AMD Radeon RX 5700 Review
November 9, 2019
The Radeon RX 5700, the latest desktop graphics card of AMD, boasts a new architecture named RDNA and a GPU fabbed at 7nm.
Just like its big brother – the RX 5700 XT – the RX 5700 comes equipped with all-new features which will enhance visuals through graphics refinement and sharpening; and performance through lowered latency and higher framerates. The new features will not only provide better gaming visuals but also a more immersive gaming experience.
On paper, the RX 5700 is an impressive desktop gaming graphics card that comes packed with new tech. But we don’t just settle with black and white. In this review, we try to dig deep with our benchmarks and tests to know where the RX 5700 slides in the graphics card hierarchy.
Reference Design, a timeless beauty
As other GPU manufacturers do, AMD also has its own reference designed graphics cards available for consumers and the RX 5000 series is no exception. In addition, AIB partners have released their own Radeon RX 5700 reference and custom-designed graphics cards.
Just like some of its predecessors, the RX 5700 also sports a sleek shroud with Radeon branding on the side and center that are still eye-catching even without RGB or single color LED. Providing sufficient air that cools down the card is a single blower type fan. And absorbing the heat generated by the GPU and other components is an adequately sized heatsink that covers all of the RX 5700’s major components.
The RX 5700 reference design with its dark gray splashed metal shroud with subtle Radeon branding is, for us, a masterpiece that will transcend through age. It’s a must-have for those who appreciate the subtle design that’s coupled with outstanding performance.
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| The Radeon RX 5700 draws power from an 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connector |
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| For outputs, the Radeon RX 5700 has three DisplayPorts and one HDMI port with 4K60 support |
Specifications:
- Compute Units: 36
- Base Frequency: 1465 MHz
- Boost Frequency: Up to 1725 MHz
- Peak Pixel Fill-Rate: Up to 110.4 GP/s
- Peak Texture Fill-Rate: Up to 248.4 GT/s
- Peak Half Precision Compute Performance: 15.9 TFLOPs
- Peak Single Precision Compute Performance: 7.95 TFLOPs
- ROPs: 64
- Stream Processors: 2304
- Texture Units: 144
- Transistor Count: 10.3 B
- VRAM Speed (Effective): 14 Gbps
- Max Memory Size: 8GB
- Memory Type (GPU): GDDR6
- Memory Interface: 256-bit
- Max. Memory Bandwidth: 448 GB/s
Testbench Specification:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VI
- Memory: 16GB HyperX Predator
- Storage: Kingmax 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD/ Seagate Firecuda 2TB
- PSU: Thermaltake SMART 700W
Benchmarks, tests, and everything in between
Our tests and benchmarks can easily be replicated by anyone. We run each of our game tests three times for each resolution (1080P, 1440P, 4K), replicating the average daily gaming scenario. All of the games in our tests are pushed to the highest settings available, with competitor built-in post processings and features disabled. And like our game tests, we run our synthetic benchmarks three times on each presets.
With a lot of improvements and new features under its sleeves, would the Radeon RX 5700 be able to hold on to what it promised on paper and give its competition a run for its money? Or would it just be another bump in the road that can be driven through easily?
Temperature readings on Load and Idle:
What we think
The Radeon RX 5700 slips into the high refresh 1080P and 1440P gaming segment, easily pushing above 100fps at 1080P and render nothing below 60fps at 1440P.
The high-temperature while gaming is nothing new and expected from a reference design. A chassis with a spacious estate and ample airflow will definitely help a lot in heat dispersion and dissipation. Ramping up the fan curve would also help, but will take a toll on the overall noise level of the system.
We could not stress it even more, but high-temperature readings would raise an eyebrow or two, but the raw performance of the RX 5700 on 1440P is astonishing, couple that with a timeless design, and a reasonable price tag warrants the Radeon RX 5700 a spot near the leaders of the 1440p mainstream graphics cards ranking.
It’s definitely a graphics card worthy of your time and attention!
