【【【Preface: Your old graphics card, it's time to upgrade】】】
As we all know, in the entire PC industry, graphics cards have been the fastest technologically advanced and the largest category of new product improvement for a long time. Compared with CPUs with only about 10%-20% performance improvement per year, memory or SSDs that can be replaced once every few years, graphics cards not only introduce new architectures and new products every year, but also have performance improvements between each generation of less than 30% or more than double.
This means that every year the new graphics card always brings players an unprecedented high frame rate, high-quality game experience. At the same time, for those older products, they are also very easy to be "turned away" by the sub-era graphics technology used in new games.
According to AMD, there are still about 47% of players currently using RX570 or lower graphics cards
However, it is a fact that graphics cards have always been technologically advanced and product upgrades have been large, but it is also another fact for many people who are still using old products from several generations ago in recent years.
Why is that? On the one hand, some of the early "next-generation graphics cards" have been constantly slotting in the product composition from the beginning. For example, the typical NVIDIA 20 series directly started from the middle and high end, which is equivalent to giving up a large part of the mainstream consumer group. On the other hand, the operating system and game market at that time were not fully prepared for a new generation of graphics technologies such as ray tracing and variable rendering rate, resulting in users who bought new graphics cards for the first time and quickly found that they did not actually have so many "sub-era games" to play.
However, with the passage of time to 2022, this situation has actually changed a lot. First of all, with the launch of new systems and new game consoles such as Windows 11, PS5, XSX, more and more mainstream games have begun to add new graphics technologies such as light chasing, HDR, and variable rendering, and the disadvantages of old graphics cards in performance and screen level have become more and more obvious.
More importantly, for the mainstream player community, they are now finally waiting for what may be the most people-friendly positioning ever, and is a new sub-era option born for the upgrade of the old product - AMD Radeon RX6500XT.
【【Specification analysis: Design is clever, but the next generation of technology is not less】】】
As AMD's latest entry-level product, the Radeon RX6500XT uses the new Navi24 core. Compared with the familiar Navi 21, 22, and 23 cores, Navi24 is of course also based on the complete RDNA2 architecture. However, in some detailed technical indicators, there are some differences between them and several "predecessors".
First, like all other Radeon RX6000 series, the Radeon RX6500XT uses AMD's latest RDNA2 architecture. This means it can support a range of next-generation graphics technology standards including hardware ray tracing, mesh rendering, variable render rates, DirectX12 Ultimate, and perfectly meet Windows 11's needs for the latest hardware.
However, a closer look and comparison of the Radeon RX6500XT with other RDNA2 architecture products, as well as its "predecessors", reveals that the radeon RX6500XT design actually has quite a few special features.
On the one hand, it can be seen that the Radeon RX6500XT uses a Navi24 core that is almost half the size of the Radeon RX6600XT. This means it only has a 1024 stream processor, 16 optical tracing units, 16MB of Infinity Cache cache, and 64bit of memory bandwidth. In other words, it's a fairly small chip and "inherently" with good cost control.
On the other hand, compared with the previous RX6000 series products, radeon RX6500XT has not only upgraded to a 6nm process, but also greatly improved the frequency of core and memory. In fact, it's not just the most running graphics card to date, it's also the first AMD product to use 18GHz GDDR6 video memory.
What does this mean? In simple terms, we can think of AMD engineers taking full advantage of the new process and new memory to maximize the final performance of the Radeon RX6500XT while controlling the wide scale (cost) of the core and memory bits.
Meanwhile, the Radeon RX6500XT has two small details that are worth noting. First of all, its official power consumption index is only 107W. This means that for many desktop computers (especially branded machines) that use low-power power supplies such as 300W or 400W, the Radeon RX6500XT will be the latest architectural graphics card that can be upgraded without the need to replace the power supply.
Secondly, unlike the previous generation of RX5500XT or RX570, the Radeon RX6500XT's video memory capacity is limited to 4GB, and no larger options are provided. Considering that 4GB of video memory is overwhelmingly sufficient for 1080P games, limiting video memory capacity is, in a way, more like a deliberate design by AMD to curb mining. In other words, the Radeon RX6500XT is purely for the needs of mainstream players and only serves this consumer group.
【【Appearance appreciation: non-public mainly, mainstream game cards do not lose "face"]】】
Like the previous RX6600XT, the Radeon RX6500XT is still based on the own designs of major AIB manufacturers. In other words, it's unlikely you'll see an original AMD radiator version of the Radeon RX6500XT.
For example, we got the Radeon RX6500XT produced by Dylan this time, and its official name is "Dylan AMD Radeon RX6500XT 4G X General".
First of all, from the outer packaging of the product, we can clearly see the selling points and key technical features of this new card. These include the RDNA2 architecture, support for PCIe 4.0, 4GB of GDDR6 video memory, and, most importantly, the flagship 1080P game.
In the graphics card body, the dual fan downforce radiator derived from the manufacturer's own scheme is not small in size, and it looks quite reassuring.
In addition, the back plate that everyone likes to see is not absent. And from the hollow design of the backplane, it is not difficult to find that the PCB body of the Radeon RX6500XT should be a short card.
As a graphics card that consumes just over 100W of power, the Radeon RX6500XT is naturally only equipped with a single 6pin external power supply.
At the same time, in terms of display output interface, the Radeon RX6500XT we have at hand is equipped with only two interfaces, one is HDMI 2.1 and the other is DP1.4. Of course, for mainstream players, in fact, most of the time it is not even possible to use these two interfaces at the same time, so the reason for one interface may be more meaningful to be compatible with different models of monitors or TVs.
After looking at the appearance part, we also removed the radiator as usual to see the heat dissipation and PCB design of this Radeon RX6500XT.
In the PCB part, this Radeon RX6500XT unsurprisingly uses a non-public short board design, but the PCB does not look empty, and it can even be said that for this level of graphics card, the layout is unexpectedly very "full".
Why is it so "full"? On the one hand, this Dielan Radeon RX6500XT uses a 4+1 phase core power supply and a 2-phase video memory power supply design in power supply. Considering that the power consumption of the whole card is only 107W, to be honest, this design is actually a bit luxurious, so it can only be said that it is worthy of the material of the core manufacturer, and it looks really reliable.
In contrast to the luxurious power-powered design, the radeon RX6500XT's body core is as small as we expected. Moreover, the new 18GHz GDDR6 memory uses a single-chip 2GB design, which means that the 4GB, 64-bit wide video memory can be achieved with only two chips. I have to say that I am used to seeing a variety of video memory flagship products around a large circle of GPU cores, such a video memory design is quite surprising.
However, it has to be said that the details of this Radeon RX6500XT can be described as not sloppy at all. Whether it is the small filter capacitor full of PCBs, or the design of SHIELD and grounding for HDMI and DP interfaces, it can be seen that manufacturers are still careful about this product that positions the mainstream market.
Finally, in the radiator section, Dylan's Radeon RX6500XT uses a fin + dual heat pipe design. In the part where the radiator is in contact with the core, it is clear that a separate copper bottom is designed.
As a radiator for mainstream graphics cards, the fin design and good care for the power supply part are naturally a plus. And careful observation can also find that in the part where the fins are in contact with the heat pipe, the manufacturer uses the reflow soldering process to strengthen and increase the thermal conductivity efficiency, and the material is really conscience.
【【Performance Measurement: Enjoy next-generation game quality with a lower threshold】】
From the theoretical specifications, it is not difficult to find that the Radeon RX6500XT is a product with fairly accurate positioning. The full RDNA2 architecture gives it support for the latest graphics technology standards, while new processes, small cores, high frequencies, and special memory designs aim to control costs, lower barriers to entry, and limit performance for non-gaming purposes.
Speaking of this, I believe that everyone's doubts are only one. That is, in the actual test, what is the performance level of radeon RX6500XT, and can it support the needs of mainstream players for "graphics card upgrades"?
In order to get closer to the current configuration of mainstream players, we have chosen the mainstream gaming PC platform composed of Ryzen7 3700X with X570 motherboard, 16GB 3200MHz memory. The reason why the latest 5000 series CPU is not chosen, on the one hand, is because the 3000 series is still used by a large number of consumers, on the other hand, it is also because the 3000 series Ryzen can already support the opening of the Radeon RX6000 series of important technical features AMD Smart Access Memory (video memory smart access memory) after the latest BIOS and driver upgrades, and will not become a bottleneck.
Without further ado, start running points.
First, it's the 3DMARK test by default. As you can see, although the stream processor and memory specifications are only half that of the RX6600XT, the higher frequencies play a significant role. In actual tests, the Radeon RX6500XT has achieved more than 60% of the performance of the RX6600XT.
And friends who are familiar with AMD graphics cards know that in today's "adrenaline" drive, it is generally integrated with very convenient one-button overclocking and manual frequency control functions. Under the premise of ensuring safety, the potential of the graphics card itself can be tapped out of some more.
As you can see, after driving the automatic overclocking, the base frequency of the Radeon RX6500XT we have at hand has risen from 2610MHz to 2805MHz. As a result, the measured theoretical performance has also increased somewhat again. Don't look at the running score it seems that it has not risen much, but from the perspective of the game performance automatically estimated by 3DMARK, the equivalent frame rate of Battlefield V at 1080P resolution has risen from 65FPS to 70FPS, which is equivalent to an increase of one gear.
After testing more games, we found that the Radeon RX6500XT was able to ensure that the vast majority of mainstream games experience at 60FPS or even higher at 1080P resolution and medium to high quality.
Of course, some friends may wonder, since the Radeon RX6500XT is an RDNA2 architecture, can it play the "light chase" game?
Don't you say, we really tried it. In Rift Breaker, we turned on all the light tracking options at 1080P, high-quality settings.
I have to say that the pressure of light chasing on the graphics card is very huge, at this time the average frame rate of the game is only 30FPS or so, although it can still be played, but the experience is really not too good.
But don't forget that the Radeon RX6500XT, as an RDNA2 graphics card, can support the "black technology" of AMD FSR supershoot. After turning on FSR and setting the gear to "Balanced", the light chase is still fully open, and the game frame rate has more than doubled, at this time the overall fluency feeling is much better, and the naked eye can hardly see any loss of image quality. In other words, as long as the game supports FSR, in theory, the Radeon RX6500XT can really experience the improvement of image quality brought by "light chase" at 1080P resolution.
[[Summary: It's not "high-end", but because of this it makes more sense]]
Overall, the Radeon RX6500XT is a good example of AMD's typical product ideas in recent years. It doesn't necessarily have a high-cost core, nor does it necessarily have very beautiful theoretical parameters, but it can bring more players a practical and easy-to-use performance experience, and it also has a clear cost-effective advantage.
At the very least, for those who are still using the RX570, RX470D, or GTX1650, GTX1050, they are finally waiting for a choice that can significantly improve the 1080P gaming experience and the price probability is not so outrageous.
And it's worth noting that in fact, our current testing conditions do not reflect the "full body" game performance of the Radeon RX6500XT to some extent, because according to the relevant information, AMD should soon add support for the RSR (Radeon Super Resolution) super score function for this product through a driver update. RSR, on the other hand, can bring up to 70% frame rate improvement effect in more games than FSR.
In other words, while the Radeon RX6500XT isn't a "high-end product," it's more likely to help AMD conquer a large base of mainstream players and ignite a long-dormant wave of hardware updates. From this point of view, its "weight" may be far heavier than many people think.