Not all of us have the capital available to buy a high-end graphics card, even a mid-range one. For the bulk of users looking to build a computer, their budget makes them look at the AMD RX 6500 XT or the NVIDIA GTX 1650 . Which, in addition, are usually seen in many OEM equipment and, therefore, already configured as standard. Which of them is better in games?
Currently there are two graphics cards for a store price of less than 300 euros that will have caught the attention of more than one potential buyer to install on their PC. Which of the two graphics cards is worth more, the AMD RX 6500 XT or the NVIDIA GTX 1650? That is why we have thought of putting them to the test so that they show us what they are capable of and we can choose which of them is the best.
NVIDIA GTX 1650 versus AMD RX 6500 XT
We are faced with two graphics cards of totally different generations, this is seen for example in the fact that the RX 6500 XT has full support for DirectX 12 Ultimate , while the NVIDIA model does not. Therefore, it does not have support for Ray Tracing, Variable Rate Shading, DirectStorage and various technologies. However, since we are talking about low-power GPUs, these additions do not give AMD hardware an advantage, since it cannot execute them with sufficient ease and they are merely testimonial.
The PC with which the different tests have been carried out has the following specifications:
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Processor
- Motherboard with X570 chipset
- 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM with CL16 configured in double module (16 x 2)
Performance in synthetic benchmarks
As is known, some applications use the capabilities of the graphics card to speed up certain functions. Especially those that are image manipulation. Thus, we have cases like Blender or the suite of Adobe applications that gain performance the better the GPU in our PC. We must clarify that in the two tests that you will see below, the time is measured, so the lower results are considered better.
Premiere CC 2021
This test does not help us to really measure the performance of both GPUs, since it is the units in charge of video encoding and decoding that perform this task. In any case, if you are one of those who normally works editing videos on a daily basis, either professionally or as an amateur, then NVIDIA graphics is your best option . Which is no secret, for some time now one of AMD’s pending tasks has been the video codec of its graphics cards.
blender
The famous application for creating and compositing 3D scenes also uses your graphics card hardware during scene rendering. In this case, again the NVIDIA graphics card wins the game again , with an additional 11% performance advantage. Let’s not forget that Blender does not make use of DirectX 12 capabilities at any time, but ends up pulling the computation pipeline to execute its corresponding task.
3DMark performance
One type of potential user of cheap graphics cards are none other than the so-called Lapsed Gamers, users who don’t play the latest novelties, but rather established classics that appeared years ago and that a PC with modest specifications can run without any problems. The vast majority of these games run under DirectX 11, which is why the Fire Strike benchmark at Full HD resolution is the best option. As you can see, in this test the winner is the RX 6500 XT .
gaming performance
The vast majority of you want to know if you can play the latest games on the market using a GTX 1650 or RX 6500 XT and how they will perform. That’s why we’ve put several high-end graphics games that have come out in recent years to the test, running them at 1080p resolution to see what frame rate they achieve.
AC Valhalla
In this case we have made two comparisons, the first one using DirectX 12 mode with ultra high quality . The results? As you can see, they are quite disappointing in both cases and neither reaches the minimum 30 FPS that could be considered acceptable for this type of game, although it is always recommended for any genre to aim for 60 FPS. On the other hand, if we run the game in medium quality , we find that the RX 6500 XT can reach 67 FPS on average without problems , while the NVIDIA graphics falls short when staying at 54 FPS.
ForzaHorizon 4
The fourth installment of Playground Games’ open world racing game gives you just an additional 3 FPS in DirectX 12 mode and ultra quality. In this case it is a technical tie between the GTX 1650 and the RX 6500 XT.
Grand Theft Auto V
The advantage that we have seen in the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark and in general with all games under DirectX 11 can be seen in the successful game from Rockstar Games. The RX 6500 XT slots in smoothly at 106 FPS, beating the GTX 1650 by 29.2%.
Rainbow Six Siege
A case very similar to that of Forza Horizon 4, in this case using the Vulkan API we can see different 3 or 4 frames per second in favor of the graphics of the NVIDIA graphics. Although the difference is so low that we can consider it a draw again.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Making use of Vulkan as the rendering API and with visual quality in ultra we find a technical tie, 37 FPS for both. It is a frame rate in which the game can be played without problems and more so when the console version stays at 30 FPS. In any case, if you are one of those who prefer games to exceed 60 frames per second, then you should set the visual quality to medium . The result? The frame rate of the RX 6500 XT goes up to 71 FPS , while the GTX 1650 stays at 54.
Flight Simulator 2020
In the event that you want to take to the skies, then neither of the two graphics cards is the most recommended , since even with the game at medium quality, in no case do they reach 60 FPS as can be seen in the graph. However, we give the RX 6500 XT the point for the fact that with a better CPU it can easily reach that figure and for the fact that it has a 25% advantage in performance.
Conclusions
If you are going to play games, then our recommendation is the AMD RX 6500 XT , where in the vast majority it manages to tie under DX 12 or Vulkan, but it is in games with DX 11 compatibility where said graphics card stands out. And not in vain, we all have a good collection of Steam games that meet these characteristics.
On the other hand, if you are an image or video editing professional and you know that you are not going to use your PC’s graphics card to play games, then NVIDIA graphics is your best option. Although if you have plans for both at the same time, then we have to declare the AMD RX 6500 XT superior to the GTX 1650.
