AsRock 5700 XT Challenger or Sapphire 5700 XT Pulse

pulse has reviews and challenger doesn't. Challenger is in stock on newegg, but no refund policy, exchange only. I am not sure why there are 0 reviews for the challenger yet even though its in stock already. However newegg will refund you if the item you are returning is not in stock. Heatsink doesn't look bad though, looks like some fat heatpipes on it.
 
NKD said:
pulse has reviews and challenger doesn't. Challenger is in stock on newegg, but no refund policy, exchange only. I am not sure why there are 0 reviews for the challenger yet even though its in stock already. However newegg will refund you if the item you are returning is not in stock. Heatsink doesn't look bad though, looks like some fat heatpipes on it.
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Exactly what I was thinking as well, lol
 
Decided to order the ASRock, they have a good reputation and the card has a slight overclock, figured I'd give it a shot.
 
i'm jealous, the AIB boards still aren't available on newegg.ca :(

i'm just waiting for any of the AIB boards to be instock so i can buy it >< Seriously tempted to just get a reference model right now.
 
hesho said:
i'm jealous, the AIB boards still aren't available on newegg.ca :(

i'm just waiting for any of the AIB boards to be instock so i can buy it >< Seriously tempted to just get a reference model right now.
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I think the AIB stuff will start trickling out soon. You can hold out, I think you'd end up being a bit sad if you went for a reference with AIB's right around the corner. The struggle is real though....I could have bought the ASRock version yesterday, but I am holding out for the Red Devil.
 
jhatfie said:
I think the AIB stuff will start trickling out soon. You can hold out, I think you'd end up being a bit sad if you went for a reference with AIB's right around the corner. The struggle is real though....I could have bought the ASRock version yesterday, but I am holding out for the Red Devil.
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Didn't feel like spending that much extra on a card that realistically can only be overclocked a very small amount so I went ASRock. I prefer the aesthetics of the Sapphire Pulse but figured for the same price the slight OC on the ASRock was nice. I originally wanted the Gigabyte as my last card was a Gigabyte WindForce HD 6950 that has lasted 8 years with 0 issues, but again, didn't feel like paying $20 over the stock price.
 
jhatfie said:
I think the AIB stuff will start trickling out soon. You can hold out, I think you'd end up being a bit sad if you went for a reference with AIB's right around the corner. The struggle is real though....I could have bought the ASRock version yesterday, but I am holding out for the Red Devil.
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actually i am tempted to get a vega 56. I guess they are on clearance now and i see them going for about 360 while a reference 5700 is 100bucks more. How patient do i want to be... gah.. I am a little worried about the AIB tax that will hit on these 57xx cards.
 
I wanted a Gigabyte card, too, but wasn't willing to wait for them. So it became a choice between the Sapphire Pulse and ASRock Challenger. Challenger won out because it came in stock first. It gets here Monday. I wasn't worried that it has no reviews, or that no one has gotten a review sample yet. I don't see how it can be any worse than the blower cards, even if it comes out at the bottom of the AIB card stack.

Either way, if I don't like it, I will likely be able to get my money back on eBay, or locally on Marketplace. I am not giving up my 1070 right away anyhow, so I have a backup plan if I end up ditching it for a different card.
 
UrbanFuturistic said:
I wanted a Gigabyte card, too, but wasn't willing to wait for them. So it became a choice between the Sapphire Pulse and ASRock Challenger. Challenger won out because it came in stock first. It gets here Monday. I wasn't worried that it has no reviews, or that no one has gotten a review sample yet. I don't see how it can be any worse than the blower cards, even if it comes out at the bottom of the AIB card stack.

Either way, if I don't like it, I will likely be able to get my money back on eBay, or locally on Marketplace. I am not giving up my 1070 right away anyhow, so I have a backup plan if I end up ditching it for a different card.
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That's a fair way to look at it. I've been watching the ASRock cards as I've had decent luck with their motherboards, but they seem to have underwhelming cooling (last gen RX cards) according to reviews. But then again, you can't argue when it's in stock and nothing else is, and you're right, it can't be worse than the blowers.
 
hesho said:
actually i am tempted to get a vega 56. I guess they are on clearance now and i see them going for about 360 while a reference 5700 is 100bucks more. How patient do i want to be... gah.. I am a little worried about the AIB tax that will hit on these 57xx cards.
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Having owned several V56/64/VIIs (all under water) and a 5700XT 50th AV I would say either buy the 5700xt or a used reference V56 for 230 on eBay and a $65 HSF....That will give you the best bang for the buck, and it ensures you get a card with Samsung HBM.

I love the 5700xt. Just finished my loop, and am going to be doing some tweaking this week.
 
I received my ASRock Challenger today, DOA, not happy. Tried in two PCs and nothing, fans never spun and no display on the monitor. I am using an old Acer S211 https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824009342 which only has VGA and DVI but I bought a DisplayPort to DVI adapter cable and that is working with my old card, same with an HDMI to DVI adapter. I don't think it's the monitor being incompatible, I think it's a DOA card, already started RMA with Newegg, will ship out tomorrow.
 
I just installed my ASRock Challenger, and as so far have had no issues. Will report back once I play a game or three.
 
Spoke too soon. After I posted I got a series of restarts and 4 BSOD's. Videos wouldn't play (YouTube or Netflix), and pages wouldn't load right. Discord goes black for a second any time I click on a different server.
I used DDU to uninstall my nVidia drivers, and then installed the 5700XT and drivers. Then I had to use DDU again, but I was still experiencing some of the same problems, but not the BSOD's. I think part of the video playback problem was that I was using an HDMI cable for one of my monitors, because without it attached, I have no playback issues. I'm probably not making a lot of sense with this, because I am very tired and very frustrated already with the amazingly shite launch of WoW Classic (long queues).

In PUBG I am only getting like 60FPS in 1080p with mixed settings.
 
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i'd first check in radeon settings and see if HDCP is enabled for the monitor otherwise sounds like a bad card. makes me wonder if asrock pulled an msi and is skimped on how they mounted the cooler (msi is using the wrong size pads on their memory modules with the evoke).
 
Well, that doesn't instill any confidence. I guess Newegg must have known they're crap with the exchange only return policy.
 
Woke up this morning after another Windows reinstall, and used DDU to uninstall the 19.8.2 drivers, thinking maybe if I try the 19.8.1 drivers things might clear up. Well, they didn't. I was really hoping it was just a driver issue. But after the restart for the older drivers it hung, which meant on next start up it would be another Video Scheduler BSOD.

Yeah, the replacement only return policy is going to be a major sticking point for this, I can see that now. No matter who I contact it looks like I am almost guaranteed to be stuck with this card. I can't be too many more mfr's beta test squad.

I guess it's back to the old GTX 1070 for now.

Not sure it matters, but for posterity, my system config is:
Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB G.Skill TridentZ 3200 CL16, Asus Prime X370-Pro.
 
maybe before sending it back, pull the heatsink off and see if they're doing something stupid with the cooling..

bose301s said:
Well, that doesn't instill any confidence. I guess Newegg must have known they're crap with the exchange only return policy.
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nah newegg does it for most new product releases, doesn't matter what brand it is.
 
UrbanFuturistic said:
Woke up this morning after another Windows reinstall, and used DDU to uninstall the 19.8.2 drivers, thinking maybe if I try the 19.8.1 drivers things might clear up. Well, they didn't. I was really hoping it was just a driver issue. But after the restart for the older drivers it hung, which meant on next start up it would be another Video Scheduler BSOD.

Yeah, the replacement only return policy is going to be a major sticking point for this, I can see that now. No matter who I contact it looks like I am almost guaranteed to be stuck with this card. I can't be too many more mfr's beta test squad.

I guess it's back to the old GTX 1070 for now.

Not sure it matters, but for posterity, my system config is:
Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB G.Skill TridentZ 3200 CL16, Asus Prime X370-Pro.
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Can always bring up lemon law and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act both of which absolutely apply here. Could also try contact your credit card company and see what happens.
 
UrbanFuturistic said:
Woke up this morning after another Windows reinstall, and used DDU to uninstall the 19.8.2 drivers, thinking maybe if I try the 19.8.1 drivers things might clear up. Well, they didn't. I was really hoping it was just a driver issue. But after the restart for the older drivers it hung, which meant on next start up it would be another Video Scheduler BSOD.

Yeah, the replacement only return policy is going to be a major sticking point for this, I can see that now. No matter who I contact it looks like I am almost guaranteed to be stuck with this card. I can't be too many more mfr's beta test squad.

I guess it's back to the old GTX 1070 for now.

Not sure it matters, but for posterity, my system config is:
Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB G.Skill TridentZ 3200 CL16, Asus Prime X370-Pro.
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Are you running a bios that has PCI-E 4.0 enabled by chance? If so go in and see if you have a toggle to switch it to 3.0 (I don't have it with my x470 Prime Pro).

Also, which chipset drivers are you using?

Can you PM me some contact info? I am going to report this internally and see if I can get a software engineer to speak with you.
 
I do not believe myself to be running a BIOS that has PCI-e 4.0 enabled, as I am on an X370 board. I will look into that shortly.

I am currently on the drivers that came with the motherboard, I will be updating those shortly.

PM coming your way.

Edit:
Do I check the PCI-e 4.0 thing while that card is installed? There is no option in the BIOS with the 1070 installed.
 
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UrbanFuturistic said:
I do not believe myself to be running a BIOS that has PCI-e 4.0 enabled, as I am on an X370 board. I will look into that shortly.

I am currently on the drivers that came with the motherboard, I will be updating those shortly.

PM coming your way.

Edit:
Do I check the PCI-e 4.0 thing while that card is installed? There is no option in the BIOS with the 1070 installed.
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Yeah use GPU-z and see what it says for your link speed. I may be wrong but I thought some x370 boards had 4.0 with x8 lanes enabled on their primary PCI-E slot.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
maybe before sending it back, pull the heatsink off and see if they're doing something stupid with the cooling..



nah newegg does it for most new product releases, doesn't matter what brand it is.
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My 5700xt would BSOD after a fresh OS install too. Untill I installed every single Windows update and then ran DDU again.
 
EvilViking said:
My 5700xt would BSOD after a fresh OS install too. Untill I installed every single Windows update and then ran DDU again.
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I will try this tomorrow morning. I will make sure Windows is completely up to date, use DDU to unintall my 1070, reinstall the 5700 XT and then, when all that is done I will run GPU-Z to see if it is somehow magically running in PCI-e 4.0.

However I am not Gamers Nexus, so I won't be taking my card apart, unless ASRock tells me to (which I highly doubt they will).
 
I updated to the latest drivers for everything for the Asus Prime X370-pro last night.
I installed all of the Windows updates that were available last night.

I ran DDU to uninstall the GTX 1070 this morning.
I installed the RX 5700 XT this morning.
I powered my PC back on and installed the Radeon drivers 19.8.2 this morning.

There was no BSOD this startup, but we are still early in the game.

Ok, according to GPU-Z, it is indeed running at PCI-e 4.0 ( PCIe x16 4.0 @ x16 1.1 ).
Please advise.

Edit:
After a few minutes of browsing Firefox, it gave me a BSOD for Video TDR Failure, which when it restarted, it hit me with another Video Scheduler BSOD.

Edit 2:
Couldn’t get driver to install in safe mode after another uninstall, hard shutdown while trying to reinstall the driver.
 
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I was able to purchase the AsRock 5700 XT Challenger last night and it's on the way, might have thought twice if I saw this thread first. I'll update with my experience.. I'll be upgrading from a Vega 56.
 
UrbanFuturistic said:
I updated to the latest drivers for everything for the Asus Prime X370-pro last night.
I installed all of the Windows updates that were available last night.

I ran DDU to uninstall the GTX 1070 this morning.
I installed the RX 5700 XT this morning.
I powered my PC back on and installed the Radeon drivers 19.8.2 this morning.

There was no BSOD this startup, but we are still early in the game.

Ok, according to GPU-Z, it is indeed running at PCI-e 4.0 ( PCIe x16 4.0 @ x16 1.1 ).
Please advise.

Edit:
After a few minutes of browsing Firefox, it gave me a BSOD for Video TDR Failure, which when it restarted, it hit me with another Video Scheduler BSOD.

Edit 2:
Couldn’t get driver to install in safe mode after another uninstall, hard shutdown while trying to reinstall the driver.
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you can reinstall the drives a million times, the problem isn't the drivers.. it's going to be related to 1 of 3 things.. your gpu, your motherboard/bios, or a hard drive issue(likely isn't the case if you're using an SSD) which are the 3 primary causes of the error.

also your card isn't running at pcie x16 4.0.. all it's saying is that it can run at that and the second set of numbers after the @ is what it's actually running at so there's definitely a problem either on the card it's self or the board but given your 1070 runs fine doubt that's the problem but if you haven't checked gpu-z with it installed may want to try that.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
you can reinstall the drives a million times, the problem isn't the drivers.. it's going to be related to 1 of 3 things.. your gpu, your motherboard/bios, or a hard drive issue(likely isn't the case if you're using an SSD) which are the 3 primary causes of the error.

also your card isn't running at pcie x16 4.0.. all it's saying is that it can run at that and the second set of numbers after the @ is what it's actually running at so there's definitely a problem either on the card it's self or the board but given your 1070 runs fine doubt that's the problem but if you haven't checked gpu-z with it installed may want to try that.
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I was under the impression that the x370 Prime Pro did indeed have 4.0 enabled (for now) but at x8 only for the primary 16x slot.

Asus is slowly pushing updates to remove this. Either this is the issue or he has a bad card. It sucks but it's entirely possible it just is a defective card.

Edit: here is a SS of someone with the same board having driver issues with a5700xt....It showd 4.0 x8...
https://i.redd.it/v9xvhysgiri31.png
 
OP,are you using the latest 5204 bios that was released on the 7th? If not j would try that since it is the newer 1.0.0.3AB AGESA and it should remove 4.0 from the equation.
 
ccityinstaller said:
I was under the impression that the x370 Prime Pro did indeed have 4.0 enabled (for now) but at x8 only for the primary 16x slot.

Asus is slowly pushing updates to remove this. Either this is the issue or he has a bad card. It sucks but it's entirely possible it just is a defective card.
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even if it was available, his cards not running at that, it's running at x16 1.1. if it was running at 4.0 it would say PCIe x16 4.0 @ x16 4.0.
 
My 5700XT Challenger is on its way to Newegg, won't get there until next Wednesday and then they say 2-4 days before they ship a replacement, and they probably will still be out of stock even then. Wondering what they do if the card is out of stock, do they make you wait or offer a refund?
 
bose301s said:
My 5700XT Challenger is on its way to Newegg, won't get there until next Wednesday and then they say 2-4 days before they ship a replacement, and they probably will still be out of stock even then. Wondering what they do if the card is out of stock, do they make you wait or offer a refund?
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they usually keep some set aside for returns but if they say you'll have to wait i'd use that to demand a refund or force them to exchange it with another card like the pulse or something.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
even if it was available, his cards not running at that, it's running at x16 1.1. if it was running at 4.0 it would say PCIe x16 4.0 @ x16 4.0.
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Uh, you are aware that PCI-E normally drops down to a x1.1 link speed in order to save power right? That is why they have that nifty little render button next to the speed so you can click it and see what speed the link goes up to under full power ..

Now, if is running at 1.1 under a load, then there is a major issue but I'm willing to bet that was done while it was idiling on the desktop.

I've done a few mins if GoogleFu and it seems like that board and the older 4.0 enabled bios coupled with a 5700/xt has issues.

Asus needs their rear end kicked for the steaming pile of dung they call their AM4 bios lineup ...
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
they usually keep some set aside for returns but if they say you'll have to wait i'd use that to demand a refund or force them to exchange it with another card like the pulse or something.
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I could always call the CC company too, they usually protect you.
 
BIOS updated. I ran the render test in GPU-z and it runs @ x16 3.0. I also fired up SotTR and returned a 117 FPS avg, so I am going to guess that when PUBG installs I will get more than 60FPS. I hope this is it. I hope this is the end of it.
 
UrbanFuturistic said:
BIOS updated. I ran the render test in GPU-z and it runs @ x16 3.0. I also fired up SotTR and returned a 117 FPS avg, so I am going to guess that when PUBG installs I will get more than 60FPS. I hope this is it. I hope this is the end of it.
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Good luck.
 
Huh. Was playing PUBG just now, and everything was going smooth af. Great framerates, ~140 avg on Ultra settings. Fans kept changing RPM's and then all of a sudden -- shut down. No artifacts or stuttering. No warnings. Just boof. Is 600w not enough for one of these?

Edit:
No overclocks. Not on the CPU, nor the GPU. Just plain, out of the box settings.
 
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