frequency to 940MHz (15040MHz effective), and we could
add another 76MHz to the GPU clock too. These settings
improved performance by a further 2-3fps in our tests, and
the cooler noise was still fine at its automatic setting.
Conclusion
Sapphire’s Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse is a big improvement
over AMD’s reference design, offering slightly more
performanceandquieteroperation.What’smore,itscurrent
pricemeansyoualsoonlypayanextra£20orsoforthe
privilege.Evenso,£399incVATis a lotofmoneytopayfora
graphicscardthatdoesn’thavethereal-timeray-tracing
featuresofNvidia’sRTXGPUs.
Ofcourse,raytracingis stillonlysupportedina handfulof
games,butit doeslookamazinginthosegames,andthere
willbemoreoftheminthefuture.If wewerespending
around£400ona card,we’drecommendtheRTX 2060
Superforthatreason.However,if frameratesaremore
importanttoyou,theSapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulseis
fasterthanthe 2060 Superand,unlikeAMD’sreference
cards,it doesn’tmakea horriblenoiseeither.
BENHARDWIDGE
BENCHMARK RESULTS
1,920x1,080,Highestsettings,TAA,GPUtest
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
0 50 100 150 200
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
95fps 123fps
92fps 120fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Zotac RTX 2060 Super
97fps 126fps
81fps 106fps
2,560x1,440,Highestsettings,TAA,GPUtest
0 50 100 150 200
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
63fps 81fps
66fps 83fps
NvidiaGeForceRTX 2070 Super
62fps 79fps
68fps 86fps
Zotac RTX 2060 Super 56fps 70fps
1,920x1,080,Ultradetail,DX11, TAA
BATTLEFIELD V
0 50 100 150 200
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
122fps 153fps
129fps 155fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Zotac RTX 2060 Super
119fps 141fps
96fps 120fps
2,560x1,440,Ultradetail,DX11, TAA
0 50 100 150 200
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
95fps 115fps
100fps 116fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Zotac RTX 2060 Super
94fps 108fps
81fps 92fps
1,920x1,080,Ultrasettings,FXAA,DX11
TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II
0 50 100 150 200
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
79fps 92fps
76fps 89fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Zotac RTX 2060 Super
81fps 100fps
73fps 87fps
2,560x1,440,Ultrasettings,FXAA,DX11
0 50 100 150 200
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
57fps 64fps
55fps 62fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Zotac RTX 2060 Super
60fps 72fps
52fps 62fps
TOTALSYSTEMPOWERCONSUMPTION
0 150 300 450
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
321W 331W
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Zotac RTX 2060 Super
295W
323W
248W
Stock speed Overclocked Lower is better
Unigine Superposition Benchmark, 4K Optimized, DirectX
Stockspeedmin Stockspeedavg
Overclocked min Overclocked avg
1,920x1,080,VeryHighsettings, DX12
TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER II
0 50 100 150 200
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
85fps 114fps
85fps 113fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Zotac RTX 2060 Super
89fps 110fps
76fps 91fps
2,560x1,440,VeryHighsettings,DX12
0 50 100 150 200
SapphireRadeonRX 5700 XTPulse
AMDRadeonRX 5700 XT
65fps 79fps
64fps 77fps
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
Zotac RTX 2060 Super
63fps 75fps
52fps 62fps
OVERALLSCORE
85 %
PERFORMANCE
35 / 40
FEATURES
14 / 20
VALUE
36 / 40
PULSE
+ Cooler noise^
isn’tirritating
+ Greatframerates
+ Factory overclock
FLATLINE
- Noraytracing
- Expensive
- Exhausts hot air
into case
VERDICT
Superb performance and a quieter cooler than AMD’s
reference design, although the lack of ray-tracing support
hurts it at this price.