Introduction
When the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT launched last December, one of the advantages that AMD specified is its ability to have both 4GB and 8GB variants. You see, the competition’s GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER only has 4GB models available, there are no variants with anymore VRAM. AMD made it clear in its launch that 8GB of VRAM could have advantages in gameplay performance, and thus would be one reason to buy the Radeon RX 5500 XT over a GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER.
Reviews
In our recent SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 5500 XT 8G GDDR6 OC review we put an 8GB Radeon RX 5500 XT video card directly up against the competition’s GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER. We used a highly factory overclocked video card in fact and even overclocked both video cards for head-to-head overclocked performance testing.
In that review, we found that with playable settings at 1080p it did not seem that 8GB offered any advantage to playable performance. Both video cards were actually rather close in performance, both out-of-box, and when overclocked especially. The only differences in performance came down to the specific game they were played on.
What we have not done though yet, until today, is to put two Radeon RX 550XT’s head-to-head, one 4GB and one 8GB. At the launch in December, we reviewed a 4GB SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 5500 XT 4G GDDR6 OC video card. Therefore, we now have two of the exact same video cards, with the only difference being the VRAM capacity. We now have the perfect setup to see if we can find any differences in gameplay performance between a 4GB and 8GB Radeon RX 5500 XT.
Today’s Review
We will be directly comparing a SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 5500 XT 8G GDDR6 versus a SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 5500 XT 4G GDDR6. This is truly an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 4GB versus 8GB review. Both video cards have the same factory game boost clock of 1737MHz and both video cards have the VRAM clocked at 14GHz. Both video cards have the same cooling, the same power, the same everything, except one has 4GB of VRAM and the other 8GB.
We are putting both graphics cards head-to-head with each other using the exact same system setup, same game setup and versions, and same driver AMD Adrenalin 20.2.2. We will test several games at both 1080p and 1440p with maxed out game settings, and with lower game settings. We will get to the bottom once and for all if 8GB on the Radeon RX 5500 XT can provide any advantage at all.