Sapphire Pulse Radeon 6500 XT 4GB Review

How Much Does It Cost?

The MSRP of these new cards is £179.99 or $199.99 and I fully expect some people will see the cards at that price. However, between scalping and an extremely thirsty market, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re being sold above that fairly quickly. Of course, that’s the base MSRP too, so some models from the likes of Gigabyte or ASUS with bigger coolers and more complex designs will come with a higher price tag. Of course, we strongly suggest shopping around, but keep in mind, stock, no matter how plentiful, is still likely to sell out relatively quickly. Overall though, at the MSRP or at least close to it, this card is worth the money. It’s nothing too fancy, but it’s going to get the job done. If the price pushes up to £300 and above… well, then it’s hard to get excited about it.

You can check for up to date pricing and stock at Amazon UK here and Overclockers UK here.

Overview

I’ve been a long-time fan of Sapphire cards, and when I buy AMD GPUs, it’s actually always been a Sapphire card. Actually, I’ve been buying Sapphire cards for so long, I’ve had a Sapphire Nvidia 8800 GT, 6770, 700, 800, 480, and a 580 Ti and maybe more inbetween. Why? Generally because they often have great cards at close to the MSRP. They’ve always had nice cooler design and I’ve found them to be pretty reliable too. Thankfully, I think all that holds true of the new 6500 XT. Being a part of the Pulse series, it even looks like two of the cards I’ve previously used, and they’ve changed the overall design about as much as you would expect from a “new” Porche 911.

The card is well made though, and I appreciate that the form factor is basically identical to the RX480 and above, as that means it’ll be extremely compatible with a lot of smaller PC cases. Actually, for some of you upgrading, you may find this card looks literally identical to what you already have. The larger fans and ample ventilation are certainly welcome though. It’s a very competent cooler, keeping temperatures low and noise levels were surprisingly quiet. Not that it’s a hard chipset to maintain, but it does have some blisteringly fast clockspeeds. Thankfully, the new 6nm process seems nicely efficient though.

For those coming from an older graphics card, intergrated graphics, or even finally being able to afford to build their first PC, this card is a good starting point. While the 4GB VRAM is clearly limiting in more demanding titles, a few minor tweaks to your graphics settings makes them perfectly playable. This is a GPU of compromise, but again, that’s reflected in the MSRP. Of course, thanks to features like Anti-Lag, FreeSync Premium and FidelityFX you can fill in a lot of performance gaps, and certainly improve both the performance and value of the 6500 XT. Just, ya know, leave ray tracing alone on this one.

Should I Buy One?

This card is said to be hitting the MSRP, now keep in mind, that’s what Sapphire set, but resellers could make their own mind up. That being said, given your not paying a premium for larger coolers like on the ASUS and Gigabyte models, this one is hardly lacking. It’s got a great cooler of its own, a more compact form factor than a lot of the other 6500 XT cards, and it’s using a design that is well tried and tested. I’ve been a long time fan of the Pulse series and I’ve no reason to doubt it yet. More VRAM would have been nice, but at the same time, I think keeping the price down is important in the market right now. There’s enough high-end cards that cost a fortune, and a lot of gamers are simply looking for a cheap upgade path right now. It’s not the card of your dreams, but it’ll do until all of this blows over.