Introduction

AMD today debuted the Radeon RX 6500 XT and RX 6400 entry-level graphics cards, and we have with us the ASUS TUF Gaming RX 6500 XT. This is AMD's first GPU based on the new 6 nm foundry-node by TSMC, allowing for up to 18% higher transistor density than the TSMC 7 nm process, and with more electrical headroom, so AMD could dial up clock speeds. The Radeon RX 6500 XT is based on the 6 nm "Navi 24" silicon, a tiny 107 mm² chip based on the same RDNA 2 graphics architecture as the rest of the RX 6000 series. It is feature-packed and comes with DirectX 12 Ultimate support, including real-time ray tracing and FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR).



When it came out, the previous-generation RX 5500 XT was pushed as a 1080p gaming product with good e-sports chops. This remains the mandate of the RX 6500 XT—to offer 1080p AAA gaming with medium-thru-high settings. You can leverage FSR to improve eye-candy, as the game is being rendered at lower resolutions so frame-rates are high.

The Radeon RX 6500 XT is based on the full "Navi 24" silicon and features 1,024 GPU cores across 16 compute units. There are a couple of wacky design choices AMD made with this SKU compared to the RX 5500 XT. First, the memory bus width is narrowed to just 64-bit, compared to 128-bit on the RX 5500 XT. This sees the memory bandwidth drop from 224 GB/s to 144 GB/s (not in half due to slightly higher memory clocks). AMD is using 16 MB of L3 Infinity Cache memory to improve the memory sub-system. Second, AMD gave this chip a puny PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface that is even narrower than the PCI-Express 4.0 x8 on the RX 5500 XT & RX 6500 XT. This is fine and dandy when using it on a motherboard with functional Gen4 PCIe slots, but we're not sure what happens when those with older Gen3 or Gen2 PCIe slots try to use it. That's why we explored this in our AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT PCI-Express Scaling article.

The AMD RX 6500 XT is a partner-driven launch; as such, no reference-design cards are available in the retail channel. The TUF Gaming RX 6500 XT by ASUS pairs this tiny GPU with a triple-slot cooling solution consisting of an elaborate heat pipe-fed heatsink and a pair of Axial-Tech fans. You also get such goodies as RGB LED lighting elements.

Although the starting price for the RX 6500 XT is set at $199, real-world pricing of the cards is closer to $300 or beyond. Given today's market conditions, we expect this card to end up somewhere between $300 and $400.

Packaging

The Card

The ASUS RX 6500 XT TUF Gaming looks great thanks to a mix of various shades of gray with black as the primary color. On the back, you'll find a metal backplate.


Dimensions of the card are 25.0 x 14.5 cm, and it weighs 868 g.


Installation requires three slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include one HDMI 2.0 and one DisplayPort 1.4 port.

With Navi 24, AMD has cut back on the hardware decode capabilities of the GPU. AV1 video decode is not supported.


The card has one 6-pin power input. This configuration is rated for up to 150 W of power draw.


Radeon RX 6500 XT does not support CrossFire.

Teardown

ASUS designed an intricate cooling system that separates the fan assembly and heatsink. This will make it much easier to replace the fans further down the road should they break.


The fan assembly uses two 95 mm fans.


Four heatpipes quickly move heat away from the GPU. This part of the cooler also provides cooling for the memory chips and part of the VRM circuitry.


The backplate is made out of metal and protects the card against damage during installation and handling.

High-resolution PCB Pictures

These pictures are for the convenience of volt modders and people who would like to see all the finer details on the PCB. Feel free to link back to us and use these in your articles, videos or forum posts.



High-res versions are also available (front, back).

Circuit Board (PCB) Analysis

The GPU VRM is a 4+1-phase-design controlled by an OnSemi NCP81022 controller.


The memory VRM is 2-phase and managed by a second OnSemi NCP81022 controller.


The MOSFETs use a traditional high-low setup; the FETs are OnSemi NTMFS4C06N and NTMFS4C10N, which are rated for 20 A each.


The GDDR6 memory chips are made by Samsung and carry the model number K4ZAF325BM-HC18. They are specified to run at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps GDDR6 effective).


AMD's Navi 24 graphics processor is the company's smallest RDNA 2 chip. It is fabricated using a 6 nanometer production process at TSMC Taiwan, its transistor count is 5.4 billion, and the die size is 107 mm².