Specs / boost and PCIe 4.0
The spec deck
In the table below we have segmented all-important denominators of the product compared to the current products available from AMD, it always paints a more clear picture of what to expect.
Radeon |
RX 5700 XT |
RX 5700 |
RX 5500 XT |
RX 580 |
RX 480 |
RX 570 |
Fabrication Process |
7 nm |
7 nm |
7nm |
14 nm |
14 nm |
14 nm |
GPU |
Navi 10 |
Navi 10 |
Navi 14 |
Polaris 20 XTX |
Polaris 10 |
Polaris 20 Pro |
Shader procs |
2,560 |
2,304 |
1,408 |
2,304 |
2,304 |
2,048 |
Graphics memory |
8 GB GDDR6 |
8 GB GDDR6 |
4 GB / 8 GB GDDR6 |
4 GB / 8 GB GDDR5 |
4 GB / 8 GB GDDR5 |
4 GB / 8 GB GDDR5 |
Memory Clock |
14.0 Gbps |
14.0 Gbps |
14.0 Gbps |
8.0 Gbps |
7.0 / 8.0 Gbps |
7.0 Gbps |
GPU Clock Max |
1,905 MHz |
1,725 MHz |
1,845 MHz |
1,340 MHz |
1,267 MHz |
1,244 MHz |
Memory Bandwidth |
448 Gb/s |
448 Gb/s |
224 Gb/s |
224 Gb/s (4 GB) |
224 Gb/s (4 GB) |
224 Gb/s |
Power Connectors |
1 x 8-pin |
1 x 8-pin |
1 x 6-pin |
1 x 6-pin |
1 x 6-pin |
1 x 6-pin |
Form Factor |
Dual slot |
Dual slot |
Dual slot |
Dual slot |
Dual slot |
Dual slot |
Freesync |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
DirectX 12 Support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Raytracing
Nope. Ever since the beginning, Raytracing was never mentioned in any presentation, the Navi cards do not have native hardware support for it, despite what the competition is doing. We do think (currently) that is an advantage for AMD, as they can fab smaller and less expensive silicon, making the product more affordable as to what NVIDIA is offering with the GeForce RTX series. AMD, however, has hinted that the NAVI GPUS to follow NAVI10 (Big Navi) will get some sort of hardware accelerated Raytracing functionality. But the general consensus is simple, the time is not right to go full on Raytracing and thus AMD sticks to an evolved unified shader engine.
PCI-Express Gen 4.0
That elephant in the room, PCIe 4.0. We’ve mentioned it already, AMD really wanted to be first with anything and everything PCI-Express 4.0. Yes, AMD has been making big bets with the 2019 products, one of them is making a strong and solid move to surpass the competition, with PCIe Gen 4.0.
PCIe ss |
Line Code |
Transfer Rate |
x1 Bandwidth |
x4 |
x8 |
x16 |
1.0 |
8b/10b |
2.5 GT/s |
250 MB/s |
1 GB/s |
2 GB/s |
4 GB/s |
2.0 |
8b/10b |
5 GT/s |
500 MB/s |
2 GB/s |
4 GB/s |
8 GB/s |
3.0 |
128b/130b |
8 GT/s |
1 GB/s |
4 GB/s |
8 GB/s |
16 GB/s |
4.0 |
128b/130b |
16 GT/s |
2 GB/s |
8 GB/s |
16 GB/s |
32 GB/s |
5.0 |
128b/130b |
32 GT/s |
4 GB/s |
16 GB/s |
32 GB/s |
64 GB/s |
The 7nm AMD Radeon RX 5000-series gaming graphics card family featuring high-speed GDDR6 memory and support for the PCIe 4.0 interface, on a Ryzen 3000 proc, with X570 motherboard and, say, a Radeon 5700... you’ll be hard-pressed to run out of bandwidth as each lane gets doubled up in that bandwidth. Of course, there has been a recent PCI-Express Gen 5.0 announcement as well, for ease of mind I've already inserted it into the table. What benefits will you have at PCIe gen 4 with a graphics card? Absolutely nothing, really. Running PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 will not make a difference in performance as that PCIe Gen 3.0 x16 slot is not even loaded (bandwidth) more than a few percent.