MSI: Not all Radeon RX 5600 XT cards can handle 14Gbit/s memory speed

According to MSI, a higher memory speed is not part of AMD’s bios update for the Radeon RX 5600 XT and not all cards can run stably at the speed of 14Gbit/s. Many cards do get the higher memory speed, but with MSI and Asus only the more expensive ones.

MSI explains in its MSI Insiders video why only the Gaming Z card of the RX 5600 XT gets the gddr6 speed of 14Gbit/s. AMD introduced the Radeon RX 5600 XT this week and provided it with a vbios update at the last minute. The update increases the boost clock from 1560MHz to 1750MHz and the game clock from 1375MHz to 1615MHz. To make this possible, the power limit has also been increased: the tdp goes from 150W to 160W.

In addition, the memory speed would go from 12 to 14 Gbit/s, but according to MSI that is not part of the bios update, because not every card can handle this. The manufacturer states that AMD provides the memory and that the specification was that it would work at 12Gbit/s. Running the video memory at 14Gbit/s could cause stability issues. “The card was designed to work with memory at 12Gbit/s,” said the MSI staff.

They report that it is uncommon to see faster speeds through vbios updates anyway and that bios updates are mostly for troubleshooting purposes. “If you’re not experiencing any problems, it’s usually better to leave your system alone.” MSI will make the bios update available via its Dragon Center for the Gaming X and Mech OC cards, which then have higher GPU clocks but not higher memory speeds because MSI says it wants to offer stable performance.

MSI Radeon RX 5600 XTs after BIOS update

Asus has not yet released a statement, but the company is likely invoking similar reasons. Like MSI, Asus is making a special version of the RX 5600 XT with the higher memory speeds available, rather than bringing those speeds to all cards via the update. At Asus, this is the RX 5600 XT ROG Strix Top, which is identical to the ROG Strix OC, but with gddr6 at 14Gbit/s instead of 12Gbit/s.

Asus Radeon RX 5600 XT

Tables taken from Hardware Info

Powercolor has updated its two 5600 XT models to 14Gbit/s. This is still unknown at ASRock. Sapphire already mentions the speed of 14Gbit/s with its Pulse card and Gigabyte also increases the memory speed with its Gaming OC card.