AMD started Radeon RX 6500 XT sales 19 January 2022 at a recommended price of $199 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a RDNA 2.0 architecture and made with 6 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 8 GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 2.25 GHz are supplied, and together with 64 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 143.9 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is a dual-slot graphics card attached via PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. 1x 6-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 107 Watt.

Primary details

Some basic facts about Radeon RX 6500 XT: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in the ranking	231
Place by popularity	95
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	57.96
Power efficiency	15.92	of 100.00 (Radeon 890M)
Architecture	RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code name	Navi 24
Market segment	Desktop
Release date	19 January 2022 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$199	of 14,999 (Quadro Plex 7000)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

Detailed specifications

Radeon RX 6500 XT's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of Radeon RX 6500 XT's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1024	of 21760 (GeForce RTX 5090)
Core clock speed	2610 MHz	of 2670 MHz (Arc B580)
Boost clock speed	2815 MHz	of 3599 MHz (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors	5,400 million	of 208,000 million (B200 SXM 192 GB)
Manufacturing process technology	6 nm	of 3 nm (Arc Graphics 140V)
Power consumption (TDP)	107 Watt	of 2400 Watt (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate	180.2	of 2,554 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Floating-point processing power	5.765 TFLOPS	of 104.8 (GeForce RTX 5090)
ROPs	32	of 512 (Moore Threads MTT S4000)
TMUs	64	of 1280 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
Ray Tracing Cores	16	of 170 (GeForce RTX 5090)

Form factor & compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of Radeon RX 6500 XT and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 4.0 x4
Width	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of memory installed on Radeon RX 6500 XT: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory type	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	8 GB	of 288 GB (Radeon Instinct MI325X)
Memory bus width	64 Bit	of 8192 Bit (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	2248 MHz	of 20000 (RTX 5000 Ada Generation Mobile)
Memory bandwidth	143.9 GB/s	of 5,171 GB/s (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Shared memory	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on Radeon RX 6500 XT. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

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

API and SDK compatibility

APIs supported by Radeon RX 6500 XT, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.6
OpenGL	4.6
OpenCL	2.2
Vulkan	1.3

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of Radeon RX 6500 XT. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score.

RX 6500 XT 24.56

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.

RX 6500 XT 9556

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.

RX 6500 XT 22954

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.

RX 6500 XT 76445

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.

RX 6500 XT 15712

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

RX 6500 XT 91909

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

RX 6500 XT 356129

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04

RX 6500 XT 111

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 sw-03

RX 6500 XT 140

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 snx-02

RX 6500 XT 87

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 catia-04

RX 6500 XT 150

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 creo-01

RX 6500 XT 91

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 medical-01

RX 6500 XT 58

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 showcase-01

RX 6500 XT 67

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 energy-01

RX 6500 XT 60

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 3dsmax-05

RX 6500 XT 157

Gaming performance

Let's see how good Radeon RX 6500 XT is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

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

Full HD	65
1440p	30
4K	16

Cost per frame, $

1080p	3.06
1440p	6.63
4K	12.44

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Atomic Heart	111
Counter-Strike 2	64
Cyberpunk 2077	72

Full HD
Medium Preset

Atomic Heart	84
Battlefield 5	90−95
Counter-Strike 2	40
Cyberpunk 2077	54
Far Cry 5	102
Fortnite	110−120
Forza Horizon 4	90−95
Forza Horizon 5	66
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	90−95
Valorant	160−170

Full HD
High Preset

Atomic Heart	48
Battlefield 5	90−95
Counter-Strike 2	28
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive	250−260
Cyberpunk 2077	34
Dota 2	145
Far Cry 5	92
Fortnite	110−120
Forza Horizon 4	90−95
Forza Horizon 5	35
Grand Theft Auto V	86
Metro Exodus	52
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	90−95
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	92
Valorant	160−170

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	90−95
Counter-Strike 2	24
Cyberpunk 2077	30
Dota 2	110
Far Cry 5	86
Forza Horizon 4	90−95
Forza Horizon 5	47
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	90−95
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	54
Valorant	160−170

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite

110−120

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	21−24
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive	160−170
Grand Theft Auto V	37
Metro Exodus	18
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	170−180
Valorant	200−210

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	65−70
Cyberpunk 2077	17
Far Cry 5	57
Forza Horizon 4	60−65
Forza Horizon 5	23
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	35−40

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite

55−60

4K
High Preset

Atomic Heart	18−20
Counter-Strike 2	10−12
Grand Theft Auto V	34
Metro Exodus	11
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	28
Valorant	130−140

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40
Counter-Strike 2	10−12
Cyberpunk 2077	4
Dota 2	67
Far Cry 5	23
Forza Horizon 4	40−45
Forza Horizon 5	3
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	24−27

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite

24−27

Closest competitors

Radeon RX 6500 XT's performance relative to its closest rivals among desktop graphics cards.

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB 100.33

Radeon R9 FURY X 100.24

Radeon R9 Fury 100

Radeon RX 6500 XT 100

GeForce GTX 780 Ti 99.51

Radeon R9 390X 98.41

Radeon RX 590 98.17

NVIDIA equivalent

According to our data, the closest NVIDIA alternative to Radeon RX 6500 XT is GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB, which is nearly equal in speed and higher by 2 positions in our ranking.

GeForce GTX1060 3 GB

Compare
RX 6500 XT with GTX 1060 3 GB

Here are some closest NVIDIA rivals to Radeon RX 6500 XT:

GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 106.39

GeForce GTX 970 100.81

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB 100.33

Radeon RX 6500 XT 100

GeForce GTX 780 Ti 99.51

GeForce GTX 1060 5 GB 95.15

GeForce GTX TITAN BLACK 94.58