ASUS TUF Gaming X3 Radeon RX 5600 XT Review

Overclocking and Temperatures.

When it comes to graphics cards, I love overclocking. However, AMD graphics cards were never known for massive overclocking overhead. So, I wasn’t that surprised when I couldn’t even get 10 MHz past the OC Mode settings in ASUS GPU Tweak II. In fact, anytime I’d try to go past the +20 on the core or the +500 on the memory that OC Mode adds, 2 of the three screens on this system would go completely white and the third would simply freeze, requiring a hard reset. OC Mode in GPU Tweak II is supposed to boost the card as high as 1770 MHz. However, the absolute best speed I was able to achieve with the ASUS TUF 5600 XT was 1738 MHz and 3500 MHz on the memory. In Gaming Mode, the card is said to boost to 1750 MHz. However, the highest core clock we achieved while in gaming mode was only 1728 MHz. Now, is it possible that we simply received a dud when it came to clock speed? Very possible. However, due to AMD’s history when it comes to overclocking, I’d say this most likely is a fair representation of what one would expect from the TUF 5600 XT.

As for temperature, the ASUS TUF 5600 XT stayed rather cool overall with the highest temperature we saw being 68°c while running Furmark. We ran Furmark with the ASUS TUF 5600 XT set in both Gaming Mode and OC Mode in GPU Tweak II. In Gaming Mode, the ASUS TUF 5600 XT scored 5784 points in Furmark with an average frame rate of 96 FPS and a max temp of 61°c. With the TUF 5600 XT set to OC Mode, which adds a +20 to the core clock speed and +500 to the memory speed, the card scored 6595 points, had an average frame rate of 110 frames per second and a max GPU temp of 68°c. As for temperatures in-game, we played GTA V for about an hour before recording the GPU temp. In-game, we never went over 62°c. A quick side note as well, all testing is generally done with the ambient temperature as close to 20°c (68°f) as possible. However, when recording the in-game GPU temp, the ambient temp was closer to 22°c or about 72°f. Did it make a big difference? I’m not sure, but I felt it important enough to mention.