AMD Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT Review

Up Close

RX 5700

Both of the AMD versions of the RX 5700 are based upon their reference cooler that should be familiar to anyone who has followed the Radeon path in recent times. Naturally the partner cards will come with multi-fan solutions but it is worth bearing in mind that whilst the RX 5700 might look like the hot and noisy cards of old, the underneath is seriously improved and the card is almost something you could live with now.

  
  

RX 5700 XT

The cooler on the RX 5700 XT is still the blower style that AMD resolutely are sticking with, but the addition of a dent in the top side is definitely eye-catching.

  

We don’t know if it’s solely a stylistic thing or whether it helps with the airflow beneath the shroud. Certainly – as you’ll see near the end of this review – the results cannot be denied, but it does look like the card has been accidentally lent against a heater.

  

Being a modern card there is no room at the inn for a DVI-D socket, HDMI and DisplayPort only.

  

Maybe in time AMD will revisit their coolers and adopt the twin-fan and heatsink format that is so popular amongst their partner cards. We understand that this revised blower style isn’t too noisy nor struggles to handle the heat generated, but when the PCB is so heavily revised perhaps a clean design slate would have hammered home that message that this isn’t the AMD you remember from earlier this decade.