Final words and conclusion

.final words

If PowerColor can live up to their promise bringing this card to market at 389 USD, then they could have a win on their hands as I find this product to be really good. Granted the reference card is 349,- and reference XT  model 399,- But here's how that pans out. Typically I always have something to nag about with Powercolor cards, this round they did it right with a beautifully working and looking cooler. Even the performance mode isn't noisy. It ramps up a bit, you can slightly hear it and then settles at a lower RPM. It is really silent during gameplay. The silent BIOS mode does run a notch slower but offers very steady silent and thus really good acoustic performance. As stated in the reference reviews already, NAVI sits at the Vega performance level. So the improved architecture is sound, and works. Compared to reference, depending on how and where you measure you gain an extra 2 up-to maybe of you're lucky 4% in performance. The realm AMD is sitting in performance-wise with the RX 5700 series is the non-Super models 2060 and 2070 with exceptions here and there. Then there is, of course, the discussion on how relevant you find hardware-accelerated Raytracing and Tensor support. Most of you don't care at this time, but much like anything in the tech industry, everything will evolve, and AMD positioned itself to be smacked down in the middle of that next step in the gaming evolution. By not offering at least RT support, their trump card really needs to be pricing and proper shader-based gaming performance. 

.performance

XT or non-XT, both Radeon RX 5700 cards show good, in fact, super strength at Quad HD resolutions in that 2560x1440 realm of resolutions. Games like Battlefield V will make you aim, shoot and smile. As always comparing apples and oranges, the performance results vary here and there as each architecture offers advantages and disadvantaged in certain game render workloads. Battlefield V and Metro: Exodus skyrockets for NAVI. So you'll be seeing wins and losses in perf compared to team green. AMD has got the right amount of graphics memory applied, the right type this time as well as 8GB GDDR6 graphics memory running over that 256-bit bus at 14 Gbps, is done right. The new architecture does show strength and IPC increase, especially seen from Polaris the results are pretty amazing. However, that statement has no merit, as they are not priced in the same region. Realistically the XT card makes good sense in the Wide Quad HD space (monitor resolution of 2560x1440) and can even properly handle games at 3840x2160 (Ultra HD). Result vary per game title though. 

.pricing

The 5700 Red Devil remains somewhat on the high side of the pricing, but at 389 USD you receive a custom product with one of the better coolers we've tested to date when it comes to looks and acoustics.  However, the conundrum for PowerColor is simple, the Xt is merely a tenner more expensive. And in the end, my best guess is that people will go for the XT just based on performance. We also need to weigh in another factor, it is the MSRP, and if the volume availability is low, etailers will drive up prices based on demand to make a quick buck. But we'll have to wait and see how that pans out. 

.cooling & noise levels

Cooling is a choice with the Red Devil, silent and perf modes. Silent mode sits at roughly 70 Degrees C while gaming, and that is fine. Performance mode is a tiny bit faster but reaching 75 Degrees C. The aside from ramping up at a strong temperature increase, it ramps down and remains very silent. We've have heard noticeable coil whine, please be aware of that. But I do want to note that any graphics card at a high-enough FPS will make some coil-whine. 

.energy

The power draw during gaming for this card we measure to be just around 206 Watts. That number varies a bit per game title, workload, resolution and even refresh rate of course. It's a substantial wattage, especially compared to the competition's products in the same performance bracket.

.conclusion

PowerColor offers a nice and attractive product with the Red Devil. I am really happy to see a design that I really like, the dark looks with a notch of devilish red really work well for me and an aesthetic side. The cooling perf is decent, however, you can tell that PowerColor really focussed on acoustics this time. In perf BIOS mode at a fast GPU temperature rise, you will hear the fans, but after a few seconds they'll slowly ramp down towards an acoustic level that I can only name silent. The Silent BIOS mode is not doing that RPM ramping but remains really steady it's low RPM and assigned TGP. So that is at the cost of (a bit) performance as PowerColor does set a lower power limiter mode (A TGP of 160 Watts for silent and 180 Watts for performance mode). But it's good that they offer a silent mode as well. Once you use the silent mode you're looking at close to reference card performance. Then again, the factory tweaks are not exactly bringing in additional breathtaking performance either so for me that choice would be a simple one to make, for others not so much but hey, at least you get that choice right? NAVI cards behave extremely well in the normalized 2560x1440 range of resolutions, but with some titles, perf can cave in where at others it takes a lead. Whether or not this performance is justified at the recommended retail prices, I don't know and we'll have to wait and see how that pans out. GDDR6 then, the card comes with a proper 8GB of GDDR6 memory. Really, that exactly right and what these products it needs. The 5700 Red Devil's biggest problem is the 389 USD price tag, the non-XT model overall is 10% slower but that 399 USD reference XT product is thus merely a tenner more expensive. So whether or not that price is worth the premium only you can decide. The card overall will at the very least deserve our recommended award, and if the price in etail drops to say 369 USD, it quite honestly could even have been a be a top pick. And can we just state, well-done aesthetics wise? We love the demonic red LEDs casting auras everywhere. Yes, that is well done and totally in line with the theme.

• MSI AfterBurner
• 3DMark FireStrike/Time Spy/Port Royale
• Download AMD Radeon drivers
• Download NVIDIA GeForce drivers

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