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Review: Sapphire Radeon RX 5600 XT Pulse OC

by Tarinder Sandhu on 21 January 2020, 14:01

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD), Sapphire

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaehqm

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Conclusion

...well-built, extremely quiet, and an excellent interpretation of what we think a good GPU ought to be.

The Radeon RX 5600 XT launch has been anything but straightforward for AMD and its partners.

Price moves from Nvidia, particularly on its decent RTX 2060 card, have resulted in new RX 5600 XT OC BIOSes aimed at pushing performance enough to match or beat rival cards on framerate and price.

Based on the same Navi 10 die as the RX 5700 and XT models, albeit cut down with respect to memory-interface width - 192 bits from 256 - in-game performance is extremely solid at FHD and more than decent at QHD, which is exactly how AMD positions it.

Robust cooling from partners such as Sapphire easily handle the higher OC speeds that push the review card pretty damn close to RX 5700 Pulse speeds. It's also well-built, extremely quiet, and an excellent interpretation of what we think a good GPU ought to be.

In isolation, then, the Sapphire RX 5600 XT Pulse is a very solid offering in every respect. But gamers don't buy in isolation, and the RTX 2060 shadow looms large, especially at its lower price point and ever-expanding catalogue of RTX-enabled titles.

However, at £269.99, the Radeon's pricing is just about right, making it a good choice for those whose budgets don't extend too far.

Nvidia will cite baked-in RTX technology as a key differentiator in this space; AMD will look towards RIS and a number of improvements rolled into the latest drivers. The real winner is you, the PC gamer, as £250-£275 now offers excellent choices from both camps.

Bottom line: The Radeon RX 5600 XT OC is effectively an RX 5700 Lite at a much more aggressive price point. Whether you choose this or the rival RTX 2060 depends where you sit in terms of evaluating the worth of specific features, though be in no doubt; there has never been a better time to be a PC gamer.

The Good
 
The Bad
Well suited to high-quality 1080p gaming
Very solid build quality
Sapphire TRiXX offers extra value
Competitive pricing
Super-quiet at all times
 
Flashing palaver on initial cards
Memory capped to 14.9Gbps



Sapphire Radeon RX 5600 XT Pulse OC

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The Sapphire Radeon RX 5600 XT Pulse OC graphics card is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.



HEXUS Forums :: 18 Comments

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Love the releasing of the lower-spec cards so they can make the money before the one everyone really wants RX5950XT comes out and pushes all of the other prices down, good strategy though I guess…
I wonder if you will be able to flash the bios to get rid of the imposed limits like you can do with the 5700 non XT as they are based on the same die or whether the cut down mem interface will stop that from being able to happen.
Kanoe
I wonder if you will be able to flash the bios to get rid of the imposed limits like you can do with the 5700 non XT as they are based on the same die or whether the cut down mem interface will stop that from being able to happen.

I hope not - just causes trouble later. Way back when, I bought a second hand HD 4850. A couple of weeks later it statred crashing, and when I poked about it turned out the previous owner had flashed an OC card BIOS onto it.

I can't see a 5700(XT) bios working due to the memory issues, as you say, but no doubt someone will come up with a hacked/modified bios for it eventually. Whether it'd be worth the effort and hassle though? Personally I woiuldn't bother…
[GSV
Trig;304]Love the releasing of the lower-spec cards so they can make the money before the one everyone really wants RX5950XT comes out and pushes all of the other prices down, good strategy though I guess…

not really as if I wanted performance, I could easily go and buy an Nvidia GPU (for the record, I'm not a fan of either, as I have had two graphics cards, an AMD 7870 GHz OC edition and an Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB) why would I wait for mostly unknown performance?
[GSV
Trig;304]Love the releasing of the lower-spec cards so they can make the money before the one everyone really wants RX5950XT comes out and pushes all of the other prices down, good strategy though I guess…

Doesn't seem like a sensible strategy to me. I'd say there are a few reasons:
1) The top end may be an identical chip which is binned better / these chips are flawed with sections shut off. They may want a few runs to build up stock of the high end GPUs before release.
2) Drivers may be flawed at the moment. Mid range card optimisations may translate into gains for the release of the high end chip. Very often initial drivers are poor and these are the ones used for benchmarking. Getting experience in the wild with a less marketing critical card will give them chance to optimise before high end release.
3) How does releasing a mid range card before the high end one make them money? Surely the hype generated by the release of the flagship model will direct people to the mid range if they find its performance sufficient in comparative benchmarks?
4) AMD don't tend to compete at the very top end. They target the high volume price points. That's less sexy and aimed at the more pragmatic consumer.