Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT overview: Reasonably priced, quiet, and sensible

AMD’s Radeon RX 6500 XT is a humble graphics card constructed to deliver 1080p gaming to the hundreds at a time when the hundreds haven’t had an inexpensive GPU choice for years. Sapphire’s widespread “Pulse” logo relentlessly specializes in handing over cast gaming reports with out cost-adding frills you would possibly not need.

On paper, it seems like a peanut butter and jelly-type scenario. However does the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT, which retails for AMD’s $199 instructed worth, grasp up in follow? Yep. It is a excellent low cost graphics card for brand new PC developers, reinforced via some sensible tool tips that allow you to squeeze much more functionality from your {hardware} forward of the hotly expected unencumber of AMD’s Radeon Super Resolution feature. Let’s dig in.

Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT specifications and contours

The Sapphire Pulse is constructed the use of AMD’s new Radeon RX 6500 XT GPU, the primary shopper graphics card constructed the use of TSMC’s 6nm procedure. It’s very power environment friendly and eager about handing over excellent 1080p gaming functionality at Medium to Top visible settings, which the cardboard delivers in spades. Right here’s a high-level have a look at the Radeon RX 6500 XT’s reference specs, which the Sapphire Pulse sticks to:

AMD

We gained’t dive too deeply into the ones uncooked specifications, as we already did so in our preliminary comprehensive Radeon RX 6500 XT review, in addition to in our extra digestible 5 things you need to know about the Radeon RX 6500 XT explainer. We want to discuss them in short, then again, as growing an inexpensive graphics card in the middle of a GPU crunch required some extraordinary compromises—some applied particularly to dodge the attention of cryptocurrency miners who’ve been snatching up graphics playing cards left and proper.

The Radeon RX 6500 XT packs a scant 4GB of GDDR6 reminiscence over a minute 64-bit bus unprecedented in fashionable gaming GPUs, although the ones reminiscence chips are clocked at a blazing-fast 18Gbps and are available augmented via AMD’s radical Infinity Cache technology. The cardboard additionally, unfortunately, helps best 4 PCIe lanes fairly than the standard 16, which can result in fairly decrease functionality in older programs that also run PCIe 3.0, fairly than the speedier PCIe 4.0 generation present in the most recent PCs.

The ones selections imply that whilst the Radeon RX 6500 XT excels at what it’s designed for—ultra-fast e-sports, and triple-A gaming at Mid to Top settings at 1080p decision—in the event you crank the attention sweet to Extremely or jack up the decision to 1440p, it’s essential to run into greater functionality problems (like sluggish body charges or lag spikes). Get started at 1080p Medium graphics presets for your favourite video games and nudge up knobs from there in the event you’re in a position. For those who persist with what the Radeon RX 6500 XT used to be constructed for, you’ll be proud of it.

[ Further reading: What the Internet got wrong about the Radeon RX 6500 XT ]

Trixx Spice up

Sapphire’s stellar Trixx Spice up function, discovered within the corporate’s Trixx software utility, can assist with that. Trixx Spice up has helped Sapphire GPUs earn excessive marks in our opinions for a number of years now—it earned the “best innovation” award on our Complete Nerd podcast’s once a year best-of episode the entire long ago in 2019.

It’s a suave function that hurries up body charges the use of a mix of slight symbol downsampling and AMD’s superb Radeon Symbol Polishing generation. It’s like a much less advanced model of the theory in the back of Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s Fidelity FX Super Resolution options: Render at a decrease decision to beef up body charges, then blank up the ensuing symbol artifacts with the assistance of sensible tool. Higher but, whilst Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR best serve as in video games that toughen it, Trixx Spice up works with any DirectX 9, DX11, DX12, or Vulkan recreation. That covers all however probably the most area of interest PC video games being performed lately.

Brad Chacos/IDG

The usage of Trixx Spice up comes to adjusting proportion sliders to create a customized decision, then deciding on that decision in video games. Our Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6600 XT overview already wades right into a thorough evaluation of Trixx Boost at 1080p decision, so test that out if you wish to have extra element or an academic on surroundings it up. Right here’s the important thing a part of what you wish to have to grasp, although:

Trixx Spice up defaults to a customized decision at 85 % of your local display output. That works splendidly nicely whilst you’re taking part in at extra pixel-packed 1440p and 4K resolutions when paired with RIS, however subjectively, I discovered it too competitive at 1080p. The decrease decision implies that chopping it again even extra leads to shimmering and on occasion janky edges which can be actually perceptible in movement at 85 %. (This isn’t only a Trixx Spice up factor; each DLSS and FSR even have troubles keeping up symbol high quality at 1080p decision, however now not at upper constancy.)

I discovered it a lot more delightful to bump the slide as much as 90 % of the display decision for 1080p gameplay… It nonetheless isn’t fairly absolute best; you should still see slight visible artifacts in some scenes, corresponding to faint shimmering on slim stairs in movement, or faint blurriness in static menu displays relying on their setup. However the ones distractions proved few and a long way between at 90-percent scaling individually, and the additional functionality equipped via Trixx Spice up made the occasional graininess profitable. For those who disagree, you’ll be able to all the time quit the use of it.

Sapphire

For those who create a customized 90 % decision with Trixx Spice up, you’ll in most cases see a few 10 % functionality spice up in video games, although that may range relying at the identify. However Trixx Spice up proves particularly helpful given the Radeon RX 6500 XT’s extraordinary technical configuration. With simply 4GB of reminiscence, a 64-bit bus, and 4 PCIe lanes, this GPU’s functionality can tank in the event you push visible high quality too onerous and exceed the reminiscence capability. Your decision performs a big function in reminiscence utilization. The usage of Trixx Spice up’s customized resolutions can again you additional clear of the cliff, which in flip can possibly mean you can bump up the visible settings upper in video games—going from Medium to Top presets, or bumping up the textures, for instance. It’ll range a great deal via the sport but it surely’s price taking part in round with.

Greater than 3 years after it debuted, I’m nonetheless surprised that no different graphics card maker has stolen a web page from Sapphire’s playbook and applied a Trixx Spice up-like function of their very own, although its usefulness might wane when AMD’s own Radeon Super Resolution arrives. For now, it’s a killer feather within the Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT’s cap.

Sapphire Pulse design

The Radeon RX 6500 XT iteration sticks to Sapphire’s acquainted Pulse design, which is to mention it’s horny, efficient, and lacks cost-adding frills, corresponding to a dual-BIOS transfer or RGB lighting fixtures.

It doesn’t glance like the cheap card apart from its compact two-slot design, although. The Pulse comes blacked out with crimson accents, a cultured I in my view dig, and Sapphire even slapped a steel backplate at the Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT so it’ll glance great via your case’s window panel. The Twin-X cooling device plops a couple of lovers atop a modest heatsink, entire with clever fan keep watch over and a the most important idle fan-stop function that halts the spinning blades whilst you’re out of doors of video games or different GPU-stressing duties. It is a very quiet graphics card even at complete tilt then again—noticeably extra so than the XFX Qick 210 card we examined for our initial Radeon RX 6500 XT review. (That card ran just a little less warm, in go back. Extra on cooling later.)

Brad Chacos/IDG

You gained’t to find a lot else at the card apart from a unmarried 6-pin energy connector, a unmarried HDMI 2.1 port, and a unmarried DisplayPort, although the bare-bones show outputs are because of AMD’s GPU design selections, fairly than a stripping-down on Sapphire’s phase. The elemental setup will have to paintings nicely in this kind of funds gaming rig the Radeon RX 6500 XT is meant for, then again. Talking of show outputs, it’s price noting that AMD additionally lower AV1 toughen from this GPU, together with H.264 and H.265/HEVC encoding (deciphering is there), which makes the Pulse much less interesting for house theater PCs and other folks hoping to movement or document their gaming adventures.

However good day, the $199 worth positive is true and the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT can nonetheless recreation simply fantastic, proper? Let’s get to the benchmarks.

Our check device

We check graphics playing cards on an AMD Ryzen 5000-series check rig with the intention to benchmark the impact of PCIe 4.0 toughen on fashionable GPUs, in addition to the performance-boosting AMD Sensible Get entry to Reminiscence and Nvidia Resizable BAR options (which might be each in accordance with the similar underlying PCIe same old). These days, we’re trying out it on an open bench with AMD’s Wraith Max air cooler. Lots of the {hardware} used to be equipped via the producers, however we bought the garage ourselves.

• AMD Ryzen 5900X, inventory settings
• AMD Wraith Max cooler
• MSI Godlike X570 motherboard
• 32GB G.Talent Trident Z Neo DDR4 3800 reminiscence
• EVGA 1200W SuperNova P2 energy provide
• 1TB SK Hynix Gold S31 SSD

We’re doing issues somewhat otherwise lately because of the funds nature of this card, and its extraordinary configuration. Usually, we check video games on the perfect imaginable graphics presets and with temporal anti-aliasing enabled to push them to their limits. However the Radeon RX 6500 XT is constructed for medium to excessive gaming at 1080p, on the cheap. So we skipped our standard strategies and as an alternative determined to check AMD’s latest providing towards prior-gen GPUs in a identical $200 worth bracket, plus or minus $50 in both route, with every recreation’s Medium graphics preset.

The charts underneath pit the Sapphire Pulse and the XFX Qick 210—each $199 Radeon RX 6500 XT GPUs—towards AMD’s last-gen Radeon RX 5500 XT, which introduced at $180 in 2019 (and value $30 an excessive amount of on the time), in addition to the Asus ROG Strix Radeon RX 580 8GB, an enthusiast-class model of the superb GPU that launched in 2017 for $250. We’ve matched that on Nvidia’s facet with the Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650 Super, which introduced for $170 in 2019, and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Founders Edition GPU, a $250 graphics card in 2016. We selected those playing cards as a result of they’re the forms of used choices the Radeon RX 6500 XT will compete towards in lately’s wacky GPU market. Best AMD’s new card helps real-time ray tracing.

We’ve additionally incorporated functionality effects for the XFX Radeon RX 6500 XT Qick 210 operating in each PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0 modes, given the 4 restricted PCIe lanes of AMD’s GPU, so that you could see what kind of functionality to be expecting in the event you drop those graphics playing cards into an older device as an improve. Spoiler: It’s most commonly a negligible downgrade on the Medium settings this card is meant for. The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT would ship identical functionality in a PCIe 3.0 device, although as soon as once more, Trixx Spice up allow you to paintings round this GPU’s obstacles and pace issues up.

We check a lot of video games spanning quite a lot of engines, genres, seller sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 11, DX12, and Vulkan). Every recreation is examined with VSync, body price caps, real-time ray tracing or DLSS results, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, together with every other vendor-specific applied sciences like FidelityFX equipment or Nvidia Reflex. We additionally disable AMD’s Sensible Get entry to Reminiscence and Nvidia’s rival PCIe Resizable BAR function, since they’re extremely depending on how the remainder of your device is configured. We run every benchmark no less than thrice and listing the typical outcome for every check.

Gaming functionality benchmarks

Watch Canine: Legion

Watch Canine: Legion is without doubt one of the first video games to debut on next-gen consoles. Ubisoft upgraded its Disrupt engine to incorporate state-of-the-art options like real-time ray tracing and Nvidia’s DLSS. We disable the ones results for this trying out, however Legion stays a strenuous recreation even on high-end {hardware} with its non-compulsory high-resolution texture pack put in.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Horizon 0 First light

Yep, PlayStation exclusives are coming to the PC now. Horizon 0 First light runs on Guerrilla Video games’ Decima engine, the similar engine that powers Demise Stranding.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Gears Techniques

Gears Techniques places it personal brutal, fast moving spin at the XCOM-like style. This Unreal Engine 4-powered recreation used to be constructed from the bottom up for DirectX 12, and we like with the ability to paintings a tactics-style recreation into our benchmarking suite. Higher but, the sport comes with a plethora of graphics choices for PC snobs. Extra video games will have to commit such loving care to explaining what flipping these types of visible knobs imply.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is extra amusing when you’ll be able to play cooperatively with a good friend, however it’s a fearless experiment—and an absolute technical exhibit. Working at the Vulkan API, Youngblood achieves blistering body charges, and it helps all forms of state-of-the-art applied sciences like ray tracing, DLSS 2.0, HDR, GPU culling, asynchronous computing, and Nvidia’s Content material Adaptive Shading. The sport features a integrated benchmark with two other scenes; we examined Riverside.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Metro Exodus

Some of the preferrred video games of 2019, Metro Exodus stays some of the best-looking video games round, too. The newest model of the 4A Engine supplies extremely luscious, ultra-detailed visuals, with one of the surprising real-time ray tracing implementations launched but. We check in DirectX 12 mode with ray tracing, Hairworks, and DLSS disabled.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Borderlands 3

Borderlands is again! Gearbox’s recreation defaults to DX12, so we do as nicely. It offers us a glimpse on the ultra-popular Unreal Engine 4’s functionality in a conventional shooter. This recreation has a tendency to desire fashionable AMD {hardware}.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Ordinary Brigade

Ordinary Brigade is a cooperative third-person shooter the place a staff of adventurers blasts via hordes of mythological enemies. It’s a technological exhibit, constructed across the next-gen Vulkan and DirectX 12 applied sciences and infused with options like HDR toughen and the power to toggle asynchronous compute off and on. It makes use of Insurrection’s customized Azure engine. We check the use of the Vulkan renderer, which is quicker than DX12.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Overall Battle: Troy

The newest recreation in the preferred Overall Battle saga, Troy used to be given away unfastened for its first 24 hours at the Epic Video games Retailer, shifting over 7.5 million copies prior to it went on correct sale. Overall Battle: Troy is constructed the use of a changed model of the Overall Battle: Warhammer 2 engine, and this DX11 identify seems to be surprising for a turn-based technique recreation. We check the extra extensive struggle benchmark.

Brad Chacos/IDG

F1 2020

F1 2020 is a gem to check, supplying a wide selection of each graphical and benchmarking choices, making it a a lot more dependable (and amusing) choice than the Forza sequence. It’s constructed on the most recent model of Codemasters’ buttery-smooth Ego recreation engine, entire with toughen for DX12 and Nvidia’s DLSS generation. We check two laps at the Australia direction, with transparent skies on and DLSS off.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider concludes the reboot trilogy, and it’s nonetheless completely beautiful a number of years after its debut. Sq. Enix optimized this recreation for DX12 and recommends DX11 provided that you’re the use of older {hardware} or Home windows 7, so we check with DX12. Shadow of the Tomb Raider makes use of an enhanced model of the Basis engine that still powered Upward push of the Tomb Raider and comprises non-compulsory real-time ray tracing and DLSS options.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege nonetheless dominates the Steam charts years after its release, and Ubisoft helps it with widespread updates and occasions. The builders have poured a ton of labor into the sport’s AnvilNext engine over time, in the end rolling out a Vulkan model of the sport that we use to check. Via default, the sport lowers the render scaling to extend body charges, however we set it to one hundred pc to benchmark local rendering functionality on graphics playing cards. Even nonetheless, body charges jump.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Energy draw, thermals, and noise

We check energy draw via looping the F1 2020 benchmark at 4K for approximately 20 mins once we’ve benchmarked the whole thing else and noting the perfect studying on our Watts Up Professional meter, which measures the facility intake of our whole check device. The preliminary a part of the race, the place all competing automobiles are onscreen concurrently, has a tendency to be probably the most hard portion. 

This isn’t a worst-case check; this can be a GPU-bound recreation operating at a GPU-bound decision to gauge functionality when the graphics card is sweating onerous. For those who’re taking part in a recreation that still hammers the CPU, it’s essential to see upper total device energy attracts. Imagine your self warned.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Access-level graphics playing cards all the time have modest energy calls for—the entire examined gadgets best want a unmarried 6- or 8-pin energy connector—however the super energy potency of AMD’s RDNA 2 structure shines although right here, particularly whilst you imagine that the Radeon RX 6500 XT holds a cast functionality lead in uncooked body charges on this recreation as nicely. Just right stuff.

We check thermals via leaving GPU-Z open all through the F1 2020 energy draw check, noting the perfect most temperature on the finish.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Conserving those modest GPUs cool isn’t a topic for any of those designs, although some without a doubt outperform others. Let’s 0 in at the struggle between the 2 customized Radeon RX 6500 XT fashions for a 2d although. Via that chart, the XFX Qick 210 seems to have a transparent cooling benefit, and with regards to uncooked levels Celsius, it indisputably does. However the Sapphire Pulse’s 65 level operating warmth is damned cool itself, and via operating its lovers at decrease speeds, the Pulse remains whisper-quiet all through gameplay, which is nice on an experiential point. Each are excellent coolers, however I desire the sensible silence of the Sapphire Pulse.

Must you purchase the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT?

The Radeon RX 6500 XT is a weirdly constructed GPU for wacky occasions. Its unorthodox technical configuration implies that in the event you attempt to push the cardboard tougher than it’s supposed, functionality can plummet. However at 1080p decision, you’ll be able to play e-sports video games at ultra-fast body charges, or triple-A video games with Medium or Top settings at 60fps or upper. We dove a lot, a lot deeper into the quite a lot of must-knows and caveats within the conclusion of our initial Radeon RX 6500 XT review, and recapped them in additional digestible shape in our information to 5 things you need to know about the Radeon RX 6500 XT.

Having that type of gaming revel in to be had in an inexpensive graphics card as soon as once more—previous to this we hadn’t noticed the cheap GPU release since 2019, and the ones playing cards are going for $200 to $400 used on Ebay at the moment—could be very welcome certainly. The Radeon RX 6500 XT isn’t a compelling functionality improve for someone who purchased even a modest graphics card during the last 5 years, however new PC players on the cheap don’t have to show to cloud gaming or consoles anymore if they are able to get their arms in this. Availability might be key, however AMD designed this GPU to be churned out for the masses. Palms crossed. You’ll need to get this entry-level graphics card for as with regards to $200 or $250 as imaginable for it to take advantage of sense.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Thankfully, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT sticks to AMD’s instructed $199 ticket, identical to the XFX Qick 210 we reviewed previous. Each are cast low cost choices with strangely well-built bodily designs. You’ll be able to’t move fallacious with both card, and realistically, in lately’s marketplace you will have to gobble up whichever one you stumble throughout in inventory. However the Sapphire Pulse’s whisper-quiet noise ranges and talent to squeeze just a little extra eye sweet and/or functionality out of video games with the assistance of Sapphire’s improbable Trixx Spice up tool offers it the slight edge in our eyes (although the discharge of AMD’s universal Radeon Super Resolution feature may make Trixx much less crucial in time).

If you’ll be able to to find it in inventory at or close to its $199 MSRP and want a new GPU, seize up the Sapphire Pulse. Simply pay attention to the Radeon RX 6500 XT’s quite a lot of functionality and show obstacles—paintings inside of them and also you’ll be proud of it. Helps to keep the ones graphics presets off Extremely, youngsters.