Features of AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT

This was particularly true once AMD began combining these cards with an abundance of titles. However, those GPUs powered by Polaris are so outdated that they are almost prehistoric and use an absurd amount of power compared to newer graphics cards. However, despite all of those advancements and AMD's prior successes with Polaris and Navi, the Radeon RX 5500 XT cannot stake a claim to the title of mainstream champion. GeForce GTX 1650 Super, which was newly released by Nvidia and cost $160, is a formidable competitor for cheap graphics cards. Even if AMD's card only costs $169, the pricing is still too expensive concerning the performance it offers.

• Specifications, features, and pricing information about the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT.
• As was just said, the graphics processing unit (GPU) that the Radeon RX 5500 XT employs is a scaled-down version of AMD's Navi GPU.

Radeon RX 5500 XT Specifications

In comparison, the Radeon RX 5700 series packed 2,560 SPs into the faster $400 Radeon RX 5700 XT. The Radeon RX 5500 XT has a rated clock speed of 1,717MHz for its game clock, which places it in the middle of the two RX 5700 cards in terms of its effective clock speed during gameplay. We could not test that speed under load because of a flaw in the new Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition from AMD; however, the firm claims that the fault will be resolved immediately after the debut of this card.

Do not get Sapphire's unequaled Trixx Boost and AMD's brand-new Radeon Boost feature confused. Trixx Boost is exclusive to Sapphire graphics cards. However, it may be used with any graphics API game. Sapphire is the only manufacturer that provides this feature. Radeon Boost was first introduced in the massive Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition update released two days ago.

The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5500 XT and the Trixx Boost

By default, the scaling for Trixx Boost is 85 percent. When we tested it at the 1080p resolution that the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5500 XT was designed for, we found that it was a little bit too harsh, but it worked brilliantly at 1440p and 4K resolutions, which are where the more powerful Radeon RX 5700 likes to hang out. The scaling factor of 85% resulted in a new resolution of 1632 by 918. Since there were far fewer pixels to work with than with the downscaling choices for higher resolutions, it seemed to our eyes to be a little bit too shiny and fragmented. At that resolution, several games, including Strange Brigade, resorted to framing the picture in a letterbox instead of using full-screen mode.

These issues were resolved after the scale was increased to 90 percent, which resulted in a resolution of 1728 by 972. A little pixelization may be observed if you look at the picture in great detail, but it is hardly noticeable while you are playing the game. Naturally, reducing the amount of downscaling also lessens the possible performance improvements that Trixx Boost may provide; nevertheless, as you will see in our testing session, it can still make a considerable difference depending on the game. We benchmarked each game using the Pulse performance when it was first turned on, and the performance with Trixx Boost was set to 90 percent scaling.

Test System

Our specialized setup for testing graphics cards is loaded with some of the quickest supplementary components currently on the market. This puts the onus of any possible performance bottlenecks firmly on the GPU. Since there were far fewer pixels to work with than with the downscaling choices for higher resolutions, it seemed to our eyes to be a little bit too shiny and fragmented. The manufacturers supplied the majority of the gear. However, we were responsible for purchasing the cooler and the storage.

The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5500 XT, which budget costs $169, is being pitted against the 4GB Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650 Super, which costs the same amount. The Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1650 Super is a kitted-out custom model that prices $10 more than the GTX 1650 Super's recommended MSRP. Which now has a base price of $200. These graphics cards are in addition to the Radeon RX 5500 XT. For a more in-depth analysis of the current state of the GPU industry, be sure to check out our comprehensive guide to the top graphics cards for PC gaming.