PSA: DON'T Buy The RX 6500-XT (Unless There's LITERALLY Nothing Else)

[r.linder]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFpuJqx9Qmw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArW4-mkGHSw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmE8iZWaLWE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5_oM3Ow_CI

Right out of the gate, the RX 6500-XT is being outperformed by the RX 580, a 5 year old refresh of a 6 year old GPU architecture. It can sometimes win against the 580, but it loses battles against it more than it wins, and there's just other issues with the card, like the fact that it only uses up to 4 PCI-e lanes out of a x16 PCI-e slot, and lacking some encoding support like HEVC.
AMD seems to have intentionally stripped down the 6500-XT, I guess to cut cost, but the MSRP is still basically around the same as what the RX 580 was, and that number doesn't mean anything anymore because of scalpers, that card is probably still going to be scalped even though it's terrible, which makes it even worse for people who might end up buying a scalped 6500-XT.

In my opinion, don't buy the 6500-XT, you're much better off paying more for a GTX 1660 SUPER or RTX 2060. If the 6500-XT sells out, it'll only show AMD that their shady design choices are a-okay with us, but it shouldn't be, this is absolutely disgusting that a 4 year old GPU is still consistently faster than their latest. And don't give me that "well the RX 580 was the top end of Polaris" crap, they've released the RX 590, which is even faster, than the 5500-XT, which was slower than that, and now the 6500-XT, which is basically the same GPU but actually worse in some aspects. The 580 was always a mid-range GPU in actual performance when it launched, now it's just barely above entry level, this isn't acceptable.
I don't really recommend buying Radeon GPUs at all at this point. AMD is starting to become more like Intel and NVIDIA and they're doing it wrong, they're making it too obvious that they're flipping their budget users off. At least their competitors are a lot more subtle about it.

[Magma Dragoon]

That value per dollar is awful for new products isn't surprising given the fact dollars aren't worth nearly as much as they were a few years ago. Nobody wants to be the first to jack up prices, AMD has decided the least damaging way to do it is in a market segment that hasn't been serviced for years on end. Stagflation as intentionally policy is the new normal.

[carl]

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

ya the 1030 is as good as the intel uhd 750 (best of intels igpu)

Possibly the GT 1030 DDR4 version, but the GDDR5 version is twice as fast as intel desktop igpu.

[tonimark]

man i know its garbage value they did this intetionally to reduce the demand and maybe sell this GPU at msrp which is a heck lower than gtx 1650! but it may fail or has already failed
also

Publicado originalmente por 尺.ㄥ丨几ᗪ乇尺:

AMD is starting to become more like Intel and NVIDIA and they're doing it wrong, they're making it too obvious that they're flipping their budget users off. At least their competitors are a lot more subtle about it.

yep amd has gained a lot of confidence with that ryzen sucess and also due to rx being just as good (with a tiny bit of more raw power) compare to nvidia counterparts and so they are going to be PREMIUM NUMBNESS aka not competitive at all and also anti-consumerist
also since amd supplies mostly from TSMC rather than its own globalfoundries they are experiencing price hikings and forced to raise prices:
https://www.counterpointresearch.com/tsmc-price-hike/
but there are EVEN WORSE NEWS!!
TSMC IS BECOMING A MONOPOLY and most electronics including pc gaming and smartphones are going to be ridicilously expensive! unless a stronger competitor from chine(yes american days are over chine is becoming the new super power(in 100 years) emerges

[Pharaoh (Revolution Idol)]

Publicado originalmente por ☬A&A☬:

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

ya the 1030 is as good as the intel uhd 750 (best of intels igpu)

thats not saying much

but if the 1010 is weaker than that, thats horrible
but can be useful if you dont have any igpu and need something

But you have GT730 and GT 710 options, which are good only for display ports

I have a GT 730 in my media center. Does the trick just fine, not only providing me with display out but a little bit of hardware video acceleration too.

Not every machine is a gaming PC. These low end cards do have a place.

[A&A]

Yes, l know very well that not every pc is for gaming only, but still is strange to me why we need to have GT 730 and GT 710, same if we have GT 1030 and GT 1010

[carl]

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/amd-radeon-rx-6500-xt-poor-performance-explained-by-amd-employee/?amp

[Andrius227]

Publicado originalmente por JohnChronic:

Publicado originalmente por ☬A&A☬:

But you have GT730 and GT 710 options, which are good only for display ports

I have a GT 730 in my media center. Does the trick just fine, not only providing me with display out but a little bit of hardware video acceleration too.

Not every machine is a gaming PC. These low end cards do have a place.

Funnily enough, rx 6500 cannot do video acceleration. Which makes it a terrible option for a media pc.

Im no expert but i read that it lacks av1 decoding, whatever that is, which is supposedly needed for netflix and youtube.

[r.linder]

An alleged AMD employee claimed that the 6500-XD was originally supposed to be for the Rembrandt APUs on laptops, if that's the case, that's not bad at all, but why the ♥♥♥♥ is it a desktop video card?

[A&A]

Publicado originalmente por Andrius227:

Funnily enough, rx 6500 cannot do video acceleration. Which makes it a terrible option for a media pc.

Im no expert but i read that it lacks av1 decoding, whatever that is, which is supposedly needed for netflix and youtube.

The GPU have H265/264 encoders. (l know that H265 is good is used for 8K)
AV1 is for 4K if you want. That sucks if you have 4K TV. Usually this code is 30% more efficient than H265 for the same quality and this is why it is popular.

[GOD RAYS ON ULTRA™]

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

ya the 1030 is as good as the intel uhd 750 (best of intels igpu)

thats not saying much

but if the 1010 is weaker than that, thats horrible
but can be useful if you dont have any igpu and need something

Huh? The gt1030, the gddr5 version anyways, absolutely destroys Intel graphics. It's literally like twice as fast.

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por The Hardware ʬhisperer:

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

ya the 1030 is as good as the intel uhd 750 (best of intels igpu)

thats not saying much

but if the 1010 is weaker than that, thats horrible
but can be useful if you dont have any igpu and need something

Huh? The gt1030, the gddr5 version anyways, absolutely destroys Intel graphics. It's literally like twice as fast.

https://technical.city/en/video/Iris-Xe-Graphics-G7-vs-GeForce-GT-1030

Not when it comes to Xe graphics. All of the UHD graphics are way slower, yes, but Tiger Lake's Xe graphics stomps all over it. If Intel made their Xe graphics for desktop, AMD's APUs would be in BIG trouble considering the iGPU in the 5000 series DESKTOP APUs is only slightly faster than Intel's MOBILE Iris Xe.

[A&A]

But yea, after all, l can agree that AMD closed their eyes for PCI ... x 8 lines

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por ☬A&A☬:

But yea, after all, l can agree that AMD closed their eyes for PCI ... x 8 lines

Yeah only uses x4 bandwidth even in a x16 slot, doesn't make any sense for them to do that and hamper their card to that degree

[HHH33]

Publicado originalmente por Overseer:

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

*6500xt probably isnt even pci-e 4.0, or even needs 4-8 lanes of pci-e 3.0

the xx50 cards are only for entry level gaming at lowest settings
or a replacement for igpus

The PCIe talk is because of the card only having 4 lanes. You put it into a x16 slot but only 4 connect via the PCB. Thats why PCIe 4 is better with the new 6500 XT. You pick between PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 or PCIe x4 Gen 4.0.

i get the idea it was rushed out of the gate

[A&A]

Publicado originalmente por 尺.ㄥ丨几ᗪ乇尺:

Yeah only uses x4 bandwidth even in a x16 slot, doesn't make any sense for them to do that and hamper their card to that degree

Yes, let me explain why l changed a little bit my opinion.
PCI4 x 4 is good, but l made a situation where the buyer want to spend around 800$, so the best way to spend his money was to buy a office PC i7-4th gen 8GB DDR3 (300$), 80$ for new SSD, 60-80$ for new ok PSU. Ok 500$ good for now, GTX 1050TI and RX 560 are your choices, every choice cost around 300$, for the same price you can find RX 6500XT but the performance will be terrible, because you have PCI 3,

RX 6500XT is an good offer only if you can buy a CPU with mobo which support PCI 4

But you can buy RX 6500XT and after two years, you can buy newer CPU and mobo, so 50/50 choices


EDIT: l checked RX6500XT benchmarks again with PCI 3, well, maybe it is better to buy it if you can find in for the same price