Unreleased AMD RX 6500 surfaces: a 2022-era budget chip for our 2025 GPU woes

Chinese graphics card manufacturer Zephyr (via 孤城Hardware) has launched the Radeon RX 6500, a never-before-seen graphics card from AMD. While the Radeon RX 6500 is unlikely to beat any of the best graphics cards today, the Navi 24-powered graphics card might be a good solution for some budget gamers.

The Radeon RX 6500 graphics card is currently absent from Zephyr's website. Identifying it as part of Zephyr's lineup relies solely on the logos present on the cooling fans. This Radeon RX 6500 ITX version isn't the only offering from Zephyr, as the manufacturer has listed the Radeon RX 6500LP, which features a low-profile, single-slot design utilizing a blower-type cooling system.

Surprisingly, the Radeon RX 6500 uses the same Navi 24 (codename Beige Goby) silicon as the 2022-era Radeon RX 6500 XT. It's the same full die with 1,024 Streaming Processors (SPs), 33% more SPs than the Radeon RX 6400. Performance-wise, the Radeon RX 6500 should be faster than the RX 6400 but still lags behind the Radeon RX 6500 XT due to substantial clock speed reductions to keep the TDP below 100W.

AMD Radeon RX 6500 Specifications

The clock speeds for the Radeon RX 6500 ITX version are unknown, but Zephyr listed the Radeon RX 6500LP with a 1,728 MHz base clock and 2,066 MHz boost clock. We expect the ITX SKU to feature similar clock speeds since it has the same 55W TDP as the blower SKU. As a result, the Radeon RX 6500 has a 25% lower base clock and 27% lower boost clock than the Radeon RX 6500 XT.

While the Radeon RX 6500's core specifications resemble the Radeon RX 6500 XT, the memory subsystem is from the Radeon RX 6400. It has the identical 4GB of GDDR6 memory operating at 16 Gbps across a 64-bit memory interface. The configuration results in a memory bandwidth up to 128 GB/s, 11% below the Radeon RX 6500 XT.

Mixing and matching the core and memory specifications allows Zephyr to keep the Radeon RX 6500's TDP at 55W. This is only 4% higher than the Radeon RX 6400, but a whopping 49% lower than the Radeon RX 6500 XT. The 55W TDP means the Radeon RX 6500 doesn't require any external PCIe power connectors. In addition to the dual-slot ITX design that's only 6.7 inches (171mm) long, the Radeon RX 6500 is an excellent fit for SFF builds or prebuilt upgrades.

Zephyr compares the Radeon RX 6500 to the Radeon RX 580, a long-time favorite for budget gamers. Regarding raw performance, the Radeon RX 6500 XT is generally slower than the aging Radeon RX 580, and the Radeon RX 6500 will not change that. The Radeon RX 580 has more memory, too, which can benefit modern gamers.

However, it remains to be seen how significant the performance margin is between the Radeon RX 6500 XT and the Radeon RX 6500, since the latter is an underclocked and power limited variant of the same GPU. In its defense, the Radeon RX 6500 has more up-to-date hardware than a Radeon RX 580, thus providing access to AMD's newer gaming features. The Navi 24 graphics card also consumes less power and runs cooler than a Radeon RX 580.

At the time of writing, we haven't seen any listings for the Radeon RX 6500. But for reference, a new Radeon RX 6500 XT starts at $149, so common sense tells us that should be the ceiling for a Radeon RX 6500. It might be a bit of a surprise, but the Radeon RX 580 is still available for just $139. That's not too shabby (in terms of holding its value) for a graphics card that's been around for eight years and originally launched at $229. The going rate for a used RX 580 on eBay meanwhile is just $64.

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