MSI RX 5700 XT Gaming X Review

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The Gaming X boxes are always attractive in a no nonsense style, and the latest addition to the range is no exception being a largely black and red affair that tells you all the important facts – PCI Express 4.0, 8GB GDDR, Twin Frozr cooler – without filling the box up with unnecessary logos and arrows.

  

MSI have tried a few different ways of incorporating their Gaming red colour scheme into their cards and we think with the RX 5700 XT Gaming X they’ve come up with the nicest solution yet. It’s an accent rather than dominant, a hint rather than a slap round the chops.

  

The side of the card you’ll see the most shows a smooth but simple backplate, the MSI RGB gaming logo, and of course the two 8pin PCIe power inputs that bring the card to life.

  

It’s odd that the XFX card billed itself as THICC and yet thick is the first word that springs to mind when you see the Gaming X from the side. That skinny shroud only emphasises the beefiness of the heatsinks.

  

Fin density is a difficult equation to get right. On the one hand you want the maximum amount of surface area to soak the heat away from the silicon and let the fans do their job, but on the other you need to leave enough room for the air to flow smoothly and easily out of the card. Too much one way and you end up with a solid block of metal, too much the other and there isn’t enough heat sink to … well sink the heat.

  

MSI have always used the bare minimum of shroud to hold the fans in, leaving plenty of room for any hot air to dissipate out from the sides of the card, and the Gaming X is no exception. Check out those chunky heatpipes too. Certainly if past experience is anything to go by then the Twin Frozr will be more than a match for the latest Radeon GPU.

  

Lastly at the business end we find the usual AMD selection of display options, with a single HDMI flanked by three DisplayPort connectors.