Feature Comparison

First, let's quickly introduce both contenders for the title and compare their characteristics.


So, in the red corner is AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT, which uses a stripped-down version of the Navi 14 die with 1408 stream processors, a core frequency of 1845 MHz and 4/8 GB of video memory. The extra RAM comes in handy when playing games on high or ultra graphics quality settings, adding up to 24% to overall performance. The card is positioned as an affordable solution for FullHD gaming without brakes and boasts a processing power of around 5.2 Tflops. The power consumption of the accelerator at standard frequencies is 130 W; an 8-pin connector is provided for connecting an additional power source.

The GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER is warming up in the green corner. The card received 1280 CUDA cores, 4 GB GDDR6 video memory at 12 GHz, and a 128-bit bus. The declared GPU frequencies are 1530 - 1725 MHz. For comparison, the regular version of the GeForce GTX 1650 has only 896 CUDA cores, a bandwidth of 128 Gbps versus 192 Gbps for the SUPER version, and the GPU frequencies are also lower - 1485 - 1665 MHz. Against the background of all these improvements, the only potential rake may be a limited amount of memory in 4 GB.

Comparison in games


Based only on the numbers, the new Radeon looks a bit more interesting: it has more processing cores, higher core and memory clock speeds, plus there are variations with 8 GB of memory. Yes, right now the difference in FPS between 4GB and 8GB is barely noticeable, but in the future, models like the Asus DUAL EVO will be able to make a much more confident difference.

New from NVIDIA receives points in offset only due to the more compact size. The card turned out really small and is perfect for assembling compact gaming computers.

However, these numbers tell only part of the story. It's much more interesting to push both contenders to the throne in a real duel and see how many frames per second they give out in the most beautiful and demanding games of recent years.


The GTX 1650 SUPER and RX 5500 really show the closest results, delivering a comfortable 60 FPS at FullHD and high graphics settings in almost any game. The psychological mark of 60 FPS occasionally sags only in a few hits of recent years with excellent graphics, but not always good optimization. We are talking about Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Metro Exodus, which in especially difficult and busy scenes are able to lower the FPS to 35-40 frames.

However, this will not affect the overall impression in any way - at FullHD + high settings, both cards give a really smooth and enjoyable gaming experience. And the difference in performance between them is quite tiny, ranging from 2 to 10% with a slight advantage from NVIDIA. Radeon only leads in a handful of games like Black Ops 4, but if it comes out ahead, it's by a significant margin. Apparently, the optimization of game engines affects.


But when switching to Ultra, both competitors often lose their rhythm and begin to breathe abruptly. The mark of 60 FPS still holds in most games, but not at all. Therefore, for a comfortable and smooth frame change, it is still better to play with advanced settings for textures, shadows, special effects and filtering. In some cases, this will not help either: in completely new demanding games like Red Dead Redemption 2, you will either have to play with 30 FPS, or go down a notch in the settings.


Now let's see how newcomers run at speed with older models and the hit of the past Radeon RX 580. As you can see, in some cases the results are strange, but in most cases, the more expensive GTX 1660 and RX 5500 XT at 8GB take a small lead. The heroes of this review, the GTX 1650 SUPER and RX 5500 XT, are only slightly behind, but the old Radeon RX 580 is frankly not keeping up with the news.

GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER

Branded chips


In early December, AMD rolled out a big update to the Adrenalin software, which got a couple of interesting software features. Radeon Boost technology allows you to increase frame rates by intelligently reducing resolution. Simply put, in dynamic scenes, when the eye does not have time to catch on to changes in the picture, it can quietly reduce the screen resolution, increasing FPS. Agree, it sounds interesting. What’s even cooler is that it actually works: by lowering the render resolution by 50% in Star Wars: Fallen Order, we got an increase in FPS from 44 to 65. True, support for this feature is still limited to a small list of games, but in the future there will be many more.

Equally interesting for the economical gamer is the Radeon Image Sharpening (RIS) function, which makes it possible to increase the clarity of the image, while lowering the rendering resolution. In essence, it combines adaptive contrast adjustment, scaling with the use of a video card, and sharpness correction. The output is a sharper picture, and performance remains the same. RIS increases the level of sharpness on low-contrast textures and objects, while high-contrast edges remain untouched.

NVIDIA's technological trump card this year has been hardware ray tracing, which made its debut on the Turing architecture. This is a method of building three-dimensional models, which uses a principle similar to real physical processes. If we simplify all the introductory, then this feature helps to create really realistic lighting and shadows in games. Another issue is that it is only supported by older cards like the RTX 2060 and is not available to younger models.

Conclusion: the gift bag of the Radeon RX 5500 is more impressive.

Energy consumption and noise level


This round is all for the GTX 1650 SUPER, which consumes just 100W. The RX 5500 XT has a claimed power consumption of 130 watts, and some modifications can reach up to 150 watts. But it consumes less power in idle mode.

What do we have in the dry residue. For most variations of the GTX 1650 SUPER, which are already on sale, a 350 W power supply is enough. The AMD card needs a more powerful 450W power supply. However, it's still cool, since past generation $200 cards like the RX 580 "ate" much more and often required a 500W power supply.

AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT Graphics Cards

Overclocking


Overclocking Radeon RX 5500 XT at first did not work. From the reference card, we managed to squeeze out 4-5% performance, in some games the increase turned out to be around 8-9%. Apparently, the problem with raw drivers is affecting, which is now complained about in every second review. Until the software tools necessary for voltmod and removing the limit on the speed of RAM appear, playing with the frequencies of the new AMD accelerator is almost pointless.

The reference sample GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER also ran very mediocrely and on average gave an additional 5 - 7% depending on the game. As a result, experiments with overclocking did little to change the balance of power between the two cards.

Prices and Conclusions


As expected, the 4GB Radeon RX 5500 XT performs quite well as a rival to the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER and will certainly interest budget gamers. The card looks promising - a decent level of performance, good energy efficiency, new architecture, advanced manufacturing process: a complete set for a good start. The whole question rests on the price, because at the beginning of sales, retailers set prices for AMD video cards comparable to the more productive GeForce GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 SUPER, whose performance is often higher.

In a direct comparison right now, the version from NVIDIA looks much more preferable due to the price. The card turned out really great, its power increase relative to the regular GTX 1650 is impressive. Switching to a more powerful GPU and using faster memory provides a performance boost of up to 40%, thanks to which the new product has taken a step above the regular GeForce GTX 1650. The new NVIDIA graphics card is faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 in most games, but 4 GB sometimes plays the role of a limiting factor. Where video memory is critical to overall performance, the old model immediately gains a clear advantage.