What the internet got wrong about AMD’s controversial Radeon RX 6500 XT

Skimming by way of the infinite evaluations slamming AMD’s new $199 Radeon RX 6500 XT this week, you would possibly suppose the reasonably priced graphics card is nothing in need of an abomination. “Worst GPU!” Hardware Unboxed’s video title screamed. “Worse Than 2016’s GPUs,” Gamers Nexus declared. “A GPU you might be able to buy… But shouldn’t,” Linus Tech Tips proclaimed. The checklist goes on.

Here’s the factor although: While these views are all completely legitimate and true—AMD’s graphics card is a weird creature certainly, and one which doesn’t transfer the efficiency needle over prior GPU generations, as I defined in my own Radeon RX 6500 XT review—I really feel they’re lacking some essential perspective. It ain’t 2016 anymore and the world wants reasonably priced graphics playing cards proper now. If it might keep in inventory, the Radeon RX 6500 XT scratches that itch.

[ Further reading: AMD’s $199 Radeon RX 6500 XT tested: 5 key things you need to know ]

Yes, AMD reduce options laborious to make the Radeon RX 6500 XT a actuality, and people decisions make the brand new GPU much less interesting than yesteryear’s $150 to $250 graphics playing cards. It has solely 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes, which work simply high-quality in a contemporary PC however can throttle efficiency in older PCIe 3.0-based techniques. The paltry reminiscence configuration—simply 4GB, over a barely-there 64-bit bus, although augmented by 16MB of AMD’s radical on-GPU Infinity Cache tech—inhibits the cardboard’s visible potential as properly. AMD additionally eradicated encoding assist for H.264 and H.265/HEVC, which streamers depend on, and outfit the Radeon RX 6500 XT with only one HDMI 2.1 connection and one DisplayPort. So sure, these disenchanted reviewers have each cause to be disenchanted. By many goal metrics, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is worse than prior price range graphics playing cards.

But!

The world is a unique place as we enter 12 months three of this damned pandemic. Graphics playing cards are all however inconceivable to seek out at sane costs proper now, because of a mix of ongoing component shortages, logistics woes, raised tariffs, booming GPU demand by cryptocurrency miners in search of income, and extra. Even used variations of these comparable older GPUs (just like the Radeon RX 580 and 5500 XT, and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1650 Super and GTX 1060) often promote for $250 to $400 on Ebay, relying on the day and particulars.

It’s unhealthy, y’all. So unhealthy that final 12 months, we resorted to recommending AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs with respectable built-in graphics as the most effective price range choice in our graphics card buying guide. Hell, we even went as far as to crown these built-in graphics as the best GPU of 2021. We’re discrete GPU elitists right here at PCWorld, however I discovered myself telling avid gamers on a price range to choose up a console or try GeForce Now streaming as a substitute these final a number of months. We haven’t seen a brand new price range GPU launched since 2019!

It couldn’t have occurred at a worse time. Stuck of their houses, a brand new era was launched to the glory of gaming within the midst of all this. My ex works at an elementary college, and the youngsters there know what I do for a residing. I’ve fielded infinitely extra “What’s a great way to get an inexpensive PC to play Fortnite with the homies?” queries since lockdown started than I had within the entirety of The Before Times. My unhappy reply: There isn’t one. Get an iPad. My highschool daughter’s boyfriend works part-time washing dishes and dabbles in creating OG Doom mods on the facet. His graphics card fried early in 2021 and he spent all summer time saving pennies and in search of an reasonably priced substitute. None existed. (Fortunately, once I heard in regards to the dilemma I had an previous GTX 900-series card I might give him.) Plenty of latest grownup avid gamers have been left empty handed, too.

And that is why I can’t be wherever close to as destructive in regards to the Radeon RX 6500 XT as lots of my reviewer colleagues have been.

Sure, the cardboard can begin to choke if you happen to push it past its limits, cranking up eye sweet to the max or bumping your decision previous 1080p. But if you happen to follow 1080p gaming, you’ll be capable to play aggressive e-sports video games at a blazing-fast tempo or get pleasure from triple-A titles at Medium to High settings at a strong 60 frames-per-second-plus—even on a PCIe 3.0 system. Is the Radeon RX 6500 XT a compelling improve over prior price range playing cards? No. But it exists, and that hasn’t been true within the price range house for years now. Again: Used Radeon RX 580s from 2017 are going for $250 to $400 on the streets, and that’s after 5 years of being ridden laborious.

We talked in regards to the Radeon RX 6500 XT’s efficiency and usefulness in depth on the most recent episode of our Full Nerd podcast. Check it out above.

Built for the plenty

On paper, AMD certainly appears to be making an attempt to make these GPUs for the PC gaming plenty. That 4GB of RAM over a 64-bit bus could cause lag spikes if you happen to attempt to bump graphics settings as much as Ultra or the decision to 1440p, nevertheless it additionally makes the Radeon RX 6500 XT useless for Ethereum mining (one of many main causes GPUs value a lot proper now), a design alternative AMD says it made deliberately. (Though the truth that the Radeon RX 6500 XT could have originally been intended for laptops little question additionally performed into its configuration.)

And whereas we didn’t get into the ultra-wonky specs right here on PCWorld, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is the primary GPU constructed utilizing TSMC’s new 6nm course of. Couple that with stripping out these encode blocks, reminiscence bits, and show controllers from the chip, and AMD was capable of shrink the die dimension all the way down to actually tiny ranges, as Ryan Smith detailed at AnandTech. Rather than rehash, I’ll quote a small portion of his wonderful evaluation (go learn it if you happen to’re a nerd, it’s dope):

All of which makes Navi 24 a really small chip, measuring in at 107mm². That’s lower than half the scale of Navi 23 (237mm²) and even Navi 14 (158mm²). Which, to not get hung up on die sizes right here, nevertheless it’s necessary to underscore simply how small Navi 24 is at a time when high-end PC GPUs are within the 500-700mm² vary. AMD hasn’t made a GPU this small in nearly half a decade, once they launched the RX 550 and different elements based mostly on Polaris 12 (101mm²). To put it bluntly, Navi 24 is supposed to be AMD’s final play in providing an entry-level, high-volume GPU for the PC market, and so they haven’t been afraid to make some greater characteristic sacrifices to get there.

AMD

The smaller a GPU is, the extra of them you’re capable of squeeze out of a silicon wafer. Between that and the Radeon RX 6500 XT’s ineffectiveness at mining, it’s the primary fashionable GPU to have an actual shot at perhaps—perhaps—truly being accessible at semi-sane pricing. The $250 GeForce RTX 3050 launching next week may be as properly, nevertheless it’s constructed extra historically, with 8GB of reminiscence over a conventional 128-bit bus and the identical 276 mm² GA106 die because the RTX 3060-series. It’ll in all probability be higher at precise gaming, however will it truly be accessible?

If the Radeon RX 6500 XT manages to remain in inventory for wherever close to its $200 instructed worth—wishful considering, I do know, however hell, if it manages to remain beneath $300—AMD might put new, comparatively reasonably priced {hardware} into the fingers of people that want it, individuals who need to play on the PC however don’t have the deep pockets required to get within the recreation over the past two years. PC gaming is in a precarious place proper now for newcomers. Every person who’s capable of decide up a keyboard and mouse as a substitute of getting to resort to a PlayStation controller is sweet for the way forward for the whole ecosystem.

So sure, from a technical and historic standpoint, the Radeon RX 6500 XT may be one of many extra disappointing graphics card releases. But that’s simply a part of the disappointing world we dwell in today, and right here within the actuality of 2022, having a brand new $200 graphics card accessible that may ship a adequate gaming expertise could be very, very helpful and really, very welcome certainly—warts and all.

Now hopefully AMD is ready to preserve it in inventory at sane costs. We’ll see. It bought out comparatively quick in its first day on cabinets, and scalpers shortly began flipping it on Ebay, however that was at all times going to occur. The availability of this card within the weeks and months to return would be the true measure of its price.