AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT – Just an Overclocked Non-XT?

All going well, the latest AMD graphics cards (the 5500 and XT) will be released on December 12th. While we all largely understand that this is set to be a relatively entry-level design (and will be weaker than the current 5700/XT) a lot of the speculation largely boils down to exactly how it will compare to the Nvidia alternatives. Namely, the 1660, it’s Ti variant and the 2060.

In a report via Videocardz, however, if you had high hopes for the XT version of the 5500, then it seems it may not be as potent as you might have hoped. Why? Well, figures released essentially suggest that it will just be an overclocked version of the non-XT card. Not exactly what we were hoping for, if true.

AMD Radeon 5500 Compared to the XT

In the report, numerous leaks have suggested that at least in terms of visual appearance, both versions of the graphics card appear to be exactly the same. With, of course, the exception that the 5500 XT will have an option of 8GB of VRAM.

Based on this, however, the additional performance gain from the XT version is largely being put solely on the fact that this is simply an overclocked version of the base card. If true, you could potentially achieve the same level of performance with just the standard 5500. It sounds somewhat reminiscent of seeing people firmware their 480 graphics card to the 580 specs.

Is Pricing a Problem?

At the time of writing, no exact (confirmed) prices have been revealed for either the 5500 or the XT variant. A number of sources, however, are suggesting that AMD may be asking a bit too much for the card. Specifically based on the performance it provides and particularly against its comparative rivals.

If they do retail for around £200-£250 (a price that seems to be the unconfirmed suggestion), then we’d agree entirely that this is too much. For this kind of price, even we’d recommend to just get the 1660 Ti.

With just a week to go until they are formally released, however, the good news is that we don’t have long to wait until we find out just how good (or bad) these graphics cards will be.

What do you think? Are you interested in the new AMD graphics cards? Do you think the XT will simply be an overclocked 5500? – Let us know in the comments!