ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB OC Graphics Card Review

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From a first-time builder to an expert, you want a decent video card.  A good video card will not only make your viewing experience nicer but it will make what you do on your PC a little smoother.  Stepping into the realm of a good user experience, we will today be reviewing the ASRock Challenger D 5500 XT 8GB OC Card, get ready.

Before I start here, when I started to review this card, I thought it was going to be a cut and dry review, but I was so wrong here.  2 newer technologies really changed the way we have to look at things with video cards now, so be prepared.  1 of which kind of has nothing to do with the card, but uses the card and is not incredibly new, but worth noting.

Let’s see all of the specs and features this card provides

  • Powered by AMD’s 7nm RDNA Architecture
  • GPU Boost Clock up to 1845Mhz
    • Game Clock: Up to 1737Mhz
    • Base Clock: 1685Mhz
  • Memory: 8GB 128bit GDDR6
    • 14Gbps Effective
  • 1408 Streaming Processors
  • Dual Fans with thick heat pipes
  • 4 Maximum Displays
    • 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC 1.2a
      • Display Ports 1,4 5120×2880 @ 60Hz
    • 1 x HDMI 2.0b
      • HDMI up to 4096×2160 @60Hz
    • Max Digital Resolution 8K HDR @ 60Hz
    • Supports 8K Resolutions
  • Die casting metal backplate
  • Supported Features
    • Radeon FreeSync 2 HDR
    • Intelligent Image Sharpening Technology
    • PCI Express 4.0
      • Backwards compatible with PCI Express 3.0
    • Streaming up to 8K
    • Asynchronous Compute
    • Radeon Rays Audio and True Audio Next
    • Radeon Image Sharpening
    • Fidelity FX
    • Radeon VR Ready Premium
    • Radeon Boost
    • DirectX 12 Optimized
    • HDR Ready
    • Radeon Relive
  • Supports ASRock Tweaker
  • Recommended 500Watt Power Supply
  • 1 x 8Pin PCIe Power Connection

A long list of features and specifications I know, but it’s good to know what you are getting yourself into.  With that, let’s get into the box.

The box is a bit bare, looking like only the essentials here being the video card and the manual, but that’s OK.  We are going to start off with the Quick Installation Guide.  It’s handy to have but you don’t have to worry about it as the guide is very basic.  In this review I will walk you through step by step on how to install the ASRock Challenger D.

As I showed you in the unboxing, there was not a lot in the box but we got to the purpose of this review, the ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB OC card.  Let’s jump into taking A Closer look at the card.

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The Challenger series is ASRock’s budget line, but just know that budget does not mean bad, in this case it just means the card has no bling so it does not cost as much.  Some people want the bling and in that case ASRock does offer their Phantom and Taichi lines, maybe for another review.  We are focusing here on cards for those of you on a tight budget or maybe those of you that don’t really focus on the looks of the PC, but rather the performance.

 

With no bling and only 2 fans, this helps keep the card small.  The card comes in at 9.49 inches in length.  This includes the PCI bracket.

Even though the card comes in at 9.49, the PCB itself, is only 7.5 inches and this plays in the cards favor.  The other 2 inches of the card outside of the PCB is the heatsink and 2nd fan to help keep the card cool.

5 inches in depth including the PCI bracket, the card itself is a little under 4 inches.

And just over 1.5 inches in width, the card is not a beast in size, but it might just be in performance, we will go over that all here.

The card comes packed with 3 x Display ports at 1.4b with DCS 1.2 and 1 x HDMI port coming in at 2.0b.  You can use all 4 displays at once to enjoy a full digital resolution of up to 8K at 60hz.

As you saw, the card does not come with additional adapters to switch between Display Port or HDMI over to DVI or VGA.  This is one of the main reasons I do an unboxing, to show you everything that comes in the box.  The fact that it does not come with these adapters help keep the price point low, but I mention it so that you are prepared.

Laying the card down and taking a shot from the rear we can see the extent of the heatsink and its exposed copper pipe.  We can also see the single 8Pin PCI Express connection.

Yes, the connection needs to be plugged in order to power the card.  The card requires a 450Watt Power supply, but ASRock recommends a 500Watt.  We can also see here the Challenger branding.  Kind of hidden really in all that the card has to offer.

Along the top of the card, a basic ASRock logo with a metal black plate, just to help keep it a little cooler.  The Challenger is not meant to be gaudy.

The underside, where you insert the card into the PCI-e slot exposes the 3 large copper pipes helping to keep the card cool as well as the fins in the larger heatsink.

The bottom of the card, we can see the 2 x 82.55 mm fans branded ASRock.  The card itself has a few little lines to distinguish it, but not too much, but at least you know it’s an ASRock.

I have shown you everything there is about the card itself, other than how to install it and it’s performance.  In this next chapter we will go into installing the ASRock Challenger D RX 5500 XT 8GB OC Card.

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Like with most things, installing a video card is really easy…. If you have done it before.  If you have never done it, it can be the most difficult thing, we’ve all been that that point at some time in our lives.  In this video, I will show you how to install it step by step and I explain everything to you so that you can have the confidence to do it on your own.

That was a lot easier than you had imagined right, I hope this helped.  In that video, I showed you how to install the card, potentially removing an older card if you had one, then installing and connecting the card to power.

After installing the card, I show you how to remove the older driver and install the latest and greatest and give you a quick tour of the Radeon Adrenalin 2020 Edition software and driver bundle.  I did use the latest driver, while many have had issues with it, I have not.  I would like to believe DDU is the reason I have not, a clean install of windows helps as well but that could be a bit drastic.

Alright with that, I am sure you want to know how well it performs, I do too.  Let’s get into some Benchmarks, Performance, Temperatures and Power Consumption.

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So that you can compare the results with your own system, below you can find a list of all the components I am using in this review.

Here are the specs on the ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 5500 XT brought to you by GPU-Z.

You can see here, I used the AMD Adrenalin 20.4.2 driver set.  I originally used 20.4.1 and I was done with the review, but I was using the Viotek GN35DR since my previous 4K monitor had died.  The Viotek GN35DR is a great monitor but is not a 4K monitor, so I bought the Asus ROG Strix XG438Q, a 4K monitor that also offers Freesync 2 and 120hz,… so I had to re-review EVERYTHING.

I used GPU-Z to gather temperatures of the card.  Since the 5 series was released, AMD has added a new temperature sensor reading named HotSpot.  I will include both readings in my findings.

I’ve read different theories online and even received information from a board partner on what the HotSpot temperature was, but I wanted to get something directly from AMD.  Asking AMD about the Hotspot, they provided this information.

The junction temperature on modern AMD Radeon graphics cards such as the RX 5000 Series use a sophisticated network of on-die sensors to accurately report the hottest spot across the entire GPU die. Hence, the Junction temperature is also known as the ‘Hotspot’ temperature as Iggy from ThisBytesforYou is asking. Edge temperatures are usually reflective of the average temperature around the edge of the die.

The “GPU Hotspot” readout in GPU-Z is reflective of the junction temperature. The “GPU Temp” reflects the Edge temperature of the die. Older graphics cards that feature a single temperature sensor report this ‘edge’ value shown in GPU-Z. However, we continue to allow applications to read and publish this legacy ‘edge temperature’ to provide a fair comparison point vs. older Radeon and competitive GPU’s that don’t have the ability to report (and act on) the Junction or Hotspot temperature.

AMD Radeon graphics cards utilize the junction temperature to continually optimize gaming, thermal and acoustic performance in real time, enabling higher levels of performance and efficiency over basing these optimizations on ‘worst case’ edge temperature alone. The maximum safe operating junction temperature for the current lineup of 7nm Radeon graphics products is 110C.

I hope this helps to clear the air a little on exactly what it was, I know it did for me, thank you AMD.  So, if this HotSpot edge temperature has you a little worried, you can relax a little, just focus on the GPU Temperature.

To measure wattage, I use the Kill A Watt by P3 International, it works great and is very affordable.  In my benchmarks, when you see power consumed, this is how much power the entire system is consuming, including the video card, not just the video card.

Also to mention, the ambient temperature in my office is 66°F/18.8°C.

Here are the games and programs I use for benchmarking.

  • FutureMark’s 3DMark Fire Strike
  • FutureMark’s TimeSpy
  • Metro Exodus
  • Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
  • Shadows of the Tomb Raider
  • Far Cry 5
  • Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands

Alright, let’s get started.

The overall 3DMark FireStrike 1.1 score was 12,477 and the hottest the card reach was 64°C on the GPU and 82° at the HotSpot while consuming on average 218 Watts.  The card did pretty well.

This is a budget card and still scored 66% higher than all other results while keeping a decent temperature.  While keeping on its own here, let’s see how this card handles DX12 on TimeSpy since it does tout DX12 Ultimate support.

TimeSpy, while a little more rough on cards fared pretty well here.  The ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 5500 XT is not meant for 2K or 4K, it pumped out enough to be 35% better than all other results.  The 5500 XT is meant to be a decently priced power house for 1080p and with that, it scored an overall 5,185 3DMark score.

The card kept its cool on the GPU at 65°C while on this packed system, consuming on average 228 Watts.

Enough with synthetics though, let’s get to some gaming.

For all games in this review, I keep the settings the same, changing only the resolution.  I raise the settings to Ultra or the highest possible changing the resolutions to 1920×1080, 2560×1440 and finally 3840×2160.

 

At 3840×2160, Metro is a slide show.  The Challenger D 5500 XT came in at 19.06 FPS with the system consuming on average 243 Watts while keeping a cool 68°C.  At 2560×1440, coming in at 30.75 at 67°C taking up only 240Watts on average, 1.24% lower power consumption delivering almost double the frames per second and here is where you start seeing the benefits of FreeSync.  At 1920×1080, there is a 21.92% improvement going up by 8 frames per second, it still is FPS wise unplayable.

Prior to having the Asus ROG Strix XG438Q, a FreeSync 2 capable monitor, it would be totally unplayable, but with FreeSync 2, even unplayable FPS becomes so much more tolerable.  While Metro itself is a GPU slayer up the chain, the benefit’s become much more apparent as we progress in this review.

Continue with me in this adventure, as we jump over to Shadow of the Tomb Raider and see what Laura has in store for us.

Again, here I keep the same settings, changing only the resolutions

At 3840×2160, it came in at 21 Frames Per Second, this is understood to be 100% unplayable coming it 69°C and consuming on average 219 Watts.  Watching this benchmark portrayed a different story.  It was not a flip book, it was so close to 60FPS, it was very smooth with only slight stuttering.

Coming in at 68.75% higher than it previous resolution of 3840×2160, at 2560×1440 we reached 43 FPS at a cooler 67°C, a 2.94% improvement though eating up 228 Watts.  The card now being able to manage a bit better its resources, will consume more power, in this case 4.03% more power.  Here FreeSync again paints a different story than simple FPS can calculate.  43 FPS with FreeSync2 is 100% playable and no brief stutters were observed.

At 1920×1080, even with FreeSync off, we come in at a 100% playable 66 FPS.  Here the card gobbled up 232Watts on average while keeping a nice and cool 66°C, 1.50°% lower than at 2560×1440 at 4.44% better than at 4K.

Laura showed us the benefit’s of a decent card and opens our eyes a little to FreeSync, but will Assassins Creed Odyssey show us the same?

Assassins Creed Odyssey, like Metro is a GPU killer.  At 3840×2160, it came in at a totally unplayable 13 FPS, not even FreeSync could save it.  While it did not look like it was playing at 13FPS, it was bad.  At this resolution, we sucked up 238 Watts on average while keeping a nice and cool 66°C.

At 2560×1440 there was a 47% improvement over 4K at 21 frames per second.  While not optimal, you could squeeze in some gameplay here, but I would not recommend it.  The card did reach 1°C over 4K and did come in consuming 10 more watts on average.  2K here was better, but not ideal.

At 1920×1080, the