PCWorld – August 2019

80 PCWorld AUGUST 2019

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 5700 AND 5700 XT

AMD Radeon RX 5700

PROS

• Best-in-class power efficiency.


• Excellent gaming performance.


• New RDNA architecture improves performance in
  several games.


• First PCIe 4.0 GPU.


• Ready for 4K, 120Hz HDR monitors without
  chroma subsampling.
  CONS


• No dedicated ray-tracing hardware.
  $349

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

PROS

• Superb power efficiency.


• Excellent gaming performance.


• New RDNA architecture improves performance in
  several games.


• First PCIe 4.0 GPU.
  CONS


• No dedicated ray-tracing hardware.


• Blower-style cooler has higher temps than Nvidia’s
  FE design.
  $399

packs ray-tracing

capabilities and

sometimes beats the

Radeon RX 5700 XT’s

performance by a

lot—but sometimes

they’re neck-and-

neck, too. The RTX

2070 Super costs

$100 more.

The Radeon RX

5700 and Radeon RX

5700 XT are truly great

graphics cards that

point to a bright future for AMD. The

surprise RTX Super reveal almost spoiled

things, but aggressive pre-launch price cuts

by AMD countered Nvidia’s maneuvering.

The Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT can’t

beat the RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super,

respectively, but AMD’s duo trounces the

RTX 2060 and 2060 Super they now

compete directly against. Both cards earn

high marks, and we’re awarding the Radeon

RX 5700 an Editors’ Choice award.

It’s sure been a whirlwind few weeks for

high-end graphics cards, but now that the

dust has finally settled, gamers are getting

markedly higher frame rates for their dollars.

Yay competition!