There’s nothing wrong with the concept of the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT – faster clock speeds RX 6600 XT, to better compete with Nvidia’s RTX cards? Well, why not – but its timing is certainly a question. Any GPU launching in the months to 2022 will only do so in the looming shadow of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 40 series and AMD Radeon RX 7000 series, the latter will be officially revealed in just a few days. Not to mention Intel’s Arc Alchemistdelayed as it was.
Still. AMD’s next-generation RDNA 3-based GPUs are an unspecified number, and the RTX 40 series will first focus on high-end models like the RTX 4090. Even if its RDNA 2 architecture is coming soon , RX 6650 can not XT find no place in the package is one best graphics card for 1080p and 1440p?
To find out, I tested Sapphire’s Nitro + Radeon RX 6650 XT, which boosts the maximum clock speed to 2694MHz – although you’re more likely to see speeds around 2523MHz ‘Game Clock’ during gameplay . That comes with 8GB of GDDR6 memory, which is just enough for better graphics settings in most games, and at 17.5Gbps it’s also slightly faster than the RX 6600 XT’s VRAM. Both old and new GPUs come with 32 Ray Accelerator units, which support Standard Compute Units when running intensively there is hope effect.
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT review: 1080p benchmark
These upgrades help the RX 6650 XT beat its nemesis with Nvidia, RTX 3060, more favorable than the RX 6600 XT can. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, running at 1080p with the highest quality presets and 4x SMAA anti-aliasing, the RX 6650 XT averaged 80fps: still lower than the RTX 3060’s 84fps, but up from 74fps seconds on the RX 6600 XT. And, with the addition of ultra-high-quality ray-tracing shadows, the RX 6600 XT is back to beat the RTX 3060 at 65fps to 56fps.
The RX 6650 XT also won the Total War: Three Kingdomswith 78 fps on Ultra quality compared to 70 fps of the RTX 3060 and Final Fantasy XVrunning at 87 fps on the Highest preset – beating the RTX 3060’s 85 fps. In a particularly impressive Metro Exodus shows that AMD’s card beat rival Nvidia by about 17%, averaging 74 fps in Ultra quality compared to 63 fps of the RTX 3060.
However, in contrast to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, adding ultra-high-quality ray-tracing effects to Metro caused the RX 6650 XT to take more damage. When it drops to 45 fps, it’s still playable, but the RTX 3060 and its 49 fps average produce more consistent smoothness. At frame rates below 60fps, that 4fps difference is more significant than it looks.
Even so, the RX 6650 XT is usually the faster GPU when ray tracing is disabled or unavailable. It manages faster, smoother 1080p performance in Assassin’s Creed Valhallaaveraged 89 fps on Ultra High; Horizon Zero Dawnwhere it produces 97 fps in Optimum quality; Forza Horizon 4, with 183 fps on the Ultra; and Hitman 3, where it produced an amazing 161 fps in Dubai standards. In particular, in Valhalla and Hitman 3, the FPS advantage over the RTX 3060 will show up if you have one of the best gaming monitor with a higher refresh rate.
Using standard light and shadow effects, with an asterisk, Watch Dogs Legion delivered another win over the RTX 3060: using the Ultra quality preset, the Radeon GPU averaged 74 fps, beating the 3060’s 60 fps. for re-proving the occasional ray-tracing weakness of the RX 6650 XT. With the same Ultra settings but applying Medium quality ray tracing effects, the RX 6650 XT sagged at 36 fps, while the RTX 3060 held firmer with 41 fps.
One doubts that Nvidia’s approach to giving the RTX cards more specialized ray tracing hardware, in the form of RT Cores, still works even with poorer results like Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Again, however, the RX 6650 XT often outperforms the RTX 3060 when ray tracing is unavailable or disabled, so it should be the faster graphics card in most cases.
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT review: 1440p benchmark
The RX 6650 XT also has a 3060-beater at 2560×1440. Maybe not always, and not by profit only – in Horizon Zero Dawnits 73 fps result (again at Optimal quality) will look no different than the RTX 3060’s 72 fps. And in Final Fantasy XV, I was able to use the Highest preset and move around the Duscae plains at 59fps on the RX 6650 XT, but the RTX 3060 actually found a few sub-frames in the average. 63 fps. Nvidia’s card is also 5fps faster in Shadow of the Tomb Raiderwith the RX 6650 XT averaging 51 fps on the Highest setting.
Elsewhere, it’s the Radeon that goes ahead, even if it doesn’t max out at /60fps in every game at this resolution. The case at point, Total War: Three Kingdomswhere the RX 6650 XT hit 46 fps (on Ultra) compared to the RTX 3060’s 43 fps. Watch Dogs LegionThe RX 6650 XT is ahead again, with 54 fps beating the 46 fps posted by the RTX 3060. And it also manages broader leads, especially with results like 134 fps at Forza Horizon 4 (Ultra High Quality), 63 fps in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ultra High Quality) and 74 fps in Metro Exodus (Extremely high quality).
Hitman 3 also runs very smoothly at 1440p/Ultra, averaging 107 fps in Dubai benchmarks; The RTX 3060 ‘only’ managed 92 fps. Unfortunately, trying to add ray tracing confirmed that the RX 6650 XT still didn’t shake the RX 6600 XT’s weakness with these upgraded effects. Enabling Hitman 3’s RT effects killed the frame rate as much as 47 fps itself could, causing the 107 fps rate to plummet to just 19 fps.
Of course, ray tracing is rarely a necessary upgrade (even if it can dramatically improve the look and feel of certain games, like Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered). And often, some frames can be retouched using Fidelity FX Super Resolution (FSR), AMD’s upscaling technology that reduces display stress with only a slight loss in image quality.
That said, almost every mention of FSR invites comparisons to its Nvidia equivalent DLSS. And despite FSR’s many improvements over the past year, DLSS is still better. It has the same massive FPS boost as the FSR, but its smarter upscaling tends to produce sharper, less processed frames, with custom anti-aliasing that is always sharper. what even FSR 2.0 manage.
Not to fuel the pointless “debates” between Nvidia and AMD, but the prospect of intentionally missing out on DLSS would make the RX 6650 XT’s non-upgraded benchmark wins seem less exciting. . And it doesn’t even go both ways – DLSS is only usable on GeForce RTX graphics cards, but any modern GPU can run FSR, including Nvidia.
And, unfortunately for this advanced Radeon card, the RTX 3060 isn’t the only Nvidia GPU it has to compete with. In £426 / $362This Sapphire model is one of the cheaper RX 6650 XT partner cards, but at least in the UK, such a price puts it on a collision course with GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Similarly the RTX 3060 Ti can break 100 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p highest quality and can average 89 fps in Horizon Zero Dawn at 1440p with Ultimate settings and produces 65 fps – 20fps faster than the RX 660 XT – in Metro Exodus at 1080p, combining both Ultra graphics settings and ultra-high quality ray tracing. Choosing between the RX 6650 XT and the RTX 3060 depends on how you rate performance against ray tracing and DLSS support, but between this and the much more powerful RTX 3060 Ti? Not even a discussion.
Then it’s a matter of time. Yes, sometimes you need a new GPU this instant, perhaps to replace an unwanted one. And understandably, it can be frustrating to wait for potentially unannounced upcoming graphics cards. But the RX 6650 XT released so soon before the RDNA 3 generation that even AMD had to expect gaming potential customers to wait, and while they could follow Nvidia’s example in leading with 4K/premium content, then the GPU is more affordable. likely to be in operation by 2023 at the latest. From Nvidia too.
Therefore, the RX 6650 XT is a GPU that just… exists. It’s a good 1080p card and a decent 1440p option, but you probably shouldn’t buy it right now, given both the upcoming next-gen hardware and the price drop on the RTX 3060 Ti. Neither is its own fault, so you can’t even determine its existence, like with weeds RX 6500 XT.
I would say Sapphire’s customizations are excellent, despite the blocky aesthetic. This Nitro+ model is very quiet and keeps the GPU temperature on the right side cool, never going above 65°c even after hours of benchmarking. This may not be your next new graphics card, but given the power of the Nitro+ design, it might be worth considering the Sapphire models for the Radeon RX 7000 and RTX 40 series.
