ASRock RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 Review: Competently Large

The ASRock RX 5600 XT has a that massive cooler helps with noise and temperatures, but is it the best 5600 XT option?

ASRock RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3
Editor's Choice
(Image: © ASRock, Shutterstock)

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Starting with the 1080p ultra results, the ASRock RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 averaged 98 frames per second (fps) across all 10 games. Every title except for Metro Exodus (54.4 fps) was well above 60 fps, with breaking 80 fps. Frame rates in our lighter titles (Strange Brigade, Far Cry 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Forza Horizon 4 and Battlefield V) averaged over 100 fps. The card proved to be plenty capable at 1080p with ultra settings delivering a smooth gaming experience in all tested games.

If we compare this to the Gigabyte Gaming OC 6G with its 14 Gbps memory, the ASRock Phantom Gaming D3 ends up almost 5% slower than Gigabyte's 102 fps. This isn’t a huge difference and one that can be overcome by overclocking the RAM on the Phantom Gaming D3 to 14 Gbps. Since the memory IC’s are rated for these speeds, it should be possible on most of these cards. If we compare the ASRock to the Asus ROG Strix card with the same 12 Gbps memory speed, the ASRock ends up a hair over 1% faster—a negligible difference and within margin of error.

When we bring in the RTX 2060 Founders Edition and the Evga RTX 2060 KO Ultra into the equation, the ASRock Phantom Gaming D3 is almost 3% slower than the FE and 6% slower than the KO Ultra. The KO Ultra with its $320 price point along with ray tracing and DLSS capabilities did a good job stealing the RX 5600 XT’s thunder, yielding another viable option for users at this price point. Cheaper RX 5700 cards are another option, with some like the MSI RX 5700 Mech actually costing less than the ASRock 5600 XT once you apply the mail-in rebate.

The Division 2

Borderlands 3

Gears of War 5

Strange Brigade

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Far Cry 5

Metro: Exodus

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

Forza Horizon 4

Battlefield V

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Joe Shields
Motherboard Reviewer

Joe Shields is a Freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US. He reviews motherboards.