graphics cards has dropped for days, almost reaching the lowest point in nearly a year. At present, A/N has also launched its own entry-level products, further providing users with plans to acquire computers recently. Today's review is the RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle from Gigabyte.
Previously, there was a news report that the price of graphics cards will plummet in March. According to the current market conditions, it really hits the point. When the graphics card premium is the worst, it even reached 100%, while the graphics card with the lowest premium has dropped to about 10%. With the launch of entry-level graphics cards, most users no longer focus on high-performance graphics cards, and instead choose the RX 6500 XT or RTX 3050 that suits them.
From the perspective of product specifications, RX 6500 XT is positioned at 1080P resolution with medium and high-quality 3A games and the highest special effects online games. Although the price of graphics cards is generally reduced, the RX 6500 XT is still the cheapest and cost-effective graphics card, and is the first choice for most players to get a computer.
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle
RX 6500 XT This graphics card is officially priced at 1,599 yuan, and the highest premium after release is 1,899 yuan. It has fallen slightly at present. The reason is that the specifications of this graphics card are indeed too low. For the convenience of reading, the author briefly lists the features of Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle graphics card for you here:
1. The price is cheap, the only choice for
2.107W ultra-low power consumption, and the recommended power supply is 400W
3. It mainly focuses on 1080P medium and high picture quality 3A masterpieces and online games
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle graphics card. The main user group is office, entertainment and light game players. If you have low resolution requirements and limited installation budgets, you might as well consider this RX 6500 XT, and the recommended power supply is only 400W, which can be used directly without upgrading the configuration.
In addition, in this generation, or even the previous generation, the brand new graphics cards below 2000 are the only choice.
01 Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle Overview
Magic Eagle is a Gigabyte entry-level product. Currently, this series only has 3 fan versions, so there is no need to worry about the heat dissipation effect. Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle is made of silver and black, and the overall is divided into geometric lines.
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle
Compared with the flagship model, this RX 6500 XT card size is smaller and thinner, but because it still uses three fans, the overall size is 282×117×41mm.
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle adopts three blade-type fan designs, which can bring more air inlet at the same speed through the triangular three-dimensional shape at the edge of the fan blade and the diversion groove on the blade blade surface. With the forward and reverse function, it can greatly improve the heat dissipation ability.
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle Back Panel Display
Compared with RTX 3050 Magic Eagle, this RX 6500 XT Magic Eagle has made relatively large changes on the back panel. The former uses nude metal, while this RX 6500 XT unified the color of the back panel and the weather shield to pure black, and the logo and printed patterns on the front end have also been redesigned. There are also extended heat dissipation fins at the rear of the graphics card and a large-area hollow air intake grille, which allows the airflow to pass quickly and further improve the heat dissipation ability.
DP1.4a + HDMI 2.1 Dual Interface
This time, the Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle interface part has been greatly changed, and only the two interfaces of DP1.4a + HDMI 2.1 are retained. Although the expansion is less, considering the positioning of the graphics card itself, such a configuration is reasonable. All the RX 6500 XTs I have seen at present are two-interface designs, not individual changes from Gigabyte.
Single 6pin power supply
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle's entire card power consumption is about 107W, and it uses a single 6pin power supply interface. The recommended power supply is 400W or above. Whether it is for new users to accumulate computers or upgrades to old users, ultra-low power consumption makes users not need to worry about compatibility issues of old machines at all.
02 Test platform and parameters introduction
For this test platform, we chose the Intel i9-11900K CPU, the motherboard is MSI MPG Z590 ACE God of War, and Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle graphics card.
In terms of test scores, the benchmark test uses 3DMARK, and the game performance test uses the game's own Benchmark. In order to reduce errors, each test score is tested 3 times to get the average.
Before testing, let’s take a look at the detailed parameters of the RX 6000 series graphics cards released so far, so that everyone can compare and check. The author has made a brief summary of the 7 graphics cards that have been released:
parameter summary table (click to view the larger picture)
Currently, the three high-end graphics cards of the RX 6000 series use Navi 21 chip, the RX 6700 XT uses Navi 22 chip, and the RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT uses Navi 23 chip, which is much smaller than the Navi 21 and Navi 22.
and RX 6500 XT use the new Navi 24 chip. Although the chip area of 107m㎡ is more than twice as small as the 237m㎡ of Navi 23, the process technology has reached 6nm, which is also the first 6nm chip used by RX 6000 series graphics cards.
So in terms of frequency, we can also see that AMD has hit a new high. The official Boost frequency has reached a terrifying 2815MHz, and even the game frequency is 2610MHz. The Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle's gaming frequency is 2685MHz and the Boost frequency is 2825MHz, which has a slight increase.
GPU-Z data
The largest specification reduction of this RX 6500 XT comes from video memory. In the official data, the 4GB 64bit video memory is not even like this generation of products, and the video memory bandwidth is only 114 GB/s. Although AIB manufacturers can achieve bandwidth of 143.9 GB/s or higher through pre-overclocking, they are also far from the 224 GB/s of the RX 6600. It can be said that this graphics card is completely unattractive to the "mine boss".
Considering that the video memory specifications are reduced, it also has a great impact on players. Therefore, with the support of Infinity Cache, according to AMD's official data, the effective video memory bandwidth can reach 232 GB/s, which can fully meet game activities at 1080P resolution. Of course, due to the actual video memory capacity limitation, you still don’t think about 2K resolution.
More analysis of RX 6500 XT, interested users can read the author's previous article "6500XT is so junk, why are there still players buying it?"
03 3D MARK Theoretical Test
In this test, we selected 4 graphics cards for comparison and testing. The following is a 3DMARK FS set used to measure the theoretical performance of graphics card DX11: FS, FSE, and FSU respectively correspond to the theoretical performance of graphics cards at 1080P, 2K, and 4K. The actual test results are as follows:
3D MARK FS set test
in the 3DMARK for graphics card DX11 environment In the FS package test, we tested four graphics cards with performance alignment. Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle Basic performance alignment GTX 1660 SUPER, with slightly weak performance, but the amplitude does not exceed 4%; however, in the test at 4K resolution, the RX 6500 XT with only 4GB of graphics memory is about 13% ahead of the GTX 1660 SUPER.
It seems that with the support of AMD Infinity Cache technology, even though the overall disadvantage of video memory and bit width is, the effective video memory bandwidth is indeed greatly improved as AMD said.
3D MARK TS set test
. In the Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme tests in the DX12 environment, the score of Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle is weaker than that of the GTX 1660 SUPER. The test in the DX12 environment has always been the weakness of AMD graphics cards, with an overall gap of about 21%.
3D MARK ray tracing test
In the test for real-time ray tracing, the GTX 1660 SUPER cannot be tested without a ray tracing unit, so it only runs RX 6500 XT.
Although Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle has the ability to ray tracing, the result is also what we can expect. The score of 549 is not because of insufficient ray tracing computing power, but is stuck in the video memory. In this test, 3DMARK will prompt that the video memory is not enough to run the ray tracing test, so the running score is barely enough.
The current market price of GTX 1660 SUPER is around 2,700 yuan, while the market price of RX 6500 XT is about 1,800 yuan. In terms of cost-effectiveness, the RX 6500 XT is still better. Let’s take a look at the performance of the game below.
04 Game test
In the game test, since the RX 6500 XT only has 4GB of video memory, after our test, the 2K resolution in 3A games basically cannot meet the smooth needs, so we only look at the 1080P resolution test.We chose the newer "Eldon Ring", "Borderlands 3", "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla", "Fallen Gods", "Horizon 5", and "Horizon: Dawn Zero" to test the running score.
It should be noted that in our test, all games are the highest preset. However, in 3A games, even with a 1080P resolution, some video memory requirements exceed 4GB, so there will be only 22 frames in the extreme picture quality of "Horizon 5". However, in AMD's positioning, it is a 3A game with medium and high picture quality. Let's take a look at how the number of game frames will change under different picture quality.
"Eldon Fraud" game test
The recently popular "Eldon Fraud" has significantly improved frame count after the performance optimization of PC side, but if the RX 6500 XT wants to be at 60 frames, you still need to choose low image quality.
"Horay 5" game test
In "Horay 5", we select image quality presets for different gears, and Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle can achieve smooth 64 frames under high special effects.
"Horizon 5" high-quality
"Horizon 5" game has very high requirements for video memory under extreme image quality, which can reach about 7GB. However, with high picture quality presets, less than 4GB of video memory is required. Although the available video memory of Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle is only about 3.2GB, but after the bandwidth amplification of Infinity Cache exceeds the video memory requirements of the game, it can still achieve very good frame rate performance.
"Borderlands 3" game test
Let's take a look at the different preset running scores of "Borderlands 3". Although it is a cartoon-rendered game, "Borderlands 3" is also a game with a high upper limit and a low lower limit for performance requirements.
has high requirements for video memory under villains and super high picture quality, and it is not alleviated until the high picture quality is relieved. It can basically meet the needs of smooth operation. In the low and medium picture quality, it can reach the e-sports level of 93 frames or even 117.
05 FSR test
Next, let’s test the effect of FSR games. The full name of FSR is FidelityFX Super Resolution Sharp Painting Technology. It aims to improve the game frame rate while ensuring high-quality and high-resolution gaming experience.
Click on the image to view the larger image
In "Horizon: Dawn of Zero", we select two different scenes to test separately at 4K resolution. As a PS4 portable work, this game still retains the shadow of the console in terms of image quality.
Among the 5 comparison effects, the native image quality is undoubtedly the clearest. In the super image quality and image quality, the effects are basically the same. The character's hair will be distorted, but the textures of the clothes and tables are relatively clear. In the balance and performance mode, there will be blurred boundaries, but the relative frame rate increase will be the largest.
Click on the picture to view the larger picture
4K resolution native image quality is only 25 frames, and we are still in a still picture, and the video memory bottleneck is very serious. In the performance mode, the frame count can reach a smooth level of 61 frames, with obvious results.
In terms of image quality, the wall textures in this scene are more, but the colors are relatively single, so there is basically no large color tolerance.
In terms of wall details, the native image quality is undoubtedly the clearest, but this comparison still has good performance in the image quality level, and the texture will not appear in the performance mode. Similarly, in performance mode, the frame rate improvement is the largest.
"Fallen Gods" 2K resolution FSR test
In "Fallen Gods", we first tested different modes at 2K resolution, and we can see the frame rate changes in a fixed scene. In the performance mode, the frame rate is improved by 215% compared to the native image quality, and the effect is still quite obvious. In terms of
picture quality, the native picture quality is undoubtedly the clearest. In the super picture quality and picture quality, the effect is basically the same. The armor texture in the distance will be distorted, but the overall effect is still good. In balanced image quality, there will be blurred boundaries, and the distortion in performance mode is more obvious, but the relative frame rate improvement is also the largest.
"Fallen Gods" 4K resolution FSR test
With the blessing of FSR, let's challenge the 4K resolution. In theory, the better the FSR effect is in the case of higher resolution. The native image quality of
4K resolution is only 18 frames, and we are still in a still picture, and the video memory bottleneck is very serious. In the performance mode, the frame count can reach a smooth level of 66 frames, with obvious results. In terms of
image quality, the balance mode still has a good level, and the distortion is not serious. In the performance mode, although the distortion is also obvious, the contour is clearer than the 2K resolution.
06 Temperature and power consumption
In the temperature and power consumption test, the room temperature is 24℃, and the test platform is used to simply test the heat dissipation of the graphics card itself.
copy machine test
In the power consumption test, GPU-Z currently only has chip power consumption. Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle chip power consumption is about 62W, and the whole card power consumption is tested by the power consumabler.
power consumption comparison
In the power consumption comparison, we can see that due to the advancement of process technology, the power consumption of RX 6500 XT has been greatly reduced, the power consumption of the entire card is 107W, and the recommended power supply is 400W. And the GTX 1660 SUPER is around 150W.
Temperature comparison
In terms of temperature testing, the graphics cards are all copied through the FurMark copying software. Among them, the Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle is 56℃, which is 14℃ lower than the previous model of RX 6600. It seems that the progress of the process is not only helpful for frequency improvement, but also reduces power consumption and heat generation.
07 The only choice below 2,000 yuan
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle has a relatively consistent performance performance of this graphics card itself, that is, an entry-level product at 1080P resolution. It can even be said that it is a product specially customized for entry-level players. The reduction in video memory specifications completely eliminates the bad hands of mine bosses and scalpers. After all, the fundamental hardware limitations are far more reliable than lock computing power.
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle
In terms of configuration requirements, the entire card consumption of RX 6500 XT is about 107W. It is recommended that the power supply only needs 400W. With a single 6pin power supply, it is very friendly for new computers or old computer upgrades. If you are still using the "Ancient Century" graphics card, you can consider replacing it.
As for the price, the price of RX 6500 XT itself is 1,599 yuan. Even after experiencing the premium and price reduction of graphics cards, it is currently maintained at around 1,799 yuan. After all, such a graphics card has little room for rise and fall.
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle
As for performance, this graphics card is indeed not powerful, but if it is at 1080P resolution and the blessing of Infinity Cache, 3A games with medium and high picture quality will not be a problem.
Gigabyte RX 6500 XT GAMING OC Magic Eagle's graphics card is mainly the office, entertainment and light gaming players. If you have low resolution requirements and limited installation budgets, you might as well consider this RX 6500 XT. After all, in this generation, or even the previous generation, the new graphics cards below 2000 are the only choice.
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