Introduction

AMD launched the Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card in mid-December. The RX 5500 XT is based on AMD's second 7 nm "Navi" family graphics chips, the "Navi 14." It comes with the entire feature set of "Navi," including the latest RDNA compute units, GDDR6 memory, PCIe gen 4.0 capability, and all the software features the RX 5700-series support.

What's unexpected about the RX 5500 XT is that it does not max out "Navi 14." It has the same exact core configuration as the RX 5500 OEM with 22 RDNA compute units making up 1,408 stream processors, 88 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 128-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface. The "Navi 14" silicon features 24 compute units (1,536 stream processors); currently, the only contraption that maxes it out is the Radeon Pro 5500M found exclusively in Apple's MacBook Pro 16-inch. The RX 5500 XT has slightly higher reference clock speeds as the RX 5500 OEM with up to 1845 MHz boost and 1717 MHz "gaming" clocks. The memory ticks at 14 Gbps (GDDR6 effective) on both 4 GB and 8 GB variants. The ASRock RX 5500 XT ships with factory-overclocked speeds of 1737 MHz Game Clock and 1845 MHz maximum Boost.



The Radeon RX 5500 XT is available at sub-$200 price-points, with the 4 GB variant being priced at $180 and the 8 GB variant at $200. ASRock's card features 8 GB of VRAM and is priced at the same $200 MSRP, making it one of the most affordable 8 GB RX 5500 variants available today. It comes with a relatively compact dual-fan solution including idle fan stop and a metal backplate.