Radeon 5700 Reviews Thread

[Udgnim]

I'm going to need to wait a little longer to see how Navi looks with third party coolers before deciding between 2060 Super & 5700 / 5700 XT

 

[gk1951]

Considering the cost, Navi now appears more competitive with Nvidia in the mid/mid-upper range.

 

[Stuka87]

I am disappointed in the blower. I have a SFF case and blowers work better for these. But this one is too loud. So I will wait for Sapphire to put out their Nitro+ and pick up one of those.

Otherwise, performance and power consumption look exactly where I expected them.

 

[crisium]

It is continuously disappointing when we get lousy reference blower exclusivity for a month+ again. Almost like 290x from nearly 6 years ago wasn't a lesson learned.

 

[railven]

Seems like the dent in the shroud didn't do much. Them temps and noise levels are - well, I guess should be expected now regarding AMD.

Overall, as I expected. Meh product. Nothing really to talk about. The month leading up to it was definitely amusing though.

No card on this stack I'd recommend to family/friends.

EDIT:

It is continuously disappointing when we get lousy reference blower exclusivity for a month+ again. Almost like 290x from nearly 6 years ago wasn't a lesson learned.

Exactly. The most important review/launch is the initial. And AMD just doesn't seem to care enough about them to even try.

 

[amrnuke]

Some initial thoughts.

Things I love:

- Plain 5700 at MSRP $349 beats the MSRP $499 Vega64.
- Plain 5700 trades blows with (but is ultimately probably about 5-7% slower than) the 2060 SUPER that costs 15% more.
- The $399 5700XT is <10% slower than the Radeon VII, and about 15% slower than the 2070 SUPER which costs 25% more.
- The $399 5700XT vs the $399 2060 SUPER has a clear winner, and it isn't Nvidia.

Things I hate:

- The noise.
- The heat.

Once we get some products from EVGA, Sapphire, etc I think things are looking really, really good. I'm personally most excited for a potential 5600 line. If they can bring in a 5600 at $249 that beats the 1660 Ti, my money will then be AMD's money. But honestly, the 5700 is a really, really nice value where it sits right now.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Exactly. The most important review/launch is the initial. And AMD just doesn't seem to care enough about them to even try.

That's ok as long as it means we don't get to deal with the Founder's Edition nonsense, where it exists purely to raise prices across the board and at the same time claim its at the lower MSRP price.

 

[Paratus]

Both Navi cards appear to adhere to their rated TDP. But it's pretty clear that the 5700 is closer to what this chip was really designed to do, and that the 5700 XT is a factory-overclocked card (as we've come to expect from AMD). The 5700 XT perf/watt numbers are truly shameful - beaten by some Nvidia Pascal cards despite that not even being Nvidia's newest architecture, and AMD being one full node ahead.

Also, multi-monitor power consumption is terrible (probably a driver/firmware issue), and according to TPU, the drivers are bad and immature. Will RTG ever learn?

Crossfire is dropped, which no one cares about, but if they're aggressively dropping what they consider "legacy" technology, then OpenGL support (which matters a lot for emulators) is probably not any better than on Polaris/Vega and may well be worse. But we'll need to see testing to confirm this.

The CPU division keeps hitting it out of the park; the GPU division continues to disappoint.

According to the AT review the 5700XT is 5% slower than the 2070 Super, is 20% less $$, while the 2070S uses 10% more power.

Looks fine to me.

The 2070S on the other is a bad buy at $500.

 

[railven]

That's ok as long as it means we don't get to deal with the Founder's Edition nonsense, where it exists purely to raise prices across the board and at the same time claim its at the lower MSRP price.

Yeah, because the Polaris replacements at $400 isn't raising prices. At this point if we're going to sit here and act like consumers, perhaps we should start demanding better from both companies. If AMD really wants to milk their user base this bad, at least provide them a better cooler. Of course people are now going to state "I'll wait for AIBs" that will cost more, and might not even close the gap to a stock FE NV card. But, "It's $20 less!"

EDIT:

Look at the 50th anniversary edition! They couldn't even bother them selves there. A card that could have had bells and whistles and demanded it's price solely on limited released.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Yeah, because the Polaris replacements at $400 isn't raising prices.

That's not what I meant, and if you thought about a little, you'd know.

Founder's Edition costs $50-100 more than MSRP, making the MSRP irrelevant because the AIB vendors won't charge less when their cards are cooler, faster, quieter and better featured. So all it does is increase the prices across the board. This increase is on *top* of the already increased MSRPs.

Yet at the same time with the "MSRP" number Nvidia gets to claim it actually gets sold at that price.

Granted, AMD pulled a similar stunt with Polaris even without the FE nonsense but still.

 

[railven]

Granted, AMD pulled a similar stunt with Polaris even without the FE nonsense but still.

The rest is irrelevant. Company gonna company. We're the consumers. NV used the excuse of "it cost more to make these better coolers." Either agree or don't. But face it, one company is at least trying to make their product "better" while jacking up the price. The other is essentially calling us idiots with these blower reference cards and trying to explain dents in shrouds as "features." I could only imagine the acoustics and thermals on these cards without the dent!

 

[IntelUser2000]

The rest is irrelevant. Company gonna company. We're the consumers. NV used the excuse of "it cost more to make these better coolers."

FE coolers are still crap.

There's still a rather big difference. FE allows them to pretend its at MSRP price when its not. At least with pricing set for 5700/5700XT, its clear from the start what the prices are going to be.

Games actually run better than ever at better quality settings. There seems to be diminishing returns on how much better quality you are getting, so just delay your purchases and increase the time between upgrade cycles.

Prices are increasing everywhere, not just on GPUs. Food, rent, are all up. At least with GPUs its completely optional.

If you are still interested in the topic watch "Founder's Farce" and "Why Graphics cards are costing more than ever" video.

 

[railven]

FE coolers are still crap.

Of course they are, but they aren't as crap as AMD's reference blowers. This is where NV is excusing the "Founder's Edition" price. Again, agree or don't, but they are at least putting something on the table to explain their increase.

There's still a rather big difference. FE allows them to pretend its at MSRP price when its not. At least with pricing set for 5700/5700XT, its clear from the start what the prices are going to be.

What? Barely anyone references the Nvidia MSRP non-FE unless they are trying to "gotcha" someone. And guess what, when you do find a non-FE (or blower) it's usually cheaper than the FE's. But if AIB's come in at around FE-prices (I picked up a 2080 Ti AIB for less than FE on launch day!, odd).

The AIB's are going to cost more, period. So even arguing that the MSRP for one card is higher due to FE is pointless since the blower on the competitor is such garbage you're most likely going to ignore it anyways. So AMD is doing something similar but at least you get the garbage blower day 1 where as NV's partners seem to drag those out "eventually."

Games actually run better than ever at better quality settings. There seems to be diminishing returns on how much better quality you are getting, so just delay your purchases and increase the time between upgrade cycles.

What does this have to do with anything we're discussing?

Prices are increasing everywhere, not just on GPUs. Food, rent, are all up. At least with GPUs its completely optional.

I've said this for years. I'm well aware of the cost of living increases. I'm not upset AMD is charging more. I've defended AMD, and continue to do so. My "company gonna company" is basically that. But even still, they can at least throw us a freaking bone. This blower is beyond awful and now all I read on reddit and around here "gonna wait for AIBs." Which sort of defeats the "look at our low MSRP!"

If you are still interested in the topic watch "Founder's Farce" and "Why Graphics cards are costing more than ever" video.

???

 

[Guru]

Great cards, to summarize everything up, the RX 5700 is essentially 5% faster than the RTX 2060 for the same price and consumes about the same power, while the RX 5700XT is 5% faster than the RTX 2060 super for the same price and a tad bit higher power consumption.

$350 RX5700 5% faster than RTX 2060, same power consumption. Clearly a much better buy, especially with the 8GB vs 6GB situation.
$400 RX5700XT 5% faster than RTX 2060super, 15W higher power consumption, a less clear choice, but taking into account Radeon Chill, FX fidelity, reduced latency in gaming, etc... the RX5700XT beats out the RTX2060s in value.

Temperature seems to be the only issue, but seeming as it is all over the place, it leads me to believe that some of the cards probably got slightly damaged in the transport and are not cooling the card properly. Its easy in these hot summer days and rocky rides for the thermal paste to lose a bit of contact and perform significantly worse.

Personally I'd take the RX 5700 and RX 5700XT over RTX 2060 and/or RTX 2060s because they are better value and because Nvidia is a scummy company that pushed gimpworks for decades that ruins performance in games in order to hurt the competition more, the GTX 970 3.5GB memory fiasco, the push to have partners use their "gaming" brands only with Nvidia and drop AMD(clearly an illegal move in Europe, anti competitive move) the GT 1030 with DDR4 fiasco with no way for consumers to know, essentially Nvidia committing fraud and a scam with the DDR4 version, and their endless push to increase prices to absurd levels, leading to $350 and $400 MID range cards.

 

[coercitiv]

But face it, one company is at least trying to make their product "better" while jacking up the price. The other is essentially calling us idiots with these blower reference cards and trying to explain dents in shrouds as "features." I could only imagine the acoustics and thermals on these cards without the dent!

There seems to be a dent in your logic, but don't worry, we'll help you straighten it out.

"Reference design is a really poor way to describe what this is."
"The founders edition is a premium design."
"Using premium materials."

Q: Are your partners cards using less premium materials?
A: No guys... no.
Laughters.

A premium team of Nvidia employees embarrassed to argue for the worth of their premium card, embarrassed to treat the press as idiots.

 

[railven]

There seems to be a dent in your logic, but don't worry, we'll help you straighten it out.

"Reference design is a really poor way to describe what this is."
"The founders edition is a premium design."
"Using premium materials."

Q: Are your partners cards using less premium materials?
A: No guys... no.
Laughters.

A premium team of Nvidia employees embarrassed to argue for the worth of their premium card, embarrassed to treat the press as idiots.

...

What am I responding to? One using parlor tricks and one not?

 

[railven]

I don't think some of you understand where I'm coming from. Steve nails it:

If AMD needs to do a "founder's edition" to stop these awful blowers, I'm for it. I know lots of you won't be. And that's fine.

But these thermals/acoustics are just downright comical at this point. And just remember, these numbers will haunt this product for a LONG time.

 

[guachi]

First Navi review I read was at Tom's Hardware. They have 14 cards tested. The 2060S came in 7th so all scores below are normalized to that.

Results at 1440:
2080............124.0
2070 S.........116.4
Radeon VII..113.9
1080 Ti .......113.2
5700 XT.......109.9
2070............103.3
2060 S.........100.0
5700..............98.9
Vega 64........95.7
1080.............90.3
2060.............88.2
Vega 56........83.6
1070 Ti.........83.5
1070.............73.29

Results at 2160 (removing the anomalous Metro:Exodus result):
The only difference is the Radeon VII and 2070 S switch places

2080............126.3
Radeon VII..118.7
2070 S.........117.8
1080 Ti .......113.0
5700 XT.......108.8
2070............103.5
2060 S.........100.0
5700..............97.2
Vega 64........96.7
1080.............83.7
2060.............86.3
Vega 56........83.5
1070 Ti.........77.9
1070.............69.5

1440 fps/$ compared to the 2060 S using launch prices:

5700............113.1
5700 XT.......109.9
2060............100.8
2060 S.........100.0
2070 S...........93.1
Vega 56.........83.6
2070..............82.7
1070..............77.2
Vega 64.........76.6
1070 Ti..........74.2
2080..............70.9
Radeon VII....65.1
1080 Ti..........64.7
1080..............60.2

Not only does Navi perform well, it's a great value. Both the 2060 and 2060 S are completely pointless cards.

And the 2070 S is good enough that, if you really want the extra performance the 2080 and Radeon VII are pointless (at least in games. The Radeon VII has other uses).

 

[IntelUser2000]

There seems to be a dent in your logic, but don't worry, we'll help you straighten it out.

Haha. The part where the guy talking fumbles and says "refer... I mean Founder's Edition" and everyone laughs is very cringy.

The video "Founder's Farce" references that very clip.

They know they are being shady but trained themselves to not say it out loud.

But these thermals/acoustics are just downright comical at this point. And just remember, these numbers will haunt this product for a LONG time.

Who cares? Nvidia sold a lot more cards despite having crappy reference blowers(that includes Pascal FE cards. Turing is slightly better).

You(and I mean by you railven), won't get the reference cards anyway, so why bother unless you work for them or have $100K tied up in their stocks. Wait 1-2 months for the AIB cards.

 

[railven]

Who cares? Nvidia sold a lot more cards despite having crappy reference blowers(that includes Pascal FE cards. Turing is slightly better).

Why even bother responding to me then?

You won't get the reference cards anyway, so why bother unless you work for them or have $100K tied up in their stocks. Wait 1-2 months for the AIB cards.

I don't even know how to respond to this.


I get it, you don't care. We'll end it there.

 

[guachi]

I wonder if you can undervolt Navi and keep the card quieter. The noise level detracts from an otherwise fantastic card.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Why even bother responding to me then?

Aren't you the one that said they needed a better cooler for reference cards?

Which I responded by saying if a reference card means selling it at MSRP cheaper than AIBs then its fine. And I also said going the FE route like with Nvidia allows them to secretly jack up the prices, because FE is the new reference.

You also mentioned about the 1080 Ti. The video I linked, and if you watched it also says 1080 Ti made the FE cards at MSRP prices again and all was good.

They don't need a better cooler, if its going to be cheaper than the AIBs. That's what you get for paying less. Reference also means you could slap a cooler of your own choice(like Arctic Cooler products which are great) if you want.

 

[Guru]

I don't think some of you understand where I'm coming from. Steve nails it:

If AMD needs to do a "founder's edition" to stop these awful blowers, I'm for it. I know lots of you won't be. And that's fine.

But these thermals/acoustics are just downright comical at this point. And just remember, these numbers will haunt this product for a LONG time.

Steve does the benchmarks for Techpowerup as well, so essentially he sends them the results he gets and he is the only reviewer to get such absurdly high temperatures. The highest temperature ANY of the other reviewers got was 85C, most getting around 75-80C for the RX 5700XT. This leads me to conclude that Steve's card/s might have been slightly damaged during shipping, leading to the thermal paste losing a bit of connectivity between the cooler and gpu.

So hardware unboxed and techpowerup use the SAME results, its essentially the ONLY review that has such high temperatures.

 

[railven]

Aren't you the one that said they needed a better cooler for reference cards?

I echo'd someone's dissatisfaction with the reference blower, because frankly at this point this is just comical.

Which I responded by saying if a reference card means selling it at MSRP cheaper than AIBs then its fine. And I also said going the FE route like with Nvidia allows them to secretly jack up the prices, because FE is the new reference.

My only complaint here is if AMD is going to charge us more, at least give us a reason to pay more.

You also mentioned about the 1080 Ti. The video I linked, and if you watched it also says 1080 Ti made the FE cards at MSRP prices again and all was good.

I never mentioned 1080 Ti during our discussion.

They don't need a better cooler, if its going to be cheaper than the AIBs. That's what you get for paying less. Reference also means you could slap a cooler of your own choice(like Arctic Cooler products which are great) if you want.

Initial reviews are all stating don't buy this card. Wait for AIBs. Perhaps AMD should just not bother with reference and launch only with AIBs. At least then they don't have to cover the cost.

 

[IEC]

I wonder if you can undervolt Navi and keep the card quieter. The noise level detracts from an otherwise fantastic card.

Probably. I was able to undervolt Radeon VII by a whopping 124mV at stock clocks. And get better performance

Still need to wait for the aftermarket treatment. No thanks to another blower card.