The Radeon RX 5600 XT was launched earlier this year and is a great alternative to the RTX 2060—it also beats the GTX 1660 hands down. With the TUF EVO, ASUS has designed an excellent card that can fill the void below the more expensive RX 5600 XT STRIX series. In terms of physical design, the RX 5600 XT TUF EVO looks identical to the RX 5700 XT TUF EVO we reviewed a few weeks ago since the RX 5600 XT uses the same graphics chip as the RX 5700 XT, just with fewer shaders enabled and 6 GB instead of 8 GB VRAM. The cooler on the 5600 XT EVO is also identical to the one on the RX 5700 XT, which is great for keeping the card cool. The only difference is the power input configuration, with the former using a single 8-pin and the latter a 8+6-pin setup. The VRM configuration is the same.

Out of the box, the TUF comes with a factory overclock to 1750 MHz rated boost, which is quite an increase over the AMD reference boost of 1560 MHz (+12%). Unfortunately, AMD's boost algorithm doesn't scale like that as actual real-life gains are not that big–nearly all RX 5600 XT cards perform the same when considering GPU clock, even the cheap ones. The only thing that really affects RX 5600 XT performance in a big way is whether its memory ticks at 14 Gbps or 12 Gbps, which results in around a 5% performance difference. That's why it's even more surprising that ASUS is using 12 Gbps by default, out of the box. If you want to run the graphics card at 14 Gbps, you have to manually flash the optional 14 Gbps BIOS, which is available from the ASUS website. Every single RX 5600 XT I've tested uses 14 Gbps memory chips and can handle those memory clocks with ease, so ASUS making people jump through hoops for that performance upgrade is slightly surprising to me.

When averaged over our real-life test suite of 22 games, the RX 5600 XT TUF with the 14 Gbps BIOS beats the RTX 2060 by 1%, which is the same performance level as every other 14 Gbps RX 5600 XT we have seen. When running with the factory default 12 Gbps BIOS, you lose 5% performance, exactly as expected, no surprises here. The 14 Gbps version is only 7% behind the RX 5700 and 20% behind the RX 5700 XT. On the NVIDIA side, the next-fastest card is the RTX 2060 Super; 11% quicker, but also $80 more expensive. Overall, the RX 5600 XT is a great card for 1080p gaming with plenty of headroom for future titles, but it can also handle 1440p well, maybe not at ultra details in every single game, but it'll be a very decent experience overall.

ASUS has installed the improved version of the TUF cooler on their RX 5600 XT EVO. During the launch of the RX 5700 XT EVO, it became apparent that some mistakes were made with the cooler design, and the improved version is called TUF "EVO". While the RX 5700 XT TUF is available in both versions, the RX 5600 TUF only exists in the EVO version with the better cooler. The improved cooler has better memory cooling that is "fine" but far from the "best". We measured 80°C on the memory, and the best RX 5600 XT card we've tested runs at 66°C, so there's still plenty of headroom to improve. Gaming noise levels on the ASUS STRIX EVO are excellent with only 29 dBA, which is close to whisper-quiet. Most other RX 5600 XT cards are just as quiet or even a tiny bit quieter. Generally speaking, all RX 5600 XT cards run very quietly. The same goes for the highly popular idle-fan-stop capability, which is present on every single card we've tested. Temperatures are very low with just 63°C, lower than most competing cards. I guess that also means you can quieten down the fan a little bit more if you want an even quieter card–the cooling performance is certainly there, also for overclocking.

Overclocking our sample worked well, but was not fundamentally different to any other RX 5600 XT we've tested. All cards reach 1860 MHz memory clock, which is the highest you can set in AMD's driver. Why AMD keeps limiting overclocking potential artificially still puzzles me, even after years of them having done so. GPU overclocking varies a little bit between cards, though not in a significant way. On the ASUS EVO, we maxed out the GPU frequency slider range, too. Maximum overclocked performance is 3.2% higher than on the stock card, so while not that much, it's still worth it to make up ground vs. the RX 5700 non-XT.

Back when NVIDIA launched the RTX 2060 with 6 GB VRAM, the Internet was full of hate. Now, AMD does exactly the same, and it still makes perfect sense for me. 8 GB VRAM on a card that's targeted at 1080p/1440p isn't worth it, especially if you have to meet a certain price point to make the card attractive. Looking through our performance results, I can identify only a single clear case: Assassin's Creed Origins. Here, we see the RX 5600 XT fall behind at 1440p, but all the other games are running fine. If you absolutely must have 8 GB VRAM, be ready to pay for it—the RX 5700 and RTX 2060 Super have you covered. It's not something I would do in this case where money matters.

The next and certainly bigger controversy will be real-time ray tracing support. NVIDIA's RTX 2060 supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and the RX 5600 XT does not. While proliferation of RTX is limited today, several big titles with RTX support are coming out this year. Next-gen consoles will also have support for hardware ray tracing, which will further push game developers to embrace the new technology. Still, I would say ray tracing isn't the most important capability to have right now in this market segment. On the other hand, the RTX 2060 is barely more expensive than the RX 5600 XT and has that unique selling point, making this a close call.

The ASUS RX5600 XT TUF EVO currently retails for $320, which is too expensive. The cheapest RX 5600 XT cards you can find are currently going for $270, with definite compromises in terms of cooling and noise levels. I'd recommend cards around $290–$300, like the Sapphire Pulse, ASRock Phantom Gaming D3, and XFX THICC II. ASUS's price point is simply too high since you can get an ASUS STRIX for $2 more, and the MSI Gaming X is $5 cheaper, too. As you can see from our other RX 5600 XT reviews, the differences between the cards are minimal, almost nonexistent. 14 Gbps memory is the only thing to look for as a convenience out of the box; manual overclocking should reach that on every card, even the cheapest ones. Coolers obviously differ, but differences between the decent ones are not as big as they all run quietly, have fan stop, and keep the card cool enough. That only leaved pricing as a selling point, which is the only thing holding the ASUS RX 5600 XT EVO back. For its price, you can almost find a Radeon RX 5700 non-XT, which is significantly faster and offers 8 GB VRAM. What's also worth mentioning is the competition from the NVIDIA RTX 2060, which can be had for around $300 and offers ray tracing. That's why I think a more realistic price for the ASUS TUF EVO is around $300.