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SAPPHIRE Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT OC Review – 14Gbps Memory Without The Hassle

Keith May

1080P Gaming Performance

Forza Horizon 4

Forza Horizon 4 carries on the open-world racing tradition of the Horizon series.  The latest DX12 powered entry is beautifully crafted and amazingly well executed and is a great showcase of DX12 games.  We use the benchmark run while having all of the settings set to non-dynamic with an uncapped framerate to gather these results.

Related Story PowerColor Releases A Mini-ITX Friendly, Radeon RX 5600 XT ITX, Graphics Card For $299 US
Forza Horizon 4 1080p Ultra
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
RX 5600 XT
129
108
RX 5700
132
109
RTX 2060
127
108
RX Vega 64
136
117
GTX 1080
119
97
RX Vega 56
120
102
GTX 1070
102
84
RX 580 8GB
87
74
GTX 1060 6GB
82
69

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider, unlike its predecessor, does a good job putting DX12 to use and results in higher performance than the DX11 counterpart in this title and because of that, we test this title in DX12.  I do use the second segment of the benchmark run to gather these numbers as it is more indicative of in-game scenarios where the foliage is heavy.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider 1080p DX12 Highest
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
RX 5600 XT
101
93
RX 5700
111
95
RTX 2060
98
89
RX Vega 64
99
89
GTX 1080
97
85
RX Vega 56
85
76
GTX 1070
80
71
RX 580 8GB
66
60
GTX 1060 6GB
59
53

Rainbow 6 Siege

Rainbow 6 Siege has maintained a massive following since its launch and it consistently in Steams Top Ten highest player count game.  In a title where the higher the framerate the better in a tactical yet fast-paced competitive landscape is essential, we include this title despite its ludicrously high framerates.  We use the Vulkan Ultra preset with the High Defenition Texture Pack as well and gather our results from the built-in benchmarking tool.

Rainbow 6 Siege 1080p Vulkan Ultra
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
RX 5600 XT
261
208
RX 5700
278
219
RTX 2060
234
201
RX Vega 64
268
210
GTX 1080
207
169
RX Vega 56
227
176
GTX 1070
172
139
RX 580 8GB
171
136
GTX 1060 6GB
127
103

Far Cry New Dawn

Far Cry New Dawn brings the DX11 powered Dunia 2 engine back for another beating in Hope County.  We test this game using the Ultra Preset and follow the built-in benchmarking tool for consistency's sake.

Far Cry New Dawn 1080p High
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
RX 5600 XT
113
89
RX 5700
118
90
RTX 2060
108
86
RX Vega 64
115
91
GTX 1080
109
86
RX Vega 56
101
78
GTX 1070
93
74
RX 580 8GB
72
56
GTX 1060 6GB
70
55

Gears Tactics

Gears Tactics is the latest in the Gears franchise and takes things in a completely different direction with the gameplay design. It is built on a DX12 based Unreal Engine 4 build. We used the Maximum settings allowed but refrained from enabling Variable Rate Shading as all cards ar not capable of supporting this feature.

Gears Tactics 1080p Maximum
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
RX 5600 XT
89
81
RX 5700
92
85
RTX 2060
82
72
RX Vega 64
87
76
GTX 1080
81
66
RX Vega 56
79
71
GTX 1070
72
58
RX 580 8GB
52
48
GTX 1060 6GB
52
47

Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is powered by the latest iteration of the Anvil Next 2.0 game engine. This is the same engine that was used in Assassin's Creed Odyssey but in Breakpoint has been updated to support the Vulkan API. We performed our tests using the High Preset with the Vulkan API.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint 1080p Vulkan High
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
RX 5600 XT
108
84
RX 5700
117
89
RTX 2060
108
84
RX Vega 64
108
82
GTX 1080
104
81
RX Vega 56
91
71
GTX 1070
86
67
RX 580 8GB
68
53
GTX 1060 6GB
66
51

Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019)

Call of Duty Modern Warfare is back and this time on a new engine running DX12 to allow for some sick DXR Ray Traced Shadows, but we're not testing that here since this card isn't designed for that level of rendering. We tested in the 'Fog of War' mission where we tested our RT performance run. At 1080p we set the settings all to High.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1080p Highest
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
RX 5600 XT
123
105
RX 5700
132
106
RTX 2060
117
98
RX Vega 64
115
95
GTX 1080
113
95
RX Vega 56
107
89
GTX 1070
93
80
RX 580 8GB
83
72
GTX 1060 6GB
66
58

Resident Evil 3

The Resident Evil 3 Remake has surpassed the RE2 Remake in visuals and is the latest use of the RE Engine.  While it does have DX12 support the DX11 implementation is far superior and because of that, we will be sticking to DX11 for this title.  We use the cutscene where Jill and Carlos enter the subway car for the first time and a 2 minute capture at that point.

Resident Evil 3 1080p DX11 Maximum
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
RX 5600 XT
115
93
RX 5700
123
100
RTX 2060
108
84
RX Vega 64
112
91
GTX 1080
105
82
RX Vega 56
105
86
GTX 1070
86
68
RX 580 8GB
76
62
GTX 1060 6GB
62
49

Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 has made its way into the test lineup thanks to strong demand by gamers and simply delivering MORE Borderlands. This game is rather intensive after the Medium preset but since we're testing the 'Ultimate 1080p' card, High it is. We tested using the built-in benchmark utility

Borderlands 3 1080p High
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
RX 5600 XT
82
69
RX 5700
87
72
RTX 2060
83
68
RX Vega 64
82
66
GTX 1080
87
69
RX Vega 56
69
56
GTX 1070
67
58
RX 580 8GB
51
41
GTX 1060 6GB
52
42

Total War Three Kingdoms

Total War Three Kingdoms is powered by their TW Engine 3 (Total War Engine 3) and in this iteration, they have stuck to a strictly DX11 release. We tested the game using the built-in benchmark using the Dynasty model that represents a battle with many soldiers interacting at once and is more representative of normal gameplay.

Total War
AVG FPS
99th Percentile
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
RX 5600 XT
73
66
RX 5700
80
73
RTX 2060
80
67
RX Vega 64
76
69
GTX 1080
79
72
RX Vega 56
62
57
GTX 1070
67
58
RX 580 8GB
44
40
GTX 1060 6GB
48
43

You can find additional information about our hardware review process and ethics policy here.

For those wanting to lay down the most frames for the dollar at this price point will do well to consider the SAPPHIRE Pulse RX 5600 XT OC model, especially those still on the RX 480/580 and GTX 1060.

    Pros
  • No BIOS updates required
  • 14 Gbps memory out of the box
  • Only $10 US Premium over RX 5600 XT MSRP ($289.99 US)
  • Huge performance uplift versus Polaris cards
  • Excellent Performance Per Watt
  • Spectacular thermal performance
  • Great factory overclock out of the box
  • Aluminum metal backplate
  • PCI-e Gen 4.0 Support
    Cons
  • Not fully DX12 Ultimate compliant
  • Limited additional OC potential
  • No dedicated hardware for Ray Tracing
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