We reached out to AMD about the last-minute Radeon RX 5600 XT overclocking, and here are a couple of things we found out…

Last Minute Radeon RX 5600 XT Overclocking : What Happened?

The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT launched with a TGP of 150 watts, a 1375 MHz game clock, a 1560 MHz boost clock and 12 Gbps GDDR6 memory.

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

AMD On The Last Minute Radeon RX 5600 XT Overclocking

We reached out to AMD about this last-minute overclocking of the Radeon RX 5600 XT, and here is what we found out :

No Change In Specifications

Officially, the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT never received a power-up, and the official specifications will not change.

Like the RX 5500 XT, the RX 5600 XT does not have a reference card, and can only be purchased from an AMD AIB partner.

AMD only provides a minimum set of specifications for the RX 5600 XT and it is up to their AIB partners to configure their cards as they see fit.

As far as they are concerned, the official specifications are what their partners “start from”, and this last-minute Radeon RX 5600 XT overclocking is nothing more than a decision by their AIB partner.

No Change In Price

AMD also clarified that there will be no change in the SEP of US$279, even though NVIDIA recently slashed the price of their GeForce RTX 2060 down to US$299.

Again, that is their recommended e-tail price – “starting from“, which means their AIB partners are free to charge whatever they want.

Recommended : SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT In-Depth Review!

Our Opinion

Now, that’s AMD’s official word.

Unofficially, we understand that there is a scramble to reprogram cards that have already been shipped, so they will be sold with the power-up BIOS for higher clock speeds and TGP.

When it comes to the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT we have over here, it is notable that even though it was an overclocked part, it launched with a 150W TGP and 12 Gbps memory.

Yet, just days before it’s available for sale, they greatly boosted its clock speeds and increased its TGP… and changed their website to reflect the new specifications.

It is unlikely that SAPPHIRE would have done so without AMD’s “recommendation”, because if they wanted to launch the PULSE RX 5600 XT with the supercharged specifications, they would have done so from the get-go.

It is insane for them to pull a last-minute change like that, because it would mean getting their distributors to manually update the cards that had earlier been shipped.

But whatever the reasons, this makes the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 5600 XT a far more exciting card than it would have been. And certainly, much better value for the money… if Sapphire does not charge more for the power-up!

Fingers crossed!

Update : All other AMD AIB partners have also released their Radeon RX 5600 XT power-up BIOS updates!

AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT Specifications Compared!

By overclocking the Radeon RX 5600 XT so much, it is better positioned against the GeForce RTX 2060, which received a $50 price cut to $299 just a few days ago.

Even without the boost, the RX 5600 XT already delivers higher texture and pixel fill rates than the RTX 2060. But the boost gave it parity in memory bandwidth, which we think will matter a lot.

Specifications GeForce

RTX 2060 Radeon RX

5600 XT

( 160W ) Radeon RX

5600 XT

( 150W ) Radeon RX

5600 Transistors 10.8 billion 10.3 billion 10.3 billion 10.3 billion Fab Process 12 nm 7 nm 7 nm 7 nm Total Graphics Power 160 W 160 W 150 W 150 W Stream Processors 1920 2304 2304 2048 Game Clock 1365 MHz 1660 MHz 1375 MHz 1375 MHz Boost Clock 1680 MHz 1750 MHz 1560 MHz 1560 MHz TMUs 120 144 144 128 Max. Texture Rate 201.6 GT/s 252.0 GT/s 224.6 GT/s 199.7 GT/s ROPs 48 64 64 64 Max. Pixel Rate 80.6 GP/s 112.0 GP/s 99.8 GP/s 99.8 GP/s Memory Size 6 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 192-bit 192-bit 192-bit 192-bit Bandwidth 336 GB/s 336 GB/s 288 GB/s 288 GB/s PCIe Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x16 PCIe 4.0 x16

Once the NDA expires, we will take a closer look at how the overclocked Radeon RX 5600 XT compares against the GeForce RTX 2060!

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Computer Hardware | Home

Support Tech ARP!

If you like our work, you can help support our work by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!





Comments

Like this: Like Loading...