AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT review

AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT – this gaming graphics card is made to work in 1080p resolution. Therefore, this is not the most capable item out of all options on the market. However, it has a reasonable price and does its job properly. Just be ready to reduce graphic settings when playing challenging games.

Advantages:

• Fair price
• High-quality performance
• Low battery consumption

Disadvantages:

• Has difficulties loading games with high demands

The initial arrival of AMD Navi happened in July 2019. At the time it seemed that AMD came back to graphics production. The company proved capable of competing with such giants as Nvidia at the same cost. Even more, it overtook the competition without copying Nvidia’s trendy RTX inventions.

But the battle in this price category is extremely tough. Recently, Nvidia has been putting a lot of effort into creating multiple graphics cards. They obviously intend to fill the market with their products to the utmost. Therefore, it becomes difficult for other companies to provide something outstanding in the area.

Essentially, this accurately describes the situation happening around the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT. It shows a similar performance to the GeForce GTX 1660, but for a lower price. This is not the most exciting option. On the other hand, it is supposed to have better characteristics than Nvidia’s items.

AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT – Price

AMD offers two options to select from, with 4 GB and 8 GB. Their respective prices are $379 and $399. In comparison, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 will cost you $209 (Amazon).

Meanwhile, the process of comparing becomes more exciting. As Nvidia released the GTX 1660 Super, the Radeon RX 5500 XT provides identical performance. In addition, it is a bit cheaper, about $40. At first sight, there’s no great difference. But in this sector, every dollar contributes to the outcome.

Our graphics card release schedule is also interesting. It was out on the 12th of December, 2019, completely apart from Nvidia’s offerings. Considering that Navi was put on sale in mid-2019, it gave the following impression. Nvidia provided a response for every AMD launch. However, this time the product’s positioning was independent. Although, two weeks later we could witness the GTX 1650 Super’s release.

Specifications

Below you’ll find the configuration of this model – AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT:

Our graphics card has similar architecture to RX 5700 or RX 5700 XT. Nevertheless, it’s designed for a budget segment of the market. So don’t expect to find the same hardware after exploring the insides.

In particular, the given item has 22 PUs and 1408 stream processors. The best score it can get in performance is 5.2 TFLOPS. Therefore, we conclude that the graphics card is not the best choice for gaming purposes.

It provides 2 configurations, 4 GB and 8 GB of video memory. In our opinion, it’s not a convenient decision to name two different memory configurations identically. But it’s still better than what Nvidia did to the GeForce GTX 1060 earlier.

Their item offered models with 3 GB and 6 GB of video memory. However, the 6 GB version had extra 128 CUDA cores. It made the second option way more capable than the first one. We only review the 8 GB model of the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT. Judging by the list of specs, memory is the only difference between the two variations. But we’re not able to evaluate how different they are at work.

There are fresh decisions by AMD in the software as well. The Radeon one was refreshed and became truly useful. In short, the software updates allow overclocking the item performance and handling game presets. You can also stream broadcasts while playing. The nicest part is having all the instructions in an accessible and accurate manner. This way you don’t have to be a specialist in the software area. And still, all the best options are available and easy to use.

Of course, we have Image Sharpening back and, even better, a new Chill feature. It makes the graphics card rest when it’s possible. This, in turn, saves some space for bandwidth. Such a feature promises to improve temperature regulation and reduce disturbing noise from fans.

After testing the we found it really lowers the fan noise. The card was just a bit loaded, while the power consumption decreased to 3 Watts.

Once the power is low, the fans come to a stop. Along with that, the thermal balance remains just fine. The idle temperature is 111° F, which might seem pretty high. But again, the cooling is not activated. It raised its peak of 170° F during our test. We consider it high, yet not enough to be an issue. You can also tweak the cooling system with MSI Afterburner or apply other similar software. It will help you get better thermal regulation.

Overall performance

Specifications:

• Coolers: NZXT Kraken X62
• Central processing unit: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (12 cores, up to 4.6GHz)
• Random-access memory: 32GB HyperX Predator RGB (3000MHz)
• Solid state drive: Samsung 860 QVO 1TB
• Motherboard: Aorus Master X570
• Case: Praxis Wetbench
• PSU: Phanteks Revolt X 1200

The given graphics card is supposed to work at 1080p resolution. Higher ones may provide difficulties for the device.

We experienced 42 FPS while testing it in Middle Earth at 1440p. When we switched to 1080p resolution, the result was 63 FPS. It is clear which model to choose.

However, things drastically changed with Metro Exodus. This is an extremely demanding computer game among all the options on the market. At 1080p resolution, we could only squeeze out 37 FPS on Ultra settings. This is a very average result. In case you still want to play such games on your computer, adjust the graphics settings.

It is truly interesting to compare the 5500 XT with Nvidia’s GTX 1660. The opponent’s card showed practically the same refresh rate in Metro Exodus. At the same time, Middle Earth made it higher by 8%. Probably, the difference was caused by Radeon’s faster video memory, while Metro devours it intensely.

The situation became even more peculiar as we proceeded to the synthetic test. 3DMark Time Spy brought 6007 points to the GTX1660, while 5500 XT only got 5230. At the same time, the result was different when using other 3DMark products.

During the Fire Strike test AMD’s item squeezed 12632 points and Nvidia had 12345 points. In fact, it’s not a crucial gap. Nevertheless, it clearly shows us that the participants are trading licks. Let’s keep in mind that AMD’s item is about 40$ cheaper than the GTX.

Summary

This product will suit your preferences if you need a graphics card for 1080p resolution. It has enough power to let you play the majority of games at 60 FPS. Although, it will be troublesome to run some games with high demands. However, with the GTX 1660’s slightly higher price, it’s not hard to choose.

But still, remember about tasks that won’t let you justify worse performance for saving money. Video memory with more capacity makes 5500 XT a better option for next-generation PC games. Well, we can’t know for sure until we have more of them released.

Final score 8.1

This graphics card is made to work in 1080p resolution. Therefore, this is not the most capable item out of all options on the market. However, it has a reasonable price and does its job properly. Just be ready to reduce graphic settings when playing challenging games.

Video-review on gaming graphics card AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT – Budget 1080p Gaming Powerhouse

Gaming graphics card AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT

AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT review - the graphics card is good for 1080p gaming. It has a cheap price and does well at low graphics settings when playing cool games

Product SKU: RX5500XT

Product Brand: AMD

Product Currency: $

Product Price: 205

Price Valid Until: 2023-04-23

Product In-Stock: InStock

Editor's Rating:
8.1