AMD recently announced its new entry-level GPU – Radeon RX 6500 XT at CES 2022 and from today onwards you can get it in the market finally! However, in 2021, honestly, prices of two things never went down, one being the stocks of Tesla and the other being the prices of GPUs.
Well, since the latter half of 2021 and following in 2022, the availability of mid-range GPUs have increased considerably. Now, companies like AMD and NVIDIA are focussing on launching new entry-level GPU options out of a sudden, maybe following the Intel ARC Alchemist GPUs which were supposed to launch at CES but now its exact availability dates remain uncertain.
The Red team, on the other hand, launched two new GPU options for entry-level gamers – AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT and Radeon RX 6400. While the former is available via various GPU makers like Sapphire, XFX, ASUS and others, the latter is reserved for pre-built OEM systems.
Initial Impressions
So, the only card you could actually purchase from today is the new AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT with 4GB VRAM, yes, in 2022 this too seems just an entry-level GPU, however, uses a newer 6nm process node from TSMC. So, essentially, this is a more efficient GPU as it draws up to 80W TDP and it is the world’s FIRST 6nm graphics card.
It features the breakthrough AMD RDNA™ 2 architecture and is engineered to deliver great 1080p gaming performance and remarkable efficiency! Clocked at a blazing fast 2.6 GHz frequency, it is the FASTEST clocked gaming graphics card ever! According to AMD, the Radeon™ RX 6500 XT graphics card is the perfect upgrade for the lion’s share of gamers who still game on older generation cards, priced at $199.
This card has carefully been built with new specs but performs a bit better than the RX 570, one of the most popular entry-level GPUs of all time. It supposers Microsoft Windows 11 and Microsoft DirectX® 12 Ultimate, AMD Smart Access Memory™ technology, AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution upscaling technology and other advanced features that provide visually stunning, high-refresh-rate gaming experiences.
It comes with new PCIe Gen 4 with which you can use Smart Access Memory and features the latest HDMI 2.1, has support for ray tracing as well. So, let’s find out how this GPU performs in real-world and can it be a worthwhile purchase for gamers who are looking for an affordable deal:
Product Specifications
System Specs
- Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 UD
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
- GPU: Sapphire Pulse Radeon™ RX 6500 XT
- RAM: 32GB 3200MHz memory
- SSD: 240GB WD Sn550, 480GB Crucial SATA SSD
- Power Supply: Cooler Master 750W
- CPU Cooler: Deepcool Gammaxx GTE V2
- Cabinet: MSI Mag Forge 100R
- OS: Windows 11 Pro
Design and Thermals
As you have noticed, this Sapphire Pulse Radeon™ RX 6500 XT has a very simple design with dual fans wchih have a lot of blades though and has a very sleek profile. It is not very heavy and can fit into your gaming PC effortlessly, it features the latest HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort.
In terms of thermals as you see the two fans were enough to cool the RX 6500 XT which in itself very efficient thanks to TSMC’s 6nm process. I didn’t hear much noise while gaming like I used to hear with the reference variants of the RX 6700 XT or RX 6800 series.
Overall, the temperatures were mostly in control and even after prolonged gaming the temps never went up the 70 degrees celsius maybe because of the cold weather, still the thermals are well balanced on this Sapphire GPU.
Productivity
This GPU is primarily meant for gaming but that doesn’t mean you cannot do productivity works like editing or video rendering, however, it is not the best option because of the 4GB GDDR6 memory and a 64-bit memory interface. In the benchmarks, we see a decent performance, good enough for a card that is made for gaming and costs only $199.
If you are doing content creation at 1080p, you can use the RX 6500 XT for productivity workloads as because of the RDNA2 architecture, the card does perform quite well. Also, being far more efficient thanks to the 6nm process, it takes up a lot less power than the others but we do need to note that the RTX 3050 that costs $50 more comes with 8GB memory seems a better option.
Here are the benchmark results in some of the most popular benchmark applications:
As you see in ther benchmarks, this is not a great productivity-centric GPU rather an entry-level GPU that can give somewhat decent performance. However, being only limited to 4GB VRAM, the Radeon RX 6500 XT with 64-bit memory interface limits down the performance.
Gaming
This simple-looking GPU is a great option for gamers who still rely on 1080p gaming or who want their first graphics card which is both affordable and gets the job done at 1080p in most modern games. The Radeon RX 6500 XT for its MSRP looks to be a viable option bringing modern features into play and as per AMD is a successor to its prior RX 570 but with new RDNA2 architecture and 6nm process.
While there are rumours surrounding that AMD could launch an 8GB variant of this same GPU, which seems a viable rumour, currently we do not know how much price inflation the custom RX 6500 XT GPUs will have. However, this GPU brings the opportunity for you to use features like AMD’s FSR and the Radeon Super Resolution.
The best part about these upscaling techniques is that you get some frame boost which is significant in heavier titles or for those titles where frame rates matter. Want to know about the improvements that FSR or Radeon Super Resolution brings to this Radeon RX 6500 XT? We will bring a separate article for that, stay tuned.
Well, here are the gaming benchmarks of the Sapphire Pulse Radeon™ RX 6500 XT:
As you see in the benchmarks, the card performs impressively well at 1080p in almost all modern titles, however, struggles in those games which demand more VRAM. Still, overall at 1080p, the new AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT gets the job done, which matters the most for an entry-level GPU.
If you are a Battle Royal fan, then games like Fortnite, PUBG, Valorant and others run smoothly without any issues at higher frame rates. While games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Watch Dogs Legions does really stretch the GPU but if the game supports FSR like the newly launched God of War, then you do end up getting better frame rates with minimal loss in quality.
Verdict
Overall, if you are looking for an entry-level GPU for casual 1080p gaming which won’t hurt your pocket much then the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT is a good option, however, we have no idea about price inflation or availability at launch. However, the stocks could be higher than the flagship cards but it will be interesting to see if AMD can keep up with the demand.
This new Navi 24 GPU is meant for those who are desperate to game on a “New GPU” without cutting your pockets much, but if MSRP $199 would be followed by OEMs and retailers it would have been a nice option. Though improvement-wise AMD has not done any significant changes, but as you see in most cases this 4GB VRAM card gets the job done.
However, I would genuinely like to see an 8GB variant of the same card sometime later as 4GB card is not a viable option in future. The Radeon RX 6500 XT is a nice option for entry-level gamers if you get at price close to its MSRP, however, at least one has a new option in this price segment as of now.
