"Alan Wake II," released earlier this week, is the latest third person action adventure loaded with psychological thriller elements that call back to some of the best works of Remedy Entertainment, including "Control," "Max Payne 2," and "Alan Wake." It's also a visual feast as our performance review of the game should show you, leveraging the full spectrum of the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set. In the run up to the release, when Remedy put out the system requirements lists for "Alan Wake II" with clear segregation for experiences with ray tracing and without; what wasn't clear was just how much the game depended on hardware support for mesh shaders, which is why its bare minimum list called for at least an NVIDIA RTX 2060 "Turing," or at least an AMD RX 6600 XT RDNA2, both of which are DirectX 12 Ultimate GPUs with hardware mesh shaders support.

There was some confusion among gaming online forums over the requirement for hardware mesh shaders. Many people assumed that the game will not work on GPUs without mesh shader support, locking out lots of gamers. Through the course of our testing for our performance review, we learned that while it is true that "Alan Wake II" relies on hardware support for mesh shaders, the lack of this does not break gameplay. You will, however, pay a heavy performance penalty on GPUs that lack hardware mesh shader support. On such GPUs, the game is designed to show users a warning dialog box that their GPU lacks mesh shader support (screenshot below), but you can choose to ignore this warning, and go ahead to play the game. The game considers mesh shaders a "recommended GPU feature," and not a requirement. Without mesh shaders, you can expect a severe performance loss that is best illustrated with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT based on the RDNA architecture, which lacks hardware mesh shaders.

AMD today released its first driver update in more than two months for Radeon RX 6000 series and RX 5000 series, the Adrenalin 23.2.1 WHQL. The drivers introduce optimization for "Forspoken," with up to 7% performance improvement on offer at 4K with an RX 6950 XT GPU; and optimization for "Dead Space" (2023). The drivers also introduce IREE compiler using MLIR interface on Vulkan, and a handful of new Vulkan API extensions. The drivers also catch up on the past two months of optimizations that were only released for the RX 7000 series, covering Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Hogwarts Legacy, and some performance improvements to games released in the past six months.

Among the issues fixed with this release include the "Delayed Write Failed" error noticed in Windows 11 22H2, SpaceEngine lower-than-expected performance, display corruption in the Points Shop section of Steam; YouTube playback with Enhanced Sync on some RX 6000 series GPUs; game crashes noticed with Door Kickers 2, Baldur's Gate (Vulkan), Emergency 4, and Sea of Thieves. These drivers unify the driver release trunk, spanning RX 400 series, RX 500 series, RX Vega series, RX 5000 series, RX 6000 series, and RX 7000 series.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.2.1 WHQL

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software. Version 21.11.3 beta comes with optimization for Microsoft Flight Simulator: GOTY Edition, and Farming Simulator 22. Additional extensions of the Vulkan API are added. The drivers also fix driver-timeouts or game crashes noticed with "Battlefield 2042" on graphics cards such as the RX 6900 XT. Stuttering or poor performance with "DayZ" on RX 5700 XT was fixed. Also fixed is elevated disk usage by the Multimedia Athena dumps folder. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.11.3

AMD's third smallest silicon based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture, the Navi 23, has more transistors than its largest GPU based on RDNA, the Navi 10. This according to a leak detailing key physical specs of the silicon. The Navi 23 silicon will feature in the desktop Radeon RX 6600 series, mobile Radeon RX 6600M series, and the Radeon Pro W6600. The Navi 23 silicon has a transistor count of 11.06 billion, compared to 10.3 billion on the Navi 10 silicon that powers the Radeon RX 5700 XT, and has a die size of approximately 237 mm², compared to 251 mm² of the older chip.

Built on the same 7 nm silicon fabrication node as the other RDNA2 chips, Navi 23 physically features 32 compute units, working out to 2,048 stream processors. Other specs include 128 TMUs, and possibly 32 ROPs. The RDNA2 compute unit features Ray Accelerators, so the chip has 32 of them. The memory sub-system is interesting. The memory bus width is 128-bit, addressing GDDR6 memory, but this interface is cushioned by 32 MB of on-die Infinity Cache memory. This cache could be contributing significantly to the chip's overall transistor count. The chip features PCI-Express 4.0 host interface, although there's no clarity on whether this is PCI-Express 4.0 x8 or x16.Many Thanks to DeathtoGnomes for the tip

Sapphire released the GPRO X070 compute graphics card. This is very much a graphics card, in that it has display outputs, and is based on the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, but there's a twist—it's completely fanless. The card has a large triple-slot heatsink cooling the GPU, which is designed to rely on external airflow in rackmount cases, and probably won't work on its own in a tower case. Sapphire says its applications include render farms, or V-GPUs. The card features an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT that runs at reference clock speeds—1905 MHz max boost, 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory. There's also an "Efficiency Mode" enabled through a secondary BIOS, which runs the GPU at 1750 MHz boost, possibly making the card best suited for crypto-currency mining operations.

Today, AMD released their Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.2 Beta drivers. This latest driver release brings with it support and improvements for numerous titles. A Total War Saga: Troy sees the most significant boost to performance with up to 12% better FPS on the High preset when using a Radeon RX 5700 XT. Other titles with improved support include Microsoft Flight Simulator, Mortal Shell, and the Marvel's Avengers Open Beta. Meanwhile, AMD's list of fixes while short is no less important. They managed to solve the issue with intermittent system hangs when exiting sleep on some AMD Ryzen 3000 mobile processors with Radeon Graphics, which will likely make life easier for numerous users. They also fixed the system freeze or failure to recognize input from the user when pressing a key with Radeon Overlay open or when exiting it while playing Hyper Scape. The full list of features and improvements can be found in the list below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.8.2 Beta

The leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, ASRock, has launched Radeon RX 5700 XT Challenger Pro 8G OC three-fan graphics card. The graphics card is powered by the AMD advanced 7 nm RDNA architecture, features new Compute Units delivering incredible performance and is optimized for better visual effects such as volumetric lighting, blur effects, depth of field, and multi-level cache hierarchy for reduced latency and highly responsive gaming.

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT series graphics card takes 1080p gaming to the next level, delivering ultra-responsive, high-fidelity AAA gaming at up to 60 FPS and e-Sports gaming at up to 90 FPS. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is equipped with up to 8 GB of GDDR6 high-speed memory and PCI Express 4.0 support for maximum game performance, exceptional power efficiency and outstanding value. Based on RDNA architecture, the Radeon RX 5700 XT Challenger Pro Series graphics card provides base/game/boost GPU clock at 1650/1795/1905 MHz. Furthermore, Radeon Image Sharpening, FidelityFX, Radeon Anti-Lag and Radeon FreeSync technologies bring about maximum performance and enhanced gaming experiences.

Sapphire recently launched a cost-effective variant of its Radeon RX 5600 XT Pulse graphics card, the RX 5600 XT Pulse BE. The company extended the Pulse BE treatment to the RX 5700 series, in a bid to make them more cost-effective, and ready for price-cuts. The new RX 5700 XT Pulse BE (model: 11293-09-20G), differs in board design from the RX 5600 XT Pulse BE. It's also significantly different from the original RX 5700 XT Pulse. For starters, it features a more cost-effective cooler shroud design that uses ABS plastic. The underlying heatsink is different from the one on the original Pulse, with one less heat pipe.

Interestingly, the card has the same dimensions as the original Pulse, with 25.4 mm length, 13.5 mm height, and 4.65 cm thickness. Sapphire also trimmed down a handful features. The Pulse BE lacks the Quick Connect fans that easily detach from the cooler, letting you clean the heatsink underneath. It also lacks the dual-BIOS feature which the original has. The card sticks to AMD reference clock speeds, with up to 1815 MHz game clocks, up to 1925 MHz boost, and 14 Gbps (GDDR6-effective) memory. Sapphire is pricing the Radeon RX 5700 XT Pulse BE at AMD SEP of USD $399, although you should be able to find it unofficially-discounted.

BIOSTAR today announced its Extreme Gaming line of custom-design AMD Radeon RX 5000 series graphics cards. These are the company's first custom-design AMD Radeon products, as the company in the past only sold reference-design RX Vega-series products. The lineup currently includes two products, the VA57T6XM82, based on the Radeon RX 5700 XT, and the VA55T6XF81, based on the RX 5500 XT (4 GB). Both cards appear to use AMD reference-design PCBs paired with custom-design cooling solutions. The RX 5700 XT card uses a large triple-fan aluminium fin-stack cooling solution that's slightly thicker than 2 slots. The RX 5500 XT card uses a more compact twin-fan, double-slot cooling solution. The BIOSTAR Extreme Gaming RX 5700 XT sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 1755 MHz boost, while the RX 5500 XT does 1717 MHz MHz. The company didn't reveal pricing.

At AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su's keynote address at the company's 2020 Financial Analyst Day, a curious slide element caught our eye - a never before seen graphics card design that bears AMD insignia. This is quite possibly AMD's upcoming reference design. The design fits into the language of sharp dark ridges and red accents the company adopted first with its Radeon RX 5700 XT MBA (made by AMD) graphics card, and the hypothetical RX 5600 XT reference design that never made it to the market as the SKU was a partner-exclusive.

In Reddit AMAs following the RX 5700 series launch, corporate vice-president and manager for Radeon, Scott Herkelman, mentioned that all subsequent Radeon RX products by the company would ditch the lateral-blower design in favor of an axial multi-fan design that's characteristic of most partner-designed cards. NVIDIA made that switch with its RTX 20-series Founders Edition cards, and AMD too implemented a triple axial fan design for its Radeon VII card, before switching back to a conventional lateral-blower design for its RX 5700 series. AMD would go on to give the reference design RX 5600 XT an axial dual-fan cooler.

ASUS today rolled out the TUG Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5700-series EVO graphics cards. These include the SKUs "TUF 3-RX5700-O8G-EVO-GAMING" for the RX 5700, and "TUF 3-RX5700XT-O8G-EVO-GAMING" for the RX 5700 XT. The two cards feature certain design tweaks over the original TUF Gaming RX 5700-series graphics cards that were criticized by tech reviewers for bad cooling performance. The updated TUF Gaming EVO cards feature an entirely different aluminium fin-stack heatsink from the one in the original TUF Gaming cards, which offers better contact with the various hot components on the PCB.

ASUS also updated the ventilation of the cooler, with three Axial-Tech fans replacing the conventional fans on the original. These fans feature impellers that are webbed at the edges, so air is guided axially (through the heatsink), and some of it isn't bled laterally. The fan in the center is slightly smaller than the ones on its sides. Clock speeds are unchanged between the two revisions, with up to 1720 MHz game clocks and up to 1750 MHz boost clocks for the RX 5700 model, and up to 1795 game clocks and up to 1905 MHz boost clocks for the RX 5700 XT model. Both cards feature a software-based "OC mode" that dials up clock-speeds by roughly 70 MHz. ASUS will replace the original TUF Gaming with the new EVO cards at current prices.

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced its new models of stunning AMD-powered gaming PCs, the CORSAIR VENGEANCE 6100 Series. Starting with the VENGEANCE 6180 and VENGEANCE 6182, these cutting-edge gaming PCs combine the power of 3rd generation AMD Ryzen processors and AMD Radeon RX 5700 Series graphics with high-quality CORSAIR components, all in a compact cube form factor that's 33% smaller than a standard mid-tower and brimming with fully customizable RGB lighting.

Since launching in 2018, the CORSAIR VENGEANCE family has emerged as one of the most awarded and sought-after gaming PCs on the market thanks to its impressive power, distinctive style, and deeply embedded customizable RGB lighting. Both the CORSAIR VENGEANCE 6180 and 6182 incorporate a liquid-cooled AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU with eight cores and 16 threads, an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB graphics card, and 16 GB of CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4-3200 Memory. Both models are cooled by a CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i RGB PLATINUM Liquid CPU cooler and powered by a CORSAIR RM650 80 PLUS Gold power supply.

Confirmation of four new Radeon RX 5000-series SKUs came to light as AIB partner AFOX pushed them to regulators at the Eurasian Economic Commission. EEC filings have been a reliable early-sign of upcoming PC hardware. All thee new SKUs are positioned above the Radeon RX 5700 XT launched last year. These include the Radeon RX 5800 XT, the RX 5900 XT, the RX 5950, and the RX 5950 XT. Going by AMD's convention of two SKUs per resolution serving up to differentiated experiences, the RX 5800 XT could be a step up from the RX 5700 XT in offering 1440p high frame-rate AAA performance. This could possibly put it in direct competition with the GeForce RTX 2070 Super. AMD took a similar 2-pronged approach to 1080p, with the RX 5500 XT serving up 1080p at up to 60 fps, while the RX 5600 XT topping it up with a 40-50 percent performance uplift.

The Radeon RX 5950-series is completely new. This could very well be a new large "Navi" silicon, since dual-GPU is dead. Just as AMD carved out the RX 5700 XT, the RX 5700, and the RX 5600 XT, it could carve out the three new SKUs from this silicon. AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su already confirmed that her company is working to upscale the RX 5000-series "Navi" family. The RX 5900-series could be competition for the likes of the RTX 2080 or even RTX 2080 Super. The RX 5950-series could target premium 4K gaming (RTX 2080 Ti). It remains to be seen if the three new SKUs are based on the existing RDNA architecture or the new RDNA2 architecture designed for 7 nm EUV, featuring variable-rate shading.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards since 1997, brings out a Navi first with a water cooled RX 5700 XT, the Liquid Devil. A long term AMD partner, PowerColor was one of the original adopters of factory overclocked graphics cards and was the first AMD partner to manufacture a graphics cards with premium performance water blocks. PowerColor once again partner with the liquid cooling industry leader EK to customize a uniquely designed water block for its custom RX 5700 XT for unmatched thermals and performance.

Featuring a nickel plated copper base, the Liquid Devil provides the better heat transfer capabilities of copper with the corrosion protection of the nickel, with the added bonus of making for a clean and sleek aesthetic. In order to maximize the potential of the PowerColor Liquid Devil, only the best 5700 XT GPUs which have been binned specifically for lower temperature and higher clock speeds have been selected for use, making sure that all Liquid Devil cards are the able to hit the highest performance points.

In September, Sapphire unveiled its most powerful graphics card to date - the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 5700 XT - which delivers amazing 4K and 1440p performance, but also features very advanced RGB customization options. We even created a set of SAPPHIRE ARGB Fans specifically for this card (sold separately), so you could illuminate your system even more. Since then, many of you have asked if we could include the ARGB Fans with the card itself. oday we are ready and excited to announce the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 5700 XT SPECIAL EDITION! Not only does it include the SAPPHIRE ARGB Fans out of the box, but we've increased the card's performance even more.

Here's the first picture of the Radeon RX 5700 XT Liquid Devil by PowerColor. This premium graphics card is meant for people with DIY liquid-cooling setups, and comes with a factory-fitted full-coverage water-block. Sourced from EK Water Blocks, the cooling solution features a nickel-plated copper primary material, with an acrylic top and PowerColor-exclusive embellishments, which include a factory-fitted RGB LED setup. The card is 2-slot thick at the rear I/O. Under the block is a PCB similar in design to the air-cooled RX 5700 XT Red Devil graphics card. Its clock speeds and price are still under the wraps. We expect a price that's north of $500 given the cost of the block alone.

Here are some of the first pictures of a new "Special Edition" or SE variant of Sapphire's premium Radeon RX 5700 XT NITRO+ graphics card. The card introduces a higher factory-overclock than the original NITRO+, including a memory overclock, and a cosmetic change. To begin with, the NITRO+ SE ships with 14.4 Gbps overclocked GDDR6 memory, whereas the original NITRO+ sticks to the reference 14 Gbps.

Sapphire also dialed up the maximum engine boost frequency to 2035 MHz (vs. 2010 MHz on the original NITRO+). Sapphire also gave the card a cosmetic update. The three fans now come with transparent impellers that are illuminated with their own four RGB LEDs, each. The Special Edition will be a limited SKU, available in select markets from November 15, priced above the original NITRO+, at 520€ (including VAT).

Here is the first render of GIGABYTE's premium Radeon RX 5700 Series custom-design graphics card that uses the company's coveted AORUS Gaming branding. This is the company's second custom-design card, after the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT Gaming OC series, based on a 2-slot thick WindForce 3X cooling solution. The AORUS-branded card uses a thicker triple-slot cooler that has more heatsink surface area for heat-dissipation, a triple-fan setup, more RGB LED embellishments and possibly a more exhaustive set of display outputs. These cards could also ship with the company's highest factory-overclock tuning for the RX 5700 series. GIGABYTE did not reveal pricing or availability information.

The leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, ASRock, announces their latest Phantom Gaming series graphics cards - the Radeon RX 5700 XT Phantom Gaming D 8G OC, and Radeon RX 5700 Phantom Gaming D 8G OC, which are equipped with AMD's latest generation of 7 nm Radeon RX 5700 series GPUs, with 8 GB GDDR6 video memory, and the latest PCI Express 4.0 support, coupled with outstanding heat dissipation triple-fan design, brilliant ARGB lighting effects, and the stylish metal backplate. With all these advanced specifications and rich features, they are undoubtedly designed for gamers, providing an outstanding 1440p gaming experience.

NVIDIA's add-in card partners are ordering fresh stocks of GeForce RTX 2070 graphics chips even as the performance-segment of the GPU market has changed with AMD's introduction of its Radeon RX 5700 series "Navi," according to a Gamers Nexus report citing sources among NVIDIA partners. NVIDIA partners are expecting a slump in AMD's RX 5700 series graphics card inventories, particularly that of the RX 5700 XT, to create a price-point at which to sell the RTX 2070. NVIDIA partners expect RX 5700 XT inventories to run slim as supply of the 7 nm "Navi 10" chips from foundry-partner TSMC may not satiate the SKU's reportedly high demand.

NVIDIA's current product stack has the original RTX 2060 at $349, the RTX 2060 Super at $399, and the RTX 2070 Super at $499. The RTX 2070, which is outperformed by the $399 Radeon RX 5700 XT, was practically phased out from NVIDIA's product-stack as it was succeeded by the RTX 2070 Super at its $499 price-point. With the RTX 2070 making a comeback, it would be interesting to see what its price-point will be. There is a gap between the $399 RTX 2060 Super, and the $499 RTX 2070 Super, although the performance gap between the RTX 2060 Super and the RTX 2070 is a paltry 4 percent, which is easily closed by moderately overclocking the RTX 2060 Super. As of this writing, both pricing and availability of the RX 5700 XT appear normal.

An XFX spokesperson, commenting on a Reddit post linking to our comprehensive review of the XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC III Ultra graphics card from Thursday, stated that they have revised the coolers of its sibling, the THICC II (which we also reviewed). Besides the number of fans (3 vs. 2), what sets the THICC III and the original THICC II apart is a slightly longer aluminium fin-stack heatsink on the THICC III, and more importantly, a copper secondary base-plate instead of aluminium alloy one, on the THICC III. This secondary base plate pulls heat from the eight GDDR6 memory chips. What's more, with the THICC III, XFX also removed a metal foil between the secondary base-plate and the main heatsink.

In our testing, we found this simple design change dropped memory temperatures by 8°C compared to the original THICC II. Higher air-flow from the triple-fan setup may have also contributed, although we believe the base-plate changes, specifically removal of the metal foil, contributed the most. The XFX spokesperson announced that the company is implementing the same base-plate design on the THICC II, and that revised cards are "already on the shelves." The spokesperson also announced that anyone with an older revision of the card can seek a free replacement to the newer revision by contacting XFX. We are awaiting information from them on how to tell the older revision apart from the newer one without having to disassemble the card, and will update this article.

AMD has released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.2 beta drivers. These drivers bring improved support for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," which sees up to 18% better performance on the Ultra preset when using a Radeon RX 5700 XT. "The Outer Worlds" also sees improved support and sees 8% better performance at the Very High preset again on the Radeon RX 5700 XT. Improved support and better performance are always welcome; however, this release also offers some much-needed fixes, including application hang in Borderlands 3, which will likely make quite a few gamers happy. For a full list of fixes and known issues, check the full change-log below. Otherwise, you can grab the new driver from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.2 Beta
The change-log for 19.10.2 follows.

XFX today finally launched their thick, custom version of the AMD Navi-powered RX 5700 XT. The new RX 5700 XT THICC III Ultra features a triple-slot (well, 2.7 slots, but who's counting but we?) cooling solution with three cooling fans, thus upping the ante compared to previous XFX THICC graphics cards. XFX boasts hat their THICC III Ultra features a peak Boost clock of 2025 MHz, and typical Boosts in the area of 1935 MHz (a 10.3% increase compared to AMD's reference specs).

The THICC design philosophy stands the test of time here, with the card mainly being black colored, with some silver accents. A thick aluminium fin-stack fed by a copper baseplate and copper heat pipes ensure a constant heat transfer from the GPU chip to the fin-stack array, which now sees three fans working overtime to dissipate all that framerate-produced heat - fed by a pair of 8-pin connectors.

PowerColor, who have released excellent Radeon RX 5700 XT custom designs recently (our reviews: Red Dragon, Red Devil) has just posted an image announcing a watercooled Radeon RX 5700 XT "Liquid Devil".

I enhanced the photo of the card a bit and you can now clearly see the "EK" logo in the bottom right corner of the card, confirming that it is based on a custom EK Water Blocks cooling solution that you integrate into your existing watercooling loop. Release date and specifications are yet unknown, but I wouldn't be surprised if this will end up being the highest-clocked RX 5700 XT out there, because Navi will definitely benefit from lower temperatures and a higher power limit.

The leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, ASRock, announces their new Taichi X series graphics cards - the Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi X 8G OC+, which is ASRock's first Taichi X series graphics card featuring AMD's latest Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU and 8 GB 256-bit GDDR6 memory, brings exceptional computing power and an immersive experience nested within an elegant design.

In Chinese culture, "Taichi" represents the philosophical state of yin and yang. ASRock's Taichi graphics cards are designed for tech geeks and power users who care about products' design and quality, and comes with premium features that can fulfill every geek's dream and fulfill power user's important task. To carry forward Taichi's spirit, which symbolizes the balance between elegance and stability; Taichi graphics cards are formed with two main elements in mind - "design" and "quality".