Packaging

The Card

Sapphire's Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse follows the "Pulse" design theme set by previous models from the company. Two large 100 mm fans provide cooling. The metal backplate explores the "Pulse" theme even further with a waveform resembling a heartbeat line.


Dimensions of the card are 23 cm x 12.5 cm.


Installation requires two slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and one HDMI 2.0b.


The board uses one 8-pin power connector. This input configuration is specified for up to 225 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 "Boost" and the other BIOS "Silent." It runs the fans at slightly reduced speed, but the differences are small, as we'll find out later during testing. It would have been nice had Sapphire printed some labels on to the PCB to make it easier to figure out which switch position you want.

Disassembly

Sapphire's cooler looks well-engineered; it uses three heatpipes. The cooler's base provides cooling for the memory chips and VRM circuitry. In its center, a copper core soaks up heat from the GPU.


The backplate is made from metal and protects the card against damage during installation and handling.