Review: Sapphire Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse

Conclusion

Radeon RX 5500 XT is a safe next step for AMD's up-and-coming range of Navi GPUs.

Targeting the mainstream end of the market, the whittled-down 158mm² chip sets its sights on high-quality gaming at an ubiquitous 1080p resolution. 1,408 RDNA shaders meet the brief, and with a choice of either 4GB or 8GB memory configurations, there's an element of future proofing in the most demanding of titles.

In-game performance generally matches or beats the rival GTX 1650 Super in most scenarios, yet the GeForce maintains an edge in terms of both efficiency and pricing, and it will be interesting to see how prices for custom cards settle in the weeks ahead.

Proving that GPUs at this end of the market can benefit from a little extra care and attention, Sapphire's Pulse models offer stellar build quality, good cooling performance, a full-size aluminium backplate, and large 95mm fans that are wonderfully quiet at all times. Best-in-class noise levels do enough to justify a small additional premium, however the 8GB model, at £200, is easily outgunned by Nvidia's well-positioned GeForce GTX 1660 Super.

Bottom line: there's now healthy competition in the mainstream segment, and gamers willing to spend a little more in favour of Sapphire build quality ought to have the 4GB Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse on their shortlist.

Sapphire Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse 4GB

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The Sapphire Radeon RX 5500 XT Pulse graphics card is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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