The highest frequency in history! AMD RX 6500 XT first evaluation
1. Preface: The GPU with the highest frequency in 6nm process was born.
In 2016, NVIDIA and AMD entered the 14/16nm era almost at the same time, but the GPU they released at that time was completely unlike the products of the same era.
At that time, the frequency of GTX 1080 could easily break through 2GHz, but AMD’s RX 480 has been struggling around 1.3GHz.
Six years later, the running frequency of NVIDIA’s latest generation RTX 3000 is still stuck at 2GHz, while AMD’s RDNA 2 GPU with 7nm process technology has reached 2.4GHz, and it is far away from the latest generation of N cards in terms of energy efficiency ratio.
Now the RX 6500 XT with TSMC’s 6nm process is coming, and it will be completely invincible in frequency.
RX 6500 XT still adopts RDNA 2 architecture, but the manufacturing process has been upgraded from TSMC’s 7nm to 6nm. The core of RX6500XT is a smaller Navi 24, with 16 groups of computing units (1024 stream processors) and 16 Ray Accelerators optical tracking units, and the acceleration frequency has reached 2825MHz.The power consumption of the whole card is 107W, in which the power consumption of GPU core is 90W.
Different from the previous RDNA 2 GPU, the real operating frequency of RX 6500 XT can easily exceed the acceleration frequency of 2825MHz. If AMD is willing, it is not difficult for RX 6500 XT to run at a frequency above 3GHz.
The video memory is matched with 64-bit 4GB GDDR6, with a video memory frequency of 18GHz and a bandwidth of 144 GB/s. There is still an Infinity Cache integrated inside the GPU, but the capacity is only 16MB.
Therefore, this is a graphics card for 1080P, which is not suitable for running games with a resolution of 2K or higher.
The detailed parameters of RX 6500 XT are as follows:
As can be seen from the above table, with the support of 6nm process technology, Navi 24 accommodates 5.4 billion transistors with a chip area of 107 square millimeters, and the transistor density is 10% higher than that of Navi 23 with 7nm and other RDNA 2 GPU.
Of course, in addition to the improvement of transistor density, the 6nm process technology also makes the frequency of RX 6500 XT reach an unprecedented height.
For the purpose of controlling the chip scale,The AV1 and H.265/HEVC codes are cut off from Navi 24 core, and AMD suggests using the coding ability of CPU instead of operation.
In addition, Navi 24 can only support PCIe 4.0×4, which is used on motherboards supporting PCIe 4.0. The bandwidth of x4 is still sufficient for RX 6500 XT (equivalent to PCIe 3.0 x8).However, if the motherboard or CPU only supports PCIe 3.0, there will be obvious performance loss.
The suggested retail price of RX 6500 XT starts from 1599 yuan, which doesn’t look cheap. But nowadays, the GTX 1650 Super with lower performance is generally more than 2,000 yuan, and the GTX 1660 Super is more than 3,000 yuan.
Second, the sapphire RX 6500 XT Platinum Edition Tour
We received the sapphire RX 6500 XT platinum version, and the design continues the design concept of the platinum version.
The whole front is black, with two 95mm double ball fans. The height of the radiator is about 1~2cm higher than that of the whole PCB.
There has to be a metal backboard anyway.
The output interface has only one HDMI 2.1 and one DP1.4.
Two pure copper nickel-plated heat pipes with pure copper base can easily cope with players of RX 6500 XT level.
The memory and power supply module are also attached with heat-conducting adhesive.
The PCB board is very short, in fact, it can be made into ITX specifications after being replaced with a single fan radiator.
The design of 4+3 phase power supply circuit is a bit extravagant for RX 6500 XT.
Close-up of power supply circuit.
The core of Navi 24 has 5.4 billion transistors, and the chip area is only 107 square millimeters, which is nearly 1/3 less than the 158 square millimeters of RX 5500 XT.
Samsung GDDR6 memory, with a single capacity of 2GB and a frequency of 18GHz. RX 6500 XT has two video memories with a bit width of 64bit, a total capacity of 4GB and a bandwidth of 144 GB/s..
Third, theoretical performance test: the operating frequency is stable at 2875MHz.
The test platform is as follows:
1、3DMark
In the 3DMark test of 2K resolution, the graphics score of sapphire RX 6500 XT Platinum Edition reached 6654 points, the highest core temperature was 60℃, the highest core operating frequency was 2877MHz, the highest fan speed was 1500RPM, and the highest power consumption of GPU was 91W.
In addition, although the highest running frequency of RX 6500 XT is 2877MHz, in fact, it has been running all the GPU test projects of 3DMark at this frequency.
In the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra test, the graphics score of RX 6500 XT is 3495, the highest core temperature is 62 degrees, the highest Hot Spot is 91 degrees, the highest core operating frequency is 2874MHz, and the maximum power consumption of graphics card reaches 91W.
In the test of 3DMark, the sapphire RX 6500 XT is almost the same as RX 580 8GB in both 2K and 4K resolutions, and it is slightly ahead in general.
However, compared with RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT, the gap is very obvious.
2、3DMark Time Spy
In the 3DMark Time Spy test with 2K resolution, the graphics score of sapphire RX 6500 XT reaches 4947, the highest core temperature is 63℃, the highest Hot Spot is 94 degrees, the highest power consumption of GPU is 91W, and the highest running frequency of the core is 2876MHz.
In the 4K resolution 3DMark Time Spy Extreme test, the graphics score of RX 6500 XT is 2274, the highest core temperature is 64℃, the highest core operating frequency is 2573MHz, and the maximum power consumption of the graphics card reaches 137W.
In the 3DMark Time Spy test, RX 6500 XT and RX 5500 XT are also on the same horizontal line, regardless of the resolution of 2K or 4K.
Fourth, the game performance test: a number of games with RX 5500 XT have won and lost.
1、 GTA V
2. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
3. castle wolfenstein: New Blood.
When "castle wolfenstein: New Blood" is tested under extreme image quality, it will always prompt that there is not enough video memory, and forced testing will lead to a sharp drop in frame rate.
This game suggests lowering the picture quality appropriately.
4. Horizon: Dawn of Zero
5. Age of Empires 4
6. Cry of the Island 5
7. Cry of the Island 6
If Cry of the Island 6 is tested with the highest image quality, it will also explode and display. It is suggested that the image quality should be lowered appropriately during the game.
8. Tomb Raider: Shadow
9. Extreme Racing: Horizon 5
"Extreme Racing: Horizon 5" requires 7.8GB of video memory capacity even if the highest picture quality is turned on at 1080P resolution. If the image quality is properly reduced and the memory requirement is controlled within 4GB, the frame rate of RX 6500 XT will be greatly improved.
10. Jedi survival
11. Cyberpunk 2077
RX 5500 XT burst the video memory in Cyberpunk 2077, so the frame rate is abnormally low.
12. Death ran aground
13. Wizard 3
14, no land 3
15, war machine 5
The data are summarized as follows:
Of the 15 games we tested, at least 5 of the RX 6500 XT have burst the video memory (marked with yellow) if tested with the highest image quality, so it is suggested to lower the image quality appropriately during the game.
The performance of RX 6500 XT is very close to that of RX 5500 XT, with a difference of 4%, if we don’t consider the flash memory or lower the image quality properly.
At the resolution of 2K, the 16MB Infinity Cache+4GB GDDR6 video memory is somewhat stretched. In order to obtain a higher frame rate at this resolution, the image quality needs to be further lowered.
V. Overclocking test: Unfortunately, it was limited to 2975MHz.
The RDNA 2 GPU of the previous 7nm process can easily reach 2750~2800MHz through overclocking. Then, after upgrading to the 6nm process, what kind of overclocking capability can the RX 6500 XT achieve!
Unfortunately, the BIOS of sapphire RX 6500 XT limits the maximum frequency, which can only be pulled to 2975MHz. The default voltage is 1.2V, which can only be reduced but not increased.
The video memory frequency can be up to 2400MHz, which is equivalent to 19.6GHz, which is no worse than GDDR6X.
In addition, the default GPU power consumption of 90W can be up to 104W.
Run 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme after overclocking,The operating frequency of RX 6500XT is like a straight line, which has been stable at 2975MHz without any fluctuation.For many years, we have seen such a situation for the first time, and the operating frequency is stable at the set highest frequency.
The previous RDNA 2 GPU was set to 2850MHz, which usually only reached 2700MHz.
Unfortunately, AMD’s BIOS limits the overclocking limit, otherwise it will be extremely easy to break through 3GHz.
After overclocking, we also conducted a game test. In Tomb Raider: Shadow, the running frequency of RX 6500 XT Platinum Edition was always kept at 2975MHz.
With the increase of frequency, the frame rate of the game has also increased from 59FPS to 62FPS.
VI. Power consumption and temperature test: The running frequency of the game is stable at 2850MHz, and the actual power consumption is lower than the preset TDP.
1. Temperature test
Furmark was used to test the baking machine of RX 6500 XT platinum edition, and the room temperature was 24 degrees.
Furmark’s parameters are set to 1920*1080 resolution and 0AA. After running for 37 minutes, the temperature of RX 6500 XT is stable at 63 degrees, the Hot Sport temperature is 83 degrees, the GPU power consumption is 90W, and the fan speed is 1277RPM.
In addition, the GPU frequency is as high as 2577MHz when baking. If you have no idea about this number, here are some examples.
The baking frequency of RX 6600 is 1859MHz, and that of RTX 3060 is 1575MHz.
To put it another way, if AMD properly controls the frequency, RX 6500 XT can actually do without external power supply.
2. Power consumption test
We re-tested the power consumption of all graphics cards by using the extremely cool V850 gold medal power supply, and tested the power consumption performance of the whole machine during standby, games and FurMark baking.
The power consumption of baking machine is closely related to the preset TDP. Basically, when baking machine, the power consumption of baking machine can reach the preset power consumption of GPU.
However, when running games, the GPU core of RX 6500 XT actually does not need to reach 90W power consumption to make the GPU frequency run above 2800MHz.
For example, when we are running Survival of the Jedi, RX 6500 XT can run stably at 2864MHz* (not overclocked) with only 80W power consumption.
In Age of Empires 4, only 73W is needed to maintain the operating frequency of 2868MHz.
In Cyberpunk 2077, only 63W power consumption is needed to stabilize at the frequency of 2870MHz. Of course, there are some factors that cause the GPU to fail to run at full speed and full load.
Therefore, for RX 6500 XT, most games actually don’t need 90W power consumption, and the core frequency can be stabilized above 2850MHz.
VIII. Summary: It could have been the first 3GHz GPU.
The performance of this graphics card did not bring us too many surprises. What really surprised us was that the 6nm process technology could make the frequency and energy efficiency ratio of RDNA 2 GPU reach an unimaginable level.
Summarize the test results as follows:
1, the operation frequency of terror
RX 6500 XT is the GPU with the highest running frequency so far. NVIDIA is dragged down by Samsung’s 8nm process technology, and the frequency of Ampere GPU can’t even exceed 16nm Pascal, which has been stuck at 2GHz for many years.
The acceleration frequency of RX 6000/6700/6800 graphics card with 7nm technology can reach 2600MHz, and the actual operating frequency is also 2200~2400MHz.
After upgrading to 6nm process technology, the acceleration frequency of RX 6500 XT reached a horrible 2825MHz, and even more frightening, its actual operating frequency was even higher than the nominal acceleration frequency.
In most games, the GPU core of RX 6500 XT can be kept at 2850~2875MHz, and rarely below 2800MHz.
RX 6500 XT’s first RDNA 2 GPU with actual operating frequency higher than the nominal acceleration frequency.
2. Game performance
A graphics card with such high running frequency and excellent energy efficiency ratio should not be bad in game performance. However, due to the limitation of 16MB Infinity Cache, 4GB video memory and 64bit width, its actual performance is only equivalent to RX 5500 XT, and some latest 3A masterpieces will have burst video memory.
The best resolution of RX 6500 XT is 1920*1080. When playing 3A games with this graphics card, players are advised to lower the image quality level appropriately, and the game experience will be much better.
3. Ray tracing
The RX 6500 XT has 16 built-in Ray Accelerators, which can support real-time ray tracing. We made a little test, and when real-time light tracking is enabled in the game, the frame rate will drop obviously.
However, AMD supports RSR. If you want to experience optical tracking, it is recommended to wait for AMD’s upcoming driver supporting Radeon Super Resolution. RSR can greatly reduce the GPU’s rendering pressure and memory capacity requirements, and then appropriately reduce the image quality. RX 6500 XT will not have much problem running the light-chasing game.
In addition, opening SAM and FSR technologies in some games can also improve the running frame rate to some extent.
4, overclocking
Overclocking is the most regrettable thing, because AMD officially limits the upper frequency limit of BIOS. We have tried several non-public RX 6500 XT graphics cards, and the highest frequency can only be set at 2975MHz.No matter in the game or the test of 3DMark, the overclocked graphics card can always be stable at the running frequency of 2975MHz.
In the future, if someone can unlock the BIOS limit or rewrite the BIOS with tool software, the operating frequency of RX 6500 XT will easily exceed 3GHz.
Perhaps AMD wants to leave the title of the first 3GHz graphics card to the 5nm Radeon 7000.
5. Power consumption
The preset GPU power consumption of RX 6500 XT is 90W, but in fact, in most games, 90W power consumption is not needed at all to make the GPU fully loaded and maintain the running frequency of 2850MHz+.
On the i9-12900K test platform, the power consumption of the whole machine is less than 200W when the RX 6500 XT single-bakes the GPU. If it is matched with the processor of Ruilong 5 5600X or i5-12400, the power consumption of the whole machine can be controlled within 300W even if it is double-bakes.
When installed, a power supply with rated power consumption of 350W can meet the demand.
6nm has been terrible, and now we are very much looking forward to what kind of subversion Radeon 7000 GPU with TSMC’s 5nm process can bring!