Test Setup
Please read our testing methodologies and benchmarks and review format for an explanation on our procedures.
Game Setup
In all games, we run in either DX12 or Vulkan API if possible. In Red Dead Redemption 2, Metro Exodus, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Gears 5 and The Division 2 we use the built-in benchmark runs. In Call of Duty Modern Warfare, we perform a manual run-through at the beginning of the campaign run. In Need for Speed Heat we perform a manual run-through in the open world of the game driving through the city and up into the mountains. In Wolfenstein Youngblood we perform a manual run-through in the Riverside map.
Video Card Comparison Setup
Due to price changes by the competition our video card comparison setup will be different for this review. To gain a wide scope of performance and see where each video card lies we have chosen video cards above and below the one being reviewed so everyone can see the big picture.
Radeon RX 5700
First, we are going to include a reference AMD Radeon RX 5700 video card in the comparison today. We are doing this specifically because the Radeon RX 5600 XT is using basically the same GPU as the Radeon RX 5700, just scaled down in performance on core frequency and memory subsystem. It should be noted that the Radeon RX 5700 still has an MSRP of $349 and its price is not changing.
The Radeon RX 5600 XT and Radeon RX 5700 are in no way price comparable. We are including the Radeon RX 5700 so that we can see the performance difference between the two. We do this knowing the Radeon RX 5700 will be faster, but we are doing this to give you the big picture on performance. Remember, the Radeon RX 5700 is geared for the 1440p gaming experience, and Radeon RX 5600 XT is geared for the 1080p gaming experience.
GeForce RTX 2060 FE
We are also including NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2060 Founders Edition video card. This is not the new “Super” card, but the original release RTX 2060. Originally, the launch price of the RTX 2060 was $349 when it was released in January of 2019. However, in a pre-emptive strike toward AMD’s Radeon RX 5600 XT NVIDIA has just dropped the price on it to $299.
You can go to NVIDIA’s GeForce product page right now and purchase this video card for $299, and we confirmed with NVIDIA that this is the staying price, it is permanent. You can also find retail custom video cards with sales and rebates also making cards with factory overclocks around $299 as well. Due to this price change, we must include the Founders Edition RTX 2060 in our review, the two are now price comparable.
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
We are also including a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti video card in our comparison as well. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti was originally supposed to be the price comparable video card to the Radeon RX 5600 XT. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti has an MSRP of $279 so it matches exactly with the MSRP on a reference Radeon RX 5600 XT. Of course, you can get more expensive GTX 1660 Ti’s with factory overclocks, just as you can get more expensive Radeon RX 5600 XT’s with factory overclocks.
However, there have been sales and rebates on GeForce GTX 1660 Ti’s as well. There have been GeForce GTX 1660 Ti’s with factory overclocks as low as $249-$269 with rebates. So once again to get the big picture we are including GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. In order to achieve this, we are using an ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1660 Ti but we are downclocking the factory overclock boost speed to default reference GTX 1660 Ti boost clocks. Due to the robust cooling on this video card the boost frequency still runs up to 1875MHz on its own. Therefore, this represents a well cooled, high reference boost clock, performance.