Sapphire RX 5700 XT Pulse review

[DAPUNISHER]

I returned my Sapphire 5700 XT due to a number of issues. The pulse looks to have, as expected, addressed pretty much everything not driver related. Tech Jesus breaks it down.

Still going to wait a bit for more driver improvements. The media playback issues, in particular, were frustrating, and I will wait until you guys and gals have verified we are on the other side of it, before buying a partner card. I would also like to see what the other brands, particularly MSI and PowerColor, do with it before pulling the trigger.

 

[EXCellR8]

At this point I almost feel like AMD intentionally releases cards with mediocre cooling as part of some kind of agreement with partner companies--who only agree to sell AMD products if they can offer improved AIB versions alongside and after reference PCB models.

Think about it. AMD still gets their cut in the end, and the partner companies are able to build up their brand by advertising their own product lines, cooling designs, and proprietary features.

My point is that I'm sure AMD could easily do away with the blower design (minus the obvious partnerships with OEM vendors) and design something that's fantastic--but doing so would undercut the partner companies.

 

[Shmee]

Without watching the entire video, I would be curious to know, does the better cooler allow the card to boost higher with better performance? I am interested in a quick breakdown on temps and performance.

 

[VirtualLarry]

TL;DR

Better temps, cooler running, quieter (and even more quiet with the "Quiet"/"Left" VBIOS switch), but performance, basically the same as the reference card.

In fact, they said that they had performance numbers for a number of games that they left out of the review, and said just check out the reference RX5700XT review, because the numbers were THE SAME.

Seems like a solid step-up for $410. Looking forward to it!

Edit: As for why, this seems akin to the Ryzen 3rd-Gen / 3000-series CPU launch, not coincidentally also on TSMC 7nm. Runs hot at stock / with stock cooler, better cooling allows to boost better, but overall, not much headroom, just better cooling is better temps and quieter.

Seems that AMD has mastered "The Art of the Auto-OC", and is speed-margining their chips from the factory pretty well, with not much manual improvement to be had.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Without watching the entire video, I would be curious to know, does the better cooler allow the card to boost higher with better performance? I am interested in a quick breakdown on temps and performance.

Tom's review is up -

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sapphire-pulse-radeon-rx-5700-xt-amd-navi-review,6276.html

 

[EXCellR8]

• Consumes more power than the reference Radeon RX 5700 XT, which was already higher than GeForce RTX 2060 Super

That's a little perplexing as I thought the Pulse line was marketed as lower-power-consuming AIB's--in comparison to the NITRO line or reference card. I would have been more impressed if they squeezed out a bit more performance using the same amount of power (+/-) but I suppose that's a limitation dictated by a number of things.

For $10 more though it's sort of an easy choice. Already sold out @ Newegg though...

 

[guachi]

The best (i.e., laughable) part of the Tom's review is where the reviewer says the 2060S is better because it has ray tracing.

Lol.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The best (i.e., laughable) part of the Tom's review is where the reviewer says the 2060S is better because it has ray tracing.

Lol.

This is why we love Tom's Hardware... for humor value.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The best (i.e., laughable) part of the Tom's review is where the reviewer says the 2060S is better because it has ray tracing.

Lol.

I bought the EVGA 2060 Super Super Saiyan whatev edition with the 2 game codes for $400 shipped. It is a dang good card. Runs quiet, boosts to 2GHz core, and since adaptive sync works with my 2k freesync monitor, it is buttery smooth even in AS:Odyssey.

I did not buy it for ray tracing or DLSS, I bought it because I will not have to go through the nonsense the 5700 XT put me through. I will buy one in a few months when the drivers have fixed all the borked functionality and the partner cards are plentiful. Then my son the Nvidia loyalist, will get the super duper 2060.

And before you ask why I did not pay a bit more for the 2070: There are too many customers complaining about space invaders or black screens on every model I looked at, to feel comfortable buying one. And since EVGA has a great warranty, I felt good about the price and support, which combined with the games and one power connector, was enough to make it a good buy for me.

 

[EXCellR8]

EVGA ftw... they were always good to deal with RMA-wise too.

As for the 5700 XT... there seems to be a lot of discussion/dispute over whether or not temperatures on some of these AIB cards are acceptable or not.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

EVGA ftw... they were always good to deal with RMA-wise too.

As for the 5700 XT... there seems to be a lot of discussion/dispute over whether or not temperatures on some of these AIB cards are acceptable or not.

Tech Jesus did a tear down follow up vid -

The Pulse is an excellent buy at the price. Well built, with good design choices. Temps are fine, and we both know why there is any controversy at all. Haters gonna Hate, as the dead meme states.

 

[EXCellR8]

Looks plenty acceptable to me. Certainly a product I would consider if in the market for Navi/7nm

Do the reference cards have similar dedicated cooling sinks for the VRAM and/or VRM? I could search for a teardown but probably wont lol

 

[Stuka87]

Looks plenty acceptable to me. Certainly a product I would consider if in the market for Navi/7nm

Do the reference cards have similar dedicated cooling sinks for the VRAM and/or VRM? I could search for a teardown but probably wont lol

The reference cards do have heat pads that make contact with the main cooler for the memory and VRM's. And then there is a back plate for the other side. The problem is the heatsink is inadequate so the VRM's and memory still get smoking hot.