“Stay away from 8 GiByte” was our repeated appeal over the past few months. This advice applies more than ever if you are looking for a gaming graphics card well beyond the 200 euro mark. In the budget range – meaning the absolute entry-level segment of graphics cards – between 100 and 200 euros, 4 to 6 GiBytes of VRAM are the rule. Depending on the model, monitor and gaming habits, you can get by with this, but more is better here too. In the latest article on the topic of storage, we look at the exciting and probably final comparison between 4 and 8 GiByte – and thereby test a two-year-old prophecy.
8GB vs. 4GB: Overview
You may be wondering why we're bringing this up now, after all, the topic of “4 versus 8 GiByte” is already ten years old – in fact, the first 8 GiByte graphics cards saw the light of day in 2014 (“8 Gig, you are crazy!”). The reason is a fresh comparison of entry-level graphics cards that we have carried out in the last few weeks. Specifically, it's about the models AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, Intel Arc A380 and Nvidia Geforce RTX 3050 6GB, which populate the price range under 200 euros. When looking for comparison models, we not only tested a Radeon RX 6400 and Geforce GTX 1650 G6, but also came across a rarity: the Radeon RX 6500 XT 8GB.
Let's remember briefly. When the Radeon RX 6500 XT launched in January 2022, the crypto mining hysteria was still raging and high prices for all gaming graphics cards were the rule. Ethereum, the main GPU-powered currency at the time, required not only high computing power but also storage at this point. AMD seized the opportunity and brought the Mini-GPU Navi 24, which was actually designed for mobile purposes, into the desktop – as the Radeon RX 6500 XT and later also as the RX 6400. In the detailed test, PCGH found only a few positive properties and therefore words; Apart from the low power consumption, this graphics card was a total failure in games back then. The reason for this is the unprecedented combination of cuts – small cache, small memory interface, small VRAM, quartered PCIe connection – in order to make the chip as small and therefore cheap as possible.
Radeon RX 6500 XT 8GB: Overview
Spicy: Two years ago, AMD even explicitly advertised the Radeon RX 6500 XT as “unattractive for mining”, which was primarily due to the chosen storage capacity of 4 GiBytes. Unfortunately, this also made it unattractive for gaming unless you were satisfied with medium details and at most Full HD. Our appeal to AMD at the time: If you create this graphics card with 8 GiByte, then it will become a lot more attractive. For players. This actually happened six months later, but test samples were not available – until now: We are pleased to finally be able to present you with a test of the Radeon RX 6500 XT 8GB, thanks to the active support of Zed Up, who have already provided us with interesting results on several occasions Graphics cards could help out. Unfortunately, the RX 6500 XT 8GB is no longer found in the wild. As we found out when we asked AMD partner Sapphire, the model wasn't selling well, so the focus shifted to the surrounding graphics cards. The stealthy launch of the 8 GiByte variant in summer 2022 without any press hype will have played its part. Let's take a look at the participating graphics cards below; You can find further comparison models in our well-maintained GPU database:
Graphics cardRadeon RX 6500 XT 8GBRadeon RX 6500 XT 4GBGeforce RTX 3050 6GBArc A380Radeon RX 6400Tested modelPowercolor FighterXFX Qick 210 BlackPalit KalmX 6GBAsrock Low ProfileSapphire PulseMarket launchSummer 202201/19/202202/02/20 24Summer 202204/20/2022ArchitectureAMD RDNA 2AMD RDNA 2Nvidia AmpereIntel -G11Navi 24 XLChip size (Die/GCD)107 mm²107 mm²200 mm²157 mm²107 mm²Transistors graphics chip (billion)5,45,48,77,25,4Manufacturing process (Foundry)N6 (TSMC)N6 (TSMC)8N (Samsung)N6 (TSMC) N6 (TSMC)Shader clusters (CUs/SMs)161618812FP32 ALUs/TMUs/ROPs1.024/64/321.024/64/322.304/72/321.024768/48/32Ray tracing units16 (1st Gen.)16 (1st Gen .)18 (2nd Gen.)8 (1st Gen.)12 (1st Gen.)Matrix Units––72 (3rd Gen.)128 (1st Gen.)–Level 2 Cache (MiB )11241Level 3 Cache (MiB)1616––16GPU Boost Clock in Games (MHz)2,8602,8001,6802,2502,800FP16 Performance ALUs (TFLOPS)11,711,57,74,67,0FP32 Performance ALUs (TFLOPS)5 ,95,77,74,63.5Fill rate (Mtex/Mpix per sec.)183.0/91.5179.2/89.6121.0/53.8144.0/108.0109.9/73.3( DLSS 3) Frame generationNoNoNoNoNoDriver frame generationYes (AFMF)Yes (AFMF)NoNoYes (AFMF)Memory connection (Bit)6464969664Speed RAM (GTs/MHz)18.0/9.00018.0/9.00014.0/7.00015.5/7.75016.0 /8,000Memory typeGDDR6GDDR6GDDR6GDDR6GDDR6Memory transfer rate (GB/s)144144168186128Memory capacity (MiB)8.1924.0966.1446.1444.096PCI Express standard4.0 ×44.0 ×44.0 ×84.0 ×84.0 ×4Power portsMax. 1× 8-pin1× 6-pinNoneMax. 1× 8-pinNonePower consumption (board power)113 watts107 watts70 watts75 watts53 wattsDisplay connectivityDP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1DP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1DP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1, DL-DVIDP 2.0, HDMI 2.0bDP 1.4a, HDMI 2.1Price at Test time (from)No longer available160 Euro180 Euro130 Euro125 Euro
Performance information based on the graphics cards we tested extensively (average GPU boost across all benchmarks) – the manufacturer's information is sometimes significantly lower and therefore unrealistic. Depending on the model, deviations of up to 200 MHz are possible. *ALUs with “dual-issue” skills, which at best behave like twice the number. The best case is given.
That's enough of the preamble – on the following pages you will find out why the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT should have been released with 8 GiBytes of memory from the start. You can expect rasterizing and ray tracing benchmarks in full high definition, an energy efficiency analysis and, of course, a categorizing conclusion.