Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT Desktop-GPU Review: Powerful 1080p graphics card with a good cooler ↺
The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is part of this year's revised line-up of RDNA2 graphics cards. After taking a look at the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, we now turn our attention to the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT, which is the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT's successor.
For this review, we make use of the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT. This model fits right into the manufacturer's portfolio, with its well-known design. With the Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT, Sapphire relies on a dual-fan design, which has often proven to be a good cooling solution in the past. Despite the moderate power consumption of 180 watts, Sapphire has installed a very bulky three-slot wide cooler. The length of the graphics card is a more standard 26 cm (10.2") and should therefore fit into most cases. Compatibility could be an issue when it comes to the width, however, and this should be considered.
The external connections are quite standard, which means that we have 3x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI available. The triple-slot graphics card requires an internal 8-pin power connector for the power supply.
Comparison of the Radeon RX 6750 XT with other AMD-GPUs
Specifications | Radeon RX 6950 XT | Radeon RX 6900 XT | Radeon RX 6800 XT | Radeon RX 6800 | Radeon RX 6750 XT | Radeon RX 6700 XT | Radeon RX 6650 XT | Radeon RX 6600 XT |
GPU | Navi 21 XTX | Navi 21 XTX | Navi 21 XT | Navi 21 XL | Navi 22 | Navi 22 | Navi 23 | Navi 23 |
Manufacturing Process | 7 nm | 7 nm | 7 nm | 7 nm | 7 nm | 7 nm | 7 nm | 7 nm |
Compute Units | 80 | 80 | 72 | 60 | 40 | 40 | 32 | 32 |
Shading Units | 5,120 | 5,120 | 4,608 | 3,840 | 2,560 | 2,560 | 2,048 | 2,048 |
Texture Mapping Units | 320 | 320 | 288 | 240 | 160 | 160 | 128 | 128 |
Ray Accelerators | 80 | 80 | 72 | 60 | 40 | 40 | 32 | 32 |
Base Clock | 1,925 MHz | 1,825 MHz | 1,825 MHz | 1,700 MHz | 2,150 MHz | 2,321 MHz | 2,055 MHz | 1,968 MHz |
Game Clock | 2,116 MHz | 2,015 MHz | 2,015 MHz | 1,815 MHz | 2,495 MHz | 2,424 MHz | 2,410 MHz | 2,359 MHz |
Boost Clock | 2,324 MHz | 2,250 MHz | 2,250 MHz | 2,105 MHz | 2,600 MHz | 2,581 MHz | 2,635 MHz | 2,589 MHz |
Infinity Cache | 128 MB | 128 MB | 128 MB | 128 MB | 96 MB | 96 MB | 32 MB | 32 MB |
Memory Bus Width | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
Memory Bandwidth | 576 GB/s | 512 GB/s | 512 GB/s | 512 GB/s | 432 GB/s | 384 GB/s | 280,3 GB/s | 256 GB/s |
Memory Size | 16 GB GDDR6 | 16 GB GDDR6 | 16 GB GDDR6 | 16 GB GDDR6 | 12 GB GDDR6 | 12 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 | 8 GB GDDR6 |
TBP | 335 W | 300 W | 300 W | 250 W | 250 W | 230 W | 180 W | 160 W |
Our test system with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X as the basis
We used an up-to-date AMD platform based on the Asus X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi motherboard as our test system. The CPU (AMD Ryzen 9 5900X) offers good CPU performance, which we paired with an AiO solution (Alphacool Aurora 360) for the cooling. The 32 GB RAM is from G.Skill and was also provided to us, like the AiO. We used the Gigabyte M32UC as a monitor, which does not constrain us due to its UHD capabilities.
Short overview of the test system:
- Lian Li O11 Dynamic
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
- Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT (Driver: Adrenalin 22.8.2)
- Asus X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi (BIOS 2402, Default Settings, XMP 1 für DDR4-4000)
- Corsair RM1000X 1000-Watt-Netzteil
- G.Skill Trident Z Neo RGB DDR4-4000 memory kit 2 x 16 GB
- Corsair MP600 2TB M.2 PCIe-4.0-SSD
- Crucial MX500 2TB (for games)
Test conditions
As with the other re-worked models from Sapphire, the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT also offers dual-bios, with a slider on the graphics card that can be used to switch between the two versions. A software switch is also possible using the TriXX tool. With a maximum of 2,694 MHz, the boost clock is above AMD's reference model and is thus a good 100 MHz higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT. In the test, our unit had no problems reaching this high clock rate and maintaining it permanently. For all tests, we ran the graphics card with the performance BIOS, in order to get the best possible performance.
Synthetic benchmarks
We took a look at the synthetic benchmarks in order to get a first impression of the performance of the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT. The slightly higher GPU and VRAM clock rates compared to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT are equivalent to a performance increase of almost 10 percent for the newer model. This narrows the gap to the slightly faster AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, although it isn't able to compete with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.
Unigine Valley 1.0 | |
1920x1080 Extreme HD DirectX AA:x8 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT | |
1920x1080 Extreme HD Preset OpenGL AA:x8 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT |
3DMark 05 Standard | 60080 points | |
3DMark 06 Standard Score | 51180 points | |
3DMark Vantage P Result | 87787 points | |
3DMark 11 Performance | 33582 points | |
3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 208609 points | |
3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 67923 points | |
3DMark Fire Strike Score | 26509 points | |
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme Score | 12963 points | |
3DMark Time Spy Score | 10408 points | |
Help |
Game benchmarks
The gaming performance we measured for the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT builds on what has already been seen in the synthetic benchmarks. Slightly improvements relative to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT were to be expected, although the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti was not able to maintain its lead from the synthetic benchmarks during the gaming tests. Our test card can therefore put some pressure on the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, although only in a few games.
The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT has always been advertised as a 1080p gaming graphics card. AMD hasn't changed that specification, despite the fact that the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT can also master many titles at higher resolutions. Sometimes, however, the performance is actually only good enough for smooth 1080p gaming in the latest games.
As usual, we measured the frame rate using The Witcher 3 (Ultra preset). The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT does quite well, with a range from about 95 to 105 FPS. We didn't notice any performance loss, even after longer periods of play. There were also no noticeable abnormalities in the frametimes throughout our test. Two small outliers can be seen, although they didn't affect the course of the game.
You can find more benchmarks for the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT here.
low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GTA V (2015) | 187.5 | 187.1 | 183 | 107.6 | 74.9 | 68.3 |
The Witcher 3 (2015) | 473 | 334 | 181.7 | 107.4 | 54.5 | |
Dota 2 Reborn (2015) | 192.2 | 164.1 | 153.4 | 135.6 | 90.8 | |
Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) | 434 | 291 | 164.9 | 136.4 | 56.3 | |
Final Fantasy XV Benchmark (2018) | 232 | 142.3 | 102 | 72.7 | 38.6 | |
X-Plane 11.11 (2018) | 111.3 | 80.4 | 64 | 40.1 | ||
Far Cry 5 (2018) | 195 | 165 | 154 | 146 | 114 | 55 |
Strange Brigade (2018) | 576 | 266 | 216 | 188.2 | 122.3 | 61.1 |
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) | 278 | 173.1 | 158 | 136.5 | 87.3 | 40 |
Far Cry New Dawn (2019) | 164 | 143 | 138 | 124 | 111 | 61 |
Anno 1800 (2019) | 143.9 | 132.3 | 105.7 | 52.7 | 42.9 | 23.9 |
Control (2019) | 240 | 135.5 | 92.8 | 58.6 | 28.4 | |
Borderlands 3 (2019) | 174 | 153.4 | 111.9 | 86.8 | 60 | 31.5 |
F1 2020 (2020) | 436 | 315 | 255 | 169.7 | 123.8 | 68.2 |
Crysis Remastered (2020) | 314 | 250 | 99.6 | 89.1 | 58.2 | 29.8 |
Mafia Definitive Edition (2020) | 209 | 114.2 | 72.3 | 34.1 | ||
Watch Dogs Legion (2020) | 137 | 133 | 119 | 65 | 49 | 23 |
Dirt 5 (2020) | 309 | 167 | 127 | 98 | 77 | 49 |
F1 2021 (2021) | 490 | 369 | 267 | 116.6 | 80.6 | 41.4 |
New World (2021) | 156.4 | 118 | 108.1 | 97.8 | 64 | 32.6 |
Far Cry 6 (2021) | 165.9 | 145.5 | 130.2 | 110.5 | 76.4 | 5.52 |
Riders Republic (2021) | 139 | 133 | 119 | 107 | 75 | 34 |
Forza Horizon 5 (2021) | 254 | 183 | 169 | 85 | 66 | 42 |
Farming Simulator 22 (2021) | 280 | 211 | 174.4 | 156.6 | 147.4 | 87 |
God of War (2022) | 117.4 | 92.7 | 64.7 | 50.8 | 29.8 | |
Rainbow Six Extraction (2022) | 240 | 180 | 180 | 131 | 87 | 41 |
GRID Legends (2022) | 260 | 232 | 193 | 155 | 121 | 71 |
Cyberpunk 2077 1.6 (2022) | 83 | 82 | 79 | 78 | 44 | 18 |
Ghostwire Tokyo (2022) | 229 | 181.1 | 166.9 | 162.2 | 99.8 | 44.1 |
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (2022) | 255 | 197.4 | 124.5 | 96.2 | 64.6 | 23.8 |
Vampire Bloodhunt (2022) | 354 | 253 | 221 | 208 | 134.5 | 64.3 |
F1 22 (2022) | 286 | 262 | 204 | 50 | 30 | 14 |
The Quarry (2022) | 155.7 | 116 | 92.8 | 69.2 | 44.5 | 10.4 |
Compute performance
The raw performance of the graphics card can be seen very clearly in our render tests. The gap to the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is negligible at only 4 percent. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cannot keep up here, and even gets outperformed by 19 percent.
Emissions - energy demand and volume
The slightly improved performance of the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT when compared to the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT does cause a slightly higher power consumption. We measured an average energy demand of 339 watts when gaming. The manufacturer has used a very good cooler with a large surface area, including a revised fan, which, thanks to the new design, produced a higher airflow and thus enables the graphics card to operate more quietly and cooler.
The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT's cooling appears to work very well in our test. The GPU temperature was measured at only 69 °C (156 °F) during our stress test. The two axial fans rotated at just 1700 revolutions per minute, and the graphics card was therefore not audible from within the closed case while under load. The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT also has a fan stop mode.
Power Consumption / The Witcher 3 ultra (external Monitor) | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 3080 SG | |
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio (Idle: 95.1 W) | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 (Idle: 81.4 W) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition (Idle: 111.39 W) | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (Idle: 77.1 W) | |
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (Idle: 52 W) | |
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT |
Power Consumption / FurMark 1.19 GPU Stress Test (external Monitor) | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 3080 SG | |
MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio (Idle: 95.1 W) | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 (Idle: 81.4 W) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition (Idle: 111.39 W) | |
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (Idle: 77.1 W) | |
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT | |
AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (Idle: 52 W) | |
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT |
Power Consumption / Idle 1min (external Monitor) | |
KFA2 GeForce RTX 3080 SG | |
AMD Radeon RX 6800 | |
Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6650 XT | |
Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6500 XT |
* ... smaller is better