When can you buy the Radeon RX 5700 GPUs?
Radeon and Ryzen on sale July 7
AMD is having a big day on July 7, 2019. Its first 7nm processors, the Ryzen 3000 series, are on sale that day and joined by the Radeon RX 5700 GPUs. July 7 is 7nm day for the red team!
There are two variants of the new Navi architecture-based GPUs: the RX 5700 and the RX 5700 XT. Of those, the RX 5700 is the lower priced option, with it's new lowered price of $350, while the slightly more powerful RX 5700 XT will come in at a still reasonable $399. These are $30 and $50 cheaper than initially announced, which isn't a bad thing at all.
Here's a quick break down of some key specs of each.
| Category | RX 5700 | RX 5700 XT |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Navi | Navi |
| Compute units | 36 | 40 |
| Base clock | Up to 1,465 MHz | Up to 1,605 MHz |
| Game clock | Up to 1,625 MHz | Up to 1,755 MHz |
| Boost clock | Up to 1,725 MHz | Up to 1,905 MHz |
| Texture units | 144 | 160 |
| Stream processors | 2,304 | 2,560 |
| VRAM | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 |
| TDP | 180W | 225W |
There's not a huge amount between them, and both should be capable of decent frame rates and 1440p gaming. AMD is putting the RX 5700 in a similar category to NVIDIA's RTX 2060, and the RX 5700 XT against the RTX 2070, though NVIDIA's new Super GPUs do skew the initial pre-launch. Early reviews suggest that it's a pretty close run thing.
Radeon XT Anniversary Edition has a little extra juice
Also available is an anniversary edition of the RX 5700 XT. Like the recent anniversary edition of the Radeon VII, it gets a special paint job, this time with a black and gold combination. Unlike the Radeon VII anniversary edition, this one has a higher price than the regular model and a little more performance.
The game and boost clocks are all given a higher frequency, with the side effect of a slight increase in TDP, but also in performance. Not a huge amount, but nevertheless, you get more than just a fancy paint job for the $449 asking price.
Slots in beneath the Radeon VII
Despite the introduction of the Navi architecture, the Vega-based Radeon VII is sticking around for now as the range-topper, with the RX 5700 GPUs slotting in beneath it in AMD's lineup. It's still a 7nm GPU like the newer Navi-based members of the family, and overall still boasts more power.
It's also more expensive and has a fairly significant additional power draw over even the most thirsty of the RX 5700 GPUs. But it's available right now and until AMD releases a new high-end Navi card, it'll stay the big dog in the yard. Check out our roundup of the best graphics cards for a lot more options.
AMD's next-generation Navi graphics cards are finally here, amping up performance across the board to offer performance on par with NVIDIA's RTX series cards at a lower price.
