Question Radeon 5600 XT: Which card would be the best?

[g-unit1111]

So I am upgrading my GPU in my SFF PC, and I am really interested in the Radeon 5600 XT. I do realize that the 2060 XC is probably the better card, but the 5600XT is cheaper by about $50, and I would prefer not to go over my $300 budget if at all possible. The cards that I am torn between are the Gigabyte, the XFX Thicc II, and other cards like the MSI and Asus. If Newegg had the Sapphire Pulse I'd get that in half a second. But they don't. I'm leaning more toward the XFX because that's around my price range and the performance levels come within a couple of frames of the 2060. Unless anyone has any objections to that. And I do understand the VBIOS updates, or at least I think I understand the VBIOS updates.

Here is my current configuration:

Silverstone Raven RVZ01B (can house triple fan cards according to PC Part Picker)
Corsair SF600 Platinum
Gigabyte Aorus B450 mITX
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
16GB G Skill Trident Z DDR4-3200
512GB Intel 660P M2 SSD
2TB Western Digital Blue SSD
EVGA GeForce GTX 960

 

[norcalsc]

you can get a gtx 1080 used for 300 bucks or less right now. it would be considerably faster than either if of two.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-NVIDI...810637&hash=item34209eba82:g:~xoAAOSwVc9eMdAS

something like this

 

[g-unit1111]

you can get a gtx 1080 used for 300 bucks or less right now. it would be considerably faster than either if of two.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-NVIDI...810637&hash=item34209eba82:g:~xoAAOSwVc9eMdAS

something like this

I have a hard time buying used components like GPUs and CPUs because you don't know what you are going to get. I'd really prefer to buy new if possible.

 

[John Chesterfield]

See the Hardware Unboxed reviews of the XFX Thicc cards, they're trash.

 

[g-unit1111]

See the Hardware Unboxed reviews of the XFX Thicc cards, they're trash.

I haven't seen that review but the Modders Inc and Tweaktown reviews were both positive.

 

[norcalsc]

id go sapphire they make good stuff

 

[cryoburner]

you can get a gtx 1080 used for 300 bucks or less right now. it would be considerably faster than either if of two.

The reviews I've seen have all shown the RTX 2060 and 5600 XT (with patched BIOS) performing rather close to a GTX 1080 on average. That card is certainly not what I would call "considerably faster", though the additional VRAM might potentially help performance in some future games down the line. Of course, you could also get that additional VRAM by spending a little more for an RX 5700. So, getting a used card without warranty coverage for around the same price does not seem like a particular good value in my opinion, particularly if the card happens to fail within the first few years.

For a 5600 XT, you'll want to make sure you get one that is getting both the clock rate and memory speed increases, as not all will. Some will apparently only be getting the increase to core clocks without a change in memory speed, while some stock-clocked models may not be getting a BIOS update to improve performance at all. So, there is likely to be more than a 10% spread in performance between 5600 XT models, which is a lot more than you typically see with graphics cards. And with the card being so new, many models haven't been reviewed, so one may have to look more into that.

Also, I'm not sure what region you are in, but at least in the US a number of RTX 2060s have dropped in price to around $300 in response to the 5600 XT...

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=436&sort=price

...and some RX 5700s can be had for not much more...

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=445

 

[drea.drechsler]

See the Hardware Unboxed reviews of the XFX Thicc cards, they're trash.

If referring to the original NAVI THICC cards, specifically the 5700XT THICC, XFX has since revised the design considerably. Reports are they'll even replace older models.

 

[g-unit1111]

Also, I'm not sure what region you are in, but at least in the US a number of RTX 2060s have dropped in price to around $300 in response to the 5600 XT...

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=436&sort=price

...and some RX 5700s can be had for not much more...

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=445

Yeah I'm in the US. I saw that Amazon had a XFX 5700 but non XT model for $299 and almost pulled the trigger on that, but I didn't really need that much horsepower. I thought about getting a 2060 KO but that was almost $50 more than the card I did wind up getting, which was the XFX 5600XT. I wanted to get the Sapphire card but couldn't find it anywhere.

 

[g-unit1111]

The reviews I've seen have all shown the RTX 2060 and 5600 XT (with patched BIOS) performing rather close to a GTX 1080 on average. That card is certainly not what I would call "considerably faster", though the additional VRAM might potentially help performance in some future games down the line. Of course, you could also get that additional VRAM by spending a little more for an RX 5700. So, getting a used card without warranty coverage for around the same price does not seem like a particular good value in my opinion, particularly if the card happens to fail within the first few years.

Yeah warranties are the main reason why I won't touch used hardware like that, especially something as critical as a GPU. It may seem like a good deal but when you take the warranty out of the equation, it really isn't.

 

[John Chesterfield]

If referring to the original NAVI THICC cards, specifically the 5700XT THICC, XFX has since revised the design considerably. Reports are they'll even replace older models.

Well that's good of them. But the fact it happens in the first place would make me not purchase their products, regardless of what fixes they put in place.