Today is the day for AMDs long rumored partial refresh of their GPU lineup. They have introduced the RX 6650 XT, RX 66750 XT, and the RX 6950 XT. This allows them to bump up their high end and bolster their competition in the mid-range. This also means loads of options in aftermarket cards. So to start off our coverage today I’m going to check out the RX 6650 XT Gaming X from MSI to check out how the new 6650 XT performs and to check out MSI’s Gaming X. Let’s put it through our test suite and see how it does!
Product Name: MSI RX 6650 XT Gaming X
Review Sample Provided by: MSI
Written by: Wes Compton
Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE
What’s the refresh all about?
Similar to the Ryzen CPU refresh that just recently happened, the Radeon refresh is taking a look at the current lineup making just a few changes. AMD is launching three cards today, the RX 6650 XT, the RX 6750 XT, and the RX6950 XT. They fill in a few gaps but it isn’t across the entire lineup. The RX 6650 XT which is what we are looking at in this review here soon sits between the 6600 XT and the 6700 XT. I’m surprised that it isn’t just the RX 6700 but the 6X50 fits with the rest of the refresh. The RX 6750 sits above the 6700 XT and below the RX 6800 and then of course the flagship RX 6900 XT now has a big brother with the RX 6950 XT.
AMD also put together a nice table showing their entire lineup with the new cards. With the three new cards, only one card from the lineup has gone away. They no longer have the RX 6600 XT, it is now the RX 6600 < RX 6650 XT < RX 6700 XT. The 6650 XT has a starting price of $399, the 6750 XT starts at 549, and the 6950 XT starts at 1099.
So what has changed with the new cards? Well, all three GPUs are based on the same GPU die as the previous model which you can see in the specifications I have below. The die size and transistor count for the 6600 XT and the 6650 XT are the same, same with the 6700 XT and the 6750 XT and the 6900 XT and the 6950 XT. Compute units are the same as well as stream processors. It is the clock speeds that have changed. The 6650 XT is running at 2410 MHz vs the 2359 MHz of the 6600 XT for game clock and up to 2635 MHz vs 2589 MHz. The 6750 XT is at 2495 MHz for its game clock whereas the 6700 XT is 2424 MHz and up to 2600 MHz for the boost clock for the 66750 XT vs 2581 MHz on the 6700 XT. Same with the 6950 XT which now runs at 2100 MHz game clock vs 2015 MHz on the 6900 XT and up to 2310 MHz for the boost clock on the 6950 XT vs 2250 MHz on the 6900 XT. This does change some of the performance numbers in the specs but Infinity Cache and memory are also the same. The extra clock speed does mean that the new cards have a higher board power. The 6650 XT runs at 180W vs 160W on the 6600 XT, the 67850 XT is 250W vs 230W on the 6700 XT, and the 6950 XT is 335W vs 300W on the 6900 XT.
Specifications |
RX 6600 XT |
RX 6650 XT |
RX 6700 XT |
RX 6750 XT |
RX 6900 XT |
RX 6950 XT |
Architecture |
RDNA 2 |
RDNA 2 |
RDNA 2 |
RDNA 2 |
RDNA 2 |
RDNA 2 |
Manufacturing Process |
7nm |
7nm |
7nm |
7nm |
7nm |
7nm |
Transistor Count |
11.1 Billion |
11.1 Billion |
17.2 Billion |
17.2 Billion |
26.8 Billion |
26.8 Billion |
Die Size |
237 mm² |
237 mm² |
335 mm² |
335 mm² |
520 mm² |
520 mm² |
Compute Units |
32 |
32 |
40 |
40 |
80 |
80 |
Ray Accelerators |
32 |
32 |
40 |
40 |
80 |
80 |
Stream Processors |
2048 |
2048 |
2560 |
2560 |
5120 |
5120 |
Game GPU Clock |
2359 MHz |
2410 MHz |
2424 MHz |
2495 MHz |
2015 MHz |
2100 MHz |
Boost GPU Clock |
Up to 2589 MHz |
Up to 2635 MHz |
Up to 2581 MHz |
Up to 2600 MHz |
Up to 2250 MHz |
Up to 2310 MHz |
Peak Single Precision Performance |
Up to 10.6 TFLOPs |
Up to 10.79 TFLOPS |
Up to 13.21 TFLOPs |
Up to 13.31 TFLOPS |
Up to 23.04 TFLOPs |
Up to 23.65 TFLOPS |
Peak Half Precision Performance |
21.21 TFLOPs |
Up to 21.59 TFLOPS |
Up to 26.43 TFLOPs |
Up to 26.62 TFLOPS |
Up to 46.08 TFLOPs |
Up to 47.31 TFLOPS |
Peak Texture Fill-Rate |
Up to 331.4 GT/s |
Up to 337.3 GT/s |
Up to 413.00 GT/s |
Up to 416.0 GT/s |
Up to 720.00 GT/s |
Up to 739.2 GT/s |
ROPs |
64 |
64 |
64 |
64 |
128 |
128 |
Peak Pixel Fill-Rate |
Up to 165.7 GP/s |
Up to 168.6 GP/s |
Up to 165.20 GP/s |
Up to 166.4 GP/s |
Up to 288.00 GP/s |
Up to 295.7 GP/s |
AMD Infinity Cache |
32 MB |
32 MB |
96 MB |
96 MB |
128. MB |
128. MB |
Memory |
8GB GDDR6 |
8GB GDDR6 |
12GB GDDR6 |
12GB GDDR6 |
16GB GDDR6 |
16GB GDDR6 |
Memory Interface |
128-bit |
128-bit |
192-bit |
192-bit |
256-bit |
256-bit |
PCIe Interface |
PCIe 4.0 x8 |
PCIe 4.0 x8 |
PCIe 4.0 x16 |
PCIe 4.0 x16 |
PCIe 4.0 x16 |
PCIe 4.0 x16 |
Board Power |
160W |
180W |
230W |
250W |
300W |
335W |
Before getting into testing I did also run GPUz to double-check that our clock speeds match up with the specifications. For the MSI 6650 XT Gaming X, it has an overclock. The stock 6650 XT boost clock was up to 2635 MHz but our card is running at 2694 MHz with the default clock at 2523 MHz vs 2410 MHz for stock. GPUz also helps document the driver I tested on which was the driver provided to press for the launch and our BIOS revision as well for future reference.