The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is a powerful card. It’s typical for it to run hot when you’re gaming. Many manufacturers design water blocks for this particular card. Some are more reliable than others. Let’s have a look.
Oh, before that. If you have not yet purchased the RX 5700 XT, you might be interested in EKWB’s PowerColor Liquid Devil. More information on the official website: here. It comes with a full cover EK water block pre-installed on the card. Not sponsored in any way, it’s just something you should know about.
This article is a part of a series on water blocks and water cooling in general. Start with an explanation of all terms such as water block, loop, liquid cooling, coolant, etc.: Water cooling dictionary What is a water block – Gamer’s guide Water block price for PC cooling Is a water block worth it? Are water coolers better than fans? Is liquid cooling worth it? What does a CPU water block do? Also read if applicable: Water cooling block for RTX 3080 | Water cooling block for RTX 2080 Ti | Water cooling block for RX 5700 XT | Water cooling block for RX 580
EKWB
EKWB, as always, comes top when talking about water blocks for newer video cards. The EK-Quantum Vector Strix RX 5700 XT is a nickel/acetal water block that drops the temperature heftily. Nickel is great as it helps you avoid galvanic corrosion.
You can get these for $100-160.
Not everyone likes the look, so let’s move on.
Corsair
Corsair Hydro water blocks are mostly used for Nvidia cards. However, the XG7 RGB for the 5700 XT is pretty great. The original price is $150 but I’m sure you can get it for lower.
Good thermal transfer, sure, but not the best price-to-degrees ratio in my opinion. The looks are great.
Out of stock on the official website.
Barrow
Barrow cooling products are always great. Frankly, I haven’t used them enough (or as much as Bykski at least – which is sadly not in the competition for RX 5700 XT water blocks except for the transparent Public Version Full Coverage sitting at $155), but I can say for sure that these are some decent cooling components.
Barrow’s water blocks are as good as Bitspower or EKWB. That includes fittings, performance, and build quality. They might be relatively more expensive, though.
The BS-AMD5700XT-PA model is a transparent-acrylic, full-coverage GPU water block for the RX 5700 XT with micro water passage and a copper-nickel plated mount.
“Full coverage” – what’s that? Well, essentially it means that this water block covers not just the GPU core but other high-temperature units as well, including but not limited to the VRAM, power supply chip MOS, and tantalum & inductance capacitors on both ends of the video card.
It has removable ARGB lighting components built-in.
Alphacool
Alphacool has several great options to choose from. The 11745 Eiswolf GPX Pro, Eisblock Acryl GPX-A, and the Eisblock Aurora GPX-A are all great options.
I’ve used the GPX Pro 240 for a while. The results were nothing short of amazing.
Keeping AMD GPU cores below 65°C is a pain, at best. The GPX Pro 240 was able to do that and then some. I was using the 50th Anniversary edition along with a Ryzen 5 3600X at that time. Around 100 FPS of gaming, my temperatures were 40-50°C. That’s a huge feat.
Note that there’s also an Alphacool GPX Pro for several other cards including the GTX 1080 and RTX 2080 Ti.
NZXT
The NZXT Kraken G12 is another great option for liquid cooling the 5700 XT. It can easily keep the temperature below 70°C. The Kraken G12 covers the GPU and the VRM pretty well but fails to cool the VRAM respectfully. Heavy gaming can take your VRAM temperature pretty high.
Now, it also depends on the card (a regular XT vs. the XT AE – which consumes less power to achieve the same clock speed).
Disclaimer: The official compatibility list is old and doesn’t list the RX 5700 XT as compatible. Given the VRAM heating issues are okay with you, let me tell you that it’s actually compatible with the 5700 XT.
