AMD has released its new Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card which is meant to compete with Nvidia’s new GTX 1650 Super, so which should you get? I’ve compared 8 games at 1080p and 1440p resolutions to help you decide.
AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT |
Vs |
Nvidia GTX 1650 Super |
| Navi | Architecture | Turing |
| December 2019 | Date of Introduction | November 2019 |
| 7nm/158mm^2 | Manufacturing process and die size | 12nm/248mm^2 |
| 6.4 Billion | Transistor | 6.6 Billion |
| 1,408 stream processors | Processing Cores | 1,280 CUDA cores |
| 1,607MHz/1,845 | Boost Clock | 1,530MHz/1,725MHZ |
| 4GB or 8GB GDDR6 | Video Memory | 4GB DDR6 |
| 128-bit/224GB per second | Memory interface and bandwidth | 128-bit/192GB per second |
| 130 watts | Board Power | 100 watts |
| One eight-pin | Power Connectors | One six-pin |
| $169 | Launch Price | $159 |
Overview |
AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT:
We have the dual X cooling which obviously involves two fans. It has quite a sharp uniform design but one which is neutral making it ideal to match up with other hardware. In terms of the size, this card is neither large nor small and so it should fit into a good range of different size cases.
It is clocked at 1670 megahertz for the base and 1845 megahertz for the boost which means their clock 7 percent higher than the 5700 cores. However, because there is a lot fewer of them the TDP has been reduced from 190 watts down to 150 watts.
If bumping up your in-game textures to ultra in demanding titles is something that you are after, the 8-gigabyte model is likely a good idea but if you play mostly mainstream or eSports titles with moderate to high textures, then the 4-gigabyte model will offer the better value.
Nvidia GTX 1650 Super:
My model from ZOTAC is a twin fan design that features no factory overclock and judging by its size it’ll be perfect for a small form-factor build.
The twin in its name obviously points to those two cooling fans which are integral for the thermal design. This is a pretty small GPU it’s surprising really that didn’t opt for a single fan instead of two and perhaps they’ll release a single fund version add another stage but anyway that shroud is plastic. The design is neutral and so that should blend in with most systems and this model here doesn’t feature any RGB lighting.
This twin fan model is silently stock settings so there is no factory overclock applied to any of the frequencies. The base clock is set at 1530 megahertz and I’d boost up to 1725 and the memory clock operates at 12,000 and so up against 1660. This 1650 super has fewer CUDA cores, less VRAM, and a slightly slower GPU boost. However, the super is using DDR6 and so even though we get less capacity it is faster.
Looking at the back panel it reveals that this card is really aimed at basic functionality and so we have just one DisplayPort 1.4 that gives you the 8k at 60, 1 HDMI 2.0 that gives you up to 4k at 60, and then one dual-link DVI-D which can give you up to 2560 by 1600.
Game Performance |
AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT vs Nvidia GTX 1650 Super:
The test system used includes a core i9-9900K clocked at 5 gigahertz with 16 gigabytes of DDR4 3400 memory.
We have 8 games to look at and all have been tested at 1080p and 1440p using medium to high quality presets or settings.
1. Shadow of the Tomb Raider
The 5500 XT was good for 77 fps an average. Not bad performance but not great either. The 1650 Super was just 5% slower. Even at 1440p, I saw much the same and despite the extra of VRAM, the 1650 super can’t gain on the RX 5500.
2. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
The 5500 XT does manage to edge out the RX 590 in Assassin’s Creed. Honestly with an average of 71 fps making it 4 percent faster. The 5500 XT was 8 percent faster than the 1650 super.
You see very similar margins in 1440p. The 5500 XT is still on par with the GTX 1650 super. So not a great result for 5500 XT.
3. Red Dead Redemption 2
The performance at 1080p for the 5500 XT is pretty disappointing it only matched the GTX 1650 super.
Things weren’t much better at 1440p. Using the higher quality settings the game wasn’t really playable so you’ll need to drop down to medium if you hope to play at this resolution.
4. World of Tanks
The 5500 XT did deliver a silky-smooth 106 FPS on average at 1080p in World of Tanks but that really was only enough to see it positioned as a midfield runner in our testing. GTX 1650 was just 6 FPS lower. A pretty unexcited result.
The 1440p results weren’t much better. Here it’s a fraction slower than the RX590 and really no better than the much cheaper GTX 1650 super.
5. Far Cry New Dawn
Performance in Far Cry new dawn is typical of what we’ve seen so far. The 5500 XT is just 6 percent faster than the 1650 super which frankly is a pretty miserable result for AMD.
Not much difference at 1440p the 5500 XT. The 1650 super is average out in front delivers nearly 20% less performance.
6. Rainbow Six Siege
The frame rates in Rainbow six siege are strong at 1080p using the very higher quality preset which is one notch down from ultra though we are manually cranking the render scale back up to 100%. The 5500 XT was still slower than the RX 590 and really not a great deal faster than the much cheaper 1650 super.
At 1440p, the 5500 XT only manages to keep pace with the GTX 1650 super.
7. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
The performance at 1080p is pretty average. The 5500 XT is slower than the GTX 1650 super.
At 1440p, the 5500 XT to match the 1650 super. So yeah not a particularly great result here either.
8. Battlefield V
Using the higher quality preset at 1080p in battlefield 5 allowed the 5500 XT to average 83 fps in our test. It renders just 3 FPS more than the 1650 super.
The more limited 4 gigabyte VRAM buffer does appear to hurt the 1650 super at 1440p and now the 5500 XT is able to deliver 13% more performance with 62 FPS.
8 Games Average
The 5500 XT was just 5% faster than the GTX 1650 super and 13% slower than the GTX 1660 super. The results at the 1440p resolution much the same as you can see in the graph.
Cost per frame
The 5500 XT comes in at almost 20% more per frame than the GTX 1650 super. And we are really talking about a similar level of performance here. Granted the 8GB 5500 XT does pack twice as much of VRAM but still not a good result for AMD and those seeking a budget graphics card.
Which one you should Buy? |
The MSRP of the Nvidia GTX 1650 Super is $160 USD, while the Radeon RX 5500 XT is $169 USD for the 4GB model or $199 for the 8GB model.
I would say this 5500 XT does perform a tiny bit better than the 1650 super. So if the price is up around ten dollars or Euros more that is quite reasonable or at the price of the 5500 XT 8-gigabyte version ends up being $30 more expensive that is still reasonable. Just make sure the price doesn’t go too high and too close to the 1660 super because then you should have gone for the 1660 super that will be a straight performance upgrade.
I think the 8gb 5500 XT is going to make more sense, investing in if you want that additional memory over the 1650’s 4gb.
- Low power consumption
- Solid 1080p performance for the price
- Struggles in demanding 1080p games
- Not particularly exciting
- Great overall value
- Includes Turing NVENC
- Only 4GB VRAM
- Requires 6-pin power
