AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT: "Designed to destroy Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070"
On 7 July, AMD will not only launch the new Ryzen 3000 processors, but also two new Radeon graphics cards. With the Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT, AMD is aiming to steal customers away from Nvidia with the RTX 2060 and 2070.
AMD is doing well. However, not yet well enough to show the competition the ropes. But at least the upper mid-range products of the competition are now getting a run for their money in terms of graphics power. The Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT with new Navi chips unveiled at E3 2019 are based on the RDNA architecture (Radeon DNA) and will put pressure on Nvidia not only in terms of performance but also price.
AMD's new Navi graphics cards
The first two graphics cards from AMD's latest generation - the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT - both utilise the Navi 10 GPU. Although the GPU covers the new upper class, it is positioned below the Vega 20 (Radeon VII).
The PCIe 4.0-capable new cards are manufactured using 7 nm technology. This means that considerably more circuits fit on the chip surface. Compared to 14 nm technology, the new 7 nm chips are expected to achieve 50 per cent more performance per watt and 130 per cent more performance per square millimetre. Compared to its predecessors with Vega 10 chips (RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56), Navi 10 has fewer transistors. There are 10.3 billion transistors on the new 251 mm² chip. The 486 mm² Vega 10 chip has 12.5 billion.
Although the raw performance of Navi 10 is significantly lower, the new GPU should be significantly faster in practice than its GCN-based predecessors (e.g. the Radeon RX Vega 64 with 4096 shaders). This is due to the new RDNA architecture, which AMD considers to be a fundamental innovation.
The technical details are not surprising. They are in line with all the data leaked in advance:
| RX 5700 XT | RX 5700 | **Radeon VII | RX Vega 64 | RX Vega 56 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chip | Navi 10 XT | Navi 10 XL | Vega 20 XT | Vega 10 XT | Vega 10 XL |
| Chip size | 251 mm² | 251 mm² | 331 mm² | 486 mm² | 486 mm² |
| Transistors (billion) | 10.3 | 10.3 | 13.2 | 12.5 | 12.5 |
| Manufacturing process | 7 nm FF | 7 nm FF | 7 nm FF | 14 nm LPP | 14 nm LPP |
| ALUs/SIMDs/TMUs/ROPs | 2560/40/160/64 | 2304/36/144/64 | 3840/60/240/64 | 4096/64/256/64 | 3584/64/224 /64 |
| GPU base clock | 1605 MHz | 1465 MHz | 1400 MHz | 1247 MHz | 1156 MHz |
| GPU game clock | 1755 MHz | 1625 MHz | ? | ? | ? |
| GPU boost clock | 1905 MHz | 1725 MHz | 1750 MHz | 1546 MHz | 1471 MHz |
| FP32/FP64 performance (TFLOPS) | 8.98/? | 7.49/? | 13.44/3.36 | 12.66/0.79 | 10.54/0.65 |
| Size of level 2 cache | 4096 KB | 4096 KB | 4096 KB | 4096 KB | 4096 KB |
| Memory connection (bit) | 256 | 256 | 4096 | 2048 | 2048 |
| Speed RAM (GT/s) | 14 | 14 | 2 | 1.89 | 1.6 |
| Memory type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | HBM gen2 | HBM gen2 | HBM gen2 |
| Memory transfer (GB/s) | 448 | 448 | 1024 | 483.8 | 409.6 |
| Storage capacity | 8192 MB | 8192 MB | 16384 MB | 8192 MB | 8192 MB |
| PCI Express power connections | 1 × 6- + 8-pole | 1 × 6- + 8-pole | 2 × 8-pin | 2 × 8-pin | 2 × 8-pin |
| Power consumption | 225 watts | 180 watts | 300 watts | 295 watts | 210 watts |
With the RX 5700 XT, you get a fully optimised Navi 10 GPU with 2560 shader units. These are distributed across 40 compute units. There are also 256 texture units and 64 raster operators. A 256-bit wide memory interface is designed for the GDDR6 RAM, which offers 8 GB and has a speed of 14 Gbps. As far as the GPU is concerned, AMD not only talks about base and boost clocks, but now also about a "game clock". This is intended to represent a realistic practical specification or the average clock rate when gaming. The RX 5700 XT comes with a base clock of 1605 MHz, a boost clock of 1905 MHz and a gaming clock of 1755 MHz. The power consumption is 225 watts.
The slimmed-down RX 5700 comes with 36 instead of 40 compute units. That means 2304 shaders. It also has 256 texture units and 64 raster operators, but clocks significantly slower. The base clock here is 1465 MHz, the boost clock 1725 MHz and the game clock 1625 MHz. The memory and connection are the same as the XT version, but the power consumption is significantly lower at 180 watts.
By the way: Although the PlayStation 5 is to receive a Navi chip and this will also be capable of ray tracing, hardware-based ray tracing is not yet a topic for the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT. At the moment, there are no dedicated hardware units and the shaders are not designed for this. We will probably have to wait for the second generation of Navi graphics cards.
Design and new software features
As far as the design is concerned, AMD has made some changes. The blower design with air blade and graphite pad is used for cooling. The cooler sits on a vapour chamber. Everything is encased in an aluminium housing. Both graphics cards come with a backplate.
Although AMD has not yet introduced ray tracing, there are some other new features. These concern the software. FidelityFX, for example, will bring more detail to the game. The post-processing effect should work similarly to an image sharpening filter and improve the sharpness of various surfaces. However, in contrast to this, games do not necessarily have to be designed for the FidelityFX function. If one is not explicitly supported, FidelityFX will provide a general sharpening filter that can be activated for every game.
With Radeon Image Sharpening, AMD is also introducing a new anti-aliasing method that should require very little power. And last but not least, Radeon Anti-Lag will ensure that input lag is reduced. AMD claims that it can reduce response times in APEX Legends by 33 per cent and in Fortnite by 35 per cent.
Attack on Nvidia RTX 2060 and 2070
In terms of price, AMD clearly emphasised the opponents of the two graphics cards at the presentation with the words "They're designed to destroy the upper-mid-range Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 and RTX 2060". The RX 5700 XT will cost 449 US dollars. The RX 5700 will be available for 379 US dollars. Both cards will be available from 7 July. There will also be a 50th anniversary version of the RX 5700 XT, which can be ordered exclusively on AMD's homepage. This costs 500 US dollars and has an increased turbo clock of 1980 MHz, a gaming clock of 1830 MHz and a golden edge. The prices are indicative only due to taxes, among other things, and refer to the US market.
The new Navi chip, together with the updated RDNA architecture and 8 GB GDDR6 RAM, should ensure smooth frame rates of 60 fps at a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. If the benchmarks shown by AMD are correct, the RX 5700 XT can be expected to deliver a five per cent increase in performance compared to an Nvidia RTX 2070. The RX 5700 is also expected to outperform an RTX 2060 by up to 11 per cent.
More information on the Swiss prices will follow as soon as possible from our colleague Jan Heidenreich.
I find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.