AMD formally announced the Radeon RX 5500 last month, but did not mention pricing or a release date. However, German media Heise reportedly got its hands on an OEM version of the component and posted early benchmark results of AMD's upcoming mid-range graphics card.
The graphics card Heise reviewed came from inside a HP Pavilion Desktop (TP01-0004ng) PC that Heise requested for review. PC Partner reportedly produced Heise's Radeon RX 5500 graphics card. The name probably won't sound familiar to you, but the PC Partner's Zotac, Inno3D and Manli brands should. AMD's Radeon RX 5500 will be available with up to 8GB of GDDR6 memory, but the publication's sample came packing 4GB and adheres to AMD's reference specifications for the graphics card.
The Radeon RX 5500 in question features a compact dual-slot design, plus a simple black plastic shroud and a single cooling fan. For an OEM product, it doesn't look that bad. However, we expect AMD's partners to dazzle us with more elaborate designs when custom third-party cards arrive.
Heise noted that while the RX 5500 supports the PCIe 4.0 interface, the graphics card it testedcan only exploit eight of the 16 PCIe lanes. The RX 5500 is rated with a 150W TBP (typical board power), and, therefore, requires a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. The graphics card provides two DisplayPort outputs and one HDMI port for connecting displays.
AMD Radeon RX 5500 (OEM) Benchmark Results
Heise paired the RX 5500 with the Intel Core i7-8700K CPU, 32GB of RAM and an undisclosed motherboard. The publication ran the gaming benchmarks at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with each game's built-in benchmark.
The GPU was compared against the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 and Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC 6G.
| Model | 3DMark Fire Strike | Shadow of the Tomb Raider | Far Cry 5 | GPU Idle | GPU Load |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Radeon RX 5500 (OEM) | 12,111 | 59 fps | 72 fps | 7W | 133W |
| Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 | 12,744 | 65 fps | 75 fps | 12W | 207W |
| Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC 6G | 12,525 | 69 fps | 85 fps | 10W | 128W |
The Radeon RX 5500 fell behind the RX 580 and GTX 1660 in Fire Strike by 5.2% and 3.4%, respectively.
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When it came to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the RX 5500 pumped out 10.2% lower framerates than the Radeon RX 580. In comparison to its Nvidia rival, the RX 5500 was up to 16.9% slower.
In Far Cry 5, the RX 5500 delivered 4.2% and 18.1% lower performance than the RX 580 and GTX 1660, respectively.
In regards to power consumption, the RX 5500 consumed 74W less than the RX 580 at full load. This is a significant improvement, as AMD graphics cards have been mocked in the past for running too hot. However, it seems like the RX 5500 still drew a bit more power than the GTX 1660 while also being fairly slower.
If Heise's results are realistic to how the card will actually perform upon release, AMD will have a worthy replacement for the RX 580 in the RX 5500. However, the RX 5500 doesn't seem ready to conquer the GTX 1660. Of course, these are early benchmarks; stay tuned for a full review from Tom's Hardware for a deep look at the card's true potential.
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.