After testing the AMD'south new Radeon 5700 GPUs and Nvidia's RTX Super answer, we are particularly happy about the value offered past the latest Radeons. While GeForce RTX boards still dominate at the loftier-end, the $400 5700 XT is very attractive at the designated toll point. But what if we pushed the new hardware to its limits?

Leveraging EK'southward new Vector water-block for Navi we are almost to find out, equally they were kind enough to send one over right abroad for this test. In our day-one RX 5700 series review we noted that increasing the fan speed of the 5700 XT to an ear bleeding 100%, nosotros could boost the GPU from ~1800 MHz upwards to 2050 MHz.

Shortly after that, Igor's LAB published an interesting piece detailing users' findings on how it is possible to bypass AMD imposed overclocking limits at the BIOS level. Some elementary withal genius Windows registry modifications allow usa to circumvent AMD'due south limits and increase the GPU frequency as high as 2300 MHz, while also increasing the ability limit.

Of class, the GPU silicon has to exist good enough to do two.3 GHz and sadly neither of our retail cards were capable to run at even 2.two GHz. We saw the limit at two.i GHz which is even so a ~eighteen% overclock, so we're expecting a dainty performance uplift.

After an 60 minutes-long F1 2022 loop, the 5700 XT in its stock configuration with the reference blower-fashion cooler runs at around 1780 MHz. The card reaches its tiptop operating temperature of 84 degrees in a room with a 21 C ambience temperature.

Nether the same conditions with EK Vector block installed and attached to a 240mm radiator with ii serenity 120mm fans, the 5700 XT peaked at just 45 C. That's a massive 39 C drib in temperature. The GDDR6 memory likewise dropped by 20 degrees and the VRM temperature dropped by as much equally thirty degrees.

With the "EvenMorePower5700XT" registry modification installed, we found 2.1 GHz to be the limit of both our Asus and PowerColor reference cards. We tried a few other tweak profiles but the same ii.1 GHz hard limit on our hardware was observed.

This remains a decent 18% overclock and given the 5700 XT was only 9% slower on average than the RTX 2080 (non Super), this overclock should button the 5700 XT ahead. Of course, you can also overclock the RTX 2080 but that's besides the point, we're trying to achieve 2080-like performance at a significant discount. So let's burn down upwardly our i9-9900K GPU examination rig and see how the liquid cooled 5700 XT performs.

Benchmarks

The first test in our bench was F1 2022 where we meet a pocket-size 9% bump in functioning for the average frame charge per unit and a slightly less impressive 6% heave for the 1% low result. This immune the 5700 XT at 2.1 GHz to lucifer the GTX 1080 Ti, though it was still 5% slower than the RTX 2080, not exactly a big margin, but we were hoping the overclock would yield better results.

Battlefield V shows a far less impressive 5% heave in performance for the boilerplate frame rate, though the one% low performance was improved by a 7% margin. That i% low is still a bit weak relative to the RTX 2080, but hey shut enough for nearly $150 in savings.

Rainbow Half dozen Siege sees the nigh impressive gain nonetheless, a x% heave in performance for the average frame rate. While this pushes the 5700 XT ahead of the stock 1080 Ti, it's still slower than the RTX 2070 Super and much slower than the RTX 2080 Super.

Next up we have Metro Exodus and here we see a balmy seven% improvement in performance, going from 72 fps to 77 fps and that wasn't enough to catch even the 2070 Super.

Another 7% proceeds tin can be seen when testing with Resident Evil 2, though this time that was enough to at least match the RTX 2070 Super.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider disappointed with a half dozen% functioning improvement from the overclock, merely that was enough to at least friction match the GTX 1080 Ti and RTX 2070 Super.

Some other 6% gain can exist seen when testing Fortnite, here we're taking on an extra 6 fps, in our opinion information technology'southward not worth the trouble.

The Segmentation 2 shows a vii% performance uplift for the 2.one GHz overclock and that was enough to lucifer the RTX 2070 Super in this title.

Clay Rally 2.0 sees a minor 5% heave, going from 102 fps to 107 fps, and then a disappointing result for this game.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT already killed information technology in Forza Horizon 4 and here nosotros see the weak 3% comeback from the overclock was all the same plenty to take out top spot, though we'd propose nosotros're probably becoming CPU limited at this point.

Far Cry New Dawn provides a 7% functioning heave and this put the 5700 XT right on the heels of the RTX 2080 Super.

World War Z sees a 6% improvement in performance from the overclock.

Our last test shows a very disappointing 4% performance boost in Assassin's Creed Odyssey with the overclocked practical.

Power Consumption

For what was virtually a 7% boost in performance on average you lot're looking at an almost 40% increase in ability consumption every bit the GPU ability draw increased from but 186 watts right up to a Vega-like 258 watts (!).

Looking at total organisation consumption nosotros run into a 25% increment in ability depict for the overclocked 5700 XT, making information technology slightly more power hungry than Vega 64 and around 30 watts more than the RTX 2080 Ti. In other words, the two.1 GHz overclock destroys RDNA'due south efficiency.

What Just Happened?

To put information technology bluntly, that was disappointing. By simply looking at the power consumption of the otherwise very efficient 7nm Navi architecture, we've learned why AMD has put the restrictions on the frequency these cards tin can run at.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT is a great product and offers really good value, and nosotros have loftier hopes for the upcoming AIB models that volition let you run the cards cooler out of the box. On the other hand, your chances of pushing this thing to RTX 2080 Super or even vanilla 2080 levels of functioning are slim -- even at ii.ii GHz it's a stretch. Sure, in some games that are favorable to the carmine team the 5700 XT will pull off the upset, merely overall it's not going to friction match the more expensive RTX models.

Spending $140 on the EK Vector Navi block takes the price of the 5700 XT to $540 and for that money you can buy the RTX 2070 Super which will deliver a similar level of performance. Increasing the price of the 5700 XT past 35%, for at best 10% more performance, is not a expert investment for pure performance sake.

Would yous rather have an RTX 2070 Super or a liquid cooled Radeon RX 5700 XT? That ane is upward to you and your interest in getting a custom liquid cooling setup.

A tertiary selection would be to wait for lath partners to release amend air-cooled 5700 XTs, and bluntly that option makes the nigh sense. We take tested our 5700 XT boards with decent air coolers and they will still run at ii.1 GHz while making very little noise, with temperatures in the 70 degree range. Expect custom AIB 5700 XT cards to hit shelves former next month.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Radeon RX 5700 on Amazon, Google Limited
  • GeForce RTX 2070 Super on Amazon, Google Express
  • GeForce RTX 2060 Super on Amazon, Google Express
  • GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Ryzen 9 3900X on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Ryzen 5 3600 on Amazon, Google Limited
  • AMD Ryzen 5 2600X on Amazon, Google Express