MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X 8G Video Card Review

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Ray Tracing Performance

We are going to focus on Ray Tracing 1080p gameplay performance with the MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X 8G video card.  Ray Tracing is very demanding, and these video cards are not the fastest at it, and as such we really needed to lower the resolution to 1080p if we are going to utilize Ray Tracing due to the performance demand.  We will include DLSS and FSR performance on the same graph in the games that are supported.  We will use DLSS on NVIDIA GPUs and FSR on AMD GPUs.  For video card comparisons we are using an MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT GAMING X 8G, EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC BLACK GAMING, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition.

Dying Light 2

Dying Light 2 was released in February 2022 on the PC and uses Techland’s C-Engine.  The game supports Ray Tracing, DLSS, and FSR.  This game supports Ray Tracing environmental effects including Ray Traced Soft Shadows, Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion, Ray Traced Global Illumination, and Ray Traced Reflections.  We utilize the built-in preset option to set “HIGH QUALITY RAYTRACING” which enables the game’s highest graphics settings plus the environmental effects explained above at the highest values.  The game is run in DX12 Ultimate mode with ASYNC Compute turned on.  For our benchmark, we are using a custom manual run-through at the end of the game hopping between rooftops, as well as free-roaming on the ground city level, as well as a forested area, in the daylight.

MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X 8G Video Card Dying Light 2 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

Dying Light 2’s highest quality Ray Tracing options all being enabled really demand a lot of performance in this game.  To run this game with full Ray Tracing quality on these video cards you are for sure going to be using either DLSS or FSR.  In fact, even with FSR the two AMD Radeon GPU based video cards struggled too much and were not playable.  The MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X was producing around 25FPS and was not playable.  Turning on FSR did help performance, by 44%, but it wasn’t near enough to allow the game to actually be playable, even at 1080p.  Performance did edge out the Radeon RX 6600 XT slightly.  Overclocking the video card also helped performance, by 2%.  Even with overclocking, the FSR performance was still around 39FPS, and not playable. 

The GeForce RTX 3060 and especially the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti had a big advantage in Ray Tracing performance in this game.  However, the GeForce RTX 3060, even though it was 39% faster than the MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT, still wasn’t fast enough to actually make it playable in the game until we turned on DLSS.  Only with DLSS is it playable at above 50FPS.  DLSS improved performance by 54%. 

The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti offered a much more enjoyable Ray Tracing experience in this game at 1080p.  Without DLSS it was averaging 48FPS, which in many situations was not playable, as the minimums dropped too low.  Therefore, even with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti you’ll find yourself turning on DLSS to make the game playable.  With DLSS turned on with the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti performance is now at a very smooth and enjoyable 72FPS.

Far Cry 6

Far Cry 6 was released in October of 2021 and uses the Dunia Engine. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We have the HD Texture pack installed and turned on. We utilize the “Ultra” graphics preset which sets all options to the highest game settings. This game supports Ray Tracing via two DXR settings, one for Reflections and the other for Shadows, we turn on both for testing. This game supports FSR upscaling.

MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X 8G Video Card Far Cry 6 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Far Cry 6, this game ran so well that we are actually able to run it at 1440p with DXR Ray Tracing enabled on all the video cards, and it’s playable. We surprisingly found this game very enjoyable at 1440p with Ray Tracing on pretty much all the video cards.  The MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X has the most significant increase in performance we have seen yet in this review here compared to the MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT GAMING X video card.  With Ray Tracing the new Radeon RX 6650 XT is 9% faster than the Radeon RX 6600 XT.  That’s the largest difference over the Radeon RX 6600 XT we’ve seen yet. 

Apparently, once you really push the cards in certain areas, the newer Radeon RX 6650 XT can potentially be a decent amount faster.  The MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT is very playable at 1440p with Ray Tracing here, near 60FPS no problem.  In fact, overclocking the video card produces the highest performance in this game, even edging out the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti by 1FPS for the first time ever in this review.  Overclocking has improved performance by 7%.

The MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT is actually on par with the GeForce RTX 3060 in performance, as the RTX 3060 does really good with Ray Tracing performance.  This game also supports FSR, and FSR just elevates each card a bit more making it faster still, though it was already fast enough without FSR to be playable.  Turning on FSR on the MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT improved performance by 14%.  With FSR, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is still a bit faster than the overclocked RX 6650 XT with FSR.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December of 2020 and uses the REDengine 4. We have the game patched to version 1.52 and perform a long manual run-through driving in the game’s open world. We test using the Graphics Preset option to set graphics settings.  We use the Ray Tracing Graphics Preset of either: “Ray Tracing: Low”, or “Ray Tracing: Medium” or “Ray Tracing: Ultra” as indicated. This game supports DLSS and FSR.

MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X 8G Video Card Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing Performance Graph

Once again Cyberpunk 2077 proves to be the most demanding game, when turning on Ray Tracing it just really drags in performance.  Once again, even at 1080p, none of the video cards are playable with “Ultra” Ray Tracing.  It requires FSR or DLSS to be playable, and then, only on the NVIDIA GPUs.  The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT and 6600 XT are completely bottlenecked with Ray Tracing turned on, they are really slow.  Even with FSR performance is still at 30FPS, and just viable in this game, even at 1080p.

The GeForce RTX 3060 is 94% faster than the Radeon RX 6650 XT, but even at nearly 100% faster, this is still just 30FPS and not playable.  It is only with DLSS enabled that we get 50FPS and the game is somewhat playable.  The real card for playing with Ray Tracing in this game at 1080p is going to be the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti though.  Even with it, you will need to use DLSS, but at least you’ll get 60FPS for smooth gameplay.

Watch Dogs Legion

Watch Dogs Legion was released on the PC in October of 2020 and uses the Disrupt game engine. We utilize the built-in benchmark for testing. We have the HD Texture pack installed and enabled for testing. We use the built-in graphics preset of “Ultra” for testing. We utilize the “Ultra” preset quality option for Ray Tracing.  This game supports DLSS upscaling.

MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X 8G Video Card Watch Dogs Legion Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Watch Dogs Legion we are running at 1080p with Ray Tracing at “Ultra” and HD Textures installed.  For some reason the two AMD Radeon GPUs completely tanked in this game, it could be a bug.  Neither of them performed well and were completely unplayable.  It can’t be a VRAM capacity issue because the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti only has 8GB of VRAM, the same as the two AMD Radeon GPU video cards, yet it had the fastest performance, beating the higher VRAM 12GB GeForce RTX 3060. 

The GeForce RTX 3060 and 3060 Ti were not playable at 1080p with Ray Tracing though, without DLSS.  We did need to enable DLSS to make the game playable with Ray Tracing on these cards at 1080p.  With DLSS the GeForce RTX 3060 is just barely playable, and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is really the card that is most playable at 60FPS with DLSS.

Metro Exodus Enhanced

Metro Exodus Enhanced is being run with Shading Quality at “Extreme” and Ray Tracing at “Ultra.”  This is a demanding game, that heavily focuses on Ray Tracing utilization, including Global Illumination.  We are utilizing the built-in benchmark.

MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X 8G Video Card Metro Exodus Enhanced Ray Tracing Performance Graph

In Metro Exodus Enhanced we are running the game at the highest “Extreme” shading quality, and the highest “Ultra” Ray Tracing.  This game is also very demanding with Ray Tracing, and as such none of the video cards are actually playable at 1080p with the highest Ray Tracing without help like DLSS. 

The two AMD Radeon GPU video cards are not playable, and unfortunately, this game doesn’t utilize FSR.  The Radeon RX 6650 XT is about 3% faster than the Radeon RX 6600 XT, and overclocking the video card has improved performance by 4% and puts it just over the GeForce RTX 3060 on performance.  While the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the fastest video card, it still isn’t playable without DLSS.  Turning on DLSS, only the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is playable at 60FPS.

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Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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