Shipping delays and issues hit us hard over the last few weeks. The biggest one was our RX 6500 XT launch sample which ended up hung up and delayed in shipping. So I am way late to the party when it comes to checking out how the RX 6500 XT performs. Today I finally get the chance and I’m checking out the Pulse from Sapphire. I know there was drama around this launch (frankly what GPU launched for the last few years hasn’t lol) but I am excited to see how AMD's latest GPU performs and how Sapphire card does at keeping things cool and quiet. So let’s jump in and check it out!
Product Name: Sapphire Pulse RX 6500 XT
Review Sample Provided by: Sapphire
Written by: Wes Compton
Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE
|
Specifications |
|
|
GPU |
AMD Radeon™ RX 6500 XT Graphics Card 6nm GPU AMD RDNA™ 2 Architecture |
|
Engine Clock |
Boost Clock: Up to 2825 MHz Game Clock: Up to 2685 MHz Boost Clock is the maximum frequency achievable on the GPU running bursty workload. Boost clock achievability, frequency, and sustainability will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to: thermal conditions and variation in application and workloads.
Game Clock is the expected GPU clock when running typical gaming applications, set to typical TGP(Total Graphics Power). Actual individual game clock results may vary. |
|
Stream Processors |
1024 |
|
Infinity Cache |
16MB |
|
Ray Accelerators |
16 |
|
Memory Size/Bus |
4GB GDDR6 |
|
Memory Clock |
18 Gbps Effective |
|
Displays |
Maximum 2 Displays |
|
Resolution |
HDMI™: 7680×4320 DisplayPort1.4: 7680×4320 |
|
Interface |
PCI-Express 4.0 |
|
Output |
1x HDMI 1x DisplayPort |
|
BIOS Support |
UEFI |
|
Game Index |
1080P |
|
Sapphire Features |
Premium Digital Power Design Fuse Protection Dual-X Cooling Technology Intelligent Fan Control Precision Fan Control Metal Backplate TriXX Supported TriXX Boost |
|
AMD Features |
AMD RDNA 2 Gaming Architecture DirectX 12 Ultimate support AMD Smart Access Memory AMD Infinity Cache 6nm GPU PCI Express 4.0 support AMD FreeSync Technology DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC HDMI support Video Streaming up to 8K AMD Radeon VR Ready Premium AMD FidelityFX AMD Radeon Image Sharpening AMD Radeon Anti-Lag AMD Radeon Software Game Driver Optimizations |
|
Cooling |
Dual Fans |
|
Form Factor |
2 slot, ATX Dimension: 194(L)X 107(W)X 40(H)mm |
|
Power Consumption |
130W (Board Power) |
|
OS |
Linux®, Windows® 7*, Windows® 10, and Windows 11 64-bit operating system required *Does not support all features including but not limited to Hardware Raytracing |
|
System Requirement |
Minimum 400 Watt Power Supply 1 x 6-pin Power Connector. PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard. Minimum 8GB of system memory. 16GB recommended. |
|
Warranty |
2 year limited warranty |
Before diving into the testing, I do like to double-check with GPUz to make sure that our card is running at the clock speeds that it should be at and the Sapphire Pulse RX 6500 XT is running at 2685 MHz with a boost clock of 2825 MHz which line up with Sapphires specifications. The boost clock isn’t much past the AMDs reference boost clock of 2815 MHz but the game clock speed is a little higher of an overclock with that being 2610 MHz to the 2685 MHz. I also include this so our firmware revision is documented and as well as the driver tested with which is the Adrenalin 22.1.2 that is the post-launch public driver.
