Worst GPU: Radeon RX 6500 XT Review, Corner Cutting Edition

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Video Index:
00:00 - Welcome back to Hardware Unboxed
03:07 - Specs & Test System
04:13 - Assassin's Creed Valhalla
05:38 - Shadow of the Tomb Raider
07:12 - Watch Dogs: Legion
07:58 - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
10:43 - F1 2021
11:40 - Horizon Zero Dawn
12:26 - Far Cry 6
13:12 - DOOM Eternal
14:33 - Resident Evil Village
15:22 - Death Stranding
15:43 - Hitman 3
16:15 - Cyberpunk 2077
16:48 - Power Consumption
17:23 - 12 Game Average
18:28 - Cost per frame MSRP
19:18 - Cost per frame eBay Pricing
20:31 - Wishful Thinking
21:40 - Resizable BAR
22:32 - Preset Scaling, Rainbow Six Siege Vulkan
23:04 - Preset Scaling, Rainbow Six Siege DX11
23:21 - Preset Scaling, Watch Dogs Legion
24:17 - Preset Scaling, F1 2021
24:54 - Preset Scaling, Shadow of the Tomb Raider
25:28 - Final Thoughts

AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT Review

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[OzTalksHW]

27:46 imo sums it up perfectly - limit one or the other if you *must*, but both is just silly.

[reizalash]

At this point, I'll just keep my RX 480 forever

[brandonwomac]

Absolutely mind boggling that we are moving backwards with this generation. The RX 5500 XT 8GB and RX 580 GB were both generational improvements in this segment, and amd squeezed another 10-20% performance out of the rx5500xt with driver updates, later placing it above the rx 590 often times. Now we are stuck with this pcie x4 lane garbage with a 64 bit memory bus. Looks like amd took a laptop gpu and is selling it for desktop card prices.

Edit:
Yeah, no shit the market is fucked people. Nvidia is going to manage to put out a non-shit card somehow in the rtx 3050 for $250. Scalpers/miners are going to buy it and the 6500 endlessly no matter what, so it hardly matters. Amd may as well take a slice of the profiteering cake with this generational regression. It just sucks its come to this. In a year to a year and a half once lots of new fab capacity comes online, this card will quietly slip away into the anals of shit gpu value history.

[asmodeusml]

This "anything goes" mentality from GPU manufacturers is so consistently disgusting that it is no longer a surprise at this point.

[BensWatchClub]

Hardware Unboxed is a real gem of the community. Always honest and pro-consumer. Thank you for what you guys do 👍

[zodwraith]

My first reaction was "how could it be worse than the gddr4 1030 refresh?" then I remembered Nvidia didn't charge what's looking to be close to $300 for it.

[Verpal]

I knew it is going to be a failure, I just didn't expect the level, the extreme proportion, of a catastrophic fail this is.
I never knew there is going to be a GPU that I am not going to buy, EVEN AT MSRP, in 2022's GPU market, but here we are.

[ironeleven]

The longer this generation goes on, the more I appreciate the RX 590 I picked up on sale for $180 mid-2020.

[ivailok]

It's impressive for the wrong reasons that the 6500 XT, even in the PCIe 4.0 config, is worse than the card it's supposed to replace - the 5500 XT. Not to mention the lack of features and less display ports. This is literally a regression in every single way and it's shocking how bad it is.

At this point I have no faith that the 3050 will be any better.

[teardowndan]

"Welcome to Hardware Better Left in the Box."
Makes me really wish I had gotten a 1650S while they were readily available at MSRP.

[sawyerbass]

This is even more embarrassing than I expected. This card might actually be worth less than $100 in a normal market. It's a new tier below the Rx 550

[davidbaughman]

If anything, I feel like comparing the RX 6500 XT to older GPUs (like the RX 570) softens the blow of how bad this card is by having something close to it in the comparison charts. If you were to show it only compared to cards released in the past year or two, that would really paint the picture of how horrible this is for a new graphics card.

[bb]

How the hell does a card's successor regress in performance in comparison to the card from the previous older generation it's meant to replace?

[yasu_red]

With how painfully mediocre the 6500XT is, I'd honestly be surprised to see it go very far above MSRP (and stay there). That says a lot.

[MrErdem]

Lowering both ends of the card to make it artificially bad to fit in the line up is a sad moment. Also gives hints on how much the companies make % profit on those cards. We need new players in the system.

[fretboardrunner]

Bought a RX 480 for 263€ in Feb of 2017. It's the XFX GTR with an amazing VRM design. I've since ghetto-modded it with Arctic P12 fans and it runs 1350 MHz and 2200 MHz memory while staying below 75°C and being whisper quiet.

Now, almost 5 years later I get the opportunity to buy a GPU with less media capabilities and the same performance (or less!) for the same amount of money.

Thanks AMD!

[thejackimonster]

Given that the 6500 XT drops below the 5500 XT in multiple runs, I really hope this is a driver issue. Otherwise this card would be a complete joke, honestly.

[CNC-Time-Lapse]

Seeing reviews like this proves why we appreciate the hard work that Steve puts into them. Comprehensive, quality editorials that keep consumers interests in mind and hardware manufacturers in check.

[MegaManNeo]

This card is impressive for all the wrong reasons.

[TommyCrosby]

18:00 Jesus Christ, I never expected to see my RX570 (which is actually a rebranded boosted RX470) get better results years later than a new AMD card. (On a PCIE 3.0 system like mine)