ASUS Goes Back to the TOP with the 5600 XT ROG STRIX

It has been an exceptionally long time since we saw ASUS bring out the ‘TOP’ branding for a graphics card. So long, in fact, that I can’t actually remember the last GPU it was used on. Possibly an Nvidia 9XX, but don’t hold me to that!

It seems, however, that the TOP branding is returning and, perhaps surprisingly, with a graphics card model that you might not have expected.

Yes, ASUS has officially launched the ROG Strix TOP 5600 XT, but don’t worry, they haven’t gone mad. There is a reason why this version differs from the standard ROG Strix model.

ASUS ROG Strix TOP RX 5600 XT

So, what’s the deal with this then? Well, as we saw with MSI earlier this week, it seems that many AIB partners have something of a quandary with the 5600 XT. Namely, that they’ve already generally used their standard ‘top tier’ names and, with improvements seen to the memory (bringing it to 14Gbps), they don’t have anywhere else to go.

Hence why MSI has both the 5600 XT Gaming X (12Gbps) and, now, Gaming Z (14Gbps).

So, put simply, the ASUS ROG Strix TOP is essentially the exact same card as the standard (a word that doesn’t seem quite right) ROX Strix, but with 14Gbps memory instead of 12Gbps.

In other words, this is the TOP, top tier RX 5600 XT. Confused? Yeah, we don’t blame you!

What Do We Think?

In all honesty, I can’t remember a launch as befuddling as what we’ve seen from the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT. Not only did we see a pretty significant VBIOS update release literally days before launch, but since then we’re getting swamped with various varieties of what is, essentially, a relatively lower-mid tier graphics card. The 5700 XT had nowhere near this much attention!

On the plus side, however, and if nothing else, the ASUS ROG Strix Gaming TOP should be (all going well) the actual top-tier of what we can expect from the 5600 XT.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!