Yesterday, AMD released their Radeon RX 5600 XT, which is based on the same Navi 10 silicon that powers the Radeon RX 5700 Series. In addition to today's review, we posted two reviews yesterday: Sapphire RX 5600 XT Pulse and ASUS RX 5600 XT STRIX TOP.

AMD originally intended for the Radeon RX 5600 XT to go up against NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1660 Super and GTX 1660 Ti. On Thursday last week, (!) they informed us that a specs change was coming through a BIOS update that unlocks additional performance. On the same day, we received the updated BIOS, which increases GPU clock, memory clock, board power limit, and GPU voltage. I've covered graphics card launches for well over a decade and such a thing never happened before. All parties involved always had plenty of time to work towards the launch with known products and specs. In the following days, several board partners reached out to me, asking for feedback on whether they should follow AMD's lead or stick with the announced specs. This just shows how much confusion was created overnight—with just three business days left to launch. Since this is a hard launch, RX 5600 XT cards will be available at retailers today, which created another problem. Production boards were already shipped, most of them already in their destination country, so reworking the BIOS in the factory was out of the question. I talked with nearly all board partners, and they all decided that customers will have to flash the BIOS themselves after purchase. Whether this will entail a 1-click updater to run or a more complex WinFlash-based mechanism is still unknown to some partners. While a GPU BIOS update will be child's play for many, it is a huge deal for less experienced gamers, and the chance of things going wrong is not zero. It's also a fundamental change from the "it just works" mechanics consumers are used to. They'll now have to first learn about the fact that such an update exists, do some research, and spend their time changing the product to bring it to its official specs. Remember, we're talking about a $300 purchase that's considered premium by the vast majority of the market. AMD could have postponed the launch a bit to give partners more time to get things in order. Let's just hope they are generous with RMAs and supportive of cases where something goes wrong with the BIOS flash. Unlike other RX 5600 XT cards, MSI does not have a dual BIOS, so the risk of something going wrong is slightly higher than on other cards. On the other hand, MSI does have the well-tested Dragon Center for BIOS updates, which beats the tacked together batch file scripts other companies use.

AMD provided us with the following statement: "Based on ongoing testing with our board partners, we have raised the GPU core and memory frequencies for overclocked Radeon RX 5600 XT SKUs to take advantage of increased thermal and electrical headroom built into partner's custom designs. The updated VBIOS has been made available to our board partners for inclusion in select OC SKUs at launch. AMD is dedicated to disrupting the market with industry-leading compute products, and the new VBIOS makes the Radeon RX 5600 XT an even more powerful contender for high-performance 1080p gaming. Previously announced product specs are unchanged, as they remain AMD's recommended reference design specs." AMD also confirmed that "RX 5600 XT does not replace RX 5700".

This also clarifies that not all RX 5600 XT cards will receive a BIOS update. Rather, it is a per-model decision by the board partners, which of course makes sense as not all cards will be able to handle the higher clocks and heat. It also creates a huge performance range for RX 5600 XT to sit in. Based on our testing that range seems to be around 10%—a performance spread that's usually covered by two or three different models with clear naming differences. That's the reason why we tested both the old and new BIOS, to get a feel for what to expect. As a result, it's no longer feasible to fire up your favorite shopping comparison engine, type in "RX 5600 XT" and buy the cheapest model listed. At the end of the day it is what it is. While things could have certainly been planned and executed much better, the end result for gamers is that they get 10% free extra performance.

MSI decided to split their BIOS update into two SKUs: the Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming X and the Gaming Z, which we both cover in this review. The cards are identical in every regard, the only difference is that the Gaming X ticks at 1500 MHz (12 Gbps) memory and the Gaming Z runs 1750 MHz (16 Gbps) memory. I hear from various partners that some Navi 10 chips on the RX 5600 XT are having issues running at 1750 MHz memory—even when paired with 1750 MHz memory chips. It seems the memory controller in some of those GPUs can't handle the higher frequency.

Overall, when averaged over our testing suite at 1080p resolution, we see the RX 5600 XT Gaming Z (with the BIOS update) beat the NVIDIA RTX 2060—an important win. The card also slightly beats AMD's aging Radeon RX Vega 64, which is just as important a victory. The Gaming X, on the other hand, is around 5% slower than the Gaming Z because of the lower memory frequency, which puts the card a few points below the RTX 2060 and Vega 64. The NVIDIA GeForce 16-series is far behind as the GTX 1660 Ti is 13% / 18% slower and the GTX 1660 Super is 14% / 19% slower. AMD's next-fastest SKU, the Radeon RX 5700, is only 7% faster than the Gaming Z and much 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.

MSI basically reused their Radeon RX 5700 XT Gaming X cooler and PCB design. As expected, when pairing such a huge cooler with the much lower heat output of the RX 5600 XT GPU, temperatures will be greatly reduced. It's still impressive to see below 60°C under full load on both the Gaming X and Gaming Z. The card also achieved very impressive secondary temperatures, like hotspot, memory, and VRM—better than any RX 5600 XT we tested so far. What makes this feat even more remarkable is that the card is very quiet at the same time. With 29 dBA, it is a hair louder than other RX 5600 XTs, but the differences are marginal and impossible to notice subjectively. With those noise levels they actually beat the majority of competing NVIDIA cards. Quite a reversal that AMD cards now run quieter than NVIDIA cards. MSI also included the highly popular idle-fan-off capability, which completely shuts off the fans in idle, browsing, productivity, and light gaming. Some competing NVIDIA cards lack that capability, too.

The secret sauce behind these impressive thermals is that AMD undervolted their Navi 10 GPU. Normally, the GPU is designed to run at 1.15 V to 1.20 V. On the RX 5600 XT, it ticks at 0.9 V before the BIOS update and 1.0 V after the update. This brings with it tremendous power savings at the cost of maximum operating frequency, but limited frequency is actually something AMD wants. Both RX 5600 XT and RX 5700 have the same shader count as the difference is only in frequency and memory bus/capacity. A heavily overclocked RX 5600 XT could thus match or even beat the more expensive RX 5700, cannibalizing the latter. That's why AMD was happy with such low voltages, which also improves performance per watt. While the new BIOS update does cost some efficiency, the MSI Gaming with its powerful VRM still aces that test and delivers performance per watt that beats all NVIDIA RTX Turing cards—only GTX 1650 and GTX 1660 Ti are a bit more efficient. Another big surprise: AMD can match NVIDIA Turing's power efficiency! People who are upgrading from an older graphics card won't have to worry about upgrading their power supply, too, which would incur additional expenses.

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, then 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 raytracing support. NVIDIA's RTX 2060 supports hardware accelerated raytracing, but 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 raytracing, which will further push game developers to embrace the new technology. Still, I would say raytracing isn't the most important capability to have in this market segment right now. On the other hand, the RTX 2060 is barely more expensive than the RX 5600 XT, and it has that unique selling point, making this a close call.

MSI's RX 5600 XT Gaming X is currently listed online for $330, which is simply too high, especially if you look at a card like the Sapphire Pulse, which retails at $290, is 5% faster, and quieter, too. Its temperatures are higher because it uses a smaller cooler, but the temperature difference wouldn't be worth $40 to me. It's also confirmed now that the BIOS update to the Gaming X won't increase its memory speed to 1750 MHz, which also affects viability of the product. Of course, it is possible to grab a Gaming Z BIOS and flash that onto the Gaming X, but you don't have a guarantee that the memory will be stable.

The Gaming Z, on the other hand, gives you guaranteed highest clocks—but these are no higher than for the ASUS STRIX TOP, or even the Sapphire Pulse. Just like the ASUS card, pricing is simply too high, something closer to $320 would be more realistic and would ensure the card can compete with the RTX 2060. One advantage of the Gaming Z is that all retail cards will already come with the correct BIOS installed, which makes things easier for less experienced users.