So, Hardware Unboxed did a video on the RX 6500 XT 4 GB in light of AMD bringing back 4 GB cards with a RX 9050 OEM model, and uh...I wanna discuss it. This has been kind of controversial.
Some think that it's unfair to criticize the new card given the 6500 XT is...well...as weak as it is. No, not really. Here's the reality here. I know I low key gave it SOME praise recently, but that requires A LOT of context.
Right now, the sub $200 GPU market is more or less nonexistent. You buy anything less than that RX 7600 I recommended basically and youre getting a paperweight for NEW games. You can play older ones, or even lower spec newer ones on SOME cards I suggested, but really, there's a reason I emphasize the RX 7600. It's because if you want a decent gaming experience, you need a RX 6000 or RTX 2000 card with at least 8 GB RAM and decent horsepower. Period. While the RX 7600 isn't as low as you can theoretically go and meet that, given the RX 6600, RTX 3050 8 GB, and RTX 2060 super exist, it's the cheapest card on the market worth the money. RX 6600 and 2060S arent sold new at decent prices any more, and the 3050 costs as much as the 7600 while being around 33% weaker.
When you go below those cards, you get a compromised experience. The RX 6500 XT is anemic. It's only like half as powerful as a RX 6600 XT, and maybe around 60% of a RX 6600. It comes with 4 PCIE lanes, which with older PCIE 3.0 systems (ie, the kinds of old systems you'd put this card in to begin with), it loses a lot of performance. And it has 4 GB VRAM.
The reason most games dont run well AT ALL in HW Unboxed video IS the VRAM. If you have enough VRAM, your card should scale down to SOME playable experience. However, if youre stuck at 30 FPS with horrible lows even at like 720p with FSR enabled, yeah, that's VRAM. You're not gonna run games on that. And even a newer card like a theoretical 9050 4 GB will get crap frame rates due to the VRAM bottleneck. RAM in general is all or nothing with gaming. If you have enough, the experience is smooth. If you don't, it's miserable. While I cant say theres NO in between, the amount of in between that exists is minimal.
8 GB is a hard requirement for new games. I am die hard on saying "you need 8 GB" for new games for a reason. You do. If you have less, they're gonna run like crap. Even 6 GB is too borderline in some situations. And honestly, the GTX 1060 6 GB will probably outperform the 6500 XT 4 GB in most games for a reason, despite having similar amounts of power. 4 GB is just crap for new games. it reached its limit in 2022, and starting in 2023, we got past the PS4-PS5 "cross gen" phase and started seeing the first true "next gen" games not compatible with the older hardware. At that point, 8 GB started being a hard requirement, and playing on a 4 GB card in 2026 is gonna be a bad time in most games.
Some games, they showed that if you scaled the game down enough you can get 60-80 FPS. Those are the games where you DONT get VRAM bottlenecks. And yeah, some still work...and the RX 6500 XT is just an anemic card for those.
Like really, the only reason I gave the RX 6400 and 6500 XT any praise was because they're better than nothing. My praise was conditioned by "in a sea of GT 1030 tier ewaste, these are actually compelling options by comparison." I mean, compared to THAT card, which has 1/4 the horsepower and 2 GB VRAM, the 6500 XT actually is a relatively decent offering. It's on par with an old RX 580 4 GB or like a GTX 1060 in theory. It's just that...those cards are a decade old now, they're not good for modern games, the 4 GB VRAM no longer cuts it since it's not the mid 2010s any more, and the 4x PCIE lanes are just....wtf, why? Like, seriously, you just lose 1/3 of your performance on old systems for no reason with it.
Again, better than GT 1030s, GT 740s, and similar cards, but....yeah, basically crap too. There's a reason I'm like "yeah dont go below the RX 7600" these days if you wanna play new games. Even that 3050 6 GB is gonna have compromises due to VRAM and not a ton of power. Not to mention Arc and their drivers, bleh. The entire low end of the market below $200 is just literal ewaste at this point, the 3050 6 GB is like...just short of what I'd say the reasonable minimum is, and you need to pay $260 for a 7600 or 3050 8 GB to hit it, and given the 3050 8 GB is pointless next to the 7600, yeah...again, see why I keep saying it?
I mean, these cards were the worst the 6000 series had to offer. They were cut down borderline ewaste at the time, they're basically ewaste now, and the only reason i say maybe we judged them too harshly is because the only modern equivalent card that exists is an intel card that has its own host of issues. The market is just crap and if youre forced to choose between bad options, my goal here is to navigate to the absolute least of the evils. Generally speaking the 6000 series was only good with the 6600 and above, and while I will glaze the 6600, 6650 XT, and 6700 XT until the end of their lifespans and possibly beyond at this point, that doesn't mean everything is a winner. The 6500 XT is just better than what exists now on the market at that price point. My attitude is that if you can't afford a GOOD GPU capable of playing modern games, you should still buy the best you can get your hands on. Something like a 6500 XT, or 1650 super or something would at least get you up to 2022 era games or so. And isnt that better than literally nothing? Beats integrated...or a 1030 at least. Even if it is crap. In theory, it's 2x steam deck performance.
And that's something to think about too. The RX 6500 XT is...2x as powerful as the steam deck. ya know, that handheld that everyone glazes for being able to barely run AAA games at 30 FPS on minimum with FSR on? If it can even do it? Yeah. Well...the 6500 XT is 2x that performance wise. Just to put things in context. Is 2x the steam deck a good experience these days? Hell no. Again, you want at minimum like a 3050 8 GB if you wanna do modern gaming at all. Which is...40-50% better than a 6500 XT, even ignoring the VRAM. And ideally, you probably want more than that, like a RX 6600 or 7600 or something to COMFORTABLY run games. Yeah...
That's also why i dont find the steam deck compelling fyi. It's basically ewaste thrown into a game gear type form factor. Sure, it'll run the old stuff decent, but it's not really good for AAA games. But yeah. Again, this is why i dont do PC handhelds. Too much money for too little performance. Id rather have a PC and an android device dedicated to low end android games and retro gaming. Ya know, but I digress. Just wanted to contextualize things a bit.
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