Radeon RX 5700 XT pushed past 2.2GHz through soft-modding

What happens when you push AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT past its limits? What if the strict power limitations set by AMD could be bypassed? How fast could Navi be when we, combine soft-modding techniques and advanced cooling solutions?

Tom’s Hardware Germany has been hard at work to get the most out of their AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. The site’s overclocking expert, Igor Wallossek, has placed their RX 5700 XT under an early EK water block sample and has bypassed AMD’s stock power limits using SoftPowerPlay Tables (SPPTs). The latter change requires edits to the Windows Registry, making it an advanced technique for newcomers to overclocking.

Using his soft modding skills, Igor Wallossek managed to stretch AMD’s RX 5700 XT to a +90% power limit, moving AMD’s Navi flagship to peak power loads of 320W under high loads while delivering clock speeds that exceed 2.2GHz. This mod delivers a considerable gain in performance, given Navi’s reference boost clock of 1905MHz. 

When it comes to raw performance, AMD’s 2.2GHz Navi RX 5700 XT can start trading blows with an overclocked RTX 2070 Super in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is an incredible result given Navi’s pricing. That said, this mod required the use of water cooling components, which is an expensive add-on. Even so, this paints a bright future for Navi once custom models release, as they typically utilise capable aftermarket cooling solutions.