A Closer look at the RX5700 XT IceQX2
At the first look, the RX5700 XT IceQX2 has a simple design. Everything is black, and there is no popular recently RGB lighting. The only LED which we will see is the one which is showing if there is a power cable connected.
When we look closer, then we see that there are many interesting details on both sides of the card.
The front side where we can see fans is mostly made of plastic. Black shroud and fans with HIS sign on the side. The shroud is matte, while the HIS sign is glossy. The same both fans are glossy with a shining silver lion logo. The lion is a trademark of HIS’s gaming series, and we see it also on the back of the card.
The back of the card is covered by aluminum backplate, which protects the card and at the same time, helps in heat exchange, so in short, causes lower temperature. Here is also the lion logo. Again the whole back of the card is matte black while the emblem is glossy black. It seems simple, but the effect is exceptional.
The card itself is thick. It can be installed in two slots, but it will take another half slot space. It’s also really long, so we have to be sure that in the case there is enough space for the 30cm card.
The large cooler is equipped with four 6mm heat-pipes, which are covering the whole GPU and are the top option nowadays.
The card has two fans, which are slightly larger than standard 92mm. These fans are also quiet, and I won’t hide that I was surprised how well this card handles a higher load. There are mixed reviews of competitive cards, so I was curious to see how HIS cards can handle RX5700 GPUs. The effect? High culture of work which will for sure satisfy gamers. The maximum noise measured on open test rig from 1m was 34dB. We had no chance to compare that to most RX5700 XT on the market, but the result is up to 7dB better than what MSI or Gigabyte offers and is similar to the Sapphire RX5700 XT Pulse graphics card. Simply great!
What is for sure worth to add is that the fans switch into passive mode once the card is in 2D mode or if the GPU load is low. There is also a low power BIOS switch, which you can see below. Gamer probably won’t need it, but it can be handy for those who don’t need a full card’s power and wish to reduce noise and heat.
We also have to be sure that our PSU has enough power. The RX5700 XT IceQX2 requires at least 600W PSU. I assume that the high-end 550W series will be enough as long as we won’t use the most power-hungry CPU. On the other hand, better stick to the recommended values. My only advice is to use a high-quality PSU that may save us problems in the future.
