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Radeon RX 6500 XT: A bad joke?

20.1.2022

Translation: machine translated

AMD's Radeon RX 6500 XT promises gaming in 1080p resolution at a low price. First reviews show that: That is only partly true.

AMD's RX 6500 has just 4 GB of VRAM, i.e. graphics memory. The manufacturer announced on its homepage in 2020 that 4 GB is not enough for gaming. That seems to be the end now. The corresponding blog post was removed shortly before the release of the RX 6500 XT.

A little lamb?

PCGames Hardware thinks that AMD has given the RDNA-2 architecture, on which the RX 6500 XT is based, a shrinkage treatment. They say the card is a lamb in many ways, despite being the first in 6nm manufacturing. The card is said to be frugal with a typical power consumption of 100 watts and thus generates little waste heat. The recommended retail price of 209 Euros is also good. However, the 4 GB graphics memory reduces the performance enormously. Most games can be played in 1080p resolution, but rarely with maximum details. A Radeon RX 580 with 8 GB VRAM from 2017 or a Geforce GTX 1060 with 6 GB VRAM from 2016 achieve better frame rates in games.

PCIe lanes as bottleneck?

Besides the 4 GB VRAM, the RX 6500 XT only has four PCIe 4.0 lanes. The lanes have a significant influence on the data transfer speed. Today, 16 lanes are standard for most graphics cards. According to Techpowerup, neither AMD nor NVIDIA have tried less than eight lanes in the last few years. The fact that AMD only uses four lanes is an economy measure to keep the costs for the card low. According to Techpowerup, however, the four PCIe lanes are too few for a desktop graphics card.

Only conditionally recommendable

Golem comes to a similar conclusion as the first two reviews. When the card reaches its limits in data transfer and VRAM, the frame rates of games stutter violently. Should the card be available at the recommended retail price, it might be worth a look - if you can live with the 4 GB VRAM. That is enough for typical e-sports titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

If you scroll through YouTube, the conclusions are clearer: A bad joke, worse than cards from 2016 or worst GPU.

When and at what price the cards will be available in our store is still unclear. It is best to check back from time to time.

Header image: Image: Screenshot Youtube GamersNexus

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Kevin Hofer

Senior Editor

kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.ch

From big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.

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