AORUS Radeon RX 5700 XT 8G review (Page 29)

AORUS Radeon RX 5700 XT 8G review

Graphics cards 1048 Page 29 of 29 Published 2020-01-03 10:15 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Final words and conclusion

.final words

The Aorus Radeon RX 5700 XT is one of the better SKUs available as it offers a proper design, spiffy cooler, dual BIOS options and in performance mode, a pretty fast tweak. The end result and conclusion, however, is based on two dynamics, at performance mode, you get the best perf running roughly 4% faster than a reference card. At that setting the acoustics are 'perf mode', the TDP, however, rises fast with the Aorus. The Silent mode BIOS overall runs roughly 100 MHz lower, but that is truly silent. The reality, however, is that for the 5700 series clock frequencies matter less than the actual TDP and TGP set by the AIB, but restricted by AMD. So any brand could set a max Turbo of 2000 MHz, but the reality is that the card will throttle back at a certain clock frequency to match the maximum allowed power the card can consume. It's quite a conundrum to fight off, as that is the reason what all cards from all brands in its default configuration perform so incredible close towards each other. Once you open up the power limited and allow the board to consume more power, you can easily add an extra 5 to maybe even 8% additional performance (at the cost of extra energy, heat, and noise of course). The card looks absolutely nice. The model will be inserted at a price bracket of $449,- USD / € 475,- and that is a bit steep though you cannot complain. As stated in the reference reviews already, NAVI sits at the Vega performance level. So the improved architecture is sound, and works. Compared to reference, depending on how and where you measure you gain an extra 4% in performance, which can be a bit higher depending on title and resolution though. The realm AMD is sitting in performance-wise with the RX 5700 series is the non-Super models 2060 and 2070 with exceptions here and there. Then there is, of course, the discussion on how relevant you find hardware-accelerated Raytracing and Tensor support. Most of you don't care at this time, but much like anything in the tech industry, everything will evolve, and AMD positioned itself to be smacked down in the middle of that next step in the gaming evolution.

.performance

Both Radeon RX 5700 cards show good, in fact, super strength at Quad HD resolutions in that 2560x1440 realm of resolutions. Games like Battlefield V will make you aim, shoot and smile. As always comparing apples and oranges, the performance results vary here and there as each architecture offers advantages and disadvantaged in certain game render workloads. Battlefield V and Metro: Exodus skyrockets for NAVI. So you'll be seeing wins and losses in perf compared to team green. AMD has got the right amount of graphics memory applied, the right type this time as well as 8GB GDDR6 graphics memory running over that 256-bit bus at 14 Gbps, is done right. The new architecture does show strength and IPC increase, especially seen from Polaris the results are pretty amazing. However, that statement has no merit, as they are not priced in the same region. Realistically the XT card makes good sense in the Wide Quad HD space (monitor resolution of 2560x1440) and can even properly handle games at 3840x2160 (Ultra HD). Result vary per game title though. Compared to reference clocked card the Aorus was roughly 4% faster overall.

.pricing

The XT overall as a reference product is priced at 399 USD. The AORUS custom premium boards are roughly 50 bucks more expensive, and Gigabyte advertises this product with a 449 USD tag. This is the more premium designed model to be brutally honest so whether or not you feel the extra 50 bucks is warranted, is a call only you can make of course.

.cooling & noise levels

The WindForce 3X cooler certainly is beefy and thick, the acoustics are reasonable at a measured 40 DBa in performance BIOS mode, which I consider to be a normal operating value. If you want silence, at 34 you can flip the BSIOS switch, at the cost of slightly higher temps in the 70 Degrees C range and roughly 100 MHz reduced on the gaming clock frequency. It is good to have that Dual BIOS option.

.energy

The TDP for this XT we measure to be roughly 265 (Silent mode) to 285 Watts (perf mode). That number varies a bit per game title, workload, resolution and even refresh rate of course. It's a serious and substantial wattage, especially compared to the competition's products with the same performance bracket. Gigabyte definitely increased the power allowance a bit, in order to gain more perf.

.conclusion

The Aorus easily has to be on the top-5 shortlist if you are in the market for a 5700 XT. You get options with this card in the form of silent and performance BIOS modes. That performance ain't too noisy either, so it is the best of the two options. At silent mode temps sit just over 70 Degrees C at max, that is fine as well and at this mode the card really is silent. The cooler width is substantial though, at 54mm that does make the product look thick. The card comes with plenty of RGB options, these are however disabled at default, you can enable them with the RGB Fusion software suite. The looks are good, we see a nice metal backplate and yeah, this was one of the better performing 5700 XT card, albeit that's a limited statement to make for NAVI, as all AIB cards offer roughly 2 to 4% additional performance, at the cost of extra energy consumption, but the tweaking performance straight out of the box is fairly good and in fact, leaves little left to manually tweak. With any card and some manual tweaking, you will easily gain another 5% extra performance out of the card though. The pricing of the Aorus model is 449,- USD. For that money, you get a properly good designed 5700 XT, the price is slightly on that high side, though realistically the dual BIOS and cooler as a feature for me would be worth it alone.