The launch of the first custom Navi graphics card came out back in August 2020 in the form of Sapphire’s RX 5700 Pulse. Today, we have it on our table just before the release of the latest Radeon 6000 series. Priced at ₱ 20,000, is this card worth considering?
| RX 5700 | RX 5700 XT | RX Vega 56 | RX Vega 64 | Radeon VII | |
| Architecture | Navi | Navi | Vega 10 | Vega 10 | Vega 20 |
| Manufacturing Process | 7nm | 7nm | 14nm | 14nm | 7nm |
| Transistor Count | 10.3 billion | 10.3 billion | 12.5 billion | 12.5 billion | 13.2 billion |
| Die Size | 251mm² | 251mm² | 486mm² | 495mm² | 331mm² |
| Compute Units | 36 | 40 | 56 | 64 | 60 |
| Stream Processors | 2304 | 2560 | 3584 | 4096 | 3840 |
| Base GPU Clock | Up to 1465MHz | Up to 1605MHz | 1156 MHz | 1274 MHz | 1400 MHz |
| Game GPU Clock | Up to 1625MHz | Up to 1755MHz | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Boost GPU Clock | Up to 1725MHz | Up to 1905MHz | 1471 MHz | 1546 MHz | 1750 MHz |
| Peak Engine Clock | n/a | n/a | 1590 MHz | 1630 MHz | 1800 MHz |
| Peak SP Performance | Up to 7.95 TFLOPS | Up to 9.75 TFLOPS | Up to 10.5 TFLOPS | Up to 12.7 TFLOPS | Up to 14.2 TFLOPS |
| Peak Half Precision Performance | Up to 15.9 TFLOPS | Up to 19.5 TFLOPS | Up to 21.0 TFLOPS | Up to 25.3 TFLOPS | Up to 28.1 TFLOPS |
| Peak Texture Fill-Rate | Up to 248.4 GT/s | Up to 304.8 GT/s | Up to 330.0 GT/s | Up to 395.8 GT/s | 432.24 GT/s |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| Peak Pixel Fill-Rate | Up to 110.4 GP/s | Up to 121.9 GP/s | Up to 94.0 GP/s | Up to 98.9 GP/s | 115.26 GP/s |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB GDDR6 | 8GB HBM | 8GB HBM | 16GB HBM2 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 448 GB/s | 448 GB/s | 410 GB/s | 483.8 GB/s | 1 TB/s |
| Memory Interface | 256-bit | 256-bit | 2048-bit | 2048-bit | 4096-bit |
| Board Power | 185W | 225W | 210W | 295W | 300W |
Taking a glance at the card itself, we see the Pulse branding all over it and looks similar to the 5600 XT version with a few variations. It has a minimalistic gamer approach without all the RGB. The dual fans form part of the ‘Dual-X’ cooler, and measures 95mm across on each. RMAs made significantly easy by Sapphire with the Quick Connect support which means that each fan can be individually removed by just taking out one screw.
On the front, there is an LED-lit Sapphire logo on the video card. Just above that is a tiny dual-BIOS Switch. By default, the cards are on Performance BIOS and may be switched to a Silent BIOS depending on preference.
Horizon Zero Dawn PC graphics settings
Getting the best settings in Horizon Zero Dawn will depend on your graphics card. Anyone with a GTX 1060 or RX 580 would be able to run this game at 1920×1080 resolution.
Performance Test
Horizon Zero Dawn which is optimized for AMD Radeon cards, the Sapphire RX 5700 XT Pulse 8GB shows a 12% rise of FPS versus ASUS’ RTX 2070 Mini OC Edition on the average FPS while on the minimum FPS, it was a close match.
Can I play this at 1920×1080 using the Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT?
Definitely. You will have no issues playing the game on Ultimate Quality. You will average 98fps giving you more than you need to play the game smoothly.
Can I play this at 2560×1440?
Playing the game on Ultimate quality will give you a little lower average on FPS, playing around 70-80fps which is still good enough but would be best played at Favour Quality for smoother gameplay.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
The price for a Sapphire RX 5700 XT Pulse is P21,950 at PCHub. E-Sports Gaming Authority and would recommend the card to be on the list of those that want to have a great experience at 1080p gaming. Sapphire could improve a bit more on the design of the graphics card but if the basis is not at all the aesthetics, then Sapphire RX 5700 XT Pulse might be the right card for you.