When AMD released the 5600 XT earlier this year (let’s be honest) they made what should’ve been a nice straight forward launch an absolute nightmare. For those of you unfamiliar as to why that was, put simply, AMD dropped an 11th-hour BIOS update (and by 11th-hour, we mean literally less than the day before they broke NDA) that allowed for the graphics cards to be pushed from 12Gbps memory to 14Gbps.
It didn’t only give manufacturers headaches (as they’d already started shipping their models with the original BIOS), but it also gave us reviewers a major problem as all the benchmarks we had were, effectively, worthless in many cases.
The biggest problem that this has caused today is that given the late nature of the BIOS update, many manufacturers simply didn’t bother applying it. Not because they didn’t want to, but because they wanted to avoid any potential update that could ruin the GPU.
So, in a nutshell, buying a 5600 XT can be a little confusing. Why? Well, because you essentially have 3 different versions that are practically indistinguishable from each other. You have the 14Gbps versions with the BIOS update applied, and both 12Gbps versions that may or not may be upgradable.
It is, in fact, so confusing that AMD has felt compelled to launch a website. One that’ll specifically list all current 14Gbps compatible versions of the 5600 XT as well as updating it for any current AIB designs they’re not aware of!
Based on the current AMD website, only 19 specific graphics cards (from the 50 or so 5600 XT models released) currently support the 14Gbps BIOS update. Even then, as a consumer buying one, you’re still going to have to do the legwork to ascertain if the GPU you’re purchasing already has the update applied or if you’re going to have to manually do it yourself.
If you do, however, want some 100% clarification (as well as some useful links to make the BIOS update) you can check the official AMD website via the link here!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
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