Hi! I’m 2kliksphilip.
You might wonder why I’m munching on a Radeon 6500 XT.
I’m doing so because that’s all that was in stock. Sure, the Geforce 3050 is out, it’s better,
but rather than being… £240? it’s more like £400. What a surprise. So that leaves the Radeon 6500 XT
as being the £200 graphics card hero that I prophesised about, all those years ago. But
before you attack me with a PCI-E lane for saying that, please, do attack me with one because I need
it. And then sit back and listen to this video, where I play devil’s advocate and show you a
bunch of low-effort spicy memes that I’ve made. ‘My existence became less about the things that
make up peoples’ lives, and more about the holes that losing those things leave behind’
Time to stop living in denial: PRICE VS PERFORMANCE, the metric we use to review
and to compare cards against one another, is dead. Because it doesn’t matter how fast, or
how good a card looks, if it’s then instantly sold out and then scalped for several times more money.
Which is why the Radeon 6500 XT is the best card in the world, right now. Because it’s
the only one that’s readily available, and anywhere close to its asking price.
And to sweeten the deal, it just happens to be the cheapest one in the first place.
It’s achieved this by being terrible enough to put off everybody off that it isn’t intended for.
4 GB of VRAM will put off a lot of crypto miners. Lack of video encoding makes it useless for
media-streaming PCs. And it puts off reviewers, who are so busy pointing out that it’s a bad deal
that they forget it’s the ONLY deal for the people who need this product. Indeed, the only people who
will want this card will be gamers who desperately need a graphics card of some sort, because they
just want to play games, and this card will at least tide them over until this shortage ends.
But is it praised for this? No. It’s been laughed out of the room! Reviews have SLATED this card for
being bad value for money, when compared with the prices that other cards SHOULD be selling
for but aren’t. It’s pointed out that it’s worse than £200 cards from 5 years ago. Which,
is great news for time travellers, but again, not for the people who NEED a card, right now.
So this video will play devil’s advocate, by arguing that the 6500 XT is the most
valuable graphics card that we’ve seen in years. We need to stop comparing its value
with what we could have got in 2016. Because it isn’t 2016 any more. And we need to stop
unfavourably comparing it against today’s cards which are selling for £300 or more.
Though I will note that IF you have enough money that you don’t mind spending on a
graphics card then there might be something more expensive that’s worth getting instead.
But I think it’s only really fair to compare this £200 product against other £200 alternatives,
which I believe makes the 6500 XT look very good indeed. If you’re looking at other ‘new’ cards,
the 1050 TI is still in stock, which the 6500 XT will crush. The Geforce 1650 costs a bit more,
but delivers almost as much performance as the 6500 XT at PCI-E 3. But slot the 6500 XT
into a PCI-E 4 motherboard and it performs more like a 1650 Super, a card that doesn’t
exist new cos it’s half-decent, but can be found second hand on ebay for closer to £300.
So if you’re looking for alternatives, the 1650 is your best bet new, but to beat the 6500 XT you’ll
have to look to the second hand market On ebay, 8 GB alternatives start at £250, but at £200 you’re
limited to 4 GB models of the Radeon 570 and the Geforce 970. Let’s weigh up the pros and cons.
So the big benefit of a second hand card is that it’s likely to come with video encoding support.
Whereas with the 6500 XT, you’re going to have to rely on your CPU for screen capture and for
video playback. And the other benefit of older cards is more bandwidth. But this only matters if
you’re using these low-end cards wrong. IF you’re using them for 1440p, ULTRA NIGHTMARE settings,
then the 6500 XT will fall behind its rivals. But I have a solution to that: DON’T use this card for
1440p or ultra nightmare settings. Stick to 1080p, medium or high preset, and games will look fine,
run well, and you’ll get more performance out of the 6500 XT than you will a second hand
alternative. Especially on PCI-E 4 motherboards. But even on PCI-E 3, the card still averages out
above a Radeon 570, and in the situations where it doesn’t, maybe don’t use maximum graphics presets?
Lower the settings, doesn’t have to be by much, and let the 6500 XT pull ahead of its
competition again. I fully intend to test my card in this area so I’ll let you know how it gets on.
Ahh… but what about the future? I hear you cry. Will the 6500 XT still be running games
in 5 years time? I don’t know. I think every 4 GB card will be on the ropes by then. But
I’d trust a new card like the 6500 XT more than I would a second-hand card.
Because remember- these older cards are coming up to 5 years old now.
Their driver support may be limited, their warranties have certainly ended,
and they’ll have a fair amount (but unknown!) level of wear and tear to them. There IS risk
to getting these. And of course, you’ll provide your anecdotal reasoning for why it’ll be okay,
but I can tell you my Radeon 470 failed recently. So there’s that.
In addition to this, since the 6500 XT is new, it comes with a number of very real benefits of its
own. It has raytracing support! I mean, it might be rubbish at it, but it is at least still there.
It’s MUCH more power-efficient than the older cards are, and so is more likely to be cooler
and quieter. And of course, it comes with a warranty. I feel like the 6500 XT is a no-brainer
for gaming, especially when compared with older, similarly priced second hand alternatives.
The 6500 XT graphics card is a bit like finding an old tin of food in an apocalypse:
however you look at it, it isn’t good food. Reviews of the food would rate it as being subpar.
But in the absence of there being any other food, and the fact you’re starving… none of that
matters. That tin of food will fill you up and keep you going until something better comes along.
And until that happens, that disgusting old tin of food is suddenly the best thing in the world.
Looking to the future of the graphics card market, there are 3 possibilities.
Either things get worse, in which case the 6500 XT is a great investment.
Or things stay the same, which makes the 6500 XT a good investment.
Or things get better, which makes buying the 6500 XT the cheapest mistake you can make.
The rest of us can sit in our high towers, laughing about how we got a better deal many
years ago, like we somehow saw this coming, and that it’s the poor people without a graphics card
that are the ones deserving our judgement. And these are the people we’re telling not to buy
from scalpers, by the way. So what exactly are they supposed to do? For anybody whose cards have
failed, or those who need a new graphics card to complete their new build, this card is a godsend:
for just £200, this miracle product will transform your PC from being useless, into something that
can literally game! Even in modern titles. And sure, you won’t get 1440p raytracing out of it.
But you’ll be able to play those games! Which I feel every one has forgotten is the important bit.
Think of all that time you’ve wasted, complaining about the graphics card shortage.
All of that time spent weighing up all the other options which come up short for one reason or
another, when you could just use your card to play games until this shortage ends. For all its flaws
and omissions, the 6500 XT might be the first honestly priced card that we’ve had in a while.
It is possible to know the 6500 XT is poor value for money, but to still appreciate it
for being the best of a bad bunch. Nobody’s saying it’s a great deal! But those of you
who are still using the MSRP’s of other cards to demonstrate how bad the 6500 XT actually is… well
you’re missing the point! And you’re falling for the marketing behind those other cards.
ACCEPT that prices have increased. HOPE that they’ll eventually go down again,
but accept the 6500 XT as being the budget card to beat. And the same goes to the reviewers as well.
Not that I blame them; for what else are reviewers supposed to do?
They can’t review a card in a vacuum. They have to compare it with other cards,
and to historical deals and prices. Because that’s what reviews have always done.
But judging the 6500 XT by yesterday’s metrics will inevitably make this card look bad.
And I argue that: while you can’t review the card in a vacuum, you can’t review it in a vacuum. You
HAVE to account for the current situation, and if you do that then the 6500 XT suddenly becomes the
best all-round option for most people. Yes, you might get lucky with a second-hand deal where
you are. No, if you only want to use your PC to stream videos then it isn’t the card for you.
But let’s be honest: for most people, this card serves its intended purpose, and does it best:
it’s affordable, available, and ticks all of the modern essentials required for gaming.
It’s even relatively efficient, and comes with a warranty, to boot.
Reviewers of graphics cards right now are like Michelin-star chefs in an apocalypse,
who face a real dilemma when they discover a tin of food. Do they die, or do they choose to eat
a product that stands against everything they live for? These people are cursed with all this
knowledge that they now find irrelevant, yet are still plagued by memories of when
times used to be better. And you can bet that, while they’ll inevitably choose to consume it,
they’ll be sure to reel off its list of shortcomings first.
I suppose there are still alternatives. There’s game streaming. And of course
there’s always console gaming. But there will never be a true alternative to a full
PC experience. And as somebody who appreciates that, I see the true value of the 6500 XT. As
the cheapest new card available, it is the one that dictates the entry cost for PC gaming.
And it puts it at £200. Don’t hate it for that- blame the rest for being worse.
The 6500XT: a terrible card, with lots of missing features, being sold
at an insulting price. But also the best card there is right now. Eat up or go hungry.