For some incredibly odd reason, AMD initially left its recently launched Radeon RX 5600 XT out of its refreshed "Raise the Game" promotion, which rewards buyers of qualifying graphics cards with up to three free games and/or three months of Xbox Game Pass for PC. AMD wouldn't tell my why when I asked. Now a week a later, however, the 5600 XT is part of the promotion.
AMD quietly added the 5600 series to the bundle offer. Buyers of a qualifying 5600 XT can claim Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition, Resident Evil 3, and three months of Xbox Game Pass for PC. AMD also added a non-XT variant (5600) and a mobile version (5600M) to the mix.
The non-XT version is not yet available to buy (that I'm aware of), but the 5600 XT is, starting at around $279. Here's a breakdown of the core specifications of both, along with the mobile variant:
- Radeon RX 5600 XT—36 compute units, 2,304 stream processors, up to 1,375MHz game clock, up to 1,560MHz boost clock, 192-bit memory bus
- Radeon RX 5600—32 compute units, 2,048 stream processors, up to 1,375MHz game clock, up to 1,560MHz boost clock, 192-bit memory bus
- Radeon RX 5600M—36 compute units, 2,304 stream processors, up to 1,190MHz game clock, up to 1,265 boost clock, 192-bit memory bus
In its press release, AMD says the 5600 and 5600M will show up in OEM systems starting in the first quarter of 2020. It's not clear if the 5600 will also be available as a standalone card. [EDIT: AMD tells PC Gamer "The RX 5600 is OEM only (no AIB or retail cards) and systems should start appearing in the coming weeks.]
Regardless, the initial absence of these parts from the Raise the Game bundle was puzzling. The launch of the 5600 XT was rocky at best—it's a good card, but a last-minute BIOS update to boost clockspeeds (following Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2060 price cut) created a messy situation for AMD's hardware partners and consumers alike. This is mainly because cards already shipped to retailers with old BIOSes. That put the onus on add-in board partners to push out BIOS updates for consumers to update on their own, and then deal with whatever fallout might arrive as a result.
On top of it all, all of the initial cards that shipped went out with 12Gbps memory instead of faster 14Gbps memory. A BIOS update could potentially goose the memory to the faster spec, but since not all PCBs were designed with 14Gbps memory in mind, AIBs have mostly played it safe by only updating GPU clocks through BIOS updates. That means some of the initial batch of 5600 XT cards in the wild will perform on the same level as what's been represented in the bulk of reviews (Jarred's 5600 XT review includes a BIOS that supports 14Gbps memory).
Having the 5600 XT excluded from the Raise the Game bundle added insult to injury. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. Our recommendation stands, though—if buying a 5600 XT, look for a version with a 14Gbps memory. Or depending on the price, just get a base model RX 5700.
