Gigabyte rx 5500 xt gaming oc 8g review in Spanish

AMD has taken advantage of this end of the year to launch a mid-range graphics card with the new Navi 14 7nm architecture. Today we analyze the Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G custom model, a version with 8 GB GDDR6 memory in which we will see if those extra 4 GB affect the performance of this new GPU.

This version of Gigabyte comes with a 1737 MHz game clock and an 1845 MHz boost clock, which should do its best thanks to the WINDFORCE 3X triple fan heatsink with active 0 dB technology. We will see how this 8GB model behaves, because we have already tested the 4G model and it will be a good reference to justify having created a 4GB model.

Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G technical features

Unboxing

We start as usual with the Unboxing of the Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G, a graphics card that has come to us in a double box. The first is the candy wrapper, so to speak, of flexible cardboard and with the gigabyte screenprint in red colors typical of AMD. In the back area there is no shortage of images that let us see the news regarding the assembler's own design.

Inside this box we have another black one, made of rigid cardboard, and a case-type opening that keeps the graphics card placed horizontally. It is placed in an antistatic bag and protected by a high-density polyethylene foam mold.

In this case, as in practically all, the bundle is extremely simple, since it consists of the graphics card and the quick guide. All ports and connectors are protected with plastic plugs to prevent breakage.

Exterior design

The Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G is one of the two models that Gigabyte is going to launch on the market. By now everyone should know that the 5500 XT has been presented in two versions, one 4GB and one 8GB. It is the only difference between the two, since even its OC frequency is the same in both models, so we should automatically opt for the one with the highest capacity, which we will appreciate when it comes to graphics loading. Today 4GB seems little to us for what the games demand.

The model that we analyze today is the 8GB, which is signed by Gigabyte with all that it entails. A graphics card that does not give up the triple fan configuration, and that in this case is more than justified because it is an AMD GPU. Measurements are virtually the same as other assembler cards under this configuration, i.e. 281mm long, 115mm wide, and 40mm thick.

It is a very slim design in contrast to what other manufacturers offer, almost always with a double fan and widths of about 130 mm to compensate, will this influence the temperature? We will see later. Something that comes in handy for chassis with vertical GPU mounts is its thickness, as the graphics only takes up 2 expansion slots.

In terms of design, the Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G is a card exactly like the other models, whether they are from AMD or Nvidia, high or low range, and the truth is that it is a difficult task to differentiate them at a glance if we do not have the box close. The casing has been made of ABS plastic of good thickness and as always in matt black and light gray details.

Integrated in this case we have the WINDOFRCE 3X triple fan heatsink which is also composed of three finned aluminum blocks that we will later see in their splendor. These three fans have a diameter of 80 mm and alternate rotation mode, so the central fan rotates to the opposite side so that the air flow at the junction of the three is always as efficient as possible.

As in other cases, the 0 dB technology says present, already fully established not only in high-end but also mid-range and input. This means that while the GPU is under load the fans will not activate, being a completely silent set. The fans are all connected to the same head, so they cannot be managed independently.

Now we go to the side areas, where we see a relatively closed card in the area visible to the user, although the sides and rear area are well open to expel the hot air. The “gigabyte” logo has RGB Fusion 2.0 lighting, so we can manage it with the brand's own software.

Now we will turn it around to see that we have a backplate that completely covers the area. It is made of plastic, about 2 mm thick, quite rigid and that only leaves visible the 4 screws that are responsible for attaching the heatsink to the socket. Perhaps a greater opening in this area through gills and holes would be better to dissipate the heat that is generated under the plinth.

In general we have a continuous and identical design to the manufacturer card challenge. We do not say that it is bad, on the contrary, but a greater variety to differentiate them we believe that it would be more attractive to the user.

Ports and connections

We now continue with the connectivity and ports section of the Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G, which also does not offer a great difference compared to the rest of the manufacturer's models. So back we will have:

• 1x HDMI 2.0b3x DisplayPort 1.4

We can say that it is the standardized configuration almost in most brands with custom models, thus offering 4 outputs for monitors in high resolution. In the absence of news regarding the video interface, the HDMI port supports a 4K @ 60 Hz resolution, while DisplayPort will give us a maximum resolution of 8K at 60 FPS, while in 4K we will reach 165 Hz or 4K @ 60 FPS at 30 bit depth. In all cases the card perfectly supports AMD FreeSync 2 HDR for high performance gaming monitors.

The data interface is maintained as PCIe 4.0 x16, being one of the novelties that AMD has already introduced practically in all its new components, including chipset, boards, CPU and GPU with Navi 14. The standard is backward compatible, so it will work perfectly in slots from previous generations.

The rest of the connections used will be two, a 4-pin header for lighting and another 4-pin header for fans. We have already commented that the three fans operate under the same PWM control, so it will not be possible to manage them independently. In programs like WattMan or Afterburner they will be seen as one.

Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G: PCB and internal hardware

To open the Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G all we have to do is remove the 6 screws that connect the heatsink to the backplate. 4 of them will be the ones located in the socket, and another two smaller ones next to it. The process results in loss of product warranty by breaking the screw seal.

WINDFORCE 3X heatsink

This heatsink is made of aluminum, counting on a triple block joined thanks to two bare copper heatpipes that will be responsible for transporting the heat from the graphics processor to all the blocks. All three have a dense finned installed transversely, so that hot air can escape from the sides better.

The central block is the one that is in direct contact with the GPU, used in this case silver thermal paste in good quantity. The peculiar location of the chip at 45 degrees from the substrate makes the corners stay out of the copper, although for this we already have a solid aluminum block that takes care of the rest. In it we will have two silicone thermal pads that make direct contact with the 4 GDDR6 memory chips.

If we go to the right, we find another section with a double aluminum plate with separate thermal pads that will be in charge of cooling the MOSFETS of the 7 feeding phases and the chokes corresponding to each one. If we go to the left, we enter the last block of greater extension to complete the cooling set.

PCB and architecture

We can see that the VRM of this Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G is quite forceful. Despite being a card with a TDP of 130W, the consumption surprised us a little because it was high for a card with these benefits and with RDNA architecture.

The graphics card has Navia 14 architecture and a 7 nm FinFET manufacturing process inside. This new architecture continues to use RDNA, the instruction set developed by AMD that significantly increases the core IPC with lower power consumption. It was the leap the manufacturer had to take to be competitive. The graphics processor is made up of 22 computing units that have a total of 1408 flow processors, the same number as the RX 5500 version.

The main difference between the two is the frequency at which they work, since in the Gigabyte XT model we have a game frequency of 1737 MHz and 1845 MHz in boost mode, being a higher frequency than the normal version with a boost of 1717 MHz. This makes us have a performance of 88 TMUs (texture units) and 32 ROPs (raster units), a capacity of 5.20 TFLOPS in FP32, 10.4 TFLOPS in FP16 and 162.4 GT / s in texture rate. This architecture doesn't use hardware ray tracing yet, and it's something that will arrive with Navi 23 in 2020.

As far as memory is concerned, GDDR6 chips have been used to their maximum capacity with an effective frequency of 14 Gbps. They work on a 128-bit bus at a bandwidth of 224 GB / s, which sets the balance in this regard for AMD compared to Nvidia's 1650 Super. We will see how they behave in overclocking, since AMDs do not offer great performance improvements in this regard. The TDP of this GPU is 130W, so the manufacturer recommends sources with more than 450W since the consumption seems to be high in the absence of the drivers being tuned a bit.

Test bench and performance test

Let's get into what interests us most, which is the performance of this Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G. For them we have used the first tests and games than for the rest of the cards. Our test bench consists of the following components:

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel Core i9-9900K
Base plate:	Asus Maximus XI Formula
Memory:	T-Force Vulkan 3200 MHz
Heatsink	Corsair H100i Platinum SE
HDD	ADATA SU750
Graphic card	Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G
Power supply	Cooler Master V850 Gold

All the synthetic tests and tests have been carried out with the filters as they come in the configuration of each program. The tests consist of tests that run in the three main resolutions, Full HD, 2K and 4K. We have run all of them on the Windows 10 Pro operating system in its fully updated 1909 version and with Adrenalin drivers also in their latest version.

What are we looking for in these tests?

First, the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS the more fluid the game will go. Benchmark scores will help us compare this GPU to the competition. To slightly differentiate the quality, we leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS based on the quantity we get in each game and resolution.

FRAMES PER SECOND
Frames Per Second (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 ~ 40 FPS	Playable
40 ~ 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Really good
Greater than 144 Hz	E-sports level

Benchmarks

For benchmark tests we will use the following programs and tests:

• 3DMark Fire Strike normal3DMark Fire Strike UltraTime SpyVRMARK Orange Room

In synthetic tests we see exactly what AMD promises, a performance superior to its direct competition, although always close to it. It is the situation we expected, although it is true that the differences with the 4 GB version is less than what we expected and what AMD has encrypted in its internal tests. Drivers are surely the main reason for this.

Game testing

We are now going to evaluate the real performance in games, thus having a more palpable proof of what our Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G will be able to deliver under DirectX 12, OpenGL and Vulkan in this case.

The tests will be carried out at the three most used resolutions in gaming, we refer to Full HD (1920 x 1080p), QHD or 2K (2560 x 1440p) and UHD or 4K (3840 x 2160p). In this way, we will have a complete range of results to be able to compare them with other GPUs. For each of the games, we have kept the automatic settings selected in each and for each resolution.

• Final Fantasy XV, standard, TAA, DirectX 11 DOOM, Ultra, TAA, Open GL / Vulkan Deus EX Mankind Divided, Alto, Anisotropico x4, DirectX 12 Far Cry 5, Alto, TAA, DirectX 12 Metro Exodus, Alto, Anisotropico x16, DirectX 12 (without RT) Shadow of the Tomb Rider, High, TAA + Anisotropic x4, DirectX 12

Again we must refer to the Adrenalin controllers and mention that in new updates AMD will refine the operation of these for this graphics card . We see very similar results to the 4GB version, which to some extent is normal when it comes to FPS, but the differences should be a little more bulky. This is evident to see that in the synthetic tests it does comfortably exceed the 1650 Super, something that is not reflected in the games.

Overclocking

As in other cards, we are going to overclock this Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G to see how far we can increase its performance. For this, we have used MSI Afterburner. In this way we have carried out a new test in 3DMark Fire Strike to see the new scores obtained.

3DMark Fire Strike	Stock	@ Overclock
Graphics Score	14237	14701
Physics Score	23838	23603
Combined	12648	13018

The truth is that it is not a too significant increase in performance, and if we transfer it to the games it will translate into just 1 or 2 FPS in 1080p resolution, so it does not have much margin as we could already anticipate. At least it already comes from the factory with an important tightening of nuts , to deliver its maximum performance.

Temperatures and consumption

Finally, we have proceeded to stress the Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G for a few hours while monitoring its temperatures and consumption. For this, we have used as FurMark for stress and HWiNFO to capture results, along with a wattmeter that measures the power of all the complete equipment, except the monitor. With the arrival of winter, the ambient temperature in the room is 24 ° C.

In this model we see a slight improvement in consumption, and despite the fact that we have 8 GB we see results that are closer to its competitors with 233W instead of 252W in the Sapphire model. Still, we are far from those 183W that consume the Nvidia 1650 Super, showing that either the drivers are not too fine-tuned or it is a GPU that consumes a lot more.

Regarding temperatures, we also expected better results under stress, since 88⁰C with a triple fan is not entirely normal. Perhaps a wider heatsink would get a better result, something that in the 4GB version of Sapphire for example was more controlled.

Final words and conclusion about Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G

Well, we finally reached the conclusions about this graphics card and the feelings it has left us. AMD intended to fight you to you with the 1650 Super and it has succeeded, being a card that is comfortable in games at 1080p in high quality and 2K medium / high between 40 and 60 FPS.

You just need to fine-tune the drivers a little more in certain aspects, something that of course AMD is working to improve the version 19.12.2 that we have used. And it is that in some games the boost mode does not perform as it should, and the advantage that we should have with those 8 GB compared to the 4GB version should be a little higher.

And speaking of performance, it is a GPU with the same core as the RX 5500, but with an increase in frequency. We recommend this 8 GB version, since in games where a large depth of field and a high number of filters are required, 4GB seems insufficient to us today.

We recommend reading the best graphics cards on the market

Regarding the design we have no news, being the WINDFORCE 3X heatsink with the same housing that Gigabyte usually mounts. We have experienced somewhat higher temperatures than could be expected for this heatsink, and here there is room for improvement, as well as in consumption, being well above Nvidia cards with similar performance. Surely with a change of thermal paste, temperatures improve.

This Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G can be found in our country for a price of about 255 euros, while the 4GB version of Gigabyte is reduced by about 39 euros. As we have commented, we believe that with the 8GB version we will go a little more than is left for current games and what may come. In view of the fact that Nvidia has lowered the prices of its 1650 Super, this 5500 XT could lose momentum, what would be the right purchase for you?

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ IDEAL FOR FULL HD - HIGH / 2K - MEDIUM	- BETTER TEMPERATURES
+ VERY COMPLETE ADRENALIN SOFTWARE	- A PRICE READJUSTMENT WOULD COME WELL
+ WITH GOOD FACTORY OVERCLOCKING
+ GOOD CONSTRUCTION AND VRM
+ 8GB GDDR6

The Professional Review team awarded him the silver medal:

Gigabyte RX 5500 XT Gaming OC 8G

COMPONENT QUALITY - 81%

DISSIPATION - 77%

GAMING EXPERIENCE - 74%

SOUNDNESS - 82%

PRICE - 78%

78%