Overall and Final Verdict
Coming in to testing the Asus TUF Gaming 6500 XT I at least had a good idea of what to expect from the 6500 XT. But I still managed to be surprised that the TUF Gaming 6500XT outperformed the previous 6500 XT that I tested while having the same overclock. Of course, the TUF Gaming 6500XT did have the same limitations that all 6500XT’s have with the 4GB of VRAM and the PCIe interface only using x4 lanes which really holds the card back at 1440p and 4k and even at times extremely high detail levels at 1080p. This can be seen a lot when you compare the performance of the older RX 5500 XT to the 6500 XT. The TUF Gaming 6500XT was able to edge out in front of that card in our 1080p testing with that performance improvement over the Sapphire but the 5500 XT was still out ahead at the higher resolutions and with Blender where all of the 6500XT’s fall on their face.
The TUF Gaming 6500XT however stands out in a few other ways, especially when compared to the direct competition. For starters, the TUF focus means the card has an all-metal fan shroud which I love, and a metal backplate that is all tied in together. The card is well protected and shouldn’t have any sagging issues in the future as well. Asus was proud of their cooling performance when they mentioned sending the card over and I can see why. The 6500XT doesn’t run too hot in general, but the TUF Gaming 6500XT outperformed the other 6500XT that I tested, even with it having a horizontal heatsink layout. Even more impressive to me was while having that cooling performance the card also ran very quiet. Even when the fans were cranked to 100% it was the quietest card I’ve tested this year.
The only issue that I had with the TUF Gaming 6500XT itself was that this is a tall card with one section of the shroud sticking up higher than the rest. Beyond that, the only other concern is with the pricing. The TUF Gaming 6500XT has an MSRP of $349.99 which is a lot higher than the base MSRP of the 6500 XT cards. But it is more realistic to the market which can be seen with a lot of those $199 cards selling up near it in price. The Sapphire I tested for example is selling for $319.99 on Newegg right now. The TUF Gaming 6500XT on the other hand is in stock and available at that $349 price point. I do think it is still priced high, however. It is the second-highest 6500XT on Newegg right now even with the other cards being marked up or resold at higher prices. But if the price settles down this is a great card if the 6500XT is what you are looking for. Like with all of the 6500 XT’s, you need to make sure that you aren’t planning on gaming at higher than 1080p. But if that is the case, the 6500 XT is at least available and not used.
Live Pricing: HERE
