SAPPHIRE Pulse Radeon RX 5500 XT 4GB – A Solid Card In A Tough Place

Test System And Methodology

All of the testings were done on our Intel Z370 test bench powered by a 5GHz Core i9-9900K. We ran all tests involving DX11 through 3 paces and averaged the results of all metrics to come to the final numbers. For DX12 and Vulkan we used the latest release of FrameView at the time.  I took the average of average frame rates as well as the 99th percentile results from the run.  I had been using 1% and .1% results but while working on an upcoming review, before starting this one, I had decided to move to a 99th percentile to represent the bottom end of the framerates for a more simple method of charting and reading for our readers.  For those uncertain of what the 99th percentile is representing is easily explained as showing only 1 frame out of 100 is slower than this frame rate. Put another way, 99% of the frames will achieve at least this frame rate. The representation of the 99th percentile is much more consistent in experience than the 1% and .1% lows, and this was ultimately done as a way to deliver better metrics to the audience.

Test System

Components	Z370
CPU	Intel Core i9-9900k @ 5GHz
Memory	16GB G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 3200
Motherboard	EVGA Z370 Classified K
Storage	Kingston KC2000 1TB NVMe SSD
PSU	Cooler Master V1200 Platinum
Windows Version	1903 with latest security patches

Graphics Cards Tested

GPU	Architecture	Core Count	Clock Speed	Memory Capacity	Memory Speed
SAPPHIRE Pulse RX 5500 XT	Navi 14	1408	1685/1737/1845	4GB GDDR6	14Gbps
Zotac GTX 1650 SUPER	Turing	1280	1530/1725	4GB GDDR6	12Gbps
NVIDIA GTX 1060 FE 6GB	Pascal	1280	1506/1708	6GB GDDR5	8Gbps
MSI RX 580 Armor 8GB	Polaris 20	2304	1366	8GB GDDR5	8Gbps
Sapphire Nitro+ RX 570 4GB	Polaris 20	2048	1340	4GB GDDR5	7Gbps
Zotac GTX 1650 OC	Turing	896	1485/1665	4GB GDDR5	8Gbps

Drivers Used

Drivers
Radeon Settings	20.2.1
GeForce	442.19

You can find additional information about our hardware review process and ethics policy here.

The SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse 4GB delivers exactly as it was designed to. Performance is solid, thermals and acoustics are more than acceptable.

Pros

• SAPPHIRE Fan Quick Connect
• Dual BIOS
• Metal back plate
• Excellent cooler design
• A true replacement for Radeon RX 400/500 series
• A Little Faster Than GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB Graphics Card
• PCI-e Gen 4.0 Support
• Good I/O (DSC 1.2a for 8K 60 Hz, Triple Display Ports 1.4 HDR, HDMI 2.0)

Cons

• Priced higher than competing GTX 1650 SUPER cards
• Power consumption still not on par with NVIDIA's 12nm
• Still facing harsh competition from outgoing Radeon RX 580 Series

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