Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT review: Affordable, quiet, and smart

AMD’s Radeon RX 6500 XT is a humble graphics card constructed to carry 1080p gaming to the plenty at a time when the plenty haven’t had an inexpensive GPU possibility for years. Sapphire’s widespread “Pulse” model relentlessly focuses on delivering strong gaming experiences with out cost-adding frills chances are you’ll not need.

On paper, it seems like a peanut butter and jelly-type scenario. But does the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT, which retails for AMD’s $199 instructed worth, maintain up in follow? Yep. This is an efficient low-cost graphics card for brand spanking new PC builders, bolstered by some sensible software program tips that may assist you squeeze much more efficiency out of your {hardware} forward of the hotly anticipated launch of AMD’s Radeon Super Resolution feature. Let’s dig in.

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT specs and options

The Sapphire Pulse is constructed utilizing AMD’s new Radeon RX 6500 XT GPU, the primary shopper graphics card constructed utilizing TSMC’s 6nm course of. It’s very vitality environment friendly and centered on delivering good 1080p gaming efficiency at Medium to High visible settings, which the cardboard delivers in spades. Here’s a high-level take a look at the Radeon RX 6500 XT’s reference specs, which the Sapphire Pulse sticks to:

We received’t dive too deeply into these uncooked specs, as we already did so in our preliminary comprehensive Radeon RX 6500 XT review, in addition to in our extra digestible 5 things you need to know about the Radeon RX 6500 XT explainer. We want to speak about them briefly, nevertheless, as creating an inexpensive graphics card within the midst of a GPU crunch required some uncommon compromises—some applied particularly to dodge the attention of cryptocurrency miners who’ve been snatching up graphics playing cards left and proper.

The Radeon RX 6500 XT packs a scant 4GB of GDDR6 reminiscence over a minute 64-bit bus exceptional in fashionable gaming GPUs, although these reminiscence chips are clocked at a blazing-fast 18Gbps and are available augmented by AMD’s radical Infinity Cache technology. The card additionally, sadly, helps solely 4 PCIe lanes relatively than the same old 16, which may result in barely decrease efficiency in older techniques that also run PCIe 3.0, relatively than the quicker PCIe 4.0 know-how discovered within the newest PCs.

Those selections imply that whereas the Radeon RX 6500 XT excels at what it’s designed for—ultra-fast e-sports, and triple-A gaming at Mid to High settings at 1080p decision—for those who crank the attention sweet to Ultra or jack up the decision to 1440p, you can run into bigger efficiency points (like gradual body charges or lag spikes). Start at 1080p Medium graphics presets in your favourite video games and nudge up knobs from there for those who’re ready. If you persist with what the Radeon RX 6500 XT was constructed for, you’ll be pleased with it.

[ Further reading: What the Internet got wrong about the Radeon RX 6500 XT ]

Trixx Boost

Sapphire’s stellar Trixx Boost characteristic, discovered within the firm’s Trixx software utility, may also help with that. Trixx Boost has helped Sapphire GPUs earn excessive marks in our opinions for a number of years now—it earned the “best innovation” award on our Full Nerd podcast’s yearly best-of episode all the best way again in 2019.

It’s a intelligent characteristic that accelerates body charges utilizing a mixture of slight picture downsampling and AMD’s great Radeon Image Sharpening know-how. It’s like a much less complicated model of the thought behind Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s Fidelity FX Super Resolution options: Render at a decrease decision to enhance body charges, then clear up the ensuing picture artifacts with the assistance of sensible software program. Better but, whereas Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR solely operate in video games that assist it, Trixx Boost works with any DirectX 9, DX11, DX12, or Vulkan recreation. That covers all however essentially the most area of interest PC video games being performed at the moment.

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Using Trixx Boost entails adjusting proportion sliders to create a customized decision, then deciding on that decision in video games. Our Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6600 XT evaluation already wades right into a thorough evaluation of Trixx Boost at 1080p decision, so verify that out if you’d like extra element or a tutorial on setting it up. Here’s the important thing a part of what it’s essential to know, although:

Trixx Boost defaults to a customized decision at 85 % of your native display output. That works splendidly nicely once you’re taking part in at extra pixel-packed 1440p and 4K resolutions when paired with RIS, however subjectively, I discovered it too aggressive at 1080p. The decrease decision implies that chopping it again even extra leads to shimmering and infrequently janky edges which can be actually perceptible in movement at 85 %. (This isn’t only a Trixx Boost concern; each DLSS and FSR even have troubles sustaining picture high quality at 1080p decision, however not at increased constancy.)

I discovered it far more nice to bump the slide as much as 90 % of the display decision for 1080p gameplay… It nonetheless isn’t fairly excellent; you should still see slight visible artifacts in some scenes, comparable to faint shimmering on slender stairs in movement, or faint blurriness in static menu screens relying on their setup. But these distractions proved few and much between at 90-percent scaling for my part, and the additional efficiency supplied by Trixx Boost made the occasional graininess worthwhile. If you disagree, you possibly can at all times cease utilizing it.

Sapphire

If you create a customized 90 % decision with Trixx Boost, you’ll usually see a few 10 % efficiency increase in video games, although that may fluctuate relying on the title. But Trixx Boost proves particularly helpful given the Radeon RX 6500 XT’s uncommon technical configuration. With simply 4GB of reminiscence, a 64-bit bus, and 4 PCIe lanes, this GPU’s efficiency can tank for those who push visible high quality too arduous and exceed the reminiscence capability. Your decision performs a big function in reminiscence utilization. Using Trixx Boost’s customized resolutions can again you additional away from the cliff, which in flip can maybe allow you to bump up the visible settings increased in video games—going from Medium to High presets, or bumping up the textures, for instance. It’ll fluctuate significantly by the sport nevertheless it’s price taking part in round with.

More than three years after it debuted, I’m nonetheless shocked that no different graphics card maker has stolen a web page from Sapphire’s playbook and applied a Trixx Boost-like characteristic of their very own, although its usefulness could wane when AMD’s own Radeon Super Resolution arrives. For now, it’s a killer feather within the Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT’s cap.

Sapphire Pulse design

The Radeon RX 6500 XT iteration sticks to Sapphire’s acquainted Pulse design, which is to say it’s engaging, efficient, and lacks cost-adding frills, comparable to a dual-BIOS change or RGB lighting.

It doesn’t look like a finances card except for its compact two-slot design, although. The Pulse comes blacked out with pink accents, an aesthetic I personally dig, and Sapphire even slapped a metallic backplate on the Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT so it’ll look good by way of your case’s window panel. The Dual-X cooling system plops a pair of followers atop a modest heatsink, full with clever fan management and a vital idle fan-stop characteristic that halts the spinning blades once you’re exterior of video games or different GPU-stressing duties. This is a very quiet graphics card even at full tilt nevertheless—noticeably extra so than the XFX Qick 210 card we examined for our initial Radeon RX 6500 XT review. (That card ran a bit colder, in return. More on cooling later.)

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You received’t discover a lot else on the cardboard except for a single 6-pin energy connector, a single HDMI 2.1 port, and a single DisplayPort, although the bare-bones show outputs are resulting from AMD’s GPU design selections, relatively than a stripping-down on Sapphire’s half. The fundamental setup ought to work nicely within the type of finances gaming rig the Radeon RX 6500 XT is meant for, nevertheless. Speaking of show outputs, it’s price noting that AMD additionally reduce AV1 assist from this GPU, together with H.264 and H.265/HEVC encoding (decoding is there), which makes the Pulse much less interesting for dwelling theater PCs and other people hoping to stream or file their gaming adventures.

But hey, the $199 worth positive is correct and the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT can nonetheless recreation simply superb, proper? Let’s get to the benchmarks.

Our check system

We check graphics playing cards on an AMD Ryzen 5000-series check rig to have the ability to benchmark the impact of PCIe 4.0 assist on fashionable GPUs, in addition to the performance-boosting AMD Smart Access Memory and Nvidia Resizable BAR options (that are each primarily based on the identical underlying PCIe customary). Currently, we’re testing it on an open bench with AMD’s Wraith Max air cooler. Most of the {hardware} was supplied by the producers, however we bought the storage ourselves.

• AMD Ryzen 5900X, inventory settings
• AMD Wraith Max cooler
• MSI Godlike X570 motherboard
• 32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4 3800 reminiscence
• EVGA 1200W SuperNova P2 energy provide
• 1TB SK Hynix Gold S31 SSD

We’re doing issues slightly otherwise at the moment because of the finances nature of this card, and its uncommon configuration. Normally, we check video games on the highest doable graphics presets and with temporal anti-aliasing enabled to push them to their limits. But the Radeon RX 6500 XT is constructed for medium to excessive gaming at 1080p, on a finances. So we skipped our normal strategies and as an alternative determined to check AMD’s latest providing towards prior-gen GPUs in the same $200 worth bracket, plus or minus $50 in both course, with every recreation’s Medium graphics preset.

The charts beneath pit the Sapphire Pulse and the XFX Qick 210—each $199 Radeon RX 6500 XT GPUs—towards AMD’s last-gen Radeon RX 5500 XT, which launched at $180 in 2019 (and value $30 an excessive amount of on the time), in addition to the Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 580 8GB, an enthusiast-class model of the superb GPU that launched in 2017 for $250. We’ve matched that on Nvidia’s facet with the Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650 Super, which launched for $170 in 2019, and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Founders Edition GPU, a $250 graphics card in 2016. We selected these playing cards as a result of they’re the kinds of used choices the Radeon RX 6500 XT will compete towards in at the moment’s wacky GPU market. Only AMD’s new card helps real-time ray tracing.

We’ve additionally included efficiency outcomes for the XFX Radeon RX 6500 XT Qick 210 working in each PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 modes, given the 4 restricted PCIe lanes of AMD’s GPU, with the intention to see what kind of efficiency to count on for those who drop these graphics playing cards into an older system as an improve. Spoiler: It’s principally a negligible downgrade on the Medium settings this card is meant for. The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT would ship comparable efficiency in a PCIe 3.0 system, although as soon as once more, Trixx Boost may also help you’re employed round this GPU’s limitations and pace issues up.

We check quite a lot of video games spanning numerous engines, genres, vendor sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 11, DX12, and Vulkan). Each recreation is examined with VSync, body price caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, together with every other vendor-specific applied sciences like FidelityFX instruments or Nvidia Reflex. We additionally disable AMD’s Smart Access Memory and Nvidia’s rival PCIe Resizable BAR characteristic, since they’re extremely depending on how the remainder of your system is configured. We run every benchmark a minimum of 3 times and listing the common end result for every check.

Gaming efficiency benchmarks

Watch Dogs: Legion

Watch Dogs: Legion is likely one of the first video games to debut on next-gen consoles. Ubisoft upgraded its Disrupt engine to incorporate cutting-edge options like real-time ray tracing and Nvidia’s DLSS. We disable these results for this testing, however Legion stays a strenuous recreation even on high-end {hardware} with its optionally available high-resolution texture pack put in.

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Horizon Zero Dawn

Yep, PlayStation exclusives are coming to the PC now. Horizon Zero Dawn runs on Guerrilla Games’ Decima engine, the identical engine that powers Death Stranding.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Gears Tactics

Gears Tactics places it personal brutal, fast-paced spin on the XCOM-like style. This Unreal Engine 4-powered recreation was constructed from the bottom up for DirectX 12, and we love having the ability to work a tactics-style recreation into our benchmarking suite. Better but, the sport comes with a plethora of graphics choices for PC snobs. More video games ought to dedicate such loving care to explaining what flipping all these visible knobs imply.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is extra enjoyable when you possibly can play cooperatively with a buddy, however it’s a fearless experiment—and an absolute technical showcase. Running on the Vulkan API, Youngblood achieves blistering body charges, and it helps all kinds of cutting-edge applied sciences like ray tracing, DLSS 2.0, HDR, GPU culling, asynchronous computing, and Nvidia’s Content Adaptive Shading. The recreation features a built-in benchmark with two completely different scenes; we examined Riverside.

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Metro Exodus

One of the perfect video games of 2019, Metro Exodus stays one of many best-looking video games round, too. The newest model of the 4A Engine supplies extremely luscious, ultra-detailed visuals, with some of the beautiful real-time ray tracing implementations launched but. We check in DirectX 12 mode with ray tracing, Hairworks, and DLSS disabled.

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Borderlands 3

Borderlands is again! Gearbox’s recreation defaults to DX12, so we do as nicely. It provides us a glimpse on the ultra-popular Unreal Engine 4’s efficiency in a standard shooter. This recreation tends to favor fashionable AMD {hardware}.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Strange Brigade

Strange Brigade is a cooperative third-person shooter the place a staff of adventurers blasts by way of hordes of mythological enemies. It’s a technological showcase, constructed across the next-gen Vulkan and DirectX 12 applied sciences and infused with options like HDR assist and the flexibility to toggle asynchronous compute on and off. It makes use of Rebellion’s customized Azure engine. We check utilizing the Vulkan renderer, which is quicker than DX12.

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Total War: Troy

The newest recreation within the widespread Total War saga, Troy was given away free for its first 24 hours on the Epic Games Store, shifting over 7.5 million copies earlier than it went on correct sale. Total War: Troy is constructed utilizing a modified model of the Total War: Warhammer 2 engine, and this DX11 title seems beautiful for a turn-based technique recreation. We check the extra intensive battle benchmark.

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F1 2020

F1 2020 is a gem to check, supplying a wide selection of each graphical and benchmarking choices, making it a way more dependable (and enjoyable) possibility than the Forza collection. It’s constructed on the newest model of Codemasters’ buttery-smooth Ego recreation engine, full with assist for DX12 and Nvidia’s DLSS know-how. We check two laps on the Australia course, with clear skies on and DLSS off.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider concludes the reboot trilogy, and it’s nonetheless totally attractive a number of years after its debut. Square Enix optimized this recreation for DX12 and recommends DX11 provided that you’re utilizing older {hardware} or Windows 7, so we check with DX12. Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes use of an enhanced model of the Foundation engine that additionally powered Rise of the Tomb Raider and contains optionally available real-time ray tracing and DLSS options.

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Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege nonetheless dominates the Steam charts years after its launch, and Ubisoft helps it with frequent updates and occasions. The builders have poured a ton of labor into the sport’s AnvilNext engine through the years, ultimately rolling out a Vulkan model of the sport that we use to check. By default, the sport lowers the render scaling to extend body charges, however we set it to 100 % to benchmark native rendering efficiency on graphics playing cards. Even nonetheless, body charges soar.

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Power draw, thermals, and noise

We check energy draw by looping the F1 2020 benchmark at 4K for about 20 minutes after we’ve benchmarked all the pieces else and noting the very best studying on our Watts Up Pro meter, which measures the ability consumption of our complete check system. The preliminary a part of the race, the place all competing automobiles are onscreen concurrently, tends to be essentially the most demanding portion. 

This isn’t a worst-case check; this can be a GPU-bound recreation working at a GPU-bound decision to gauge efficiency when the graphics card is sweating arduous. If you’re taking part in a recreation that additionally hammers the CPU, you can see increased total system energy attracts. Consider your self warned.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Entry-level graphics playing cards at all times have modest energy calls for—the entire examined models solely want a single 6- or 8-pin energy connector—however the large energy effectivity of AMD’s RDNA 2 structure shines although right here, particularly when you think about that the Radeon RX 6500 XT holds a strong efficiency lead in uncooked body charges on this recreation as nicely. Good stuff.

We check thermals by leaving GPU-Z open through the F1 2020 energy draw check, noting the very best most temperature on the finish.

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Keeping these modest GPUs cool isn’t a problem for any of those designs, although some positively outperform others. Let’s zero in on the battle between the 2 customized Radeon RX 6500 XT fashions for a second although. By that chart, the XFX Qick 210 seems to have a transparent cooling benefit, and when it comes to uncooked levels Celsius, it actually does. But the Sapphire Pulse’s 65 diploma working warmth is damned cool itself, and by working its followers at decrease speeds, the Pulse stays whisper-quiet throughout gameplay, which is nice on an experiential degree. Both are good coolers, however I desire the sensible silence of the Sapphire Pulse.

Should you purchase the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT?

The Radeon RX 6500 XT is a weirdly constructed GPU for wacky occasions. Its unorthodox technical configuration implies that for those who attempt to push the cardboard tougher than it’s supposed, efficiency can plummet. But at 1080p decision, you possibly can play e-sports video games at ultra-fast body charges, or triple-A video games with Medium or High settings at 60fps or increased. We dove a lot, a lot deeper into the varied must-knows and caveats within the conclusion of our initial Radeon RX 6500 XT review, and recapped them in additional digestible type in our information to 5 things you need to know about the Radeon RX 6500 XT.

Having that type of gaming expertise accessible in an inexpensive graphics card as soon as once more—previous to this we hadn’t seen a finances GPU launch since 2019, and people playing cards are going for $200 to $400 used on Ebay lately—may be very welcome certainly. The Radeon RX 6500 XT isn’t a compelling efficiency improve for anybody who purchased even a modest graphics card during the last 5 years, however new PC avid gamers on a finances don’t have to show to cloud gaming or consoles anymore if they will get their fingers on this. Availability might be key, however AMD designed this GPU to be churned out for the masses. Fingers crossed. You’ll need to get this entry-level graphics card for as near $200 or $250 as doable for it to take advantage of sense.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Fortunately, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT sticks to AMD’s instructed $199 price ticket, similar to the XFX Qick 210 we reviewed earlier. Both are strong low-cost choices with surprisingly well-built bodily designs. You can’t go mistaken with both card, and realistically, in at the moment’s market you need to gobble up whichever one you stumble throughout in inventory. But the Sapphire Pulse’s whisper-quiet noise ranges and talent to squeeze a bit extra eye sweet and/or efficiency out of video games with the assistance of Sapphire’s unbelievable Trixx Boost software program provides it the slight edge in our eyes (although the discharge of AMD’s universal Radeon Super Resolution feature might make Trixx much less important in time).

If yow will discover it in inventory at or close to its $199 MSRP and wish a brand new GPU, snatch up the Sapphire Pulse. Just concentrate on the Radeon RX 6500 XT’s numerous efficiency and show limitations—work inside them and also you’ll be pleased with it. Keeps these graphics presets off Ultra, youngsters.