SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5700XT – Navi Heartbeat Elevated

Overclocking Results

Overclocking the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5700XT resulted in a bit better core frequency that I expected without the need to dabble with the Soft Power Play Tables mod that has been getting used lately to really push the Navi core.  The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5700XT has a 7+1+2 Phase Power Delivery allowed me to push the GPU core to a stable target of 2050MHz, I shot for 2150MHz and 2100MHz but did neither were fully stable outside of synthetics.  The Memory was unstable at anything over stock, while that could improve with future driver releases but I wouldn't count on it.  While looking over the results for overclocking it may seem like it's something favorable to do, the added noise (which I can't accurately test) of the fans hitting up to 94% put the card in uncomfortably loud territory for very little benefit over stock.

Firestrike Extreme

Firestrike is running the DX11 API and is still a good measure of GPU scaling performance, in this test we ran the Extreme version of Firestrike which runs at 1440p and we recorded the Graphics Score only as the Physics and combined are not pertinent to this review.

Time Spy

Time Spy is running the DX12 API and we used it in the same manner as Firestrike Extreme where we only recorded the Graphics Score as the Physics score is recording the CPU performance and isn't important to the testing we are doing here.

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.

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 Ultra preset with the High Defenition Texture Pack as well and gather our results from the built-in benchmarking tool.

The Division 2

The Division 2 returns with the Snowdrop Engine refined and tuned for DX12 and the performance of DX12 vs DX11 is proof positive of this.  We run the game at the Ultra Preset and use the built-in benchmarking tool for measuring.

Thermals

Thermals were measured from our open test bench after running the Time Spy graphics test 2 on loop for 30 minutes recording the highest temperatures reported. The room was climate controlled and kept at a constant 22c throughout the testing. The default fan curve for the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5700XT was much more favorable than in the past where the sound level was prioritized, this time the target is thermals and allows the card to ramp up the fan to maintain the stock 73C thermal target.  The catch there was once overclocked the fans would need to ramp to 94% to maintain a similar thermal margin for very little gains in performance.

Power Draw

Power draw numbers were taken from the total system power draw by measuring with a Kill-A-Watt. We ran Unigine Valley for 30 minutes and observed the highest sustained load. Something to keep in mind when observing total system power draw is that there are times where a GPU simply being faster and requiring more from the CPU can cause the total system power draw to increase with the like of the Core i9-9900K. That said, the total system power draw is still important as it is how much power it is taking to run the system.

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9

WCCFTECH RATING

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5700XT improves in every way over the reference design in thermal and acoustic performance to the point it renders the reference design as an afterthought.

Pros

• Much cooler than the reference model
• Much quieter than the reference model
• Dual bios
• Quick Connect fans
• PCI-e Gen 4.0
• Subtle RGB
• Priced well

Cons

• Low overclocking returns
• No dedicated hardware for Ray Tracing
• Performs inline with reference model frame rates

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