Parsing the RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT Review Data

The initial data related to AMD’s official launch of the Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT appears to be fairly positive from the positioning and subsequent conclusions by the various authors who have released their results. The rather eye opening and informative demonstration of the potential implications of the silicon lottery, which was well done by Gamers Nexus, raised a minor concern related to the data which may await those who are in the market for an upgrade.

Much of the commonality between test beds across sites (Intel Core i9-9900K, DDR4-2666 or greater memory, Z390 chipset) helps rule out the processor as being the bottleneck. The supporting data for in-game settings used by the reviewers is more of a mixed bag that would prevent the identification of potential bad luck in the review sample lottery. One difference in utilized API (DirectX 11, DirectX 12 or Vulkan) or anti-aliasing setting (none or reviewer’s choice) may skew the average frame rate results between sites to a degree beyond the expected margin of error due to a given GPU’s ability to perform in the best light possible.

With the five reviews that we’ve completed going through in depth, there are some results that simply don’t come close. An average FPS difference of ~9 when going from 2x MSAA to 4x MSAA on Forza Horizon 4 at 2560×1440 makes sense. An average FPS difference of ~53 using “very high quality” settings in Grand Theft Auto V at 1920×1080 between the highest and lowest results witnessed thus far indicates that a lack of commonality with regard to which settings are or are not enabled.

Considering the time crunch that all sites were under to get this data published alongside Ryzen 3000-series reviews or to complete benchmarking of the RX 5700 series GPUs along with the RTX Super-series GPUs, it’s impressive to have such a diverse volume of data available for decision making purposes. I tip my hat to each and every one of you that underwent crunch time to provide us with the related information. Consumers do appear to be winning in 2019 based on the renewed offerings that AMD has to go up against Intel and Nvidia in target markets.