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GTX 1650 or RX 6500 XT

Associate
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28 May 2015
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I have seen many youtubers slating the RX 6500 XT but on comparison websites the RX 6500 XT slaughters the GTX 1650. Am I missing something or is the RX 6500 XT the better budget card. I only have about £160 to spend.
 
Man of Honour
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I have seen many youtubers slating the RX 6500 XT but on comparison websites the RX 6500 XT slaughters the GTX 1650. Am I missing something or is the RX 6500 XT the better budget card. I only have about £160 to spend.

The 1650 was also panned on release for being a poor performer and that was in 2019.

I think a lot of the hate for the 6500 XT relates to two things:

1. It is technically a poor product, because a. it is strongly influenced by the PCI-E bus (greater than any previous graphics card) and with the VRAM it has, it gives you a limitation you need to workaround even if you buy the card to play games right now (i.e. it is not a speculative issue for 5 years down the line) and b. it doesn't have the same encode/decode as other RDNA 2 cards, which made it less effective for an HTPC (a common use of this class of card) and inferior to other cards in the same generation.
2. it offers a performance level which (at least on PCI-E 4.0), while notably superior to the 1650, is still, for modern games, bordering on being unplayable already at 1080p (at least without having to manage the VRAM/FPS excessively, or using upscaling like FSR), so it has very little longevity.

If you're buying one where you're playing older popular games, or mainly esports games then it can do a decent job, but the first real card that you'll get more than a few years out of is a 6600 (or Arc A750, except that also has technical limitations, like needing rebar to perform well and having inconsistent performance due to the drivers, especially with pre-DX12 games).
 
Associate
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As above, under the rx6600/ £200 bracket there simply isn't anything worth buying. I picked up a rx6600 second hand for £175 that was mint. When IIRC almost double the performance is there, you'd be silly not to also.
 
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Thanks guys. I don't play games that much as I prefer to do that on my xbox x. I just want to have the power there if I need it. I'll have a look on ebay and see what I can get for my low budget.
 
Soldato
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Tbh a second hand 1070 or something might be worth it if you can get a good price. It very much depends on the rest of your system though.
 
Soldato
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I have seen many youtubers slating the RX 6500 XT but on comparison websites the RX 6500 XT slaughters the GTX 1650. Am I missing something or is the RX 6500 XT the better budget card. I only have about £160 to spend.

If you can stretch get a RX 6600 or A750. If you cannot stretch then get a second-hand card.
 
Soldato
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Thanks guys. I don't play games that much as I prefer to do that on my xbox x. I just want to have the power there if I need it. I'll have a look on ebay and see what I can get for my low budget.
The 5700 and even 5700 XT regularly go for around that sort of money on Ebay. Still very nice cards if you're not bothered about ray tracing. A 6600 sits about between the two, so also a good option if you can get one in budget.
 
Associate
OP
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This is the rest of the system. Already got case and psu.

************ Part List: https://uk.************.com/list/mtxWH2

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (£162.97 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper H412R 34.1 CFM CPU Cooler (£21.62 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING B550-PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard (£159.41 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL17 Memory (£43.39 @ Currys PC World Business)
Total: £387.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by ************ 2023-04-22 16:07 BST+0100
 
Associate
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After all this I might just stick with the RX 6500 XT. It's replacing a r9 380 4gb. I can always upgrade at a later date if I decide to game on the pc. And it will have a warranty. I am a bit wary of ebay.
 
Man of Honour
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I can always upgrade at a later date if I decide to game on the pc. And it will have a warranty. I am a bit wary of ebay.

I'd strongly encourage you not to buy one, as @The_Arbiter said, the 6600 is literally nearly twice as fast and at this end of the market that's a very big deal. If you just want a GPU to make the PC work, I'd buy an R5 230, GT 710 or something like that (< £20).
 
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Associate
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12 Jan 2021
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I have a 6500xt and it suits most of my games. Depending on the games you intend to play it might be suitable, however, the advice from people above is correct as there are options which give much better performance and are more future proof.

You could trade your current gpu to the 2nd hand chain and buy a MSI 6500xt. They will give a 2 year warranty. As the 6500xt has only been out for a bit over a year they should be in good condition anyway and might have been bought by the original owner less than a year ago, cost without trade in £110. While trading in to buy a 2nd hand 2060 would be about £178, so not far from about the £160 you want to spend.
 
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Associate
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I have a 6500xt and it suits most of my games. .

It is an okay card within its very tight limits, it just has a terrible price tag by miles.

The OP hasn't got a budget build with PCI 4 compatibility, he has a 5600x !! Paying that much money for a CPU only to choke it majorly is silly.

In the GPU world people can be OTT about these things, but this i honestly think is far from the case. The 6500xt would be fine with an older Skylake build or something, even a 12100f budget build, but there's many people out there who wouldn't touch the 6500xt with even owning lesser power CPUs.
 
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