SAPPHIRE RADEON RX 6650 XT NITRO+ Review

Brandon Dodman / 3 years ago

The NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti has been out for a little while now, and as the name would suggest, it’s a slightly beefed-up version of the RTX 3060. A mid-range card with very good performance for 1080p or even 1440p gaming. The AMD 6600 XT has also been out for a little while now and always sat just behind the 3060 Ti, and with the launch prices for those two cards being so close, this was obviously something AMD wasn’t going to be happy with and wanted to address at some point and that all changes today, because AMD have just launched the RADEON RX 6650 XT, the newest in their mid-range line up of cards.

Is it new though or is there more going on? Well, what you get if you choose this version of the card over the older version (6600 XT) on paper is nothing more than a higher game clock, higher boost clock, and faster memory clock, essentially making this card a pre-overclocked 6600 XT. Being the world’s largest supplier of AMD graphics cards, it’s no surprise that right on launch we’ve got the RADEON RX 6650 XT Nitro+ from Sapphire in our hands with an aim to be a good option for enthusiast gamers on a bit of a tight budget.

Of course, we all know that while on paper, higher speeds always look promising, there are so many variables in a product like this, that, what should be an easy win doesn’t always come out that way. What if the cooling can’t keep up with the higher thermal output with the higher clock speeds? That would negatively effect results. What if the higher speeds make the card unstable for prolonged usage? No one wants that! But that’s why we’re here. To evaluate the card and find out if worries like these are justified or simply paranoia and more importantly, to see if AMD can finally take that crown away from NVIDIA.