PCWorld – August 2019

78 PCWorld AUGUST 2019

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 5700 AND 5700 XT

mxwl) all the way back in 2014, GeForce

cards have absolutely pummeled their

Radeon rivals. With AMD’s new RDNA

graphics architecture and the leap to the 7nm

process, the domination is over.

The days of laughing at Radeon power

efficiency (or lack thereof) are over. This is

very encouraging for AMD’s future GPU

development...though it remains to be seen

what Nvidia’s architects are capable of when

Team Green shifts to 7nm at some point in

the future.

BOTTOM LINE

A week ago, the answer would have been a

clear yes. The Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700

XT deliver more than enough oomph to

topple the original GeForce RTX 2060 and

2070. A few days ago, the answer would have
      been more nuanced, since the Radeon
      tandem but can’t quite match the firepower
      of the new RTX Super graphics cards (see
      page 43). But in the wake of AMD’s pre-
      launch price cuts, clarity returns.
      Yes. Yes, you should buy these
      graphics cards.
      The Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT are
      excellent, delivering noticeably better
      performance than the GeForce RTX 2060 and
      RTX 2060 Super they’re price-matched with.
      The Radeon RX 5700 XT even manages to
      trade blows with the GeForce RTX 2070
      Super in some games despite costing $100
      less. AMD just served up a delectable 1440p
      gaming duo.
      These Navi GPUs would also excel at high
      refresh rate 1080p gaming, and with
      the Radeon RX 5700 XT you can
      dabble with 4K gaming in some
      games if you don’t mind dialing some
      visual settings back from Ultra. If
      you’re into content creation too, poke
      around for reviews that reveal how
      much of a difference the Radeon RX
      5700’s PCIe 4.0 connection makes in
      your workloads of choice.
      The Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700
      XT are the first mainstream 7nm GPUs;
      the first PCIe 4.0 GPUs; and the first
      GPUs with DisplayPort Display Stream
      Compression for next-gen monitors.
      And as the first 7nm GPUs built using

Whole System Power Draw

(Watts)

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

56.1

54.3

55.2

59.6

55.7

56.5

56

55.2

259

284

300

416

315

318

344

399

Load Idle 4K

Radeon RX 5700

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 (FE)

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super (FE)

AM 64 D Radeon Vega

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 (FE)

Radeon R X 5700 XT

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super (FE)

AMD Radeon VII