Gigabyte RX 5600 XT Gaming OC 6G Review

1. Introduction2. Gigabyte RX 5600 XT Gaming OC3. Testing Methodology4. 3DMark Fire Strike & Time Spy (1080p, 1440p, 4K)5. Battlefield V (1080p, 1440p, 4K)6. The Division 2 (1080p, 1440p, 4K)7. F1 2019 (1080p, 1440p, 4K)8. Far Cry New Dawn (1080p, 1440p, 4K)9. Gears 5 (1080p, 1440p, 4K)10. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (1080p, 1440p, 4K)11. Metro Exodus (1080p, 1440p, 4K)12. Middle Earth: Shadow of War (1080p, 1440p, 4K)13. Red Dead Redemption 2 (1080p, 1440p, 4K)14. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p, 1440p, 4K)15. Total War: Three Kingdoms (1080p, 1440p, 4K)16. Clock Speed17. Temperatures18. Acoustics19. Power Consumption20. Overclocking: Frequency and Games21. Closing Thoughts22. View All Pages

AMD's latest GPU, the RX 5600 XT, launched last week amid some controversy about the GPU's specs and BIOS updates. Today we are looking at another partner card, this time from Gigabyte. Their RX 5600 XT Gaming OC 6G is another card which has received a significant BIOS update, boosting both memory and GPU clock speeds, to enable significantly better performance when compared to stock specifications. Priced at £289.99 for this model, is it a card you should buy?

We've already been over the whole ‘BIOS situation' in our launch-day review of the RX 5600 XT, and while many of the points raised are still valid, we won't re-tread old ground in this review. Instead, we will be focusing on the Gigabyte RX 5600 XT Gaming OC card itself, looking at its performance relative to the Sapphire Pulse 5600 XT, as well as the RTX 2060 and RX 5700. We also take the card apart and test its cooling abilities.

	RX 5600 XT	RX 5700	RX 5700 XT	RX Vega 56	RX Vega 64
Architecture	Navi	Navi	Navi	Vega 10	Vega 10
Manufacturing Process	7nm	7nm	7nm	14nm	14nm
Transistor Count	10.3 billion	10.3 billion	10.3 billion	12.5 billion	12.5 billion
Die Size	251mm²	251mm²	251mm²	486mm²	495mm²
Compute Units	36	36	40	56	64
Stream Processors	2304	2304	2560	3584	4096
Base GPU Clock	n/a	Up to 1465MHz	Up to 1605MHz	1156 MHz	1274 MHz
Game GPU Clock	1375MHz	Up to 1625MHz	Up to 1755MHz	n/a	n/a
Boost GPU Clock	Up to 1560MHz	Up to 1725MHz	Up to 1905MHz	1471 MHz	1546 MHz
Peak Engine Clock	n/a	n/a	n/a	1590 MHz	1630 MHz
Peak SP Performance	Up to 7.19 TFLOPS	Up to 7.95 TFLOPS	Up to 9.75 TFLOPS	Up to 10.5 TFLOPS	Up to 12.7 TFLOPS
Peak Half Precision Performance	Up to 14.4 TFLOPS	Up to 15.9 TFLOPS	Up to 19.5 TFLOPS	Up to 21.0 TFLOPS	Up to 25.3 TFLOPS
Peak Texture Fill-Rate	Up to 224.6 GT/s	Up to 248.4 GT/s	Up to 304.8 GT/s	Up to 330.0 GT/s	Up to 395.8 GT/s
ROPs	64	64	64	64	64
Peak Pixel Fill-Rate	Up to 99.8 GP/s	Up to 110.4 GP/s	Up to 121.9 GP/s	Up to 94.0 GP/s	Up to 98.9 GP/s
Memory	6GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6	8GB GDDR6	8GB HBM	8GB HBM
Memory Bandwidth	288 GB/s	448 GB/s	448 GB/s	410 GB/s	483.8 GB/s
Memory Interface	192-bit	256-bit	256-bit	2048-bit	2048-bit
Board Power	150W	185W	225W	210W	295W

Original BIOS spec, left, compared with updated BIOS spec, right.

As with almost any RX 5600 XT that was available for the January 21st launch date, my Gigabyte Gaming OC shipped with the ‘old' BIOS, meaning the card ran at reference spec with a 150W power target, 1620MHz boost clock and 12Gbps memory. Gigabyte has released a public BIOS update to its website, updating the power limit to 180W, with boost clocks up to 1750MHz and memory now running at 14Gbps.

Those are the exact same values that were applied to the Sapphire Pulse model after it received its own BIOS update, so I wonder if these are the maximum values AMD's partners can now spec their cards to. At the very least, every other partner card I have seen online now has the same specifications (once the BIOS update has been applied, that is) so we can expect gaming performance to be very similar.

The Gigabyte RX 5600 XT Gaming OC 6G ships in a black box, with Gigabyte's large robotic eye logo dominating the front.

Inside, the only included accessory is a small quick start guide.

As for the card itself, we've reviewed a number of Nvidia-based cards from Gigabyte over the last year and the same overall design is used here – meaning the card is a relatively plain model, with a black plastic shroud complemented by some grey accents.

Gigabyte is also using its Windforce 3X cooler, with three 80mm fans. As we've seen previously, the middle fan spins in reverse relative to the outer fans, which Gigabyte says reduces any turbulence and enhances ‘the airflow pressure.'

In terms of the overall size of the card, too, it's not huge by modern standards, measuring 279.85 x 114.35 x 49.55 mm. It may cause issues for some extra-small ITX chassis due its length and the fact it is slightly thicker than a standard dual-slot card, but most users should have no issues here.

The front side of the card is home to a small grey section, with the Gigabyte logo barely visible with that piece of the shroud. This is the only RGB zone on the card, controllable via Gigabyte's Aorus Engine software.

As for the backplate, this is a full-length design with no cut-outs whatsoever. It is made of aluminium, too, so it is reassuringly sturdy, and apart from the Gigabyte logo in the middle it is otherwise left bare.

Elsewhere, we can see this Gigabyte card requires just a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, while video outputs consist of 3x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI.

Removing seven screws gets us access to the PCB, and we can see Gigabyte has opted for a 5-phase VRM for the GPU, while the memory is served by a single phase. The empty spaces left on the PCB suggest this is the same board design Gigabyte used for its 5700-series of cards.

We can also get a look at the memory, these are ‘D9WCW' modules from Micron, specified at 14Gbps. Before the BIOS update, memory speed was set at 12Gbps, but the update has adjusted this to 14Gbps for this card.

Finally, as for the cooler, this is comprised of three fin stacks, connected by a total of 5x 6mm copper heatpipes. These pipes make direct contact with the GPU die, while there is a separate plate for the VRAM and another for the VRM as well.

Our newest GPU test procedure has been built with the intention of benchmarking high-end graphics cards. We test at 1920×1080 (1080p), 2560×1440 (1440p), and 3840×2160 (4K UHD) resolutions.

We try to test using the DX12 API if titles offer support. This gives us an interpretation into the graphics card performance hierarchy in the present time and the near future, when DX12 becomes more prevalent. After all, graphics cards of this expense may stay in a gamer’s system for a number of product generations/years before being upgraded.

Driver Notes

• All AMD graphics cards (except RX 5600 XT) were benchmarked with the Adrenalin 20.1.1 public driver.
• RX 5600 XT graphics cards were benchmarked with the Adrenalin 20.1.1 driver supplied to press.
• All Nvidia graphics cards were benchmarked with the Nvidia 441.87 public driver.

Test System

We test using the Overclockers UK Germanium pre-built system, though it has been re-housed into an open-air test bench. You can read more about it over HERE.

CPU	Intel Core i7-8700K Overclocked to 5.0GHz
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming
Memory	Team Group Dark Hawk RGB 16GB (2x8GB) @ 3200MHz 16-18-18-38
Graphics Card	Varies
System Drive	Samsung 960 EVO 500GB
Games Drive	Crucial M4 512GB
Chassis	Streacom ST-BC1 Bench
CPU Cooler	OCUK TechLabs 240mm AIO
Power Supply	Corsair AX1500i 80+ Titanium PSU
Operating System	Windows 10 1903

Comparison Graphics Cards List

• Nvidia RTX 2060 SUPER Founders Edition (FE) 8GB
• Nvidia RTX 2060 Founders Edition (FE) 6GB
• Gigabyte GTX 1660 Ti Gaming OC 6G
• EVGA GTX 1660 SUPER SC Ultra 6GB
• Palit GTX 1650 SUPER StormX OC 4GB
• Nvidia GTX 1060 Founders Edition (FE) 6GB
• Sapphire RX 5600 XT Pulse 6GB
• Sapphire RX 5500 XT Pulse 4GB
• ASRock RX 5500 XT Challenger OC Edition 8GB
• AMD RX 5700 8GB
• AMD RX Vega 56 8GB
• Sapphire RX 590 Nitro+ SE 8GB

Software and Games List

• 3DMark Fire Strike & Fire Strike Ultra (DX11 Synthetic)
• 3DMark Time Spy (DX12 Synthetic)
• Battlefield V (DX12)
• The Division 2 (DX11)
• F1 2019 (DX12)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Gears 5 (DX12)
• Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (DX11)
• Metro: Exodus (DX12)
• Middle Earth: Shadow of War (DX11)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Total War: Three Kingdoms (DX11)

We run each benchmark/game three times, and present averages in our graphs.

3DMark Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our [FutureMark’s] most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

 

3DMark scores are an absolute wash when comparing the Gigabyte 5600 XT to the Sapphire Pulse 5600 XT, the slight difference in score between the two doesn't even amount to a single percentage point.

Battlefield V is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. Battlefield V is the sixteenth instalment in the Battlefield series. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 20, 2018. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra preset, DX12 API.

Our first game of the day is Battlefield V, a title where AMD typically does well. At 1080p, the Gigabyte 5600 XT comes in 5% faster than the RTX 2060, but 6% behind the 2060 Super. Meanwhile, the difference between the two 5600 XT cards is less than a single frame.

At 1440p, nothing changes – the card is still 5% faster than the 2060, 6% slower than the 2060 Super, and almost identical to the Sapphire Pulse 5600 XT.

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 is an online action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. The sequel to Tom Clancy's The Division (2016), it is set in a near-future Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of a smallpox pandemic, and follows an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division as they try to rebuild the city. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra preset, but with V-Sync disabled, DX11 API.

When testing The Division 2 at 1080p, we can see another 5% lead for the Gigabyte 5600 XT over the RTX 2060, and compared to the 2060 Super this Gigabyte card is 7% slower. Performance of both 5600 XT cards is essentially identical.

At 1440p, the RTX 2060 claws back some lost ground, but the Gaming OC is still 4% faster. 0.1FPS is all that separate the Gaming OC and the Pulse.

F1 2019 is a racing video game based on the 2019 Formula One and Formula 2 Championships. The game is developed and published by Codemasters and is the twelfth title in the Formula One series developed by the studio. The game was announced by Codemasters on 28 March 2019. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra High preset, with TAA and 16x Anisotropic Filtering, DX12 API.

F1 2019 shows a healthy 7% performance lead for the Gigabyte 5600 XT over the RTX 2060 at 1080p, and this stretches to 10% at 1440p. Interestingly, the 2% performance difference between the Gaming OC and the Pulse 5600 XTs is the biggest gap between the two cards we will see today.

At 1440p, too, the Gigabyte card is just 3% behind the 2060 Super, so this really is one of the best-case scenarios for the 5600 XT.

Far Cry New Dawn is an action-adventure first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game is a spin-off of the Far Cry series and a narrative sequel to Far Cry 5. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 15, 2019. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra preset, with the  HD Textures pack, DX11 API.

Far Cry New Dawn shows similar performance patterns to F1 2019. At 1080p, the Gigabyte Gaming OC is 7% faster than the RTX 2060, and only 3% behind the 2060 Super. Bumping the resolution to 1440p sees the card hold a 10% performance advantage over the RTX 2060, but it is still 3% behind the 2060 Super.

Gears 5 is a third-person shooter video game developed by The Coalition and published by Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. It is the sixth instalment of the Gears of War series, and is the second Gears of War game not to be developed by Epic Games.

We test using the Ultra preset, with Best Animation Quality (instead of Auto), DX12 API.

Gears 5 is an AMD title and at 1080p we see a 12% performance advantage for the Gigabyte Gaming OC versus the RTX 2060. This puts performance of the 5600 XT on par with that of the 2060 Super.

At 1440p the RTX 2060 does gain some ground on the 5600 XT, but the Gigabyte card is still 9% faster. Relative to the 2060 Super, however, the 5600 XT is 3% slower at this resolution.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is an online tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. The game was released worldwide on 4 October 2019, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, (Wikipedia).

We test using the Very High preset, with AA disabled, DX11 API.

So far we've seen quite a few positive results for the 5600 XT, but Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a bit tougher for this card. At 1080p, the Gaming OC is 2% faster than the RTX 2060, but this slips to a 6% performance deficit at 1440p. The 2060 Super is also 16% faster at 1440p.

Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver in 2019. It is the third instalment in the Metro video game series based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels, following the events of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra preset, but with Hairworks and Advanced PhysX turned off, DX12 API.

Metro Exodus swings things back the other way, with an impressive 11% performance advantage for the Gigabyte 5600 XT compared to the RTX 2060 when testing at 1080p. Once more, the overall difference between the Gaming OC and the Pulse is less than a single frame at every resolution tested.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an action role-playing video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the sequel to 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Very High preset, DX11 API.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War definitely favours Nvidia graphics cards, and here we can see the RTX 2060 outperforming the 5600 XT Gaming OC at every resolution. The gap is only 2% at 1080p, but stretches to 5% at 1440p. Compared to the 2060 Super, the 5600 XT is 14% slower at 1080p, and 17% slower at 1440p.Red Dead Redemption 2 is a 2018 action-adventure game developed and published by Rockstar Games. The game is the third entry in the Red Dead series and is a prequel to the 2010 game Red Dead Redemption. Red Dead Redemption 2 was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2018, and for Microsoft Windows and Stadia in November 2019. (Wikipedia).

 

Moving onto Red Dead Redemption 2, using High settings at 1080p, we can see the Gigabyte RX 5600 XT outperforming the RTX 2060 by 7%, while it is just 4% slower than the 2060 Super. The difference between the two 5600 XT cards is just 0.7FPS at this resolution.

At 1440p, the Gigabyte card stretches it lead over the RTX 2060 to 9%, while it is also just 3% slower than the 2060 Super. Once more, there is no meaningful difference between the Gaming OC and Pulse 5600 XT models.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2013 game Tomb Raider and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series. The game released worldwide on 14 September 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Highest preset, with AA disabled, DX12 API.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider once more has the 5600 XT slower than the RTX 2060 at every resolution tested – only by 1% at 1080p, but this moves to 4% as we increase the resolution to 1440p. The 5600 XT is also 14% and 17% slower than the 2060 Super, at 1080p and 1440p respectively.

Total War: Three Kingdoms is a turn-based strategy real-time tactics video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. As the 12th mainline entry (the 13th entry) in the Total War series, the game was released for Microsoft Windows on May 23, 2019.

We test using the Ultra preset, DX11 API.

Our last game of the day, Total War: Three Kingdoms sees this Gaming OC 5600 XT come in 6% slower than the RTX 2060 at both 1080p and 1440p. The performance gap between the Pulse and the Gaming OC is 0.4FPS at most, at that was at 1440p.

Here we present the average clock speed for each graphics card while running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes. We use GPU-Z to record the GPU core frequency during the Time Spy runs. We calculate the average core frequency during the 30 minute run to present here.

Throughout all of the games we tested today, we saw virtually no difference between the performance of this Gigabyte Gaming OC 5600 XT, and Sapphire RX 5600 XT Pulse. Our clock speed testing confirms why that is, as there is just a 9MHz speed gap separating these two cards based on our 30-minute stress test.

For our temperature testing, we measure the peak GPU core temperature under load. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes.

In terms of the thermal performance of the card, two main things stand out to me. First is the low GPU edge temperature of just 67C for the Gigabyte Gaming OC, which makes it 7C cooler than the Pulse in terms of GPU edge temperature. Clearly having a total of 5 heatpipes, versus 3 with the Pulse, directly contacting the GPU helps matters.

The second point, though, is the warmer memory temperature, with a peak figure of 82C coming in 8C hotter than the Sapphire Pulse. While this is still well within spec, it does suggest Gigabyte's memory cooling isn't up to the same standard as the Sapphire Pulse.

Still, overall performance is good, and that is reflected in the thermal images – hot spots didn't exceed 63C on either the front side or back of the card, so there is nothing to worry about here.

We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the noise floor to be 32 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes.

As for noise levels, the Gaming OC is another very quiet card to come from Gigabyte, registering less than 39 decibels on our sound meter when under load. This was with the fans spinning at 31%, or around 1320rpm, so by the time this is installed in a case, it would be almost impossible to actually hear the card.

We measure system-wide power draw from the wall while running the 3DMark Time Spy stress test for 30 minutes.

We also look at total system power draw, and once more there is really nothing between our two 5600 XT cards, with our meter reading around the 255W mark for both cards. That means power draw is essentially the same as the 2060 Super from Nvidia, but still significantly less than the older Vega 56.

Manually overclocking the 5600 XT is very easy, simply because of the frequency limits within AMD's software. In a nutshell, we could maximise both the GPU and memory frequency sliders with no issues, while also raising the power limit to its maximum for good measure.

Average clock speed under load

This saw the card's average frequency under load increase by just under 40MHz, so no great shakes there.

Games

As you might expect, we didn't see big gains from applying this overclock – the performance boost was just 3% in F1 2019, for instance. Metro Exodus saw average FPS increase by 4%, while the 5% performance boost in Gears 5 was the biggest increase across our overclocked testing today.

A little over a week has passed since AMD launched the RX 5600 XT, and today we are back with a review of Gigabyte's RX 5600 XT Gaming OC 6G model. As the company's flagship 5600 XT card (at least until an Aorus model is released), this Gaming OC has received a new BIOS updating the memory to 14Gbps, with a maximum GPU boost frequency of 1750MHz.

Those are also the exact same speeds which Sapphire's RX 5600 XT Pulse operated at once it has has received its own BIOS update, so it will not come as much of a surprise to learn that overall performance is almost identical between the two cards. In fact, the average performance difference between the two cards is actually 0%, with many games showing less than a single FPS difference between the two.

That means all of our performance conclusions from our launch day review hold true here. Compared to RTX 2060 Founders Edition, the Gigabyte 5600 XT is 4% faster on average, but RTX 2060 Super is itself 11% faster than the Gaming OC. Compared to the RX 5700, too, that GPU is only 7% faster than the 5600 XT, which is not a lot considering the 25% price premium of the 5700 (in terms of launch MSRPs).

Overall, the 5600 XT with its BIOS update is a good card for high refresh-rate 1080p gaming, and also some 1440p gaming too. You won't always hit 60FPS at that resolution, but with a few tweaks to the image quality settings this is a great entry-level 1440p card.

The Gaming OC also performs well in terms of its temperature and acoustic testing. We saw a peak edge temperature of just 67C during our stress test, which is a 7C reduction compared to the Sapphire Pulse. However, the memory also ran hotter with this Gigabyte card, peaking at 82C. This is still well within spec so it's not like overall performance or stability is affected by this temperature, but Sapphire's memory did run 8C cooler.

Noise levels are very impressive, with total output peaking at less than 39dB on our sound meter. This was with the fans spinning at just 31%, so you'd be hard pressed to actually hear this card operate once it's installed in your case.

The main downside for the Gaming OC is its price. Set to cost £289.99 here in the UK, not only is this more than the Sapphire Pulse which is currently £259.99, it is also £30 more than some RTX 2060 models. While RTX 2060 is the slightly slower card on average, you don't have to contend with any BIOS shenanigans – I confirmed with Gigabyte that the first wave of 5600 XT Gaming OCs to land in the UK will need end-users to update the BIOS – and RTX 2060 also offers entry to the world of RTX ray tracing, so that could be a factor for some.

Overall, the conclusion is therefore quite simple – if you can find the Gigabyte RX 5600 XT Gaming OC on sale, it is a good card and a good buy. At the current price point of £289.99, it is hard to justify the extra expense when compared to other 5600 XTs like the Sapphire Pulse, and also when compared to cheap RTX 2060s.

We don't yet have a buy link for this card, but the UK MSRP has been confirmed at £289.99.

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Pros

• GPU runs cool.
• Very quiet under load.
• Faster than RTX 2060.
• Improved efficiency compared to previous AMD GPUs, like Vega 56.

Cons

• More expensive than Sapphire Pulse 5600 XT, and other RTX 2060s.
• Memory runs hotter than the Pulse.
• RTX 2060 offers ray tracing.
• End-users may have to update the BIOS themselves.

KitGuru says: The Gigabyte RX 5600 XT Gaming OC is an objectively good card, however it would be more competitive with a £20-30 price cut.

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