News Sapphire Configures a Radeon RX 6500 XT With 8GB VRAM

[Admin]

Sapphire's new Radeon RX 6500 XT Pulse 8GB is available now. The GPU boost clock is 1% faster, but the memory bus remains lacking at 64-bit.

Sapphire Configures a Radeon RX 6500 XT With 8GB VRAM : Read more

 

[artk2219]

As was stated, having 8GB is nice, but it does nothing to fix the main issues of an x4 pcie connection and a 64bit bus, id still be curious to see if it provides a decent uplift though.

 

[King_V]

Likewise on the curiosity point. Though, wouldn't the bump up to 8GB eliminate the need in a lot of cases to have to go over the x4 PCIe connection to system RAM?

I would speculate that it might be a larger difference than what was seen with the 5500XT 4 vs 8GB versions. Particularly for systems without PCIe 4.0 or 5.0.

But I'd love to see how this Giant Among Hobbits GPU manages to do. Will it, perhaps, manage to match the performance of the RX 580 8GB?

 

[CompuGuy71]

My question is who is gonna buy this? At the low end it will probably retail at $225 ~ $250 at that point, spend another 25 or so bucks and get a 6600 8GB

 

[King_V]

My question is who is gonna buy this? At the low end it will probably retail at $225 ~ $250 at that point, spend another 25 or so bucks and get a 6600 8GB

Well, I figure the RX 6400 has been dropping, the RX 6500 XT with 4GB has been dropping a little, I suspect this version will potentially put downward pressure on those prices.

Maybe.

 

[mitch074]

Seems like a logical upgrade - most benchmarks showed that the card's performance got hit tremendously when you reached the end of its framebuffer, especially if you didn't use PCIe 4.0. Doubling its VRAM capacity makes it much easier to NOT run out of framebuffer, thus not hitting the PCIe bus. Due to how little compute power the chip has, widening the VRAM bus would have little effect; reducing reads and writes to it, though, might just help.
I still would recommend getting a RX6600 instead.

 

[watzupken]

As was stated, having 8GB is nice, but it does nothing to fix the main issues of an x4 pcie connection and a 64bit bus, id still be curious to see if it provides a decent uplift though.

The problem will be less likely to happen because there is more VRAM and less need to go through the BUS for system memory. But I feel pricing is key because at the low end, there is usually very little legroom for price changes since you can tell that there are other better alternatives that are not going to cost significantly more. If it’s too expensive, I rather go for a RTX 3050 which is not so severely gimped as this card.

 

[King_V]

The problem will be less likely to happen because there is more VRAM and less need to go through the BUS for system memory. But I feel pricing is key because at the low end, there is usually very little legroom for price changes since you can tell that there are other better alternatives that are not going to cost significantly more. If it’s too expensive, I rather go for a RTX 3050 which is not so severely gimped as this card.

The only downside to that is that the 3050 seems to be stupidly overpriced beyond it's MSRP.

 

[kewlguy239]

Sapphire's new Radeon RX 6500 XT Pulse 8GB is available now. The GPU boost clock is 1% faster, but the memory bus remains lacking at 64-bit.

Sapphire Configures a Radeon RX 6500 XT With 8GB VRAM : Read more

You guys need to read your own stuff. Saying no one asked for more VRAM directly contradicts Jarred's review, where he stated he would have like to see at least 6GB on the RX 6500 XT.

 

[artk2219]

The only downside to that is that the 3050 seems to be stupidly overpriced beyond it's MSRP.

Definitely, it's pricing is ludicrous, you could pickup an RX 6600 for less which beats it in every way, except in ray tracing, and even there it's close. Heck even if you wanted to stick pure team green you could pickup a 2060 for less and get better performance. Nuts.

 

[spentshells]

all amd needs to do is widen the bus to 128 and move it to an 8x interface while keeping this @ 8GB, hell they could even skip moving to 8x and they are selling thousands of these

I guess they just dont want ya enjoying this card......

so much wasted potential in the low end on both sides, many of us want to stay @ 1080p

 

[mitch074]

all amd needs to do is widen the bus to 128 and move it to an 8x interface while keeping this @ 8GB, hell they could even skip moving to 8x and they are selling thousands of these

I guess they just dont want ya enjoying this card......

so much wasted potential in the low end on both sides, many of us want to stay @ 1080p

That would require new silicon - this chip was originally a mobile part, thus its strange limitations and setup. We probably won't see a new low end part before they release RDNA3.

 

[lcilliers]

Correction Memory speed should be 18Gbps

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Per Newegg:
Sapphire RX 6600 8GB - $230 ($210 on sale)
Sapphire RX 6500XT 4GB - $310 ($280 on sale)

If the extra 4GB VRAM adds $25 to the price, that puts it way too close to the much faster 6600 to even consider. Even as it is you're sacrificing 60% performance for a 25% cost savings, which makes the 6500XT a card which shouldn't be bought anyway.

 

[InvalidError]

Per Newegg:
Sapphire RX 6600 8GB - $230 ($210 on sale)
Sapphire RX 6500XT 4GB - $310 ($280 on sale)

Your prices (or models) are swapped.

I'd suspect Sapphire is launching an extra RAM variant because it has excess Navi 24 chips, PCBs and parts kits it wants to get rid of and needs the marketing gimmick to move inventory. In that case, PowerColor may decide to eat some of the cost and the retail prices won't quite cover the increased GDDR6 cost.

I wonder who makes the die-stacked GDDR6 that would be required for these.

 

[Potlotpatlot]

Hope this card can be found in my country and with a decent price, i am surprised at this decision and will waiting until it sells in here

 

[King_V]

Your prices (or models) are swapped.

I'd suspect Sapphire is launching an extra RAM variant because it has excess Navi 24 chips, PCBs and parts kits it wants to get rid of and needs the marketing gimmick to move inventory. In that case, PowerColor may decide to eat some of the cost and the retail prices won't quite cover the increased GDDR6 cost.

I wonder who makes the die-stacked GDDR6 that would be required for these.

You know, I actually found the inverted price believable.

Because THAT is what the release of the GTX 1630, and its "pricing that's higher than the 1650, and equal to the 1650 Super" did to my sense of expectations.

 

[sherhi]

Hope this card can be found in my country and with a decent price, i am surprised at this decision and will waiting until it sells in here

in my country 4gb version goes for 225€, this 8gb version is listed at 300,90€ while 3050 is 309,9€ and 6600 is 358€

still for those prices and my 8 years old PC I am not buying anything, if this trend of overpriced GPUs continues in my country I will probably Xbox X (even though I have been PC gamer for 25 years)

 

[watzupken]

The only downside to that is that the 3050 seems to be stupidly overpriced beyond it's MSRP.

This is true. The last I checked, the RTX 2060 12GB is cheaper than the RTX 3050 on Amazon. The former is clearly a better performer and with more VRAM to boot even though it may not need that much.