As promised in our day-one RX 570 5500 XT evaluate, today we’re taking a look at the 4GB model to see how it plays and extra importantly the way it compares to not best 8GB models, but additionally other photos playing cards that compete in the identical charge range like the RX 580. On hand for trying out we've got the Sapphire Pulse RX 5500 XT 4G and Pulse RX 5500 XT 8G, both of which come in cute little bins.

What's tremendous about the use of these playing cards for a 4GB vs. 8GB take a look at, is that except for memory ability, they’re equal, so there are not any different factors to account for inclusive of cooler first-rate or operating clock speeds which could have an effect on the effects.

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The Sapphire Pulse 5500 XT’s are also extraordinary cards that retail for about $10 over the MSRP, an inexpensive markup given they function a factory overclock, a properly designed cooler with an extremely good aluminium backplate, and they even include a twin BIOS. They’re additionally noticeably compact twin-slot playing cards that measure just 233mm long.

The test system used includes a Core i9-9900K clocked at five GHz with 16GB of DDR4-3400 memory. Same as our previous evaluate, we have 12 games to study, all examined at 1080p and 1440p resolutions the usage of medium to excessive pleasant presets or settings, so permit’s get into the consequences.

Benchmarks

First up we have Shadow of the Tomb Raider and here the 4GB 5500 XT was 10% slower than the 8GB model while looking on the common frame fee and that meant it become no quicker than the RX 580 and six% slower than the RX 590. It became additionally on par with the GTX 1650 Super, averaging simply 2 fps more for a mere three% performance increase.

Increasing the decision to 1440p doesn’t trade plenty. The 4GB model became 11% slower this time and again that positioned it on par with the RX 580 and slightly in advance of the GTX 1650 Super.

The overall performance drop off for the 4GB model in Assassin's Creed Odyssey at 1080p is quite minimal, that stated performance wise it’s also comparable to the GTX 1650 Super.

Interestingly, the flow to 1440p does see a full-size discount in overall performance for the 4GB 5500 XT, and that’s interesting due to the fact the 1650 Super doesn’t appear to suffer nearly as a whole lot. As a end result, the 4GB 5500 XT was 12% slower than the 1650 Super. Basically below those conditions you’re looking at RX 570 stage of performance.

We’ll should update the Red Dead Redemption 2 test for those decrease-quit GPUs with medium to low first-rate settings inside the near destiny, high is just an excessive amount of for this class of GPUs. At 1080p the 4GB 5500 XT sees a 9% overall performance hit, which isn’t remarkable and that also makes it 9% slower than the 1650 Super.

Although the 4GB 5500 XT also takes a success at 1440p, we think the biggest overall performance bottleneck here are the GPUs themselves, so in different words the GPUs are choking earlier than VRAM ability becomes a extreme issue.

Moving on to World of Tanks, this sport simplest allocates around 3GB of VRAM at 1440p the usage of the most in-game pleasant settings with the HD client version. Thus at 1080p we see no difference among the 4GB and 8GB versions of the 5500 XT.

It’s the equal story at 1440p, with as much as simply 3GB of reminiscence allotted, both the 4GB and 8GB variations supply the identical level of performance.

The 4GB 5500 XT drops a few frames while compared to the 8GB model in Far Cry New Dawn, however usual performance at 1080p using the second one maximum great preset remains very good.

Much the same is seen at 1440p. We’re the usage of the second maximum nice preset and in spite of that the 4GB 5500 XT remains capable of average just over 60fps.

We’re not playing Rainbow Six Siege with the best visual quality settings, rather the second satisfactory preset with a guide render scale of one hundred% set. This saw the 4 and 8 GB 5500 XT models supply the identical 128 fps on average at 1080p.

Even at 1440p we see the equal average body rate. However, it’s the 1% low performance that falls away with the 4GB version and whilst it's still very playable, this reduce down model wasn’t quite as smooth overall.

Next up we've Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and at 1080p using the high satisfactory preset that is one step underneath the max ‘Ultra’ putting, we see no distinction in overall performance among the 4GB and 8GB versions of the 5500 XT.

At 1440p performance we have a look at the equal overall performance. In this recreation the Radeon 5500 XT added basically the equal degree of performance because the 1650 Super and even the 3GB 1060 3GB.

In Battlefield V the 4GB 5500 XT turned into capable of keep pace with the 8GB version at 1080p, both rendering 83 fps on common, which is essentially the identical stage of overall performance you’ll acquire from the RX 580.

However, the story changes at 1440p in which the 4GB 5500 XT struggles and the average frame charge drops by eleven%. This method the 5500 XT was now handiest capable of match the 1650 Super and RX 570.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is memory hungry even at 1080p, even though we are the use of the very best viable fine settings. The 4GB 5500 XT averaged an impressive ninety six fps, however that changed into nevertheless 15% in the back of the 8GB version, in addition to Nvidia’s GTX 1650 Super.

The drop off at 1440p changed into simply as harsh. Here the 4GB model turned into 17% slower and once more the 4GB 1650 Super didn’t go through the identical fate that's interesting. Once once more you’re looking at RX 570-like overall performance with the 4GB 5500 XT in this name.

Taking the averages from the 1080p information we see that the 4GB 5500 XT is able to suit the fee in line with frame of the RX 580, so you’re trading half the VRAM for a more efficient product and we’ll talk this a Box second.

For now the takeaway is that the GTX 580 1650 Super is available in five% inexpensive per frame, which comes from the marginal ~$10 discount on MSRP.

However matters get worse for the RX 5500 if we take a look at a single name like Battlefield V. We're using the 1440p facts right here because it represents a situation wherein the 4GB VRAM ability starts to impact overall performance notably, something you’ll absolute confidence see extra of inside the subsequent year or two.

Where the difference among 4GB and 8GB of reminiscence can be visible, the 570 4GB: 580 is miles higher in phrases of value and the RX 570 is Box +nother magnificence, turning in the equal overall performance as the 4GB 5500 XT at a 24% bargain per body. This is probably the maximum telling graph we’ve looked at thus far while comparing the value of the 5500 XT.

Wrapping matters up we have some RX 5500 XT 4GB vs. 8GB graphs that show the margins on a in keeping with sport foundation. Here you can see that the 4GB version struggled in Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Red Dead Redemption 2, whilst we saw small overall performance drop offs in Far Cry New Dawn, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Metro Exodus, even though they were so small in the ones titles it’s truly not worth talking approximately.

If we take a look at 1% low overall performance we see similar margins for the maximum part, though the 4GB model had a tougher time in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

At 1440p we see no difference between the 4GB and 8GB fashions for 1/2 the games tested, at least when comparing common frame rate overall performance. The performance drop in Call of Duty changed into large, we additionally see a bit of a drop in Assassin’s Creed and double digit overall performance loses in Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

The 1440p 1% low statistics is the maximum telling graph for destiny performance. We see little to no impact for 1/2 the games tested, however the other half of all see double digit hits to the frame charge with three titles losing via extra than 15%.

Power Efficiency or More VRAM?

AMD's overdue arrival with their mainstream Navi offerings may also should do with a 7nm deliver issue. They’re no longer + Core role in which they are able to sell them in widespread enough quantities to justify being aggressive on fee. As matters stand proper now, the GeForce GTX 1650 Super is a more compelling buy whilst compared to the 4GB 5500 XT. Overall, you’re looking at essentially the equal stage of overall performance, at a very small discount. Looking at our small benchmark sample of games, the GTX 1650 Super’s performance regarded extra regular, now not suffering the larger performance hits in titles including Battlefield V and Call of Duty Modern Warfare due to the extra restrained 4GB reminiscence buffer.

If you’re after an efficient budget images card, the GTX 1650 Super looks like the manner to move. However, Core i7-8550U recent ballot we requested what gamers favored: power performance or VRAM capability, and as we suspected, an awesome range of you picked reminiscence capacity as your preference.

That being the case, maximum of you spending less than $2 hundred on your pix card may not be interested in the 4GB 5500 XT at $a hundred and seventy or the 4GB GTX 1650 Super at $160, whilst you can purchase an 8GB RX 580 for $one hundred seventy, every so often as little as $one hundred fifty. The antique Radeon makes use of significantly greater strength, but who cares? -- we wouldn’t -- and it appears a terrific portion of you agree.

It’s really worth noting that idle power intake is set the equal, so at the same time as the RX 580 has the potential to run a warmer and louder whilst gaming, having that extra headroom with the reminiscence seems greater crucial for most. And which means, as long as you should purchase the two+ year antique discounted RX 580 8GB images card, for the same amount of cash as those more moderen 4GB GPUs, that’s what we’d do. Had AMD priced the 8GB 5500 XT at no extra than $170 and the 4GB version at round $140, then we feel they’d be feasible alternatives, however that simply doesn’t appear possible given the contemporary supply constraints.

4GB vs. 8GB VRAM

Before wrapping up, let’s talk a touch greater approximately the 4GB vs. 8GB reminiscence buffers...

There's plenty of discussion round this subject matter. Many humans declare 4GB just isn’t enough and photographs playing cards shouldn’t be promoting with such a restrained reminiscence capability in 2019, at the same time as others declare 8GB remains overkill for 1080p gaming. In our opinion, neither is proper or wrong, it just relies upon, totally on what you intend on playing and how you intend on gambling it.

Now, we do agree that $two hundred for a tiny GPU with a 128-bit huge reminiscence bus in overdue 2019 is too much, irrespective of memory capacity, so we're truly no longer attempting to justify RX 5500 XT or GTX 1650 Super pricing, we're definitely saying how plenty VRAM you require relies upon.

For instance, in case you’re a aggressive gamer like myself who generally doesn’t care about an immersive single participant enjoy with amazing portraits, then VRAM potential doesn’t honestly depend. For instance, after I play Battlefield V, textures and maximum different high-quality settings aren’t cranked up to extremely, as an alternative almost all are set to low which sees VRAM utilization drop from round 5 GB right down to just three GB, and frankly the game nonetheless seems precise.

... For someone looking to play Fortnite, spending extra money to stable a card with extra VRAM is just a waste of money.

It’s the same for different games I play consisting of Fortnite, Apex Legends and StarCraft II, all those games are performed with in most cases low pleasant settings, it just makes it simpler to identify enemies and eliminates a number of distracting effects. I’m now not on my own right here both, this is how most gamers play esports/aggressive titles, even those that aren’t all that annoying initially.

In other phrases, for someone looking to play Fortnite, spending more money to secure a card with greater VRAM is just a waste of money.

But in case you are not into esports titles and like to play video games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Shadow of the Tomb Raider for his or her lovely visuals and story mode, then making sure that you have a photos card with headroom in the VRAM branch is extra crucial and probably really worth paying a small premium for.

If you’re this sort of gamer, then you may need to avoid 4GB fashions like the plague, specially given the approaching Xbox Series X may have sixteen GB of GDDR6 memory with 13GB on hand to games. Expect the subsequent era of video games to look a large step up in memory usage.

If you’re a gamer that enjoys unmarried-participant mode and lovely visuals, then you'll want to avoid 4GB models like the plague, especially given the imminent Xbox Series X could have 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with 13GB available to games. Expect the subsequent technology of games to peer a massive step up in reminiscence usage.

With all of that said, we need to observe that not having enough VRAM isn’t the catastrophe that some make it out to be. It’s no longer near to say, having a twin-core processor and gambling a sport that calls for a quad-center or higher, in that situation you’re pretty tons screwed and no matter how low you drop the pleasant settings, you’re going to have a bad time.

With restrained VRAM, all you need to do is drop texture great settings down and also you’re away. Sure, the game won't look as good, but it’s nevertheless going to be playable and i7-8550U Ultraportable make-do state of affairs that’s all you can hope for. Also how a title handles insufficient VRAM will depend upon the game. Some change into a slide show till you lessen memory usage, others won’t even assist you to use the better fine settings (Red Dead Redemption 2), and some will automatically lessen or cast off textures totally, often leaving you with a blurry mess.

Providing a extra less costly option with less reminiscence for informal or aggressive game enthusiasts isn’t a horrific issue, you simply don’t want to be paying close to $two hundred for a reduce down alternative proper now. As we stated before, had the 4GB 5500 XT come in at ~$one hundred forty then it might have been a quite solid deal, but as matters stand today, you’re higher off with an 8GB RX 580, cease of tale.