System News
AMD botched the 5600 XT launch and Mark Williams wants to make sure you know how to navigate it.
At CES in January, AMD announced the next product in the RX 5000 series – the RX 5600 XT. Targeted to beat the GTX 1660 Ti, AMD hit its mark well, showing better performance at the same price point.
Unfortunately for AMD, Nvidia was watching and with a few weeks to go before the 5600 XT actually hit shelves, Nvidia pulled a price shuffle while AMD wasn’t looking, resulting in the GTX 1660 Ti reducing a fraction in price but also substantially reducing the RTX 2060’s price, bringing it into price competition with the just-announced 5600 XT.
This put AMD in a tough place; it made the 5600 XT look pricey for its performance relative to the GTX 1660Ti and nowhere near as good as the only slightly more expensive (now discounted) RTX 2060.
The RX 5600 XT was shaping up to have a rather dull launch, set to debut in a no man’s land in the GPU market, but AMD didn’t give up. The day before the 5600 XT launched, AMD issued a VBIOS update that changed GPU boost clocks from as low as 1560MHz all the way up to 1750MHz, as well as increasing the memory speeds from 12Gbps up to 14Gbps and subsequently the TDP up 10W to 160W.
This last-minute play from AMD transformed the RX 5600 XT into quite the exiting product on launch, as the new VBIOS boosted the 5600 XT on average up to on par performance with the RTX 2060! All the while remaining cheaper by up to $50. Well played, AMD.
Unfortunately, AMD’s last minute VBIOS change also meant that all the cards that had been produced for the launch had shipped with the original VBIOS and it was too late for card makers to pull products back before they hit shelves to update them. As a result, the RX 5600 XT market is a bit of a mine field as to what performance you’ll get out of the box and even afterwards.
Non-OC cards will generally be stuck with the original slower 1560MHz boost clocks forever and they won’t be getting a VBIOS update, like the MSI Mech (non-OC). Factory OC cards, like the Powercolor Red Dragon and Sapphire Pulse which have out of the box boost clocks of 1620MHz can get the new AMD VBIOS and unlock maximum boost clocks of 1750MHz along with the 14Gbps memory speeds, giving these cards an extra 13% performance for free!
Confusingly, not all 5600 XT OC cards are equal. Many like the MSI Gaming X and Asus ROG Strix cards weren’t built with 14Gbps capable memory onboard, meaning if they do get a VBIOS update it’ll only affect core clocks, not the much more important memory clocks. In the case of those two cards, new versions in the form of the MSI Gaming Z and Asus ROG Strix Top will replace them and come with 14Gbps memory onboard.
With pricing being so tight across the range of 5600 XT cards, if you’re considering buying one be sure to do your research and check if there is VBIOS updates available or that it comes pre-flashed with the new clocks.
If you already own a 5600 XT, be sure to check out your manufactures support page for a new VBIOS to apply as you might be able to unlock a big chunk of extra performance.