Why Everyone is WRONG About the RX 6500XT

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In today's video I’m showing you why I think everybody is wrong about the new RX 6500XT. In this video we have my full 6500XT review, benchmarks, and all my hot takes about this new GPU!

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#PowerColor #GraphicsCard #6500XT

[nothing.mp]

If you don't plan on streaming/broadcasting games there's nothing wrong with this GPU at MSRP. Believe it or not some of us don't dream of making it big as a twitch streamer.

[Teutons]

In my country the RTX 3050 sells for almost twice the price of 6500XT

This is a great option for budget gamers but i do feel AMD skimped A LOT more than necessary
Like having pcieX4 instead of X8 or X16
The problem with this approach is that you can no longer use an old platform if you want to use the full potential of the card
Which make it a card that's meant for budget builds but in order to use the full potential of the card you have to buy newer platform which doesn't fit well with the "budget GPU" claims of this card

[SJ-tygb]

Basically coming from something like a GTX 1050 ti or a GTX 750 ti and with a very small budget the RX 6500 XT at MSRP is a viable option for lots of people. It's way better than a GTX 1050 ti and doesn't even cost as much as a second hand GTX 1650 super. It's still available at MSRP and comes with a 3 year warranty unlike any second hand card you buy. All the better off people who can afford to spend £300 - £500 or more on a GPU good luck to them but lots of people can't afford it and this card is an option for them.

[aaron_]

We wanted a budget graphics card with the same features as a GPU that was launched in the past 5 years. Cutting out h264, h265 and AV1 video encode and AV1 decode was a big mistake.

[kagato]

I picked up the Sapphire Pulse 6500xt yesterday for $199. It will serve it's purpose in my parents' prebuilt pc. They don't game hardly at all, but if my son is visiting and he wants to do some light gaming on some less demanding titles, then he'll have that option.

[methodmantis]

I like and respect Zach very, very much. That being said, I don't think I could disagree any more strongly.
I do NOT lay any of the blame on Zach regarding any part of the craziness that has taken over the entire GPU market in the last couple of years, but I do think that opinions like his may be propagating, and even proving the effectiveness of, an enormous marketing push across the entire market to gaslight the average consumer into expecting that they should have to pay way more money for way less performance than what current gen tech is able to deliver.
I think it's somewhat dangerous, on the consumer level, once we get to the point where we look at what the 6500XT is and how it performs (as well as any other card to come out in the last two year compared to its market price) and we begin to accept that as 'normal' and as 'just the way it is'.
People with enough disposable income that buying the newest or biggest of everything is easy for them is one thing, but the boom in crypto prices is the exception, not the rule. That and all of the other supply/demand variables that have come into play to create the perfect storm for GPU pricing. Those values as well as the GPU prices that go up and down along with them as long as there are suckers who continue buying in, will ALWAYS rise and fall as long as GPUs are able to mine with. But if GPU manufacturers/distributors truly have their way, they will convince as many people as possible that less performance for more money is how it's 'supposed to be'. That way they can just drive prices way up on ALL GPUs, ALL of the time and make those huge, inflated profits ALL of the time and not just when crypto is up and there are new cards released

[Eric_Vonk]

Im from Costa Rica and I bought this card for around $300. I Played in high settings 1080p 55 to 60fps Cyberpunk, Elden Ring, Dirt Rally, Deus Ex mankind divided, The Witcher 3 etc. In case I want to record my gameplay I use OBS. I have core i3 12100f, 16gig RAM and a couple of SSDs. It runs smooth any game in high settings.

[ACSMezz]

Just because it's available doesn't mean you should buy it, the gpu it's replacing (5500xt) is better in everyway.

[christopherlee]

If your argument really hinges on "It's better than a used RX580 because WARRANTY!" then maybe your contacts might be a bit too rose-tinted. At MSRP, it was a fair enough deal but at the inflated prices I've been seeing just save up and get the 6600...at least then you won't be trying to unload a card that has no value in 4-6 months to upgrade again. It's e-waste.

[DrZoomer]

I agree that I don’t think this card will be as inflated in pricing as the 3050, so it will definitely be the best option for budget gamers that aren’t wanting to test the used market. However, the same thing that limits its mining potential is the one that is going to limit its gaming potential, even at 1080p, as shown by the CoD benchmarks; the 4gb of VRAM. If they added even just 2gb more, that helps with performance so much, but then again it becomes more valuable for mining and thus would be inflated more. I think for $200 it’s a fine new purchase, but anything more than $250 and I don’t think it’s worth it.

[johndoh]

In the US this was never priced that high as what was estimated in the video. It came in around $220 on avg for the baseline, and after a couple months was at MSRP.

Yes I fully agree that a lot of reviewers were being idiots in their commentary about this because as much as they complained about pricing, to sensationalize their videos, when a REAL budget GPU hits the market they say don't buy it. I don't know how you could be more hypocritical than THAT. This was better than the 1650 Super and was typically priced better, and most people don't need the encoders

[Beary]

I was buying rx 580s for $80 repeatedly on ebay in the summer of 2019.


This card is gaslighting embodied.

[TechTechPotato]

'A bunch of other youtubers' - > completely forgets about the wealth of written reviewers that have been around twice as long

[teeboh]

While it always great to see a content creator go against the crowd and challenge pre-conception. This is a bad take, the fact that a card in the same performance group released 5 years ago can go blow for blow in performance (and win in features out of the box) with a card released in 2022 is a literal joke.

It’s market exploitation at its most egregious. As we all know MSRP is a fairytale, so this will go for even more and AMD knows it. Compare the price it will actually go for vs the price the RX 580 went for when it released and you have a clearer picture of how AMD, NVIDIA, Intel will always choose to exploit the market whenever the opportunity presents itself. Buying this card shows them that we’re happy with them doing that, and this will encourage them to do whatever they can to make sure this market state stays the same (similar story for diamonds, it’s all forced artificial scarcity).

You should never recommend such a product or suggest for people to settle for so little, if they do, this “scarcity” will continue for a decade or more

[rodrigoa]

Yes, it's the budget card that people have been asking for. However, it is worth it tho? I'd say no. At 200 USD that AMD claimed to be MSRP initially, yes.. But at 300-350 USD, it's a hard pass for me. I'd rather save some more money and buy a better one

[LeoJGym]

It's not worth anymore than $150, yet here we are. There are far more negatives to this card than positives.
It's worse at doing what it needs to do than cards from 2 or even 3 generations ago.

[KimBoKastekniv]

You've made no compelling argument as to why everybody else is wrong. This and the GDDR4 GT 1030 is AMD/Nvidia testing the waters at anti-consumer business practices.

[U.N.]

This card games for me at 4k medium settings. Pro tip Don't update your drivers. Amd has crippled the card with the most recent drivers but earlier drivers, this card runs like a beast

[SilVaFx]

I got an RX 6500XT and honestly I'm actually glad. I had a GT 1030 (2020 revision) and it was super crap. My rig can run the x264 encoder for streaming off of the cpu with no issues, so that's also not a big deal, and the 3D renders I need for work come out super fast with really high resolution
And for gaming, it handled everything I want at 144fps
So yeah, the rx is not a bad card, even if it is PCi x8, it's pretty good with thise 2.8GHz of clock speed

Summarizing, i recommend the RX 6500XT for those who need a newer card. It's not the best but it does it's job very well + it's not as expensive since "no one" wants it.

[yashsingh]

I am running currently on a i7 4790 CPU with 16 GB of RAM and I think this RX 6500XT seems to be a best budget option in India as in the Price range of Rs. 10k - 13k, I am hardly able to find a card like this online. For temporary solutions, this card would be a better option than going for a 1650 Low Profile one.