Both MSI and ASUS will have one Radeon RX 5600 XT SKU with GDDR6 at 14 Gbps - We Explain

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There are a number of stories floating on the web right now that we wanted to clear up a bit. AMD launched the Radeon RX 5600 XT, last week when all samples arrived, they were running a power envelope of 150 Watts and GDDR6 memory running at 12 Gbps.



Last Thursday I had finished up most reviews, then an email from AMD arrived. AMD would be allowing the OC SKUs, the factory tweaked version to be able to run a TGP (total graphics power) of 160W and/or 180W. AMD supplied BIOS updates for the cards they distributed (mostly Sapphire) and urged media to test with the new settings..

The Sapphire Pulse OC model we tested took the BIOS update well, no problems. The same for the Gigabyte Gaming OC. Both ASUS and MSI BIOS updates, however, took longer to arrive, and the final ones arrived as late as Monday for ASUS and Tuesday for MSI. ASUS immediately indicated that the STRIX OC model we received would get the TGP increase but not the memory increase, for reasons unexplained. A new SKU would now become the STRIX TOP with both the TGP increase as well as that memory at 14 Gbps. A new SKU means more product segmentation, and well, they can add a tenner on pricing. They, however, have not explained themselves as to why they needed to create a new SKU. 

MSI, on the other hand, we've been talking with ever since Friday, their internal testing showed that while for review purposes the Gaming X model supplied with a TGP + Memory tweak would suffice, they did expect issues long term.  Running the cards through internal test software indicated stability issues with GDDR6 at 14 GBps in the long stretch. So long term they are fearing RMA issues, which they want to prevent.

MSI made the call to leave the Gaming X model for what it is, it'll get a TGP increase but they are leaving GDDR6 at 12 GBps. The Gaming Z model as such is to be released with both the TGP and thus clock increase to 160W + 14 Gbps GDDR6. However, this product is not yet available, as it requires a hardware revision alteration, a B spec board. This is going into production and as such only the Gaming Z models will get that 14 Gbps GDDR6 bump as MSI only then can guarantee a long life-span and absolute stability. So again, there will be a new revision of the card, the B spec and that will end up being the Gaming Z being the only 5600 XT from MSI running 14 Gbps on GDDR6. We can only assume this logic applies to that ASUS TOP SKU.

So what does this all mean SKU segmentation wise? Well, all brands aside from MSI and ASUS apparently seem to run 14 Gbps fine. A side-note, we've seen both the Gaming X and STRIX OC selling for $339,- which is just too much. If you can find one with a non-inflated price, grab a Sapphire Pulse regular or OC for 279 and 289 respectively. It'll get the job done just as well nice and silently.


MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT
  Gaming Z Gaming X Gaming Mech OC Mech
Game clock 1615 MHz 1615 MHz 1420 MHz 1460 MHz 1375 MHz
Boost clock 1750 MHz 1750 MHz 1600 MHz 1620 MHz 1560 MHz
Memory speed 14 Gbps 12 Gbps 12 Gbps 12 Gbps 12 Gbps
ASUS Radeon RX 5600 XT
  ROG Strix Top ROG Strix OC TUF X3
Game clock 1660 MHz 1660 MHz 1660 
Boost clock 1750 MHz 1750 MHz 1750 MHz
Memory clock 14 Gbps 12 Gbps 12 Gbps

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