The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT is one of the first Radeon RX 5600 XT cards to ship, and a highly-overclocked one at that too!

Here is our in-depth review of the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT graphics card, including noise and performance comparison of its two BIOS modes!

Find out why we gave it our Reviewer’s Choice Award!

 

AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT : A Quick Primer!

The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT uses the same Navi GPU as the Radeon RX 5700, with 10.3 billion transistors fabricated on the 7 nm process

The Radeon RX 5600 XT is essentially a Radeon RX 5700 with a 192-bit memory bus, instead of a 256-bit memory bus.

It launched with a TGP of 150 watts, 6 GB of GDDR6 memory, and have a PCI Express 4.0 x16 interface. But less than a week before it was made available for sale, AMD gave it a big boost in these respects :

• Up to 20.7% higher game clock
• Up to 12% higher boost clock
• Up to 16.7% higher memory clock
• Up to 10W higher TGP

All that makes the Radeon RX 5600 XT quite a different beast from what was initially announced, and better positions it against the discounted NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 cards.

Recommended : AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT | RX 5600 : A Quick Primer!

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Price + Availability

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT is available for sale, starting 21 January 2020.

Here are some online purchase options (prices accurate as of 31 January 2020) :

• Malaysia : RM 1,358 | RM 1,358
• Singapore : S$425 | S$440 | S$474.66
• United States : $289.99
• United Kingdom : £277.20
• Australia : A$595.30

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 5600 XT

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) is not only one of the first Radeon RX 5600 XT cards to hit the market, it is a highly-overclocked variant.

But don’t expect fancy packaging. It comes in a simple cardboard retail box, which contains only the card and nothing else.

It boasts a large heat pipe cooler with two 95 mm fans with dual-ball bearings, and Dual BIOS capability – allowing you to easily switch between two performance modes.

The fans are designed to run quiet, only spinning up when the card gets hot. In fact, unless you are gaming, the fans will remained turned off.

Even when you game though, Sapphire says the fans will stay below 25 dBA – almost completely silent! Our tests show the fans spinning at a maximum speed of just above 1,200 RPM.

We like the horizontal heatsink design, which lets the hot air exhaust out the back of the case through the vents above the four display ports.

And case modders will love its solid aluminium backplate, which also functions as a secondary heatsink for the GPU.

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SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Hand On Experience!

In this 2.5 minute video, we will give you a hands-on tour of the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) graphics card, and a quick overview of its key features :

• performance power-up
• Dual BIOS, and the Performance and Silent modes
• fan and cooler, and display outputs
• PCI Express interface

Next Page > SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 Key Features + Noise Comparison!

 

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SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Power-Up!

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) is a factory-overclocked card.

When it was first announced, it boasted a 1560 MHz game clock and a 1620 MHz boost clock – 13.5% and 4% higher than reference specifications.

At the last minute though, Sapphire introduced a power up BIOS update, which gave it a bigger boost in performance :

• 1615 MHz game clock : +3.5% over original, +17.5% over reference
• 1750 MHz boost clock : +8% over original, +12% over reference
• 1750 MHz memory clock : +16.7% over original and reference
• 160 W TGP : 6.7% over original and reference

In this table, we compare the specifications of its two performance modes – 160W and 135W, against the Radeon RX 5700, and the Radeon RX 5600.

Specifications	Radeon RX 5700	SAPPHIRE RX 5600 XT (160W)	SAPPHIRE RX 5600 XT (135W)	Radeon RX 5600
Total Graphics Power	185 W	160 W	135 W	150 W
Stream Processors	2304	2304	2304	2048
Game Clock	1465 MHz	1615 MHz	1560 MHz	1375 MHz
Boost Clock	1725 MHz	1750 MHz	1620 MHz	1560 MHz
TMUs	144	144	144	128
Max. Texture Rate	248.4 GT/s	252.0 GT/s	233.3 GT/s	199.7 GT/s
ROPs	64	64	64	64
Max. Pixel Rate	110.4 GP/s	112.0 GP/s	103.7 GP/s	99.8 GP/s
Memory Size	8 GB	6 GB	6 GB	6 GB
Memory Type	GDDR6	GDDR6	GDDR6	GDDR6
Memory Speed	14 Gbps	14 Gbps	12 Gbps	12 Gbps
Bus Width	256-bit	192-bit	192-bit	192-bit
Bandwidth	448 GB/s	336 GB/s	288 GB/s	288 GB/s
PCIe Interface	PCIe 4.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16

This BIOS update totally changes the Radeon RX 5600 XT, giving it higher texture and pixel fill rates than Radeon RX 5700 at 160W!

The Radeon RX 5700 only beats it in memory size, and memory bandwidth.

Its 135W performance mode is basically its original overclocked specifications at 150W, now with a lower TGP.

Recommended : Yes! AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Gets SUPER Power-Up!

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Dual BIOS

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) has Dual BIOS capability, with a physical BIOS switch hidden in the backplate.

This is a really useful feature, offering the ability to switch between two performance modes, and doubles as a backup BIOS in case of a flash failure.

Here is how the Dual BIOS feature works. To select a performance mode, turn off your PC and use this BIOS switch to select between the default BIOS (right) or the secondary BIOS (left).

SAPPHIRE is offering a new 160W Performance Mode in the Primary BIOS, and a 135W Silent Mode in the Secondary BIOS through a BIOS update.

Specifications	Silent Mode	Performance Mode	Difference
TGP	135 W	160 W	+25 W (18.5%)
Game Clock	1560 MHz	1615 MHz	+ 55 MHz (3.5%)
Boost Clock	1620 MHz	1750 MHz	+ 130 MHz (8%)
Memory Clock	1500 MHz (12 Gbps)	1750 MHz (14 Gbps)	+ 250 MHz (16.7%)

For more details, please see our guide : AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Power Up BIOS Guide!

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Noise Comparison

In this video, we compare the fan noise level and characteristics using the Performance Mode and Silent Mode options.

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SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Power

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) has an updated TGP of 160 watts, after the power-up BIOS upgrade.

Sapphire used an 8-pin power connector, which not only lets them instantly increase the TGP from 150W to 160W, it also gives you more overclocking headroom.

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Display Ports

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) comes with three display ports – three DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and one HDMI port.

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Interface

The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT uses the new PCI Express 4.0 interface, but unlike the Radeon RX 5500 XT, it has 16 lanes instead of just 8 lanes.

This gives it twice the bandwidth of PCI Express 3.0 x16 cards, but only if you pair it with a PCI Express 4.0 motherboard.

Next Page > Benchmarking Notes | Thermal Output | 3DMark Results

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SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Benchmarking Notes

In this review, we will take a look at its gaming performance, in comparison to 6 other graphics cards :

• AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
• AMD Radeon RX 5700
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER
• AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
• AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT

Here is a quick comparison of their key specifications :

	Min. Texture Fill Rate	Min. Pixel Fill Rate	Memory Size + Type	Memory Bandwidth
Radeon RX Vega 64	319.2 GT/s	81.5 GP/s	8 GB HBM2	484 GB/s
Radeon RX 5700 XT	256.8 GT/s	102.7 GP/s	8 GB GDDR6	448 GB/s
Radeon RX 5700	211.0 GT/s	93.8 GP/s	8 GB GDDR6	448 GB/s
GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER	199.9 GT/s	94.1 GP/s	8 GB GDDR6	448 GB/s
Radeon RX 5600 XT (160W)	232.6 GT/s	103.4 GP/s	6 GB GDDR6	336 GB/s
Radeon RX 5600 XT (135W)	224.6 GT/s	99.8 GP/s	6 GB GDDR6	288 GB/s
GeForce RTX 2060	163.8 GT/s	65.5 GP/s	6 GB GDDR5	336 GB/s
PowerColor RX 5500 XT	151.1 GT/s	54.9 GP/s	8 GB GDDR6	224 GB/s

Here are the specifications of the AMD testbed we used.

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero
Memory Speed	G.SKILL Sniper X DDR4-3400 (8 GB x 2) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 (8 GB x 2)
Monitor	Dell P2415Q Ultra HD Monitor
Storage	1TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)
Graphics Drivers	NVIDIA GameReady Driver 441.87 AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.1.1

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT Thermal Output

We recorded the peak exhaust temperatures of those cards, to see how much heat they throw out. Take a look…

Note that these are not the recorded temperatures, but how much hotter the exhaust air is above ambient temperature.

Not surprisingly, the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY)) runs really cool. That’s not a typo – it actually runs cooler with the 160W BIOS, probably because the fan runs faster, or more often.

The 135W BIOS, on the other hand, is tuned to run quieter. So the fan tends to stay off longer.

For those who are really interested in the GPU junction temperature, the card hit 70°C while gaming, with an ambient temperature of 29°C.

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Synthetic Game Test – 3DMark

We used 3DMark’s Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmarks, which offers a great approximation of gaming performance in general.

The Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme benchmarks support DirectX 12, and the latest features like asynchronous compute, and multi-threading support.

Time Spy – 2560 x 1440

In the Time Spy test, the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (135W) was equivalent to the Radeon RX Vega 64.

With the 160W BIOS though, it was 6.4% faster than the Vega 64, and just 6% slower than the Radeon RX 5700.

Let’s see how much of an effect they have on the overall gaming score…

Impressive how the RX 5600 XT using the 135W BIOS is equal to the Vega 64, and 4% faster than the GeForce RTX 2060.

Time Spy Extreme – 3840 x 2160

At the higher 4K resolution, the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY)) was 6% slower than the GeForce RTX 2060 at 135W, but equally fast at 160W.

And here are their overall gaming scores at 4K…

At 135W, it was 5% slower than the RTX 2060, but equal in performance at 160W.

Next Page > F1 2019 + World War Z Benchmark Results

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F1 2019

F1 2019 is a new racing game by Codemasters, released on 28 June 2019.

We tested it on three resolutions at the Ultra High settings :

• 1080p : 1920 x 1080
• 1440p : 2560 x 1440
• 2160p : 3840 x 2160

1080p Gaming Resolution

Very impressive! Whether at 135W or 160W, the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT delivered over 90 fps, beating the Radeon RX 5500 XT by 16.7% and the GeForce RTX 2060 by 23%.

1440p Gaming Resolution

It had no problem handling 1440p. Even at 135W, it was 19% faster than the RTX 2060, and 25% faster than the RX 5500 XT.

2160p Gaming Resolution

Not bad. Even at 4K, it delivered a frame rate in excess of 50 fps.

At 135W, it was 13% faster than the RX 5500 XT, and 24% faster than the RTX 2060.

When boosted to 160W, it was actually equal to the Vega 64, and yes, the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER!

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World War Z

Based on the 2013 movie, World War Z is a relatively new third-person shooter game, released in April 2019.

We tested it on three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the Ultra High settings :

• 1080p : 1920 x 1080
• 1440p : 2560 x 1440
• 2160p : 3840 x 2160

Note : This game is known to be highly optimised for AMD Radeon cards.

1080p Gaming Resolution

Look at that! The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) actually matched the far more expensive GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER.

It was also 40% faster than the RX 5500 XT, and 65% faster than the RTX 2060.

1440p Gaming Resolution

Even at 1440p, it continued to match the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER in performance, and was about 46%~50% faster than the RX 5500 XT and RTX 2060.

2160p Gaming Resolution

Not bad! It was reasonably fast at 4K, still matching the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER in performance. It was now 27.5% faster than the RTX 2060, and a full 50% faster than the RX 5500 XT.

Next Page > Strange Brigade + Division 2 Benchmark Results

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Strange Brigade

Strange Brigade is also a third-person shooter game, released in August 2018.

We tested it on three resolutions using the Vulkan API at the Ultra High settings :

• 1080p : 1920 x 1080
• 1440p : 2560 x 1440
• 2160p : 3840 x 2160

1080p Gaming Resolution

At 135W, it was 16% faster than the RTX 2060, and 38% faster than the RX 5500 XT.

When boosted to 160W, it was just 5% slower than the Vega 64, and just 9% slower than the Radeon RX 5700.

1440p Gaming Resolution

At 135W, it was 11% faster than the RTX 2060, and 38% faster than the RX 5500 XT.

When boosted to 160W, it was now just 2% slower than the Vega 64, and only 9% slower than the Radeon RX 5700.

2160p Gaming Resolution

At 135W, it was now only 6% faster than the RTX 2060, but 43% faster than the RX 5500 XT.

When boosted to 160W, it was now 7% slower than the Vega 64, and 12.5% slower than the Radeon RX 5700.

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The Division 2

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is a new third-person shooter game released in March 2019.

We tested it on three resolutions using the Extreme settings :

• 1080p : 1920 x 1080
• 1440p : 2560 x 1440
• 2160p : 3840 x 2160

1080p Gaming Resolution

Wow… At 160W, the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT was as fast as the Radeon RX 5700 and Vega 64! It was also 40% faster than the RTX 2060, and 49% faster than the RX 5500 XT.

1440p Gaming Resolution

Not bad – it almost achieved an average frame rate of 60 fps at 1440p. That makes it as fast as the Radeon RX 5700 and Vega 64.

It was now 29% faster than the RTX 2060, and 49% faster than the RX 5500 XT.

2160p Gaming Resolution

None of the cards here is fast enough to handle the 4K resolution, but we can see that the RX 5600 XT is almost as fast as the Radeon RX 5700 and Vega 64 at 160W.

Next Page > AoTS Benchmark Results | Our Verdict + Award!

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Ashes of the Singularity

Ashes of the Singularity is a 2016 game that supports multi-core processing and asynchronous compute.

We tested it on three resolutions using the DirectX 12 API at the Extreme settings :

• 1080p : 1920 x 1080
• 1440p : 2560 x 1440
• 2160p : 3840 x 2160

1080p Gaming Resolution

At 1080p, the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT actually matched the RTX 2060 SUPER and Radeon RX 5700 in performance!

1440p Gaming Resolution

It maintained its position between the RTX 2060 SUPER and Radeon RX 5700, even when we kicked the resolution up a notch.

2160p Gaming Resolution

Even at 4K, the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT maintained its performance position between RTX 2060 SUPER and Radeon RX 5700.

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT : Our Verdict + Award

The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) is a gamer’s card. By that, we mean – it has a no-frills focus on what’s important : gaming performance, and absolutely no fluff.

It is a highly-overclocked variant, with a 17.5% faster game clock, 12% faster boost clock and 16.7% faster memory clock – giving it a substantial boost over the Radeon RX 5500 XT.

To keep things cool, it has a large aluminium cooler with four heat pipes, and two large fans. It’s important to note that even though it has excellent cooling performance – the fans are really quiet.

All that overclocking and cooling actually puts the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY) at roughly the same performance level as the Radeon RX 5700, and certainly far ahead of its chief competitor – the GeForce RTX 2060.

Our benchmark results show that the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT is definitely superior to the RTX 2060, and even comes close to the Radeon RX 5700 and yes, even the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, in a number of games.

This is definitely thanks to AMD’s last-minute RX 5600 XT power-up, which is basically gives everyone a free performance boost on day one.

AMD may have intended the Radeon RX 5600 XT to serve as a premium 1080p gaming card, but the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT (US|UK|AU|SG|MY)) is so fast, it will do quite well as a budget 1440p gaming card!

We are so impressed with the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT, we gladly award it our Reviewer’s Choice Award! Great job, SAPPHIRE and AMD!

 

SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT : Where To Buy?

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The SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT is available for sale, starting 21 January 2020.

Here are some online purchase options (prices accurate as of 31 January 2020) :

• Malaysia : RM 1,358 | RM 1,358
• Singapore : S$425 | S$440 | S$474.66
• United States : $289.99
• United Kingdom : £277.20
• Australia : A$595.30

 

Recommended Reading

• AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Power Up BIOS Guide!
• GIGABYTE Radeon RX 5600 XT : Now 180W Strong!
• AMD Clarifies Last-Minute RX 5600 XT Overclocking!
• Yes! AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Gets SUPER Power-Up!
• AMD Radeon RX 5700M | RX 5600M : A Quick Primer!
• AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT | RX 5600 : A Quick Primer!
• AMD Threadripper 3990X : World’s First 64-Core HEDT CPU!
• AMD Ryzen 7 4800H : 8C/16T High Performance Mobile APU!
• AMD Ryzen 7 4800U : 8C/16T Mobile APU @ Just 15W!
• 3rd Gen Ryzen 4000 Mobile Family : A Quick Primer!
• AMD Athlon 3000 Mobile Processors : A Quick Primer!
• AMD SmartShift Explained : Smart Power Distribution FTW!
• Here Are The First 22 AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT Cards!
• AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT Tech Report + Video Briefing!
• AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition Tech Report!
• AMD Radeon Pro W5700 : Everything You Need To Know!
• AMD Athlon 3000G : The Last Raven Ridge APU Unlocked!
• Behind Terminator Dark Fate : 3rd Gen AMD Threadripper!
• Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 : Everything You Need To Know!
• 3rd Gen AMD Threadripper Tech + Performance Preview!
• GIGABYTE TRX40 Threadripper Motherboards Revealed!
• AMD Ryzen 9 3950X : Everything You Need To Know!
• New Eco-Mode For 3rd Gen Ryzen Processors Explained!
• AMD Fall 2019 Desktop Ryzen + Threadripper Update!
• Red Dead Redemption 2 : Use These AMD + NVIDIA Drivers!
• How AMD CPUs Work In A Secured-core PC Device!
• The Workstation Graphics Card Comparison Guide
• How AMD CPUs Work In A Secured-core PC Device!
• MSI Alpha 15 – World’s First RX 5500M Gaming Laptop!
• AMD Radeon RX 5500 Series : Everything You Need To Know!
• The Tech ARP Mobile GPU Comparison Guide
• The Tech ARP Mobile CPU Comparison Guide
• AMD EPYC 7002 Series Price + Specifications Compared!
• 2nd Gen EPYC – Everything You Need To Know Summarised!
• The Workstation & Server CPU Comparison Guide
• AMD Ryzen 3000 Series Price, Availability + Specifications!
• AMD Celebrates Strong Ryzen + Radeon Sales In Malaysia!
• The Tech ARP Desktop CPU Comparison Guide
• The Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide
• GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Xtreme Motherboard Preview
• The NVIDIA RTX Super vs AMD RX 5700 Comparison! 3.0
• RX 5700 vs RTX 2060 SUPER Performance Comparison!

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