been provided in the screenshots below.
- The “reference” cards are the stock configs while the “overclock” cards are factory overclocked configs provided to us by various AIB partners.
DOOM
In 2016, Id finally released DOOM. My testing wouldn’t be complete without including this title. All cards were capable of delivering ample frame rates at the 1440p resolution using Nightmare settings, so my focus turned to 4K.
Red Dead Redemption II
RDR2 is using the latest iteration of the Rockstar Advanced Graphics Engine, or RAGE, and has ditched DX11 in favor of being able to choose between Vulkan or DX12 for your preferred API. Red Dead Redemption 2 has built-in benchmark utility that is fairly representative of typical gameplay and we used this to measure our performance.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Wolfenstein is back in The New Colossus and features the most fast-paced, gory and brutal FPS action ever! The game once again puts us back in the Nazi-controlled world as BJ Blazkowicz. Set during an alternate future where Nazis won the World War, the game shows that it can be fun and can be brutal to the player and to the enemy too. Powering the new title is once again, id Tech 6 which is much acclaimed after the success that DOOM has become. In a way, ID has regained their glorious FPS roots and are slaying with every new title.
Ultra HQ-AF, Vulkan, Async Compute On *if available, Deferred Rendering and GPU culling off
We tested the game at Ultra settings under the Vulkan API which is standard. Async Compute was enabled for graphics cards that support it while deferred rendering and GPU culling were disabled.
Battlefield V
Battlefield V brings back the action of the World War 2 shooter genre. Using the latest Frostbite tech, the game does a good job of looking gorgeous in all ways possible. From the open-world environments to the intense and gun-blazing action, this multiplayer and single-player FPS title is one of the best looking Battlefields to date.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Humanity is at war with itself and divided into factions. On one end, we have the pure and on the other, we have the augmented. That is the world where Adam Jensen lives in and this is the world of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game uses the next generation Dawn Engine that was made by IO interactive on the foundation of their Glacier 2 engine. The game features the support of DirectX 12 API and is one of the most visually intensive titles that taxes the GPU really hard.
Gears 5
The Coalition is back with the Gears of War series, but this time they've dropped the 'of War' so I guess war does change sometimes. Gears 5 is a bit of an interesting one from a release standpoint as it released on Xbox as well as the multiple stores on the PC; Steam as well as the Xbox PC App and Windows Store. Running off the Unreal Engine, the game boasts some seriously impressive visuals which can put even one of the best cards on their feet.
Hitman 2 (DX12 Highest Settings)
Hitman 2 is the highly acclaimed sequel to 2016 Hitman which was a redesign and reimaging of the game from the ground up. With a focus on stealth gameplay through various missions, the game once again lets you play as Agent 47 who embarks on a mission to hunt down the mysterious Shadow Client. The game runs on IO’s Interactive’s Glacier 2 engine which has been updated to deliver amazing visuals and environments on each level while making use of DirectX 12 API.
Shadow of The Tomb Raider
Sequel to The Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of The Tomb Raider is visually enhanced with an updated Foundation Engine that delivers realistic facial animations and the most gorgeous environments ever seen in a Tomb Raider Game. The game is a technical marvel and really shows the power of its graphics engine in the latest title.
Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus continues the journey of Artyom through the nuclear wasteland of Russia and its surroundings. This time, you are set over the Metro, going through various regions and different environments. The game is one of the premier titles to feature NVIDIA’s RTX technology and does well in showcasing the ray-tracing effects in all corners.
Assassins Creed: Odyssey
Assassins Creed Odyssey is built by the same team that made Assassins Creed Origins. They are known for reinventing the design and game philosophy of the Assassins Creed saga and their latest title shows that. Based in Greece, the open-world action RPG shows its graphics strength in all corners. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 engine which boosts the draw distance range and delivers a very impressive graphics display.
We tested the game at maxed settings with TAA enabled and 16x AF. Do note that the game is one of the most demanding titles out in the market and as such tweaks and performance issues are being patched out.
Far Cry 5
Far Cry 5 is a standalone successor to its predecessor and takes place in Hope County, a fictional region of Montana. The main story revolves around doomsday cult the Project at Eden’s Gate and its charismatic leader Joseph Seed. It uses a beefed-up Dunia Engine which itself is a modified version of CryEngine from Crytek.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Using the new Anvil Next engine that was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Ghost Recon: Wildlands goes wild and grand with an open-world setting entirely in Bolivia. This game is a tactical third-person shooter which does seem an awful lot similar to Tom Clancy's: The Division. The game looks pretty and the wide-scale region of Bolivia looks lovely at all times (Day/Night Cycle).
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
The Witcher 3 Game of The Year Edition
Witcher 3 is the greatest fantasy RPG of our time. It has a great story, great gameplay mechanics and gorgeous graphics. This is the only game I actually wanted to get a stable FPS at 4K. With GameWorks disabled, I gave all high-end cards the ability to demonstrate their power.
Middle Earth: Shadow of War
The successor of 2014’s epic, Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War continues the previous game’s narrative continuing the story of the ranger Talion and the spirit of the elf lord Celebrimbor, who shares Talion’s body, as they forge a new Ring of Power to amass an army to fight against Sauron. The game uses the latest Firebird Engine developed by Monolith Productions and is very intensive even for modern graphics cards.
No graphics card review is complete without evaluating its temperatures and thermal load. The MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X series is fitted with the most advanced version of the TORX 3.0 fans. The cooler features a massive heatsink with multiple heat pipes which extend beyond the fin-based aluminum block that lead towards the incredibly dense heatsink block.
The patented Torx fan 3.0 design and Zero Frozr technology featured on this card make sure that it delivers the best cooling performance and best acoustics while operating.
Note – We tested load with Kombuster which is known as a ‘power virus’ and can permanently damage the hardware. Use such software at your own risk!
I compiled the power consumption results by testing each card under idle and full stress when the card was running games. Each graphics card manufacturer sets a default TDP for the card which can vary from vendor to vendor depending on the extra clocks or board features they plugin on their custom cards.
AMD Radeon RX 5500 series is based on TSMC's 7nm process node. The 7nm process is a major upgrade over the 14nm FinFET node, delivering better efficiency and a much smaller chip footprint. The MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z has a TDP of 160W and its power consumption is very much close to that in our testing with slight peaks when the card hits peak clocks but those are not fully sustained for longer duration workloads.
With the release of the Radeon RX 5600 XT, AMD finally completes its mainstream lineup with a surprisingly great card. At first, the Radeon RX 5600 XT wasn't looking like a formidable opponent against NVIDIA's Turing lineup but the rather messy situation with the BIOS updates and what I would like to refer to as a 'Free Performance Upgrade' has put it in a very respectable place in the mainstream graphics segment.
Featuring the Navi 10 design, the card has essentially the same chip as the Radeon RX 5700, with optimized clocks and memory configuration. But the unique offsetting point of this chip is the TDP which shows that these Navi 10 dies didn't quite make it to the higher-end clocks of the RX 5700. But it allows AMD to manage a mainstream tier graphics card without producing a separate SKU which isn't either a Navi 14 or a Navi 10 design. The Radeon RX 5600 XT has strong driver support which is made even better with the recent release of the AMD Adrenaline 2020 edition software suite and a whole range of other features that you get with Navi such as Freesync and Anti-Lag technologies. All of these are well-added features in the 1080p HD gaming which this card clearly handles without an effort.
Initially, the card was positioned against the GTX 1660 Ti which retails for $279 US too but the GTX 1660 SUPER replaced it offering 95% of the card's performance at a lower price of $229 US. NVIDIA also dropped the price bomb on the RTX 2060 which with its added feature set of RTX features as DLSS/RTX made for a much worthwhile purchase but AMD's performance upgrade did uplift the RX 5600 XT quite a lot.
In terms of performance, the Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB graphics card consistently outperformed the RTX 2060 and much of this is to do with the MSI's Gaming Z variant which has the fastest clocks of their RX 5600 XT Gaming lineup and also features 14 Gbps memory pin speeds versus 12 Gbps of the remaining variants (X and Non-X). You are looking at anywhere from 20 to 25% performance boosts over the GTX 1660 SUPER and GTX 1660 Ti which makes this card a compelling upgrade for 1080p and even 1440p gamers. I was surprised to find some bigger gains in Vulkan optimized titles that go off to show AMD's great and continuing driver support for the latest APIs.
With all the good things about this card to say, there's one issue which would play a major role in deciding the fate of this card and that's the price. At $340 US, we are talking a $60 US premium over the RX 5700 XT MSRP. The regular MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming retails for $310 which is a $30 US premium and the Gaming X variant costs $330 which is a $50 US premium. This goes off to show the premium cost attached to MSI's Gaming series but MSI justifies the higher-premium by not only slamming the same cooler as their RX 5700 XT on top of the RX 5600 XT Gaming series but also the same PCB. Plus the Gaming Z variant comes with much higher clock speeds, rivaling those of other custom variants by top-tier AMD board partners. The 14 Gbps clock speeds will also be kept exclusive to the Gaming Z variant which means there would be at least a 5-10% delta in terms of performance between the regular and Gaming Z variants which makes up for the extra cost.
The extra cost also goes into the behemoth shroud design that comes with a solid metal backplate, and a dual-fan cooling system fitted with MSI's most advanced TORX 3.0 technology. This cooler is straight up a beast of its own and the undervolted Navi 10 GPU which offers efficiency on par with NVIDIA's Turing GPU architecture, delivers great thermal performance. The card is also beautiful on its own, a stunning brushed aluminum design that covers the front and backplate along with MSI's Mystic Aura RGB technology which provides a spectacular light show on the side 'Gaming' logo.
The MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z is as high-end as RX 5600 XT can get. This specific AIB variant offers a superb cooling solution, superb components, and performance which delivers a 5-10% uplift over the base 'upgraded' versions of the card. This puts the MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z comfortably ahead of the RTX 2060 custom designs which are anywhere from $299 to $329 US. The RTX 2060 has some nifty features of its own such as DLSS and ray-tracing support which has been optimized now to be played around on NVIDIA's entry-level RTX solution but if you aren't a fan of those, the RX 5600 XT is the more compelling option in a simple price to a performance metric.
The card will be shipping in February and unlike existing RX 5600 XT models, won't require any need of flashing the card which one a single-BIOS design like the RX 5600 XT could end up in chaos for new PC builders as vBIOS flashing isn't just a simple task unless done so by a software application such as MSI's own dragon center. The $60 US premium over the MSRP is a hard bite but this card is the fastest in the mainstream segment and definitely a worthwhile choice if you're aiming to build a long-lasting PC.
Note - The MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z would be available on retail shelves in February 2020.
The post MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z 6 GB GDDR6 Graphics Card Review – War For The Mainstream Segment! by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.
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