Review: Sapphire Radeon RX 5600 XT Pulse OC

AMD brought renewed focus to the premium end of the discrete graphics card market in the summer of 2019 with Navi-infused Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 GPUs now priced from £330 and £300, respectively. Battling against rival GeForce RTX 2060/2060 Super and 2070 GPUs from Nvidia, AMD’s performance duo continues to give a solid performance account.

But it’s not the £300-plus market that is important for high-volume sales. To that end, AMD released the Radeon RX 5500 XT, priced from £160 and mixing it up with the GeForce GTX 1650 Super/1660/1660 Super.

The clear pricing chasm between Navi-based cards is clear to see. This is why, as fully expected, AMD now populates the £250-plus segment with a new GPU. Enter the Radeon RX 5600 XT.

Read the full review here…

Conclusion

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 £254.99, the Radeon’s pricing is lower than originally expected and just about right, making it a great 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.