Msi rx 5600 xt gaming x review in Spanish (full analysis)

It is time to analyze the MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X, a graphics card that was launched on the market this January 22, 2020 as an AMD response to the Nvidia Super for the mid / high range. In this case, it is about competing with GPUs such as the 1660 Ti or the reference RTX 2060, since it is very close to it.

The Navi 10 chipset that we have in this GPU consists of 64 ROPs and 144 TMUs, but its GDDR6 memory has been kept at 12 Gbps instead of going up to 14 Gbps to ensure stability in games. Yes they have increased the clock of the GPU to 1750 MHz and the TDP. So stay tuned to our tests and analyzes, because we will see where this MSI is.

Before we start, we thank MSI for trusting us by lending us this GPU prior to launch for our review.

MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X technical characteristics

Unboxing

This time the Taiwanese have chosen a box in vertical configuration of high quality and thick cardboard for their MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X. In it we see a photo with the new aesthetic that has been adopted for the AMD GPUs of the Gaming series. We will also see information about the model on the main face and even more about the characteristics of the card on the back, mainly about its heatsink.

We open the box, and we find another one inside also of good quality cardboard but without a lid. In it we have the graphics card perfectly accommodated in a mold of polyethylene foam and in turn put in an antistatic bag.

The bundle has the following elements:

• MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming Card X User Guide Quick Installation Guide

Absolutely nothing else we find, although we do have the corresponding protectors on the ports and connections to prevent dirt from entering.

Exterior design

There are three cards that we are going to analyze in this first wave of launches by the main assemblers, that is, MSI, Asus and Gigabyte. For all cases they are the highest OC configurations released for now, and it will be interesting to see the differences between them beyond their aesthetics. In this case we are dealing with the MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X, a card with renewed aesthetics and which must fight for the positions of honor close to or on par with the Nvidia RTX 2060 and very close even to the RX 5700 as we will see later.

Speaking of design, the Gaming and Gaming X series has been updated with these new heatsinks, or rather housings inside which we have the 7th generation Twin Frozr, a double fan heatsink that now uses a more minimalist and sober casing in compound lines made of plastic and metal with brushed finishes. In the circumference of each fan we have a decorative element in electric red but that does not integrate lighting. It is a design that is quite good, but the truth is that it does not reach the level of the Gaming X and Z series for the Nvidia GPUs, with more lighting and more aggressive.

The measurements of this huge heatsink that we have in this case are 298 mm long, 125 mm wide and 57 mm thick, thus occupying 3 slots almost completely and a large internal space in the chassis. We will see in a practical way that it behaves in temperatures, but we have already anticipated that this GPU will suffer little in terms of heating. We also have Zero Frozr technology that accompanies all manufacturer GPUs so that the fans stay off whenever the GPU is idle or under low load and with temperatures below 60 ^o C.

Regarding active cooling, we have this Twin Frozr heatsink with two 100 mm diameter fans that will be able to rotate at more than 3000 RPM at maximum speed. Something that we will not see unless we configure them manually with Afterburner or some similar program, since at about 1000-1400 RPM we will have more than enough to not exceed 70 ^o C at maximum performance.

We now go to the sides, where we see that the double finned block that makes up the heatsink of the MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X is completely exposed to the outside. We only have a side casing in the space occupied by the fans, so that the air flow passes through the fins. In this case for example, the fans are thicker than on the Asus card and therefore it is a few mm thicker, and its blocks are quite similar. In the area seen for the user we have the MSI logo that will have RGB Mystic Light lighting, the only place where we will find it.

We finish the design analysis of the MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X with the upper part, where fortunately we have a very good backplate built in aluminum in the form of an integral board. This occupies the entire PCB and is separated a little more than normal from it to allow the passage of air and better cooling. Although in this case we do not have any opening in it, something that we think would have been good to evacuate that hot air as well.

Ports and connections

We now continue with the ports and connections of the MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X. And the truth is that it will be the same configuration as always, with:

• 1x HDMI 2.0b3x DisplayPort 1.4

It does not even change the location of them with respect to other graphics cards of higher or lower ranges or manufacturers. With a capacity of up to 4 monitors where we will use the DisplayPort port if we have a 4K monitor with more than 60 Hz. In fact this port supports a maximum resolution of 8K @ 60 FPS, and in 4K we will reach 165 Hz or 4K @ 60 FPS at 30 bits depth, and in 5K we can go up to 120 Hz. In the case of HDMI, it supports a 4K @ 60 Hz resolution or for example Full HD @ 240 Hz.

Alongside the PCIe 4.0 interface that all new AMD GPUs include, MSI has chosen to put a dual 8 + 8 power connector for this GPU. On the one hand we have Gigabyte that has opted for only an 8 connector, and at this end MSI, which makes us think that the manufacturers were not clear about what the final TDP of this card would be. In fact, the BIOS update has arrived the same day of its launch, finally being 180W of TDP, so 8 + 8 is more than enough for this GPU that consumes about 200W at maximum performance.

To this we must only add a 4-pin connector for lighting and another for the fans, since both will be controlled as if it were one in terms of speed.

MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X: PCB and internal hardware

Next we will proceed to remove the screws from the backplate to separate the heatsink and the PCB. For this we will need to remove both the largest and the smallest screws located in this area, and the process as always will make you lose the warranty.

Twin Frozr 7 heatsink

One of the key features of this MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X is its huge heatsink that will keep temperatures below 70 ° C at all times even at maximum performance and OC. For this, a double aluminum block configuration with a dense cross-sectional fin has been used that occupies absolutely the entire housing and PCB.

The block with the main cold plate is slightly smaller than the other. No less than 6 nickel-plated heatpipes that pass directly under the copper cold plate have been used to capture the heat and distribute it over both blocks. For this, three of these tubes run this same block longitudinally and another 5 go to the second block.

This second block has another cold plate whose function is to remove heat from the VRM used thanks to silicone thermal pads making it connected with MOSFETS and chokes. This time, MSI has installed a 9-phase power supply system that will ensure power to this card, which at the last minute has increased its TDP to 180W. In addition, a good amount of metal-based (gray) thermal paste has been used to improve this transfer of heat between elements.

But it is not all, because the manufacturer has also placed on the PCB a metal chassis that in addition to providing more support and rigidity to the PCB, it is also responsible for cooling the memories. To do this, it uses thermal pads on each memory chip and a few others to pass the heat from this board to the heatsink, something that, for example, Asus has not done on its own.

Architecture and features

Before reaching the testing phase, let's review the main features of this MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X, especially the elements that have been updated on the last day before its launch.

These new GPUs have the RDNA architecture implemented by AMD in 2019, being a great step forward in the fight against the reference rival Nvidia. This architecture uses Navi 10 chipsets in this model with TSMC's 7nm FinFET manufacturing process. With it, a notable increase in the CPI has been achieved in the nodes and a decrease in consumption by half, which is why it is offering such good results. Navi 23 with Ray Tracing is being prepared for 2020, we hope it will continue on this upward trend.

Specifically, this MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X and in general all the 5600 XT have been classified by the manufacturer as the best graphics card for Full HD resolution for its price, and they are not misguided in view of the results that we will now see. The chipset that it installs has a total of 2304 shading units, which are achieved thanks to 36 computing units and 2560 shaders with some functions disabled to lower performance compared to the RX 5700. In this case the base frequency is 1235 MHz, Gaming frequency of 1420 MHz and finally the turbo frequency amounts to no less than 1750 MHz, being about 150 MHz higher than the first version of the BIOS that was installed.

We will continue with the memory, because a configuration of 6 GB GDDR6 has been used, working at 12 Gbps as effective frequency. So the memory in this case has not been uploaded for greater security against artifacts and point frame drops. These 6 chips generate a bus width of 192 bits, 32 bits for each element and a bandwidth of 288 GB / s. Also in the TDP, improvements have been made at the last minute, since this card would initially have a TDP of 150 W, which would be 30W less. The reason for this change is simple, Nvidia has lowered the prices of its tragic cards including the RTX 2060, and AMD has decided to tighten the nuts of this model to improve the performance / price ratio.

Test bench and performance test

Let's go to see what the performance of this MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X is. For this we have used the same tests and games as for the other cards. Our test bench is made up of:

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel Core i9-9900K
Base plate:	Asus Maximus XI Formula
Memory:	T-Force Vulkan 3200 MHz
Heatsink	Corsair H100i Platinum SE
HDD	ADATA SU750
Graphic card	MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X
Power supply	Cooler Master V850 Gold

All the synthetic tests and tests have been carried out with the filters as they come in the configuration of each program. The tests consist of tests that run in the three main resolutions, Full HD, 2K and 4K. We have run all of them on the Windows 10 Pro operating system in its 1909 version fully updated and with the Adrenalin drivers also in their latest version as of January 2020.

What are we looking for in these tests?

First, the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS the more fluid the game will go. Benchmark scores will help us compare this GPU to the competition. To slightly differentiate the quality, we leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS based on the quantity we get in each game and resolution.

FRAMES PER SECOND
Frames Per Second (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 ~ 40 FPS	Playable
40 ~ 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Really good
Greater than 144 Hz	E-sports level

Benchmarks

For benchmark tests we will use the following programs and tests:

• 3DMark Fire Strike normal3DMark Fire Strike UltraTime SpyVRMARK Orange Room

Game testing

We are now going to evaluate the real performance in games, thus having a more palpable proof of what our MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X will be able to deliver under DirectX 12 and OpenGL in this case.

The tests will be carried out at the three most used resolutions in gaming, we refer to Full HD (1920 x 1080p), QHD or 2K (2560 x 1440p) and UHD or 4K (3840 x 2160p). In this way, we will have a complete range of results to be able to compare them with other GPUs. For each of the games, we have kept the settings in high quality in all three resolutions.

• Final Fantasy XV, standard, TAA, DirectX 11 DOOM, Ultra, TAA, Open GL / Vulkan Deus EX Mankind Divided, Alto, Anisotropico x4, DirectX 12 Far Cry 5, Alto, TAA, DirectX 12 Metro Exodus, Alto, Anisotropico x16, DirectX 12 (without RT) Shadow of the Tomb Rider, Alto, TAA + Anisotropic x4, DirectX 12 Control, Alto, without RTX, rendered at 1920x1080p, DirectX 12 Gears 5, Alto, TAA, DirectX 12

We can see that the smallest increase in frequency in the memories causes us to have a somewhat lower performance than the two models that we have already tested of Asus and Gigabyte. This is within normal, even so they are quite good records, which do not tarnish the graphic set, and we will see that the overclocking margin will be greater.

Overclocking

As in other cards, we are going to overclock this MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X to see how far we can increase its performance. For this we have used MSI Afterburner for its ease of use. In this way we have carried out a new test in 3DMark Fire Strike and new tests of Shadow Of The Tomb Raider in all three resolutions.

Shadow of the Tomb Rider	Stock	@ Overclock
1920 x 1080 (Full HD)	102 FPS	108 FPS
2560 x 1440 (WQHD)	68 FPS	72 FPS
3840 x 2160 (4K)	36 FPS	38 FPS
3DMark Fire Strike	Stock	@ Overclock
Graphics Score	20739	22386
Physics Score	23237	23343
Combined	18326	19663

In this case we have increased the clock of the GPU about 50 MHz only, since the chipset is practicing to the limit of its capacity and a greater increase does not cause improvements. Where we have spread well is in the memories, since we have raised its clock no less than 330 MHz, which would be about 2640 MHz effective frequency.

We can see that the TDP exceeds 100% and that with a 65% capacity of the fans, the temperature is maintained at around 63 degrees. In this way we have managed to improve the records in 6 FPS for Full HD, 4 FPS for 2K and 2 FPS for 4K, which is a lot.

Temperatures and consumption

Finally, we have proceeded to stress the MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X for a few hours while monitoring its temperatures and consumption. For this, we have used as FurMark for stress and HWiNFO to capture results, along with a wattmeter that measures the power of all the complete equipment, except the monitor. L at room temperature in the room is 21 ° C.

The huge heatsink has paid off, and we have enviable temperatures both at rest and under stress. with only 22 degrees in the first case and 65 degrees in the other with the fans at around 1550 rpm.

Final words and conclusion about AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT

MSI is one of the few major manufacturers that has modified the aesthetics of the new AMD Radeon compared to the Nvidia. It opts for a more sober and simple aesthetic than in the Nvidia Gaming X and Z without giving up the lighting on the side and the double fan configuration. Although we think that the design of the Nvidia is more aggressive and striking.

What we also find striking is the heatsink, since we have a fairly large one occupying no less than 3 slots, even more than a higher power card. The manufacturer knows that the 180W of TDP is no small feat, and we have a high quality double block with 6 heatpipes that will keep temperatures below 65 ^o C with the fans at 40% of their capacity. This is great for poorly ventilated chassis and long hours of play.

We recommend reading the best graphics cards on the market

As for performance, we are a little below its competition, since they are ultimately GPUs with the same chipset and memories with the difference of having kept the latter at 12 Gbps instead of 14. MSI chooses to keep the memories at this speed because it does not want its cards to be unstable, cases that have already been seen by other manufacturers. Something that is clear is that it is one of the best in Full HD, reaching rates greater than 100 FPS in high quality and still being slightly higher than the RTX 2060 for a fairly adjusted price since its launch.

The overclocking capacity has also improved, especially in the memories with a huge margin for improvement. The card stably supports almost everything Afterburner can provide, with +2640 MHz in memory and more than 50 MHz in chipset, following MSI's increase of 150 in one go. The boost revolves around 6-7 FPS in Full HD, 2-3 FPS in 2K, and 4K, which is quite a bit really.

Finally this MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X has appeared on sale in late January 2020 at a price of 374 euros in Spain. A somewhat high price yielding a little less than the competition, especially after seeing that the Nvidia RTX 2060 has decreased its price to 320 - 370 euros and has Ray Tracing. Its main assets are stability and the huge heatsink it has, we hope that later they can give another twist to these memories.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ PERFORMANCE SOMETHING MORE STABLE THAN THE GIGABYTE	- PRICE IS SOMETHING HIGH
+ ABOVE THE RTX 2060
+ AS ALWAYS, ITS CONSTRUCTION
+ TEMPERATURES OF THE BEST
+ GREAT ANSWER ON OVERCLOCKING

The Professional Review team awarded him the gold medal:

MSI RX 5600 XT Gaming X

COMPONENT QUALITY - 86%

DISSIPATION - 89%

GAMING EXPERIENCE - 83%

SOUNDNESS - 86%

PRICE - 83%

85%