Computer Shopper - UK (2019-10)

ISSUE 380|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2019 31

INMANYWAYSthe RX 5700 is everything
you’d expect from the lesser model in a
two-strong GPU launch. Where the RX 5700
XT (page 18) is grooved and interesting-
looking, this is aplain greybox without so
much as abackplatetocover the circuit
board. Where the RX 5700 XT is running at
its full capacity,the RX 5700 is intentionally
hobbled with alower core count and clock
speeds than its GPU can allow for.
And yet, of these two graphics cards –the
long-awaited Navi line-up that introduces
AMD’s revamped RDNA architecture –the
RX 5700 ends up as an arguably even better
deal than its more capable sibling.

TRIMMED SAILS
Before we explain why,areminder of the RX
5700’s specs. It has the same underlying
GPU as the RX 5700 XT,including 8GB of
GDDR6 memory,but with only 2,304 stream
processors enabled, alower base clock speed
of 1,465MHz and alower maximum boost
clock speed of 1,725MHz. AMD says you can
more likely expect around 1,625MHz when
gaming, due to heat constraints.
This is, if the price didn’t already give it
away, amid-range graphics card in line with
the Nvidia GeForce RTX2060, much as the RX
5700 XT is adirect response to the higher-end
RTX2070. The arrival of the RTX2060 Super
might seem agoalpost-moving moment for
what AMD’s offering needs to achieve,but
using the PC Specialist Inferno R1 (which
includes the new Nvidia GPU) as aguide,we’d
saythe RX 5700 manages to competewith the
standard RTX2060 and its replacement.
Dirt Showdown saw our test PC’s CPU
being the limiting factor once more,asthe RX
5700 scored 111fps at both 1,920x1,080 and
2,560x1,440 –both identical results to that of
the RX 5700 XT.However,3,840x2,160 was
more useful as apoint of comparison: the RX
5700 managed 97fps, 3fps higher than the
RTX2060 Super-powered Inferno R1 and
11fps ahead of the RTX2060.

VERDICT

AMDfinallyclaimsthemid-rangeGPUcrownwiththis
brilliantlypowerful,andsurprisinglycheap,Navicard

GAMING GRAPHICSCARD

Metro: Last Light Redux yielded more

good news forthe AMD card, as the usual

combination of Very High quality and SSAA

resulted in 86fps at 1080p,51fps at 1440p and

23fps at 4K –all within 2fps and 3fps of the

Inferno R1, which has the advantage of a

more gaming-friendly processor.All three

also represent small leads over the RTX2060’s

equivalent frame rates. 4K isn’t alost cause,

either: switching off SSAA caused the frame

ratetoprecisely double,upto46fps. That’s

plenty playable,although dropping to High

quality might be abetter recipe for60fps in

tough games such as this.

Tomb Raider required no such sacrifices, as

the RX 5700 produced 168fps at 1080p,113fps

at 1440p and 58fps at 4K –all with the

Ultimatequality preset and FXAA in effect.

This presented the only occasion when the

RTX2060 ran better than the RX 5700, but

only by 2fps at 1080p; otherwise,its 105fps at

1440p and 52fps at 4K again proved inferior.

COOL CUSTOMER

Rounding out our performance benchmarks

with aperfect score of 11 in the SteamVR

Performance Test, the RX 5700 has shown

itself to be fantastically spry forasub-£300

card. In fact, it’s fair to saythis is the most

powerful GPU you can buy for£290. The RTX

2060 is remaining stubbornly expensive,and

as such is both slower and more expensive,

while the £260-ish GTX 1660 Ti (Shopper377)

can’t competeinastraight frame-ratefight.

We’ll refrain from drawing conclusions about

the RTX2060 Super until we’ve reviewed it

standalone,but it doesn’t look to be

significantly faster at all, and comes in at a

much less affordable £379.

Perhaps even more significantly,the RX

5700 is only slightly slower than the RX 5700

XT.At1080p,both cards produce such high

frame rates that the differences are visually

negligible,and the cheaper card still does very

well at 1440p –it’s only 7fps behind the RX

5700 XT in Metro,for example.It’s only at 4K

where you’d consistently notice the RX 5700

XT’s performance advantage.

Furthermore,the RX 5700 keeps up as well

as it does while also staying cooler,quieter

and more efficient. òther than avery slightly

higher idle temperature of 62ȑC, its load

temperature of 76ȑC and peak of 77ȑC are

both lower than those of the RX 5700 XT,

and we noticed the blower cooler being abit

less noisy as well. That’s probably apositive

side effect of having fewer cores.

TOPOFTHETFLOPS

It also uses less power,rising to 150W during

games and staying there; remember,the RX

5700 XT jumped as high as 212W.This still

requires both 8-pin and 6-pin PSU connectors,

which is unusual foramid-range card, but

that’s the sum of the downsides.

All this means the RX 5700 is the Navi

card we’d buy for1080p and 1440p gaming.

As we said afew pages back, the RX 5700 XT

is superb for4Konabudget, but forlower

resolutions this card will perform almost as

well, and foreven less money. It’s the new

mid-range GPU to beat.

JamesArcher

AMD RadeonRX5700

★★★★★

£290•From http://www.amd.com

SPECIFICATIONS

DirtShowdown

Metro:LastLight

TombRaider

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

Seepage90forperformancedetails

GPUAMDRadeonRX5700•MEMORY8GBGDDR6•

GRAPHICSCARDLENGTH268mm•WARRANTYOne

yearRTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODE

RadeonRX5700

111fps

168fps

86fps