AMD RX 5600 XT -vs- NVIDIA RTX 2060: Maximum equality in the mid-range

Robert Sole 21 January 2020

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AMD Ryzen Threadripper RX 5600 XT CES2020 24

During CES 2020, AMD presented the RX 5600 XT, which was launched today. Initially this graphics card was going to have lower frequencies, but the price reduction of the NVIDIA RTX 2060 has generated a change in the BIOS. Finally, this AMD graphics card has higher frequencies that carry a higher TDP.

The RX 5600 XT finally has a Navi 10 silicon that has 2304 Stream Processors. This graph works at a base frequency of 1615MHz and in Boost mode it can reach 1750Mz. This graphics card is accompanied by 6GB GDDR6 @ 14GHz and has a TDP of 160W.

AMD RX 5600 XT now available

TechPowerUp media (TPU hereinafter) you have had access to a Sapphire RX 5600 XT Pulse, a dual-fan graphics card. Remember that AMD has not released reference models, all are assembler models with different heatsink. Sapphire's solution is postulated as simple and inexpensive.

We see that this graph has been subjected to different benchmarks in TPU. It is interesting to see how they have performed the tests with the old BIOS and the new BIOS. The difference between the two is the frequency, being lower in the old BIOS. This extra performance has caused it to match the performance of NVIDIA's RTX 2060 (the 2% difference is negligible, practically). We see how with the old BIOS it was 7% performance away.

Regarding consumption in games, we see how it has gone from 126W on average and 160W on average, losing a lot of efficiency. It is interesting to see that if it places, in this case, slightly below the NVIDIA graph. Under the Furmark software the difference is enlarged. The RTX 2060 consumes a stable 170W and the RX 5600 XT with the new BIOS comes close to exceeding 200W.

We went to see the temperatures a bit. The Sapphire version hits 73ºC on load, while the three-fan ASUS Strix is at 58ºC. Clearly the ASUS graphics is better by having an extra fan and more heat dissipation power. Also the aluminum fin block is larger.

Matched but without Ray Tracing

As we can see the difference between the RX 5600 XT and the RTX 2060 is minimal in performance and consumption. Here, therefore, other factors come into play, such as price and Ray Tracing.

The simplest models of RTX 2060 in Spain are around 340 euros with a single fan. Those models that already have a double fan are already around 350 euros onwards. While the Super models are already going to more than 430 euros, being out of this competition. The RX 5600 XT models in Coolmod appear out of stock and the cheapest is the THICC II Pro from XFX for € 325.

There is maximum equality between both graphics cards, making it the end user who must choose the solution that interests him the most. AMD lacks Ray Tracing, it is the only major disadvantage that AMD graphics have. For the rest, it matches the RX 2060 quite well, complicating the decision for the user.