MSI RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC – Pricing and Availability
The MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC is now available and currently, at the time this review was published, it has a retail price of around $430 USD. So, that’s $30 more than the reference Radeon RX 5700 XT. MSI also has the MECH OC variant, featuring a Ventus-like look, only darker.
MSI RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC Review Conclusion
There you have it, so is the MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC worth it? First let’s talk about the Radeon RX 5700 XT itself. We didn’t get the chance to test AMD’s reference graphics card, nor their 50th Anniversary Edition RX 5700 XT. But considering that the EVOKE OC has a slightly higher clock speeds than the Anniversary Edition; I say their performance might be on par, with the EVOKE OC just performing slightly better. In terms of performance, it is good to see that AMD is again (aggressively) competing with NVIDIA’s graphics cards, at least in the mid-range section. The Radeon RX 5700 XT is generally faster than NVIDIA’s RTX 2060 Super; while both graphics card are on the same price range. AMD did offer some features together with their new 5700 series graphics card, but not on the same level as NVIDIA’s ray tracing that could improve the gaming experience visually. However, if ray tracing is what you are after, I wouldn’t confidently recommend the RTX 2060 (Super) as well. Those cards are just minimum, you might want to get something higher (like the RTX 2080 Ti) if you want to experience ray tracing without losing a lot of frames.
I’m glad that AMD finally launched a new graphics card, however I am a little bit disappointed as well. First, I’m glad that the new RX 5700 series are more power efficient than their predecessors, the VEGA series, thanks to the new 7nm process. But considering their GPU is on 7nm, it is still nowhere near the efficiency that the RTX cards offer. I didn’t include power consumption in this review as some are not really worried about that, but the RX 5700 XT does draw more power compared to its direct competition. Second, it took them quite a while to catch up with NVIDIA and until now, they don’t have something that could compete with NVIDIA’s RTX 2080 and up. I hope they would release something very soon. They are the only one who could balance things, just like what they did in the CPU department.
Now when it comes to MSI’s RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC, I don’t have any problems with the design or color. It’s certainly not for everyone, but there might be some who would want that look or aesthetic in their gaming PC. The EVOKE OC runs definitely louder, but it is not blower style level of loudness. You can fix this by simply adjusting the fan curve. Seriously, you should learn how to use the fan curve by now. By the way, there is a BIOS update that would “minimize” the noise on the EVOKE OC but I didn’t install or update the BIOS. Like I said, you can simply adjust the fan curve of the graphics card. It’s safer than tinkering with the BIOS, considering that this doesn’t have any dual BIOS feature. What I am more worried about is the high memory temperature.
GPU and VRM temperatures on the EVOKE OC are well managed even when in full load. But the memory temperature on our EVOKE OC were reaching uncomfortable temperatures at 96° Celsius. According to Micron’s data, the normal operating temperature of their GDDR6 memory is from 0°-95° Celsius. That’s already 1° Celsius higher than Micron’s normal operating temperature for their GDDR6 memory. I doubt that the small-sized thermal pad on the two GDDR6 memory chips are the culprit. Perhaps, the stock thermal pads were not transferring the heat from the memory to the cold plate efficiently. Or perhaps we just got unlucky with this specific unit. But that is going to be a test for another time.
For now, I find that MSI Radeon RX 5700 XT EVOKE OC as an “okay” graphics card. In terms of performance, it is generally faster than the RTX 2060 Super, and perhaps it could be a better value than the RTX 2070 Super / RTX 2080 Super (less the ray tracing features). It is able to drive games on 1080p and 1440p with a respectable frame rate, never mind 4K UHD. GPU and VRM temperatures are good; but if ever you buy an EVOKE OC, check the memory temperature at full load. If it is uncomfortably high, you might need to replace the thermal pads on the memory with something better, like Thermal Grizzly’s Minus high performance thermal pad. The noise can be manage, but so far the EVOKE series is the louder graphics card compared to the Gaming X, Ventus and Duke series that we have tested before. At the end of the day, I think it is still worth considering, especially if you are into the design and aesthetics.
