Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC Review

How Much Does It Cost?

The Gigabyte Radeon RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8GB Graphics Card is available right now from Amazon. However, the Amazon price is crazy high for some reason at around £254.17. I get that it’s the overclocked one, but that’s still a bit more than I would expect, especially from Gigabyte. You can get rival models from £166 – £216. Fortunately, it’s available from many other retailers for around £170.

Overview

OK, let’s get the good stuff out of the way first. For 1080p gaming, the Gigabyte card is actually pretty fantastic. The frame rates are typically way north of the golden 60 FPS target. It’ll make light work of any modern game, even with high and ultra settings being used; assuming your CPU isn’t made from sponge cake.

Even at 1440p, it wasn’t all that bad. For gamers using this resolution, dropping to medium settings on the latest and more graphically intensive games will get you where you need to be. Plus, with FreeSync, even if you are sitting a little below 60 FPS, you’ll get a pretty steady experience.

For 4K, well that’s a bit of a stretch for more modern titles. However, I find there’s merit in playing “older” games like Mass Effect, BioShock, Skyrim in 4K on older GPUs, you would be surprised.

Build Quality

It’s the same Windforce cooler we know and love. It has been with us for many years and it’s going strong on many of their GPUs today. Also, Gigabyte also offers a really competitive warranty on their cards, which is great. However, I can’t help but feel this is not the right cooler for the chipset we’re testing today.

Should I Buy One?

Out of the box, the performance figures are absolutely fine. It’s competitive with other 5500 XT graphics cards we’ve tested, so no issues there. However, it runs too hot and that really limits the card’s potential. Hitting 84C means the card can throttle a little. It also limits any additional overclocking headroom.

The fans weren’t overly noisy though, it has to be said. A little louder than expected as they’re fighting the heat, but there’s room for improvement to the cooling in general. We didn’t have this issue with other 5500 XT’s we’ve tested, so for now, I’d honestly go down to the non-OC dual-fan model from Gigabyte, as I think this is one just misses the mark.