RX 5500 XT vs GTX 1650 SUPER vs RX 580 vs GTX 1660 Comparison

The 1080p gaming graphics cards segment has become more competitive and crowded with the launch of the Radeon RX 5500 XT. The card faces stiff competition from the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, Radeon RX 580, RX 590, and even from the GTX 1660 which is kinda one segment above it. It has now become very difficult to choose between these 1080p gaming cards as all of them deliver almost similar kind of performance and also the pricing of some of these cards is close to each other. RX 5500 XT, GTX 1650 SUPER, and GTX 1660 are newer cards while the RX 580 and RX 590 are older players but still give these newer cards a run for their money and are still a compelling buy. So, if you are confused about which card is best for your gaming and other needs, then here I am going to compare them on the basis of various important parameters, which can help you make the right decision.

RX 5500 XT vs GTX 1650 SUPER vs RX 580 vs GTX 1660

Here is the comparison between these cards based on their specifications, performance, features, power consumption and pricing.

GPU Architecture

Radeon RX 5500 XT is the only card here that is built on the smaller 7nm manufacturing process. It is powered by RDNA GPU architecture and the GPU chip used is the Navi 14. The card comes with 1408 Stream Processors and 22 Compute Units (CU). GTX 1660 and GTX 1650 SUPER are GTX 16 series graphics cards that are built on the Turing GPU architecture on the 12nm manufacturing process and use the TU116 GPU chip. They come with 1408 and 1280 CUDA Cores respectively. The oldest card here is the Radeon RX 580 which is built on the Polaris GPU architecture on a 14nm process and comes with 2304 Stream Processors. RX 580 does contain significantly more stream processors than the RX 5500 XT but due to differences in GPU architecture, they cannot be compared neck and neck in terms of streaming processors numbers only.

Must Read: CUDA Cores vs Stream Processors Difference

Video Memory [VRAM]

Here, Radeon RX 580 offers the highest memory bandwidth, which is 256 GB/s. It is available in both 4GB and 8GB GDDR5 memory variants, having 8 Gbps memory speed and 256-bit interface. Radeon RX 5500 XT is also available in 4GB and 8GB variants but comes with faster GDDR6 memory that runs at 14Gbps and is 192-bit wide. The memory bandwidth offered here is 224 GB/s, which is the second highest here. GTX 1660 and GTX 1650 offer the same memory bandwidth of 192 GB/s but they differ in memory type and size. GTX 1660 comes with 6GB GDDR5 memory that runs at 8 Gbps and is 192-bit wide, and GTX 1650 SUPER comes with a faster 4GB GDDR6 memory that runs at 12Gbps but the memory interface is 128-bit.

Must Read: GDDR5 vs GDDR6 vs HBM2 Memory Comparison

Features

All these graphics cards support the latest APIs that include DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan. Also, all of them support G-Sync / FreeSync  (AMD) which is used to prevent screen tearing in games by dynamically changing the refresh rate of the monitor to the frame rate for a smooth and stutter free gameplay. Here, RX 5500 XT is the only card to support the latest PCIe 4.0 interface (x8), while others support PCIe 3.0 (x16). All of these cards support 4K H264 & H265/HEVC encoding and decoding. GTX 1650 and GTX 1660 SUPER share the same Turing Encoder (NVENC) which is better than the one in the AMD cards and supports HEVC 8K encoding at 30FPS.

Gaming Performance

Here are some gaming benchmarks of these graphics cards in popular AAA games at ultra/high graphics settings at 1080p resolution.

From the above benchmarks, you can clearly notice that the fastest card here is the GTX 1660, which is then closely followed by RX 5500 XT 8GB. The 4GB RX 5500 XT performs similar to the 8GB variant in most of the games and it only lags behind in some AAA games that require more VRAM for even 1080p resolution. RX 580 also matches the RX 5500 XT performance in some games while in others it remains a little behind. The GTX 1650 SUPER performs a bit better than the RX 580 and in some games, it even beats the more expensive RX 5500 XT.

Power Consumption

When it comes to power consumption then GTX 1650 SUPER is clearly the winner, having a maximum power consumption figure of only 100W. However, RX 5500 XT and GTX 1660 are not far behind and have power consumption figures of 130W and 120W respectively. The card that consumes the most power is the older RX 580 which can draw up to 185W of power at full load.

Pricing & Availability

In the pricing department too, GTX 1650 SUPER leads with a base MSRP of $160 only. At the base MSRP of $199, you can get GTX 1660 SUPER and the 8GB variant of RX 5500 XT, while the 4GB RX 5500 XT is priced at $169. The MSRP of the Radeon RX 580 was $229 at the time of launch but now the 8GB model can be had at around the $180 mark. You can check the current prices of these cards from various AIB partners from the links below because custom models with better coolers and extra features do cost more.

Check RX 5500 XT Price on Amazon

Check GTX 1650 SUPER Price on Amazon

Check RX 580 Price on Amazon

Check GTX 1660 Price on Amazon

RX 5500 XT vs GTX 1650 SUPER vs RX 580 vs GTX 1660 Specifications

See also:

• Radeon RX 5500 XT 4GB vs 8GB Comparison & Benchmarks
• RX 6500 XT vs GTX 1650 SUPER vs RX 5500 XT Comparison
• GTX 1650 SUPER vs GTX 1060 vs RX 580 vs GTX 1650 Comparison

Final Thoughts

Quite frankly, it is very hard to pick between these cards because most of them are neck and neck in the performance department, and the major factor that comes into play is the price. There is no doubt that the best value card here is the GTX 1650 SUPER because of its attractive pricing and it does not lose out on a performance by much. It can play almost all the modern-day AAA titles on very high/high settings at 1080p comfortably with 60FPS on average. RX 580 is the oldest card here but can still match the performance of the newer cards and can be had at a pretty good discount. However, the major downside of this card is its relatively higher power consumption which may scare some of the users away.

Radeon RX 5500 XT does not excite much because it is priced much higher than the competition and it does not even beat the GTX 1660, which you can have at a similar price point. The RX 5500 XT would have been a great buy if the 8GB variant was priced at which 4GB costs and 4GB were 30 bucks cheaper than its original price. However, we may expect to see a drop in the prices of RX 5500 XT in the near future as it eventually going to replace the RX 580 and RX 590, but for now, it does not offer much rather than just extra video memory. If you have any queries, then feel free to ask in the comment section below.

Best Value for Money: GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER

Best Performance: GeForce GTX 1660