Radeon RX 6500 XT vs ATI HD 5850

Place in the ranking	621	221
Place by popularity	not in top-100	83
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.64	58.68
Power efficiency	2.34	15.92
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Cypress	Navi 24
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	30 September 2009 (15 years ago)	19 January 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$299	$199

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6500 XT has 9069% better value for money than ATI HD 5850.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1440	1024
Core clock speed	725 MHz	2610 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	2815 MHz
Number of transistors	2,154 million	5,400 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	6 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	151 Watt	107 Watt
Texture fill rate	52.20	180.2
Floating-point processing power	2.088 TFLOPS	5.765 TFLOPS
ROPs	32	32
TMUs	72	64
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	16

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x4
Length	241 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	1x 6-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	2248 MHz
Memory bandwidth	128.0 GB/s	143.9 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	+	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.0	6.6
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.2
Vulkan	N/A	1.3

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

ATI HD 5850 5.16

RX 6500 XT 24.83
+381%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

ATI HD 5850 1988

RX 6500 XT 9561
+381%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

ATI HD 5850 3401

RX 6500 XT 22954
+575%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

ATI HD 5850 13267

RX 6500 XT 76445
+476%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	59 −375%	280−290 +375%
Full HD	56 −10.7%	62 +10.7%
1440p	5−6 −460%	28 +460%
4K	3−4 −433%	16 +433%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	5.34	3.21
1440p	59.80	7.11
4K	99.67	12.44

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

9−10

−700%

72
+700%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 −286%	50−55 +286%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 −920%	51 +920%
Battlefield 5	12−14 −523%	80−85 +523%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 −355%	50−55 +355%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −500%	54 +500%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −418%	55−60 +418%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −364%	65−70 +364%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 −339%	140−150 +339%
Hitman 3	10−12 −355%	50−55 +355%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −245%	110−120 +245%
Metro Exodus	12−14 −608%	85−90 +608%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14−16 −357%	60−65 +357%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 −367%	80−85 +367%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 −119%	100−110 +119%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 −286%	50−55 +286%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 −760%	43 +760%
Battlefield 5	12−14 −523%	80−85 +523%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 −355%	50−55 +355%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −278%	34 +278%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −418%	55−60 +418%
Far Cry New Dawn	14−16 −364%	65−70 +364%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 −339%	140−150 +339%
Hitman 3	10−12 −355%	50−55 +355%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −245%	110−120 +245%
Metro Exodus	12−14 −608%	85−90 +608%
Red Dead Redemption 2	14−16 −357%	60−65 +357%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 −494%	107 +494%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 −194%	50−55 +194%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 −119%	100−110 +119%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 −286%	50−55 +286%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 −520%	31 +520%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	10−12 −355%	50−55 +355%
Cyberpunk 2077	9−10 −233%	30 +233%
Far Cry 5	10−12 −418%	55−60 +418%
Forza Horizon 4	30−35 −339%	140−150 +339%
Hitman 3	10−12 −355%	50−55 +355%
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35 −179%	92 +179%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	18−20 −361%	83 +361%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	18−20 −200%	54 +200%
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50 +88%	25 −88%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

14−16

−357%

60−65
+357%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	10−11 −370%	45−50 +370%
Far Cry New Dawn	8−9 −375%	35−40 +375%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −420%	24−27 +420%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	23
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −600%	27−30 +600%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −750%	17 +750%
Far Cry 5	6−7 −367%	27−30 +367%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 −1075%	140−150 +1075%
Hitman 3	9−10 −222%	27−30 +222%
Horizon Zero Dawn	12−14 −450%	66 +450%
Metro Exodus	3−4 −1800%	57 +1800%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	4−5 −650%	30−33 +650%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −338%	140−150 +338%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

9−10

−356%

40−45
+356%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	4−5 −500%	24−27 +500%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −533%	18−20 +533%
Hitman 3	1−2 −900%	10 +900%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −1488%	120−130 +1488%
Metro Exodus	2−3 −1300%	27−30 +1300%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −2700%	28 +2700%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −400%	14−16 +400%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −200%	6 +200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −600%	14−16 +600%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	4
Far Cry 5	3−4 −367%	14−16 +367%
Forza Horizon 4	4−5 −750%	30−35 +750%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −900%	10 +900%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7

−250%

21−24
+250%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

+0%

This is how ATI HD 5850 and RX 6500 XT compete in popular games:

RX 6500 XT is 375% faster in 900p
RX 6500 XT is 11% faster in 1080p
RX 6500 XT is 460% faster in 1440p
RX 6500 XT is 433% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the ATI HD 5850 is 88% faster.
in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the RX 6500 XT is 2700% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

ATI HD 5850 is ahead in 1 test (1%)
RX 6500 XT is ahead in 67 tests (96%)
there's a draw in 2 tests (3%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	5.16	24.83
Recency	30 September 2009	19 January 2022
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	8 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	6 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	151 Watt	107 Watt

RX 6500 XT has a 381.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 566.7% more advanced lithography process, and 41.1% lower power consumption.

The Radeon RX 6500 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 5850 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.