MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT Gaming X 8G, 8GB GDDR6, HDMI, 3x DP

While AMD's new refresh isn’t any new silicon, the bump in clock speeds especially with our overclocked MSI RX 6650 XT Gaming X was enough to show a big performance improvement when compared to the original RX 6600 XT that we took a look at. That difference was especially noticeable in our game benchmarks where the 6600 XT and the RTX 3060 used to trade blows the 6650 XT is out ahead consistently. This translates to 1080p performance that should handle anything you throw at it and even at 1440p, the 6650 XT didn’t do too bad as long as you are a little careful with settings on the most demanding games. The performance improvement didn’t make much of a difference when we got into the compute tests.

The RX 6650 XT's base design is sound; especially considering what MSI did do to it, is nice. AMD made memory subsystem decisions limited memory bandwidth (128-bit); by including 32MB of L3 cache, AMD has circumvented the majority of that limitation, and the card performs flawlessly up to 1920x1080; however, L3 cache will always be a bypass, a short-cut to a problem that may recur in the future. Due to the severely constrained memory interface, performance will degrade immediately upon the cache drying out. AMD's raytracing technology also may not perform as well as its competitors, it is still useful for "fooling about a bit." We feel that RSR can be a great help for you to gain some additional free performance. But free is never free, and image quality can be a compromise you need to make. It must be said, though, that this is a fun choice to have and explore with. If not for the outrageous price, this would still be an attractive and gorgeous product at the 1920x1080 resolution; nevertheless, the price is simply too much. To be considered, the product's pricing has to be less than $300 USD. I recognize that you may disagree with and could challenge my views. The card overall performs as quickly as or slightly quicker than an RTX 3060 or even faster than the Ti. However the card series is priced similarly to the $399 3060 Ti. For games that support DLSS, the Geforce 3060 Ti is always the obvious winner. To summarize, the Radeon RX 6650 XT series remains a fun gaming card series focused entirely on rasterized shading; at Full HD and even WQHD resolutions, the 32MB L3 cache shines. You may play around with raytracing a little bit to get a glimpse into future gaming quality. However, the high asking price remains a significant red flag, especially when considering product positioning and relative performance. MSI conducted an outstanding job with the Gaming X design and executed it well; you will obtain a device that is quiet, sleek, and fashionable.

Averaged over our test suite at 1080p resolution, we find the Radeon RX 6650 XT 5% faster than the RX 6600 XT—I expected more to be honest. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 is now 13% slower than AMD's offering, but the RTX 3060 Ti is still faster, 10% ahead. AMD's own Radeon RX 6700 XT is 13% faster. Considering there is no "close" fight with other NVIDIA SKUs, the Radeon RX 6650 XT doesn't change the balance of power in this segment. Just like the Radeon RX 6600 XT, the RX 6650 XT is a fantastic choice for all 1080p gamers that still remains affordable. The added horsepower of the RX 6650 XT will give you a few more FPS, which could be useful in reaching 60 FPS at 1440p, but the RX 6650 XT ultimately is a card for Full HD gaming unless you're willing to sacrifice some graphics details.