AMD Radeon RX 5700

The AMD Radeon RX 5700, built on the 7 nm Navi 10 chip with RDNA 1.0 architecture, delivers a balanced 1080p and 1440p experience, sitting at the 65th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 21670. Its performance is tightly clustered with its nearest rivals, showing a delta of just a few percentage points in either direction, making it a competitive option in its segment despite being an end-of-life product from the Radeon RX 5000 series.

How It Compares

The RX 5700 edges out the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile by 1.4%, a slim margin that places the two cards on nearly equal footing in raw compute. The desktop-oriented RX 5700 holds a slight lead over a mobile workstation part, though the difference is small enough that real-world application selection would determine the victor.

Against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z, the RX 5700 trails by 1.5%, a negligible gap that effectively makes the two cards interchangeable in overall benchmark averages. The older TITAN Z, with its dual-GPU design, manages to keep pace with the newer AMD architecture, but the RX 5700 does so with a far simpler single-chip solution.

The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL falls 2.4% behind the RX 5700, placing the Navi-based card clearly ahead of its older Vega predecessor. This delta, while modest, confirms the generational improvement in efficiency and raw throughput that RDNA 1.0 brought over the previous architecture.

The closest competitor is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER, which bests the RX 5700 by 2.4%. This is the largest gap among the listed rivals, but it remains within a tight band; the RTX 2070 SUPER is faster, yet not decisively so, leaving the RX 5700 within striking distance in most titles.

Memory Subsystem

The RX 5700 is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This configuration is well-suited for high-resolution gaming, providing ample capacity for modern textures at 1440p and even 4K in many scenarios, though the bandwidth becomes a limiting factor at extreme resolutions with heavy anti-aliasing.

Memory runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 14 Gbps effective, a standard speed for the era that balances cost and performance. The 256-bit interface ensures that the 448.0 GB/s figure is fully utilized, giving the card enough headroom to handle large frame buffers without choking on data transfers.

For high-resolution workloads, the 8 GB capacity is the primary asset; games that exceed this limit will suffer from texture pop-in or reduced detail settings. The bandwidth, while respectable, places the RX 5700 below higher-tier cards in memory-intensive scenarios, but it remains sufficient for the card's intended 1080p and 1440p sweet spot.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The RX 5700 does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, relying instead on traditional shading units for all compute tasks. Its 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation pipelines deliver a pixel rate of 110.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 248.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 7.949 TFLOPS.

API support includes DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, ensuring compatibility with modern titles that leverage these low-level interfaces. Notably, the card lacks hardware-accelerated ray tracing, so any ray-traced effects must be handled via compute shaders, which will significantly impact performance.

The absence of tensor cores means no dedicated AI acceleration for features like DLSS, but the card does support standard DirectX and Vulkan features, making it a straightforward choice for rasterized gaming. Display outputs include 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, supporting multi-monitor setups and high refresh rates at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: How does the RX 5700 compare to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER in average benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER scores 22206, which is 2.4% higher than the RX 5700's 21670 average, making it the faster card among the listed rivals.

Q: What is the memory bandwidth of the RX 5700?

A: The card features 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, achieved through 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus running at 14 Gbps effective.

Q: Does the RX 5700 support hardware ray tracing?

A: No, the RX 5700 has no ray tracing cores, so it relies on traditional shading units for all rendering tasks.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the RX 5700?

A: The launch MSRP is 349 USD.

Q: What is the transistor density of the Navi 10 chip?

A: The 10,300 million transistors are packed into a 251 mm² die, yielding a density of 41.0M per mm².

Q: What is the suggested power supply for the RX 5700?

A: AMD recommends a 450 W power supply, and the card requires 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connectors.

Benchmark Performance

The RX 5700's average benchmark score of 21670 places it in a tight cluster with its nearest rivals, where the maximum delta is just 2.4%. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the card scores 1862, a moderate result that indicates solid DirectX 12 performance but not top-tier capability. Geekbench scores are more varied: Metal yields 83255, OpenCL 66671, and Vulkan 64428, showing strong compute performance across different APIs.

PassMark results paint a mixed picture. The G3D score of 14314 is respectable, while GPU compute hits 6517. Legacy DirectX tests show the card's age: DirectX 9 scores 209, DirectX 10 drops to 87, and DirectX 11 comes in at 101, with DirectX 12 at 54. These low legacy scores suggest the architecture is optimized for modern APIs rather than older ones, which is expected given its RDNA 1.0 design.

Relative to rivals, the RX 5700 is 1.4% ahead of the RTX A4000 Mobile and 2.4% ahead of the RX Vega M GL, confirming its position above these parts. Conversely, it trails the GTX TITAN Z by 1.5% and the RTX 2070 SUPER by 2.4%, meaning the card sits in the middle of this group, neither dominating nor being dominated. The data indicates that for most gaming workloads, the RX 5700 will deliver frame rates within a few percent of all four competitors, making the choice between them more about feature sets than raw speed.

Power and Cooling

The RX 5700 has a TDP of 180 W, which is moderate for a card of its performance class, and AMD suggests a 450 W power supply for the system. Power is delivered via 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin connectors, requiring the user to ensure their PSU has the proper cables.

The card is dual-slot in width, measuring 268 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 36 mm in width, which fits most mid-tower cases. Cooling is handled by a dual-slot solution, and while the pack does not specify the cooler type, the 180 W TDP means a capable air cooler should suffice for stock operation. The 7 nm process from TSMC helps keep thermals in check, but the lack of a reference cooler description means users should verify case airflow for sustained loads.

The card interfaces via PCIe 4.0 x16, which is backward compatible with PCIe 3.0 slots, though the bandwidth advantage of PCIe 4.0 is minimal for this GPU class. Overall, the power and cooling requirements are standard for the performance level, with no unusual demands beyond the 8-pin connector.

Who Should Consider It

Gamers targeting 1080p with high refresh rates will find the RX 5700 well-matched, as its average score of 21670 and 7.949 TFLOPS FP32 performance handle most titles at maximum settings. For 1440p, the card remains viable, though users may need to adjust settings in the most demanding games, given that it trails the RTX 2070 SUPER by 2.4% in raw benchmarks.

Users who prioritize rasterized performance over ray tracing should consider this card, as it lacks dedicated RT cores and cannot compete with NVIDIA's RTX line in that specific workload. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for current titles at 1440p, but future-proofing for 4K textures may require lowering quality settings, as the bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is not exceptional.

The card's position at the 65th percentile of all GPUs means it is above average but not a top-tier performer. It suits users who want a solid mid-range experience without the premium cost of higher-end parts, though the end-of-life status means buyers should focus on used or clearance deals. For those with a 450 W PSU and a dual-slot slot, the RX 5700 offers a balanced package for 1080p and entry-level 1440p gaming.