PowerColor Radeon RX 5600 XT Red Devil Review

Name: PowerColor Radeon RX 5600 XT Red Devil
Brand: PowerColor

W1zzard

on Jan 29th, 2020,

in Graphics Cards.

Manufacturer: PowerColor

(17 Comments) »

Introduction

Just last week, AMD launched the Radeon RX 5600 XT to capture the sub-$300 graphics market. At a starting price of $279, it sits between the RX 5500 XT 8 GB and RX 5700. The RX 5500 XT, which launched just weeks earlier, is plenty capable for 1080p gaming, much like the GTX 1650 Super. What AMD was lacking in its product stack, however, was a product to compete with the GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1660 Super. This is where the Radeon RX 5600 XT steps in with the promise of future-proofing your 1080p setup for the next few years.

AMD originally intended for the RX 5600 XT to take the sub-$300 crown by beating the segment leader, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, without interference from the RTX 20-series. NVIDIA didn't let this happen, and upon seeing AMD's hand at the 2020 CES keynote address, it sought to outmaneuver the red team by lowering the starting price of its GeForce RTX 2060 to $299 in hopes of higher performance and RTX ray-tracing luring buyers away from the RX 5600 XT. AMD responded with an unexpected last-minute revision of the RX 5600 XT specs in which it dialed up GPU clock speeds by 10 percent and memory clock speeds by over 16 percent in a bid to outperform the RTX 2060.

For AMD's board partners, this specs change couldn't have come at a worse time, with employees away from work on Chinese New Year. Not only is it inopportune timing, but the spec is also unimplementable on its cheapest RX 5600 XT cards whose coolers and VRM were purpose-built for the original spec. AMD board partners are hence revising only their faster factory-overclocked cards, those with components that can cope with the new configuration.

Today, we have for review the PowerColor Radeon RX 5600 XT Red Devil, which is the company's flagship variant for the RX 5600 XT series. It features a triple-slot, dual-fan thermal solution, dual BIOS and is clocked at 1660 MHz game clock and 14 Gbps memory (1750 MHz). The Red Devil currently retails for $310, a $30 premium over the AMD MSRP.

Radeon RX 5600 XT Market Segment Analysis
	Price	Shader Units	ROPs	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Memory Clock	GPU	Transistors	Memory
RX 590	$200	2304	32	1469 MHz	1545 MHz	2000 MHz	Polaris 30	5700M	8 GB, GDDR5, 256-bit
GTX 1660	$200	1408	48	1530 MHz	1785 MHz	2000 MHz	TU116	6600M	6 GB, GDDR5, 192-bit
GTX 1070	$300	1920	64	1506 MHz	1683 MHz	2002 MHz	GP104	7200M	8 GB, GDDR5, 256-bit
RX Vega 56	$260	3584	64	1156 MHz	1471 MHz	800 MHz	Vega 10	12500M	8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
GTX 1660 Super	$230	1408	48	1530 MHz	1785 MHz	1750 MHz	TU116	6600M	6 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
GTX 1660 Ti	$270	1536	48	1500 MHz	1770 MHz	1500 MHz	TU116	6600M	6 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
GTX 1070 Ti	$450	2432	64	1607 MHz	1683 MHz	2000 MHz	GP104	7200M	8 GB, GDDR5, 256-bit
RX 5600 XT	$280	2304	64	1375 MHz	1560 MHz	1500 MHz	Navi 10	10300M	6 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
PowerColor RX 5600 XT Red Devil	$310	2304	64	1660 MHz	1750 MHz	1750 MHz	Navi 10	10300M	6 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2060	$300	1920	48	1365 MHz	1680 MHz	1750 MHz	TU106	10800M	6 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RX 5700	$330	2304	64	1465 MHz	1625 MHz	1750 MHz	Navi 10	10300M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
GTX 1080	$500	2560	64	1607 MHz	1733 MHz	1251 MHz	GP104	7200M	8 GB, GDDR5X, 256-bit
RTX 2060 Super	$400	2176	64	1470 MHz	1650 MHz	1750 MHz	TU106	10800M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX Vega 64	$375	4096	64	1247 MHz	1546 MHz	953 MHz	Vega 10	12500M	8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
GTX 1080 Ti	$700	3584	88	1481 MHz	1582 MHz	1376 MHz	GP102	12000M	11 GB, GDDR5X, 352-bit
RX 5700 XT	$380	2560	64	1605 MHz	1755 MHz	1750 MHz	Navi 10	10300M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit

Packaging

The Card

PowerColor's card follows the visual theme set by the RX 5700 XT Red Devil almost exactly. It uses different shades of gray, and the metal backplate has an RGB-illuminated Red Devil logo.

Dimensions of the card are 24.5 x 13.5 cm.

Installation requires three slots in your system.

Display connectivity options include three standard DisplayPort 1.4a and an HDMI 2.0b.

The board uses one 8-pin and one 6-pin power connector. This input configuration is specified for up to 300 watts of power draw.

AMD's Navi generation of GPUs no longer supports CrossFire. DirectX 12 does include its own set of multi-GPU capabilities, but the implementation requires game developers to put serious development time into a feature only a tiny fraction of their customers might ever use.

In this area, you'll also find a dual-BIOS switch, with the default setting being "OC" and the other BIOS "Silent".

Disassembly

PowerColor's thermal solution uses five heatpipes to keep the chip cool. This piece of the heatsink also provides cooling for the memory chips and VRM circuitry.

The backplate is made out of metal; it adds to the card's aesthetic and protects components on the PCB when handling the card.

High-resolution PCB Pictures

These pictures are for the convenience of volt modders and people who would like to see all the finer details on the PCB. Feel free to link back to us and use these in your articles or forum posts.