Last Updated: January 7, 2022
When AMD introduced the RX 6500 XT earlier this week, players have been leaping out of their seats to see a brand-new funds RDNA 2 graphics card get introduced. With a value level of simply $199, is the RX 6500 XT destined to be the funds GPU king that can lastly dethrone the 1050Ti? We’ll have to attend for evaluations to search out that out. In the meantime, Tom’s Hardware lately reported that the RX 6500 XT solely runs at PCIe 4.0 x4. This implies that the precise quantity of information that the cardboard goes to have the ability to switch within the slot is far decrease than its larger RDNA-2 primarily based brothers.
The RX 6500 XT is tremendous bizarre
What this finally means is that PCIe 4.0 tops out at round 8GB/s, which is an analogous fee of information switch that the SSD in your next-generation video games console will get. Luckily, this isn’t an excessive amount of of a problem with a card that, frankly isn’t too highly effective, and is barely aimed on the entry-level market. Regardless, 8GB/s will probably be present in a PCIe 4.0 slot, however what for those who don’t have a kind of? The card might doubtlessly as a substitute run at PCIe 3.0 x4, which implies it would solely run at 4GB/s, the place you may theoretically run into some bother when working video games. If somebody is utilizing an older system or has a budget-conscious construct utilizing older platforms, this has the potential to spell bother.
In addition to this, the RX 6500 XT lacks the power for {hardware} encoding or decoding of H.264 and H.265, which may also be attributed to not solely the structure of the cardboard but in addition the best way that their dies have been developed and lower.
This might be attributed to the die-cutting course of that AMD has been utilizing for its playing cards prior to now. which means that the top-end ‘Big Navi’ product is the flagship, and the remainder of the playing cards within the line such because the 6600XT are all lower down from there. However. In addition to the numerous die-cutting that the 6500 XT has purportedly been topic to, we even have a brand new processing node to contend with. Enter everybody’s pleasant neighborhood chip producer TSMC.
Previous Big Navi RDNA-2 desktop GPUs from AMD are all primarily based on one thing named a 7nm processing node, which is successfully the beating coronary heart of the merchandise themselves. The 7nm course of is one thing that at this level was properly tried and examined, with desktop CPUs, akin to their line of extraordinarily standard Zen 2 and Zen 3 processors. So, why a 6nm course of on the 6500XT?
Why the 6nm course of mattters
It’s truly a reasonably easy factor. We’re within the midst of a world semiconductor scarcity, and AMD has already booked of their orders for 6nm nodes, as they’re planning to launch them for the Ryzen 6000 desktop processors. So AMD is sitting on a load of producing capability on the 6nm course of, which additionally occurs to be with the 7nm designs, besides.
So, what to do aside from dedicate a few of this useful resource to producing a GPU that’s simply accessible to the mass market, on a budget, whereas additionally mitigating the operational prices of bringing the RDNA 2 structure over to 6nm anyway, since their Rembrandt APUs are all geared up with them too.
It simply is sensible, AMD has a possibility to manufacture desktop GPUs, and so they have been porting over RDNA2 with their laptop computer processors anyway, so it seems to simply be clear logic that they’re bringing over a few of that know-how, and plopping it over on the 6nm course of with the RX 6500 XT and 6400.
AMD CEO: ‘There is a few overlap on the low-end’
Speaking to PCWorld in a redacted round-robin interview at CES 2022, that’s nonetheless accessible by way of the Wayback Machine, Paul Alcorn of Tom’s Hardware posited that Ryzen 6000 might doubtlessly cannibalize gross sales of low-end discrete GPU gross sales. As a response, Dr. Lisa Su pointed states the next:
“We take a look at the roadmaps of the built-in APUs and discrete GPUs collectively as we’re growing the roadmaps for the subsequent three, 4, or 5 years. And, you realize, there may be some overlap on the low finish, however I feel that’s pure, proper?”
So, it’s probably that the discharge of the cut-down 6500 XT, on a brand new node that occurs to be shared with the 6000-series of APUs, is not any mere coincidence, however a calculated enterprise danger. GPU demand is larger than ever earlier than, why not carry over the low-end, lower down playing cards and promote them on a budget? There is extra demand than there may be provide. But, it does carry into query the worth of the Radeon RX 6500 XT, and the way it will ultimately examine to the RTX 3050, which is barely dearer but in addition has options akin to NVENC, which is one thing that the 6500 XT is unable to do merely on a {hardware} degree.
6500 XT specs worse than RX 480 and upcoming RTX 3050
GPUAMD Radeon RX 6500 XTNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050AMD Radeon RX 480Launch dateJanuary 2022January 2022June 2016Shader Cores1024 (RDNA 2)2560 (CUDA)2304 (GCN)ROPs324032Memory 4GB GDDR64GB GDDR64GB GDDR5Memory bandwidth144 GB/s224 GB/s224 GB/sMemory bus64-bit128-bit256-bitPCIe bandwidthPCIe 4.0 x 4PCIe 3.0 x 4PCIe 4.0 X 16PCIe 3.0 x 16Maximum PCIe bandwidth8GB/s 64GB/s16GB/sPrice$199$249$199
If you have been to instantly examine two of AMD’s sub-$200 choices, it doesn’t look good for the 6500XT, these RDNA 2 cores must be one thing very particular certainly. We’re additionally assuming that we’re restricted to sure PCIe bandwidths, however regardless, it doesn’t look nice simply from all the info that we will already verify. Is this actually going to repay for AMD, or is that this a whole misfire of a card and chip?
Wait for our RX 6500 XT assessment
Right now, the RX 6500 XT is mentioning extra questions and compromises for all to see, however we’ve not but seen what efficiency may appear like on this card, which would require testing on a number of ranges, together with on each PCIe Gen 4.0 and three.0, with its 8GB/s and 4GB/s speeds respectively. Equally, to be sure you get the very best worth on your cash, we’ll additionally examine the 6500XT over to its closest competitors, the RTX 3050 so as to just be sure you’re in a position to make the very best buying resolution attainable. Basically, maintain off on pre-ordering this one for now, as there’s clearly extra investigating to be performed below the hood.
We’ve written an entire load of reports round CES 2022, listed below are some highlights:
https://www.wepc.com/news/6500-xt-amd-risks-gamer-fury-poor-specs/
