The AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT Review, Feat. Sapphire Pulse: Navi For 1080p
by Ryan Smith on December 12, 2019 9:00 AM ESTThe Test
As is usually the case for launches without reference hardware, we’ve had to dial down our Sapphire cards slightly to meet AMD’s reference specifications. In this case, Sapphire’s secondary BIOS offers reference settings, so for our reference-spec testing, we’re using that BIOS. Otherwise, for at-stock testing of the Sapphire Pulse RX 5500 XT 8GB, that is being done with the primary (performance) BIOS.
Meanwhile on the driver front, we’re using AMD’s new Radeon Software Adrenaline Edition 19.2.2 software set, which are the launch drivers for the RX 5500 XT. AMD has introduced a number of control panel features here (not to mention a UI overhaul) that we’ll cover in a separate article. Otherwise for performance testing, these drivers are not substantially different from earlier AMD drivers – though we’ve retested the RX 570 and RX 5700 to ensure those results are fully up to date.
Finally, as the RX 5500 series is focused on 1080p gaming, this is what our benchmark results will focus on. I have also tested the RX 5500 XT 8GB at our 1440p settings – as expected, it’s not very playable there – and while these results haven’t been graphed, they are available in our Bench system.
| CPU: | Intel Core i9-9900K @ 5.0GHz |
| Motherboard: | ASRock Z390 Taichi |
| Power Supply: | Corsair AX1200i |
| Hard Disk: | Phison E12 PCIe NVMe SSD (960GB) |
| Memory: | G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 2 x 16GB (17-18-18-38) |
| Case: | NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition |
| Monitor: | Asus PQ321 |
| Video Cards: | AMD Radeon RX 5700 Sapphire Pulse RX 5500 XT 8GB Sapphire Pulse RX 5500 XT 4GB AMD Radeon RX 580 AMD Radeon RX 570 AMD Radeon RX 460 4GB AMD Radeon R9 380 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA Release 441.41 NVIDIA Release 441.07 AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 19.12.2 AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.10.2 |
| OS: | Windows 10 Pro (1903) |
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Freeb!rd - Friday, December 13, 2019 - link
For those of us with older cards, I would've appreciated the GTX 1060 6GB & GTX 1070 included in the performance graphs.Freeb!rd - Friday, December 13, 2019 - link
Especially since I have both those and some 580s lying around.sheh - Friday, December 13, 2019 - link
https://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/2577?vs=25...alfatekpt - Friday, December 13, 2019 - link
Depending on price it seems it can actually fight with 1660 Super because the differences are a few FPS with a lower noise/power consumption.ballsystemlord - Saturday, December 14, 2019 - link
@ryan If you can't run opencl on windows why not run your tests on Linux? I'd imagine that some of the programs have a version that runs on Linux.isthisavailable - Saturday, December 14, 2019 - link
The 8 gb version should not exist and the 4gb version should be $10 lower to match 1650super in price while beating it in perf. Why would you buy 8gb version when NVIDIA has 1660 for $10 more.Also, rx5500 gaming laptops when?
Maxxie - Saturday, December 14, 2019 - link
This looks like a gaming card, again. For the professional segment, AMD needs to focus more on compute and reducing operating power/temperature. I was forced to upgrade a working AMD RX 580 4gb to Nvidia's RTX 2060 Super 8gb to get GPU acceleration working in MATLAB. Major benefit the doubled graphics memory, and the new card runs noticeable cooler. Still, I spent $300 on the RX 580 earlier this year wasting a bit of budget. That's going to keep me from trying any AMD cards until they give focus to more than the entertainment segment.dr.denton - Sunday, December 15, 2019 - link
I really don't know much about professional use, but has this not been AMD's biggest problem in the past years? Having GPUs with great compute abilities, but somewhat lacking for gaming?Personally, I'm glad they finally have the ressources to develop two lines of architectures, one focussed on gaming and one for professional use.
ballsystemlord - Saturday, December 14, 2019 - link
One grammar mistake:"...one that TSMC's customers are jockeying to secure wafer starts due to very high demand."
Missing "for":
"...one that TSMC's customers are jockeying to secure wafer starts for due to very high demand."
Father Time - Saturday, December 14, 2019 - link
Closing Thoughts -> 4th last paragraph:"6% more perforamnce".
Great article though.
Does AMD still suffer from Day 1 performance not reflecting the huge gains they get over NVidia as drivers mature? It was a large issue in generations passed (ever since the 2900XT), and considering how close this card is to the NV equivalents, do we expect it to win out over time, or is that a thing of the past now that architecture has changed significantly, along with the technology and the people involved?