Find our review of the XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II here: ua-cam.com/video/IwczmQNHVfo/v-deo.html Grab a GN toolkit here: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gamersnexus-tear-down-toolkit And Modmat here: store.gamersnexus.net/products/modmat
This card specifically will probably make the cut. Especially since the PR guy at XFX made it personal. It would be a very fitting place for it. Although ANY 1650 would also be a good fit. Since were what, 6+months after launch, and no SFF 1650s exist publicly yet...maybe 1 for 200$ retail.. but the thicc would be funnier in the disappointment 2019 build.
@@UItEnthusiast My nickname there is Bloody-George. I often visit the "Show off your setup/battle stations" post to appreciate people's rigs, and you sometimes comment there.
This is a giant bummer because I had such a good experience back when I built my XFX 5850 Xfire system in 2009... I'm glad I dodged a bullet on this but sad too.
I've seen some comments down below about internet retailers not honoring returns or charging a restocking fee... or it works for them and not for you then they skim money off your purchase. If you can help it and it's there... Purchase the cards from Best Buy, Frys, or Microcenter brick and mortar. I've had zero issues returning CPU's/Mobos/ and GC within the return window. 0 questions asked. They all price match too. So it's really a no brainer. Unless I have to buy it online and there is no other choice I will. But just driving up the street and getting my full money back.. you can't beat that.
BaileyPawsPlays Not sure about in the usa but best buy in Canada takes absolutely no returns on GPUs as soon as you open the package. Something to bear in mind.
GDDR6 is far more temperature sensitive compared to GDDR5. That stupid cooler was bad enough before. These cards are almost guaranteed to end up artifacting or dying.
If these were stupid cheap I'd love to grab one and have the memory contact portion machines out of aluminum or something, looks like an easy enough project. But for the price gtfo
I won't defend this product, and I'm definitely not buying one. But I have had very good response from their support staff regarding one of their RX 580 GTR Black edition cards. TL:DR...the issue was my fault, and they completely replaced it. I still have the card and it works BETTER than the same generation Sapphire card I also have. I guess companies just make mistakes sometimes. Edit: I really appreciate this video. Thank you GN.
Proof GN is willing to stick up for the consumer and take the heat from manufacturers for giving an honest review. I really appreciate it and hope you all do too.
You just couldn't help yourself, could you? You saw the word "THICC" and your mouse cursor automatically clicked "add to cart." Did you dab after the order was processed?
The plastic chrome plated cooling plate is actually a production traceability tab that is required on all injection molded parts for quality certification from organisations like ISO9001 that contain date stamp time wheels and plastic material identification.
@@Vooman You know why most toothpaste is red, white, and blue? The white cleans your teeth, the blue tastes cool and fresh, and the red makes your toothbrush go faster.
I got this card extremely cheap a couple of weeks ago, $74, and it's interesting how different the design of my Thicc ii is. No chrome, no grill, different fan mounts. I'm looking forward to modding this into a competent card. Thanks for the video.
I was going to buy one of these cards, but after seeing these videos I'm glad they weren't available in Finland when I built my system so I opted for the Powercolor Red Dragon.
I just modded my XFX 5700 XT THICC II: All plastic parts removed except the part holding the fans. Backplate removed. Memory plate (stainless steel) removed. Memory temperature is worse now: 97°C junction (max) & 104°C memory (max) @ Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Before: 97°C junction (max) & 92°C memory (max). I did not alter the fan speed. Using the latest bios available from the XFX website. Edit: I misunderstood and thought they'd removed the memory plate too. I readded the memory plate and added paste on the contact points of the plate and the cooler. In contrary to Gamers Nexus I did not remove the thermal pads between the memory plate and the cooler. Memory temps are improved a lot now - still 92°C max but the average temp is lower. Thank you Gamer Nexus :)
I bought THICC II last week and I am enjoying the results. She is working as expected with temperatures and I got a good result of OVER stabilizing GPU clock at 2059Mhz and 1820Mhz in the memories. Apparently no difference in the build of the XFX RX 5700XT series for its VRM, both THICC II, THICC II Ultra and THICC III Ultra models have the same construction and performed very well in TechPowerup tests. Still congratulations on the review, very good.
Thank you so much for these reviews that help us ordinary dead make the right choice this jungle of graphics cards, among other things! I was just about to pull the trigger on this card but will choose another one now. What I liked most about this was its appearance and that XFX usually makes good stuff. Keep up the good job and have a nice weekend. Cheers from Sweden :)
I remember back in the day when XFX made nothing but cool stuff. Like the old socket 775 mobo's, everything was high quality (or so it seemed). Now even mention of XFX is rare. Come on guys step up your game make one card and make it damn good bring back the good old days.
I'd say there's no point, paying extra money for the looks and then removing the looks to catch up to the cheaper cards on cooling performance doesn't sound too appealing
I have an XFX like that 580 you showed, 1405mhz stock and OC's great. Wonderful card, especially after upgrading pads and paste. It's sad to see XFX go so far backwards in design
The performance has been unwelcome and disappointing for Gamers Nexus ONLY, for everyone else - including me, it's been great. So far so good. Although I admit the card is very loud under load. I understand the build and cooling could be a lot better but Steve's just throwing a hissy fit honestly. Likely he got a bad card and talks about it like it applies to everyone else. Now if you don't believe me, search on Google or UA-cam for other reviews. Or if you prefer, tell me which game you want me to benchmark and which temps you want to see and if I have the time and the game available on steam I'll do it no problem. (Or you can buy me the game and I'll benchmark it for free hehehe)
@@habibsspirit its more a case of, like the MSI cards, there is a lot better for the money, measurably better, better cooling, better designed, better performance *for less* As Steve says again and again, you can make a card that is really loud and pushes a lot of air and its still terrible, even if the "stock" temperatures are better. The best 5700 xt card on the market right now is the Sapphire Nitro.. but its "stock" settings favor silent running over pure performance. If you crank up the fans it outperforms other cards and it's still more silent than the likes of the XFX and MSI cards. XFX has clearly got issues. There is more than one reviewer who found fan control issues and temperature bugs. XFX may or may not fix those issues. What they CANT easily fix is the use of plastics and Stainless steel hashed together with termal pads and screws in their cooler design where others used a unified block of nickel plated copper, which is more expensive but vastly better at transferring heat, every interface between materials hurts cooling, meaning for example.. if covering a 1mm gap, a 1mm pad will outperform 2x 0.5 mm pads. The interface between the layers is less efficient. XFX used a lot of extra layers & cheaper metals which hurts performance. XFX and MSI have both been caught out cutting costs and charging more for their cards than their competitors who are using better materials and not penny pinching in areas that really do matter such as heatsink design and materials and fan fittings. You may like the look, but objectively the THICC is an inferior card with design choices which cant be easily remedied by the average user. In contrast the likes of saphire can Easily release a bios update which uses a more aggressive fan curve and takes advantage of their superior cooling design... their baseline hardware is solid and even with no changes the end user can alter the fan curves in AMDs Wattman.. nothing else is needed. Thats why GN is so critical of the Thicc. it has issues which cant be fixed without voiding your warranty in most countries... even if they fix the inconsistent and erratic fan speed control , the terrible cooler design wont change.
@@habibsspirit The performance is fine, because an Rx 5700XT performs like a RX 5700XT regardless of how good the cooler is. But you could both save money and get a quieter card by going with the Sapphire pulse, making this an objectively bad value and bad cooler.
@@martinpalmer6203 I agree completely. However my point still stands, to ridicule this card like it's useless and doesn't work is basically to admit you have beef with the brand. And although the cooler design is inferior to other brands it's still good enough to keep the card under 70°C under load whilst being loud but mildly noticeable using headphones. If it's the only custom design available where you live like it was in my case, I see no problem with purchasing it whatsoever.
if the XFX card was the only option.. id wait on stock. The other option is to ship internationally. After watching buildzoid discuss the various board designs I ultimately decided a reference XT + waterblock was better for my situation. international shipping a reference model+full cover block worked out similarly to buying an AIB partner card... but the cooling performance is better esp longer term. Of course its only economic if you already have a pump/res & radiator.
Could you please make a video on the XFX rx 5700 xt THICC III? They've passed to a triple cooler design and they now have a copper coldplate over the gddr6 ram modules. Just like with the corsair case, it would be really interesting to see what XFX has improved on its card.
Mine performs quite well. I really don't get all the hate, it might perform considerably worse than the rest of the custom line up but the card runs everything fine while never going past 70c. Only downside is the fact that it's quite loud.
@@habibsspirit I believe its a Bandwagon effect. The card's BIOS is broken, manually setting fan speed to 50% in afterburner fixed many problems regarding temps (in my specific case). I don't get above 62°C under load, and the noise is tolerable; also benchmarking exceptionally well. XFX still needs to offer solutions..
Just bought the THICC III - best card on the market as far as I can see, albeit by a slim margin. With performance comes heat, and somebody who tested them said XFX did a good job solving the issues with the new 3 fan design. Specs edge out the Devil and the Sapphire - by a small margin. Current N price on the 3 fan improved model falls right between them. If you prefer either of them, that is totally valid, it's splitting hairs all the way. The ASUS has it's problems as does the Gigabyte (Seems that XFX isn't the only company that has minor issues with new designs). Haters gonna hate, and the ones complaining about "Fake" cosmetics are spending bucks festooning their machines with gobs of LEDs. It's just plastic trim and wouldn't work any better if it was CNCed aluminum. One reviewer pointed out correctly that the plastic covers reduce weight and help prevent damage to the slot, especially when shipping/transporting. The new version 3 is now $439 on Newegg. Different strokes for different folks, we are all computer enthusiasts, and so we should all get along. I'm happy because I've got a new XFX 5700XT card to go in my new Threadripper build and am looking forward to getting it together - Love new builds. Peace.
It's sad to see what they did with newer cards because i absolutely love their RX 480/580 GTR design and performance. I'm sold for their big, bulky design without RGB ever since i first got my RX 480 GTR, it's just look badass, and GTR's cooler work great too. I'm still using the XFX RX 480 GTR for my main PC because i don't play games as much as before. But i could just turn the fan speed to 100% all the time for maximum cooling performance until its die and just effortlessly swap its with a new pair of fan.
I have a 580 gts and Ive been maxing out at 70c which is just fine. I have great case airflow, though it's in a meshify c which is pretty mid-range as far as case temps go according to Steve's data 😉
@@StonedSoldering Me too, i use MSI Afterburner to tune the fan speed raising base on the GPU temp. The 0db fan is quite pointless in Vietnam because it'll reach 60 degree Celsius in no time anyway.
When are we getting a review on the ASUS TUF and Strix RX 5700 XT's though? A lot of ppl have been waiting on your reviews for them since you guys make the best, informative and data-driven reviews. Thanks for the awesome videos guys! Keep it up.
Thank you for reviewing it !! Almost one month ago it was the only custom card available here so I had to buy it in order to mount my new pc (couldn't wait any longer) thus I was hoping and looking each day for a tear down with some analysis. I am returning my Thicc to the warehouse where it's belongs even tho It is still the best looking card by far I will admit that , but not for a tradeoff in performance.My nitro+ is comming tomorow and hopefully I wouldn't have the same problem as the thicc, I had to settle to speed fan because it wasn't spinning causing burned fingertips (yeah it's feels better to check temp in reality and not with a software :p )
Hmm, the thing is that if the stainless steel is magnetic, it has small chromium and tiny amounts/no nickel in it. Regular SS with nickel is not magnetic, nickel change the bonds. Never-mind. Basically being magnetic or not, doesn't prevent it from being one of the worse materials to use in this application, its on VRMs ffs. Keep up GN ... you're one of the best.
I've owned this card for about 3 months. It's terribly hot. And the radeon software kept crashing. (wattman crash error) I had to totally remove it from my system as I couldn't even get into windows or bios. Very frustrating.
It would be interesting to see a fallow up, changing that steel plate for copper one and making better contact on the heatpipes, then testing it regularly and testing it once again but this time removing all the unnecessary plastic/metal around the card and just putting those 2 included fans on the heatsink without the plastic shroud, would really like to see what changes to temperature this will couse
My only question is why burn budget making it thicker when you could make it more to the size it should be? They knew someone was going to call them on that when it was detected as underperforming in thermals. I mean smaller cases actually are getting more attention and they could have catered to those then to an aesthetic that few are going to see or care about once it was in some cases.
thicc 3 seems to have most thic 2 issues solved according to some other sources. Think they watched this video and fixed most the problems. Hope you get a chance to take a look.
For anyone curious, because I was, Stainless steel has a thermal conductivity of 14 (W/m K) vs Aluminum that ranges from 150 - 200 and copper that's around 300 (like Steve said). Although I'm not a chemist, and that was just from a quick google search so take with a grain of salt. (if someone knows this is wrong please correct me)
this was the card I was actually looking forward to, because it reminded me to the 290x double dissipation edition I used to have and those were a gorgeous card and performed very cool. Such a shame XFX.
One of the big problems I’m seeing is a lack of progression in design. I don’t know if it’s a lack of knowledge of the product line or what, but it’s just sad.
I live in country where they enforce those warranty tickers, i have XFX R580, and i had to replace thermal paste and my warranty is over. So satisfying to watch that someone can say screw you i have right to maintain my equipment .
the bad side about that vBIOS switch positioning: I bought this card (now returned for a Gigabyte 5700XT Gaming OC after consistently hitting 90c edge temp in any game), and when i first went to use a screwdriver to move that switch, since finger wouldn't reach, the switch plastic snapped off, lmao gg XFX
@@CaveyMoth I mean apparently whoever Mark at XFX is pretty salty about it over on Reddit. According to him and I quote "this is not the first time GN has come after us."
LordIron Weird of him to say that, GN is not even coming after them, he’s criticizing their product. Gotta be able to take criticism if you’re gonna make a product going into this market.
Can u also review the RAW II?? Should be a shorter review, since (I think) the PCB is the same as the THICC, but the cooling solution is a different one and from the temps I get it seems to perform better in cooling things. The only negative thing I can say about the RAW II is it's weight. It feels like half as heavy as my old Sapphire 270x Toxic (didn't measure it). Also, a question for everyone who might read this: Randomly from time to time my new system blackscreens and Wattman resets itself. The system runs stable for hours, benchmarks, stresstests: No problem. At the moment I'm just thinking that it's a driver issue, since it appears that sporadic and nearly everytime I fire up my pc wattman is like "Oh yea, there was a problem, I reseted myself". My specs: XFC RAW II, manually put the max boost clock up to 2100, +20% Power Limit, the GDDR6 is clocked @910mhz and overworked the fan curve a little. 915mhz is also possible no problem, never went over it yet. ___ Ryzen 3700x, used Ryzen Master to clock it to 4c @4,325 Ghz/4c @4,275 Ghz, 1,35625 Vcore, overclocked the infinity fabric too ___ X570 i Aorus Pro Wifi ___ 2x 8GB Patriot Viper Steel, running at 3733mhz cl17
Is this just a standard reference 5700 XT board with extra coolers slapped on it and called "After Market"? because... holy crap I even see the place where the RGB plugs in for the blower shroud! (That's the white bit there...)
im gonna play devils advocate , i love xfx and their customer service...*insert "im not paid to say this" meme* . i almost always used xfx cards and they were always good to me if an issue came up .they really will go above and beyond to help you. at least in my experience. i still have all 4 xfx cards i've used over the years. regardless , i really liked the teardown... edit , in my experience , if ive had a fan fail , xfx has sent me entire heatinks, back plates and shrouds if a fan fails. ive never had to send the card back.. they really do ignore the warranty sticker
Hi Steve, people keep saying that "if you lift up the cpu/gpu cooler or heatsink you have to wipe & reapply thermal paste (even the new paste that was just applied needed to be wiped off) because of air bubbles", I couldn't find any video or official comparison test about this issue, if you can make a comparison video about this it'd be appreciated thanks
I bought the XFX RX 5700 DD ultra (non-xt) for $300 and now trying to decide if it's worth overriding the bois with the Thicc II bios at the cost of higher temps considering the cooling on the actual Thicc IIs.
I wonder if the plastic shroud additions cause the cooler to need more air movement/pressure to remove the heat. On a lot of cards you can just remove the shroud and zip tie case fans onto it and cool much better with RPMs that would make you think is pushing less air and not more.
Not the first time for XFX though. Remember Ghost Edition furnaces? It was GTR and GTS (to a certain degree, no pun intended) when they got their shyte together, moreless. Just that not too many people were ever fond of the GTS looks, and GTR fans could be rattly at times.
I wonder what the thermal performance would be like with that stainless part replaced with aluminium or copper? I mean, you've already paid the price difference to expect aluminium or copper, so how much did they save doing that move?
Personally - I didnt like how thick the thermal pad was that was supposed to making contact with the VRMs. Im 100% sure the thermal transfer is WORSE the thicker the pad is and that is definitely a key area where you would want good heat dissipation. Plus all the plastic?? It just makes me feel like the repurposed a cooler from a different card to save money but it was either to small to get good coverage so they messed around with the shroud to make it look like it would work
That warranty sticker... There was a time when XFX was well known for long, modder friendly warranties. I know they don't honour them now but my XFX R9 285X came with a lifetime warranty.
Could you mod it to improve it, so you could prove your point. I don't say I don't believe you, your are amongst the most educated guys in this industry, and are still building your credibility. Message to XFX: All manufacturer are treated equal, these are the products you make that are treated AS THEY ARE.
So besides all the plastic everywhere, is it the use of stainless steel for the cooling and that massive air gap under the copper cold plate thats causing the issues? If so, do you think filling that air gap with something like solder would help?
If this was like $420 it would be ok-ish But for $450.. it's trying to be same as Nitro+ While it's perform nearly same as MSI Evoke (which is $hitty to starts with) Just get Gigabyte for $420, or Sapphire Pulse.. or Nitro+ ($440) and have the best 5700xt in market for cheaper ( Thicc $450) Vs (Nitro+$440)
I think you had "thick" confused with "tall". I think of the cooler thickness instead (which I think you showed as basically normal), but I get your point.
You know that BGA memory module like GDDR6 is cavity down design IC with no thermal via to the top of the casing. The whole heat is dumped into the PCBA which has different thermal conductivity in y, x axis, let alone Z. The whole IC is molded inside epoxy resin with a thermal conductivity in the 1/100 to 1/1000 range compared to highly conductive metal. This does not explain higher memory temperature, but something else does. Shot me an email if you want to learn more. -Niko from CORSAIR
I've bought this card. The problem is there are no signal coming from the card. The pc running fine, (if I plugged in a usb, there is a tone playing indicating usb connected), but still no display. If I use the iGPu, everything working fine. Monitor got the display and can use it fine. Before this using XFax RX570. Currently rocking oem ACER mobo with 2nd gen Intel. Is it because the mobo doesn't support the card?
So when is the ROG Strix review? It's one of the more major brands doing the 50$ Above Reference Price cards and I'm interested in where it fits in the big picture.
so is it really so bad? And are the ultra versions afftected too? (the ultra goes as cheap as a reference model here, for like 395€ whereas a red devil is like 450 but offers LEDs) The boost speed of nearly 2GHz makes it look interesting
I hope I'm early enough that you'll see my comment! Thanks for doing detailed reviews - any chance you will review the Powercolor 5700 XT dual fan (not the Red Dragon or Red Devil) in the future? I'd love to see a review on it because it's one of the few true 2 slot cards that will fit in smaller ITX cases like the Louqe Ghost. Cheers for your time!
I wish we had right to repair in Canada. I bought a gigabyte Vega 56, and it was a really good overclocker, but the back vrm kept overheating. Pretty sure it just needed a new thermal pad, but I didn't want to lose the warranty so had to send it back for repair, and they just gave me a refund instead
Find our review of the XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II here: ua-cam.com/video/IwczmQNHVfo/v-deo.html
Grab a GN toolkit here: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gamersnexus-tear-down-toolkit
And Modmat here: store.gamersnexus.net/products/modmat
The cheap, shiny plastic reminds me of the Demon Destroyer Gunn that LGR reviewed a while back.
So the thicc is what would happen if the Verge built a graphics card
Steve, do you think it would make any difference if I buy some thermal pads and sink better the memory plate and the back plate?
Can you test if the memory temps are better without the stainless steel plate and just thicc pads?
04:03 no thermal pads on any of the vrms.
Into the "disappointment build 2019" bin
im tired of this rx5700s, im so done
can i have one of those? a mans trash is anothers treasure :)
A Radeon VII with this shroud would be the ultimate disappointment.
Think the super series is already there
This card specifically will probably make the cut. Especially since the PR guy at XFX made it personal. It would be a very fitting place for it. Although ANY 1650 would also be a good fit. Since were what, 6+months after launch, and no SFF 1650s exist publicly yet...maybe 1 for 200$ retail.. but the thicc would be funnier in the disappointment 2019 build.
xfx- stop its already dead
GN- its plastic
Aaaarggghhh
And not good plastic, but Macdonald's plastic.
Those happy meals are how it got THICC
This is when the marketing team makes a joke and the design team takes it seriously.
Are you the same Schnoz from the Linus Tech Tips Forum?
The Reactive Code Wow what a shnoz
@@UItEnthusiast good to see you here, man!
@@GeorgAyres Wait, but who are you on the forums?
@@UItEnthusiast My nickname there is Bloody-George. I often visit the "Show off your setup/battle stations" post to appreciate people's rigs, and you sometimes comment there.
The THICC is just a standard-sized card wearing a fat suit. The name needs to be changed to XFX Fat Suit.
XFX Big Momma
needs to be changed to XFX Shit Cooler
Phatt*
XFX IMplANTS
The XF-FAKE 5700 XT FRICC
XFX is gonna be even more salty after this lol!
Especially Mark at XFX lmaoo
Steve back at it with his salt bae move lol
Xfx already dead when they leave nvidia
More like denying it based on their reddit replies.
@@AndrianHendrawan Nvidia kicked xfx out because hey also sold, at the time, ati cards.
XFX: "It's not the first time GN has come after us"
Steve: "Hold my Snowflake"
it was a joke steve is taking it the wrong way
@@blazebott sure thing xfx
@@blazebott Seems like XFX social media handling skills are as bad as their cooling solutions.
@@ferrumignis ohhhhhhhhh snap
@@blazebott Calling joke to get out of something stupid you said only works if anyone believes you.
No one believes you XFX
"Stuffing their LTT branded underwear" I guess he must have seen the mug comment lol
@@nick-zc9xv linus did a video and one of his employees had a GN cup in his house, and Linus found it when filming a video. Its a recent video
@@nick-zc9xv Linus basically said one of his employees made poor life choices for owning a GN mug
@@GainingDespair and it was clearly a joke for anyone wondering or for people looking to find drama
@@Kyros9119 Pretty sure most people know that most tech youtubers have friendly back and forths like that.
@@CalculatedRiskAK oh you'd be surprised
XFX should turn this engagement around and use GN to build the "customers" card. XFX RX 5700 GN+ (FTW)
i like "XFX RX5700 Tech Jesus edition" better
@@Atreea i for sure would buy this lol
Worst card I've seen in while, good call Steve. Thanks for helping us buyers.
yeah and it's a shame because I've always been looking up those cards because they look cool as all hell.
I got the fat boy, avoid xfx
Padding in its LTT underwear.... that is FANTASTIC!
The design is to accommodate the possibilities of Linus dropping the card lol
The heatsink will keep it as cool as the water...in this LTT insulated cup.
I freaking lost it when I heard that! LMAO!
@@jaguh9069 you use the word possibility, when i know you mean "near-certainty" :D
SHOTS FIRED!
This is a giant bummer because I had such a good experience back when I built my XFX 5850 Xfire system in 2009... I'm glad I dodged a bullet on this but sad too.
I've seen some comments down below about internet retailers not honoring returns or charging a restocking fee... or it works for them and not for you then they skim money off your purchase. If you can help it and it's there... Purchase the cards from Best Buy, Frys, or Microcenter brick and mortar. I've had zero issues returning CPU's/Mobos/ and GC within the return window. 0 questions asked. They all price match too. So it's really a no brainer. Unless I have to buy it online and there is no other choice I will. But just driving up the street and getting my full money back.. you can't beat that.
BaileyPawsPlays Not sure about in the usa but best buy in Canada takes absolutely no returns on GPUs as soon as you open the package. Something to bear in mind.
I hate chromed plastic, nothing screams cheaply made like chrome plastic.
Oh man it's the worst
GDDR6 is far more temperature sensitive compared to GDDR5. That stupid cooler was bad enough before.
These cards are almost guaranteed to end up artifacting or dying.
For me it means a disco party on the screen.
If these were stupid cheap I'd love to grab one and have the memory contact portion machines out of aluminum or something, looks like an easy enough project. But for the price gtfo
@Stasss wow
@Stasss hardware unboxed video shows this 100c bug for those who maybe wondering... and the obviously terrible memory cooling even when its not bugged
I won't defend this product, and I'm definitely not buying one. But I have had very good response from their support staff regarding one of their RX 580 GTR Black edition cards. TL:DR...the issue was my fault, and they completely replaced it. I still have the card and it works BETTER than the same generation Sapphire card I also have. I guess companies just make mistakes sometimes.
Edit: I really appreciate this video. Thank you GN.
Proof GN is willing to stick up for the consumer and take the heat from manufacturers for giving an honest review. I really appreciate it and hope you all do too.
Newegg is refusing returns. Good luck if you bought this like me! 😭
oh now that is just adding salt to the wound
You just couldn't help yourself, could you? You saw the word "THICC" and your mouse cursor automatically clicked "add to cart." Did you dab after the order was processed?
If it's working for you then you shouldn't feel bad and maybe next time wait for GamersNexus reviews before buying on a rush.
im stuck with the reference. be thankful for what you have
@@upperedgelon1317 waterblock it
The plastic chrome plated cooling plate is actually a production traceability tab that is required on all injection molded parts for quality certification from organisations like ISO9001 that contain date stamp time wheels and plastic material identification.
Title: XFX RX 5700 XT THICC II before plastic surgery.
Chrome won't get you home, but you sure look good pushing!
Implication there being other colours perform better.
@@Asdayasman of course, red'z da fastest
@@Vooman You know why most toothpaste is red, white, and blue?
The white cleans your teeth, the blue tastes cool and fresh, and the red makes your toothbrush go faster.
I got this card extremely cheap a couple of weeks ago, $74, and it's interesting how different the design of my Thicc ii is. No chrome, no grill, different fan mounts. I'm looking forward to modding this into a competent card. Thanks for the video.
I was going to buy one of these cards, but after seeing these videos I'm glad they weren't available in Finland when I built my system so I opted for the Powercolor Red Dragon.
I just modded my XFX 5700 XT THICC II: All plastic parts removed except the part holding the fans. Backplate removed. Memory plate (stainless steel) removed. Memory temperature is worse now: 97°C junction (max) & 104°C memory (max) @ Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Before: 97°C junction (max) & 92°C memory (max). I did not alter the fan speed. Using the latest bios available from the XFX website. Edit: I misunderstood and thought they'd removed the memory plate too. I readded the memory plate and added paste on the contact points of the plate and the cooler. In contrary to Gamers Nexus I did not remove the thermal pads between the memory plate and the cooler.
Memory temps are improved a lot now - still 92°C max but the average temp is lower. Thank you Gamer Nexus :)
This is why I don't buy anything until seeing a teardown. Love the work Tech Jesus, keep it up!
I bought THICC II last week and I am enjoying the results. She is working as expected with temperatures and I got a good result of OVER stabilizing GPU clock at 2059Mhz and 1820Mhz in the memories. Apparently no difference in the build of the XFX RX 5700XT series for its VRM, both THICC II, THICC II Ultra and THICC III Ultra models have the same construction and performed very well in TechPowerup tests.
Still congratulations on the review, very good.
Thank you so much for these reviews that help us ordinary dead make the right choice this jungle of graphics cards, among other things!
I was just about to pull the trigger on this card but will choose another one now.
What I liked most about this was its appearance and that XFX usually makes good stuff.
Keep up the good job and have a nice weekend.
Cheers from Sweden :)
I remember back in the day when XFX made nothing but cool stuff. Like the old socket 775 mobo's, everything was high quality (or so it seemed). Now even mention of XFX is rare. Come on guys step up your game make one card and make it damn good bring back the good old days.
Well they still have the same ridiculous boxes.
Did you test it without the plastics or with proper contacts?
I'd say there's no point, paying extra money for the looks and then removing the looks to catch up to the cheaper cards on cooling performance doesn't sound too appealing
I have an XFX like that 580 you showed, 1405mhz stock and OC's great. Wonderful card, especially after upgrading pads and paste. It's sad to see XFX go so far backwards in design
Since the performance has been unwelcome and disappointing, perhaps this model should be rebranded "5700 DICC PICC".
The performance has been unwelcome and disappointing for Gamers Nexus ONLY, for everyone else - including me, it's been great. So far so good. Although I admit the card is very loud under load.
I understand the build and cooling could be a lot better but Steve's just throwing a hissy fit honestly. Likely he got a bad card and talks about it like it applies to everyone else.
Now if you don't believe me, search on Google or UA-cam for other reviews. Or if you prefer, tell me which game you want me to benchmark and which temps you want to see and if I have the time and the game available on steam I'll do it no problem. (Or you can buy me the game and I'll benchmark it for free hehehe)
@@habibsspirit its more a case of, like the MSI cards, there is a lot better for the money, measurably better, better cooling, better designed, better performance *for less*
As Steve says again and again, you can make a card that is really loud and pushes a lot of air and its still terrible, even if the "stock" temperatures are better.
The best 5700 xt card on the market right now is the Sapphire Nitro.. but its "stock" settings favor silent running over pure performance.
If you crank up the fans it outperforms other cards and it's still more silent than the likes of the XFX and MSI cards.
XFX has clearly got issues. There is more than one reviewer who found fan control issues and temperature bugs. XFX may or may not fix those issues. What they CANT easily fix is the use of plastics and Stainless steel hashed together with termal pads and screws in their cooler design where others used a unified block of nickel plated copper, which is more expensive but vastly better at transferring heat, every interface between materials hurts cooling, meaning for example.. if covering a 1mm gap, a 1mm pad will outperform 2x 0.5 mm pads. The interface between the layers is less efficient. XFX used a lot of extra layers & cheaper metals which hurts performance.
XFX and MSI have both been caught out cutting costs and charging more for their cards than their competitors who are using better materials and not penny pinching in areas that really do matter such as heatsink design and materials and fan fittings.
You may like the look, but objectively the THICC is an inferior card with design choices which cant be easily remedied by the average user.
In contrast the likes of saphire can Easily release a bios update which uses a more aggressive fan curve and takes advantage of their superior cooling design... their baseline hardware is solid and even with no changes the end user can alter the fan curves in AMDs Wattman.. nothing else is needed.
Thats why GN is so critical of the Thicc. it has issues which cant be fixed without voiding your warranty in most countries... even if they fix the inconsistent and erratic fan speed control , the terrible cooler design wont change.
@@habibsspirit The performance is fine, because an Rx 5700XT performs like a RX 5700XT regardless of how good the cooler is. But you could both save money and get a quieter card by going with the Sapphire pulse, making this an objectively bad value and bad cooler.
@@martinpalmer6203 I agree completely. However my point still stands, to ridicule this card like it's useless and doesn't work is basically to admit you have beef with the brand. And although the cooler design is inferior to other brands it's still good enough to keep the card under 70°C under load whilst being loud but mildly noticeable using headphones. If it's the only custom design available where you live like it was in my case, I see no problem with purchasing it whatsoever.
if the XFX card was the only option.. id wait on stock. The other option is to ship internationally. After watching buildzoid discuss the various board designs I ultimately decided a reference XT + waterblock was better for my situation. international shipping a reference model+full cover block worked out similarly to buying an AIB partner card... but the cooling performance is better esp longer term.
Of course its only economic if you already have a pump/res & radiator.
The name is good tho. Instead of going full edge with like, lighting, they went full meme. THICC
Could you please make a video on the XFX rx 5700 xt THICC III? They've passed to a triple cooler design and they now have a copper coldplate over the gddr6 ram modules.
Just like with the corsair case, it would be really interesting to see what XFX has improved on its card.
Could you get that steel plate made in copper and test to see if there is a difference? It could be a fun video.
It's the best looking GPU I have ever seen.
What a shame that it performs so poorly.
Mine performs quite well. I really don't get all the hate, it might perform considerably worse than the rest of the custom line up but the card runs everything fine while never going past 70c. Only downside is the fact that it's quite loud.
@@habibsspirit I believe its a Bandwagon effect. The card's BIOS is broken, manually setting fan speed to 50% in afterburner fixed many problems regarding temps (in my specific case). I don't get above 62°C under load, and the noise is tolerable; also benchmarking exceptionally well. XFX still needs to offer solutions..
Just bought the THICC III - best card on the market as far as I can see, albeit by a slim margin. With performance comes heat, and somebody who tested them said XFX did a good job solving the issues with the new 3 fan design. Specs edge out the Devil and the Sapphire - by a small margin. Current N price on the 3 fan improved model falls right between them. If you prefer either of them, that is totally valid, it's splitting hairs all the way. The ASUS has it's problems as does the Gigabyte (Seems that XFX isn't the only company that has minor issues with new designs). Haters gonna hate, and the ones complaining about "Fake" cosmetics are spending bucks festooning their machines with gobs of LEDs. It's just plastic trim and wouldn't work any better if it was CNCed aluminum. One reviewer pointed out correctly that the plastic covers reduce weight and help prevent damage to the slot, especially when shipping/transporting. The new version 3 is now $439 on Newegg. Different strokes for different folks, we are all computer enthusiasts, and so we should all get along. I'm happy because I've got a new XFX 5700XT card to go in my new Threadripper build and am looking forward to getting it together - Love new builds. Peace.
So what your saying is if it come down to this or a blower card i get the blower
Your camera is _crystal_ clear. Great content too 😂
It's sad to see what they did with newer cards because i absolutely love their RX 480/580 GTR design and performance.
I'm sold for their big, bulky design without RGB ever since i first got my RX 480 GTR, it's just look badass, and GTR's cooler work great too.
I'm still using the XFX RX 480 GTR for my main PC because i don't play games as much as before. But i could just turn the fan speed to 100% all the time for maximum cooling performance until its die and just effortlessly swap its with a new pair of fan.
I have a 580 gts and Ive been maxing out at 70c which is just fine. I have great case airflow, though it's in a meshify c which is pretty mid-range as far as case temps go according to Steve's data 😉
And I don't have fans maxed
@@StonedSoldering Me too, i use MSI Afterburner to tune the fan speed raising base on the GPU temp. The 0db fan is quite pointless in Vietnam because it'll reach 60 degree Celsius in no time anyway.
Are you tearing down the card or the company? xD
Why not both?
@@kujiko88 Yeah, it was rhetorical. ^_^
yes
When are we getting a review on the ASUS TUF and Strix RX 5700 XT's though? A lot of ppl have been waiting on your reviews for them since you guys make the best, informative and data-driven reviews. Thanks for the awesome videos guys! Keep it up.
Thank you for reviewing it !!
Almost one month ago it was the only custom card available here so I had to buy it in order to mount my new pc (couldn't wait any longer)
thus I was hoping and looking each day for a tear down with some analysis.
I am returning my Thicc to the warehouse where it's belongs even tho It is still the best looking card by far I will admit that , but not for a tradeoff in performance.My nitro+ is comming tomorow and hopefully I wouldn't have the same problem as the thicc, I had to settle to speed fan because it wasn't spinning causing burned fingertips (yeah it's feels better to check temp in reality and not with a software :p )
Hmm, the thing is that if the stainless steel is magnetic, it has small chromium and tiny amounts/no nickel in it. Regular SS with nickel is not magnetic, nickel change the bonds. Never-mind. Basically being magnetic or not, doesn't prevent it from being one of the worse materials to use in this application, its on VRMs ffs.
Keep up GN ... you're one of the best.
I can't believe you said their card feels like it came in a nappy meal... lmao
And that it's stuffing its underwear, so to speak; Specifically, its LTT underwear.
*happy
@@Tallnerdyguy might as well be nappy! lmao
@@andreassheriff ewwww lol, but ya
I've owned this card for about 3 months. It's terribly hot. And the radeon software kept crashing. (wattman crash error) I had to totally remove it from my system as I couldn't even get into windows or bios. Very frustrating.
Please do a review on the ASUS Tuf 5700 xt
Its shit. More shit then this.
I just watched through the whole channel from the beginning. It is the history of Steve's hair growth! :D
I'm all in!!! Start tearing it down!!!!!! - I love your content Gamers Nexus
It would be interesting to see a fallow up, changing that steel plate for copper one and making better contact on the heatpipes, then testing it regularly and testing it once again but this time removing all the unnecessary plastic/metal around the card and just putting those 2 included fans on the heatsink without the plastic shroud, would really like to see what changes to temperature this will couse
My only question is why burn budget making it thicker when you could make it more to the size it should be? They knew someone was going to call them on that when it was detected as underperforming in thermals. I mean smaller cases actually are getting more attention and they could have catered to those then to an aesthetic that few are going to see or care about once it was in some cases.
"we dont care for the looks" - reviews cute pet card next.
those XFX pin-pad fans failed on me in only 4 months of usage, the fan just falls out of the ring socket
thicc 3 seems to have most thic 2 issues solved according to some other sources. Think they watched this video and fixed most the problems. Hope you get a chance to take a look.
For anyone curious, because I was, Stainless steel has a thermal conductivity of 14 (W/m K) vs Aluminum that ranges from 150 - 200 and copper that's around 300 (like Steve said).
Although I'm not a chemist, and that was just from a quick google search so take with a grain of salt. (if someone knows this is wrong please correct me)
this was the card I was actually looking forward to, because it reminded me to the 290x double dissipation edition I used to have and those were a gorgeous card and performed very cool. Such a shame XFX.
Why is it a shame? Mine runs great and i haven't seen it get over 72 at full load. Its not the ultra but it runs awesome. I paid 429 for mine
@@johnw9986 it doesn't performs nicely when compared to cheaper models. Just not worth the money...
Yeah, I had a 280x DD and it was also really good overall, better than most on thermals.
Did you test the THICC III? It seems that all the people on UA-cam love it.
One of the big problems I’m seeing is a lack of progression in design. I don’t know if it’s a lack of knowledge of the product line or what, but it’s just sad.
I live in country where they enforce those warranty tickers, i have XFX R580, and i had to replace thermal paste and my warranty is over.
So satisfying to watch that someone can say screw you i have right to maintain my equipment .
the bad side about that vBIOS switch positioning: I bought this card (now returned for a Gigabyte 5700XT Gaming OC after consistently hitting 90c edge temp in any game), and when i first went to use a screwdriver to move that switch, since finger wouldn't reach, the switch plastic snapped off, lmao gg XFX
I wonder if the card runs cooler without all the plastic.
Can't wait for the enviable baseless video takedown from XFX.
Oh! Did they take down any previous vids? The last one is still up though.
Are they on The Verge of doing it?
@@CaveyMoth I mean apparently whoever Mark at XFX is pretty salty about it over on Reddit. According to him and I quote "this is not the first time GN has come after us."
LordIron Weird of him to say that, GN is not even coming after them, he’s criticizing their product. Gotta be able to take criticism if you’re gonna make a product going into this market.
@@React2Quick What you didnt mention was that was the last line of a reply to someone else. Mark didn't make a post specifically to address GN.
Can u also review the RAW II?? Should be a shorter review, since (I think) the PCB is the same as the THICC, but the cooling solution is a different one and from the temps I get it seems to perform better in cooling things.
The only negative thing I can say about the RAW II is it's weight. It feels like half as heavy as my old Sapphire 270x Toxic (didn't measure it).
Also, a question for everyone who might read this:
Randomly from time to time my new system blackscreens and Wattman resets itself. The system runs stable for hours, benchmarks, stresstests: No problem.
At the moment I'm just thinking that it's a driver issue, since it appears that sporadic and nearly everytime I fire up my pc wattman is like "Oh yea, there was a problem, I reseted myself".
My specs:
XFC RAW II, manually put the max boost clock up to 2100, +20% Power Limit, the GDDR6 is clocked @910mhz and overworked the fan curve a little. 915mhz is also possible no problem, never went over it yet.
___
Ryzen 3700x, used Ryzen Master to clock it to 4c @4,325 Ghz/4c @4,275 Ghz, 1,35625 Vcore, overclocked the infinity fabric too
___
X570 i Aorus Pro Wifi
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2x 8GB Patriot Viper Steel, running at 3733mhz cl17
Isn't 900mhz too low?
@@Saigonas baseclock is 875mhz
@@ThirAilith oh i forgot AMD's and Nvidias clocks are masured differently
It's basically a gpu in one of those inflated sumo costumes
Thanks for bringing the facts to consumers once again.
How Thic are the Thermalpads from the Memory and th VRM´s?
Why dont you do ASKGN anymore? I miss out on the helpful info and unique questions?
Is this just a standard reference 5700 XT board with extra coolers slapped on it and called "After Market"? because... holy crap I even see the place where the RGB plugs in for the blower shroud! (That's the white bit there...)
Putting more wounds to the salt that is XFX Thicc
im gonna play devils advocate , i love xfx and their customer service...*insert "im not paid to say this" meme* . i almost always used xfx cards and they were always good to me if an issue came up .they really will go above and beyond to help you. at least in my experience. i still have all 4 xfx cards i've used over the years. regardless , i really liked the teardown...
edit , in my experience , if ive had a fan fail , xfx has sent me entire heatinks, back plates and shrouds if a fan fails. ive never had to send the card back.. they really do ignore the warranty sticker
Hi Steve, people keep saying that "if you lift up the cpu/gpu cooler or heatsink you have to wipe & reapply thermal paste (even the new paste that was just applied needed to be wiped off) because of air bubbles", I couldn't find any video or official comparison test about this issue, if you can make a comparison video about this it'd be appreciated thanks
It's not air bubbles, it's that the paste isn't spread as well as it used to be because the release of tension will pull the paste away unevenly.
I bought the XFX RX 5700 DD ultra (non-xt) for $300 and now trying to decide if it's worth overriding the bois with the Thicc II bios at the cost of higher temps considering the cooling on the actual Thicc IIs.
Saw the upload. Me: "Oh boy here we go."
I wonder if the plastic shroud additions cause the cooler to need more air movement/pressure to remove the heat. On a lot of cards you can just remove the shroud and zip tie case fans onto it and cool much better with RPMs that would make you think is pushing less air and not more.
Not the first time for XFX though. Remember Ghost Edition furnaces? It was GTR and GTS (to a certain degree, no pun intended) when they got their shyte together, moreless. Just that not too many people were ever fond of the GTS looks, and GTR fans could be rattly at times.
Thank you for keeping it honest and being impartial.
I wonder what the thermal performance would be like with that stainless part replaced with aluminium or copper? I mean, you've already paid the price difference to expect aluminium or copper, so how much did they save doing that move?
Personally - I didnt like how thick the thermal pad was that was supposed to making contact with the VRMs. Im 100% sure the thermal transfer is WORSE the thicker the pad is and that is definitely a key area where you would want good heat dissipation. Plus all the plastic?? It just makes me feel like the repurposed a cooler from a different card to save money but it was either to small to get good coverage so they messed around with the shroud to make it look like it would work
That warranty sticker... There was a time when XFX was well known for long, modder friendly warranties. I know they don't honour them now but my XFX R9 285X came with a lifetime warranty.
What size thermal pads are on that card?
Could you mod it to improve it, so you could prove your point. I don't say I don't believe you, your are amongst the most educated guys in this industry, and are still building your credibility. Message to XFX: All manufacturer are treated equal, these are the products you make that are treated AS THEY ARE.
Appreciate you being critical for the sake of the consumer (and the vendor in the long run). 👍
Would removing the XFX RX5600 XT Thicc II Pro be the same procedure? Like same amount of screws? Also, what screwdriver size did he use?
So besides all the plastic everywhere, is it the use of stainless steel for the cooling and that massive air gap under the copper cold plate thats causing the issues? If so, do you think filling that air gap with something like solder would help?
Couldn't help but notice you still have the switch lite disassembled, _oof!_
stay hard at work out there, always looking forward to the next vid.
If this was like $420 it would be ok-ish
But for $450.. it's trying to be same as Nitro+
While it's perform nearly same as MSI Evoke (which is $hitty to starts with)
Just get Gigabyte for $420, or Sapphire Pulse.. or Nitro+ ($440) and have the best 5700xt in market for cheaper ( Thicc $450) Vs (Nitro+$440)
What a shame. I'm still running an 8 year old XFX HD6870 DD (they've always had clever names) in an HTPC. Quiet and solidly built.
Would it make sense to rip the shroud off and attach 2 120mm own case fans in place of the shroud?
I think you had "thick" confused with "tall". I think of the cooler thickness instead (which I think you showed as basically normal), but I get your point.
You know that BGA memory module like GDDR6 is cavity down design IC with no thermal via to the top of the casing. The whole heat is dumped into the PCBA which has different thermal conductivity in y, x axis, let alone Z. The whole IC is molded inside epoxy resin with a thermal conductivity in the 1/100 to 1/1000 range compared to highly conductive metal. This does not explain higher memory temperature, but something else does. Shot me an email if you want to learn more. -Niko from CORSAIR
I've bought this card. The problem is there are no signal coming from the card. The pc running fine, (if I plugged in a usb, there is a tone playing indicating usb connected), but still no display. If I use the iGPu, everything working fine. Monitor got the display and can use it fine. Before this using XFax RX570. Currently rocking oem ACER mobo with 2nd gen Intel. Is it because the mobo doesn't support the card?
So when is the ROG Strix review? It's one of the more major brands doing the 50$ Above Reference Price cards and I'm interested in where it fits in the big picture.
Why are the fins not length wise? I think it would make sense on this card
so is it really so bad? And are the ultra versions afftected too? (the ultra goes as cheap as a reference model here, for like 395€ whereas a red devil is like 450 but offers LEDs)
The boost speed of nearly 2GHz makes it look interesting
I'm surprised you haven't done anything for the THICC III.
Is it not that much of an improvement?
Wouldn't some kryonaut Liquid metal fix some of the temp problems, or would it be a lost cause?
Are you going to test thermals with none of the plastic on? It seems to me like the plastic would actually block some airflow out of top and side.
It's a shame because I used to look forward for this card when it was first leaked by Videocardz
Are you going to review the asus line up? After you said the thicc II was bad I started looking into the Asus Tuf
I hope I'm early enough that you'll see my comment! Thanks for doing detailed reviews - any chance you will review the Powercolor 5700 XT dual fan (not the Red Dragon or Red Devil) in the future? I'd love to see a review on it because it's one of the few true 2 slot cards that will fit in smaller ITX cases like the Louqe Ghost. Cheers for your time!
Honestly for sff builds, the founders, blower card is actually better, as it vents hot air out, instead of just blowing inside the smaller case
I wish we had right to repair in Canada. I bought a gigabyte Vega 56, and it was a really good overclocker, but the back vrm kept overheating. Pretty sure it just needed a new thermal pad, but I didn't want to lose the warranty so had to send it back for repair, and they just gave me a refund instead