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Introducing the Radeon 5500XT with the Powercolor Red Dragon 5500XT 8GB

Final Thoughts

Well, the RX 5500 XT proves itself to be a competent performer. I feel if it’s MSRP were $15 – $20 cheaper for the 8GB model and the 4GB model were $7 – $10 cheaper these could have that value performance measure that AMD has been known for. At its current price, it sits about even with Nvidia in some aspects but in others, AMD still has room to learn and grow.

The RX 5500 XT is a solid GPU choice for anyone in the market for a good sub $200 1080p gaming card, however, depending on how the partner cards end up priced I am concerned the MSRP could force the RX 5500 XT into a losing battle very quickly. Let’s hope that time will prove me wrong here.

The new Radeon software stack is growing and improving rather rapidly, and I am excited to see how it will develop. Nvidia has so many different SKUs that there is almost not a single 5% gap where you cannot find an RTX or GTX derivative that will be present. AMD has a tough road ahead if they want to claw market share away from the majority leader incumbent in the GPU space.

 

 

I feel like the RX 5500 XT as a whole deserves recognition here for being capable of holding its own against its Nvidia competition while also meeting a similar price point. Time will tell if this strategy will net mass adoption, or if more value for performance is needed. Overall I feel comfortable recommending the RX 5500 XT as a 1080p capable GPU, especially for those who play lighter titles such as Fortnite, Rocket League, CS:GO or other competitive titles.

The Red Dragon version of the RX 5500 XT from Powercolor is a capable card with a solid cooling solution that tames the tiny chip and looks good while doing so.

Heres the score breakdown

Value – 88 The RX 5500 XT MSRP drops it in a competitive space but not especially competitive or extremely value friendly. I feel like this is AMD moving a bit closer to Nvidia’s pricing as their performance comes into spitting distance of comparable models. However AMD does not have the proven record of performance and stability (especially drivers and support) people have enjoyed with Nvidia, so once AMD figured that out, I think they could score higher here.

Performance – 92 Out of the box the RX 5500 XT holds its own and does a good job being a 1080p card. The reason I mentioned the target for this was to temper everyone’s expectations accordingly. It does not step out of its lane very often and simply provides an overall solid performance showing in line with what we would expect.

Innovation – 90 Innovation is always a tough one as RTG did add some new features to their driver but many are iterations of things we have seen or have used already in various forms. I will applaud AMD for the much-needed facelift in its interface, but I will be interested to see if AMD offers a strict driver-only option for those who prefer a control panel without the features fluff same as Nvidia offers.

Quality – 88 Quality includes not just the feel and quality of the part but the quality of the experience. In the case of the RX 5500 XT I feel confident that quality as far as experience is solid with new features on tap and a lot of ambition to push RTG and feature sets to more users. Time will tell how users will adopt and implement these changes into their normal gaming and workflow.

All in all AMD RTG has had a rough road working their way back into the trust of enthusiasts users. I think the RX 5500 XT does a great job of garnering more support from the sub $200 crowd which is admittedly where a very large portion of PC gamers reside. It now comes to whether or not users will be willing to shed their Polaris based red for new Navi or even their low tier green in favor of new Navi. The opportunity is here, you just have to be willing to give the RX 5500 XT a shot.

 

 

Pros Cons
  • 7nm RDNA NAVI GPU
  • GDDR6
  • Good price/performance results
  • Many supported open standards
  • Serious future potential
  • RT Features absent
  • Strange power efficiency for 7nm
  • Price/perf is tighter at this level

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