Radeon RX 6500 XT vs R9 295X2

Place in performance ranking	230	204
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	3.27	23.09
Architecture	GCN 2.0 (2013−2017)	Navi / RDNA2 (2020−2022)
GPU code name	Vesuvius	Navi 24
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Design	reference	no data
Release date	29 April 2014 (10 years ago)	19 January 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$1,499	$199
Current price	$600 (0.4x MSRP)	$274 (1.4x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6500 XT has 606% better value for money than R9 295X2.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2816	1024
Core clock speed	no data	2610 MHz
Boost clock speed	1018 MHz	2815 MHz
Number of transistors	6,200 million	5,400 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	500 Watt	107 Watt
Texture fill rate	179.2	180.2
Floating-point performance	2x 5,733 gflops	no data

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).

Bus support	PCIe 2.1 x16	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x4
Length	307 mm	no data
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	2 x 8-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	8 GB	8 GB
Memory bus width	512 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	1250 MHz	18000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	640 GB/s	143.9 GB/s
Shared memory	no data	-

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	1x DVI, 4x mini-DisplayPort	1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4a
Eyefinity	1	no data
HDMI	+	+
DisplayPort support	-	no data

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration	-	no data
CrossFire	1	no data
Enduro	-	no data
FreeSync	1	no data
HD3D	+	no data
LiquidVR	1	no data
PowerTune	-	no data
TressFX	1	no data
TrueAudio	-	no data
ZeroCore	-	no data
UVD	+	no data
DDMA audio	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	DirectX® 12	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.3	6.6
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	2.0	2.2
Vulkan	+	1.3
Mantle	-	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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.

R9 295X2 22.33

RX 6500 XT 24.63
+10.3%

RX 6500 XT outperforms R9 295X2 by 10% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. 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.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

R9 295X2 8638

RX 6500 XT 9529
+10.3%

RX 6500 XT outperforms R9 295X2 by 10% in Passmark.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

R9 295X2 21197
+34.9%

RX 6500 XT 15712

R9 295X2 outperforms RX 6500 XT by 35% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.