AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT meta-review: even desperate gamers should think twice

theverge.com:

You’ve heard that PC graphics cards are nearly impossible to find, or that you’ll have to pay exorbitant sums. But if you were hoping the $200 budget AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT was about to change that, we have some very bad news. Reviewers are positively ripping it a new one, and not just because of its cost, or the fact it only has 4GB of VRAM — but apparently because this brand-new GPU is laughably bad.

“[T]his is the worst GPU release since I can remember, and I’ve been doing this job for over two decades,” writes TechSpot’s Steven Walton.

“AMD RX 6500 XT is worse than 2016’s GPUs,” declares Gamers Nexus.

“WTF AMD!?” and “WTF is AMD thinking?,” ask Hardware Canucks and KitGuruTech respectively. “A GPU you might be able to buy… but shouldn’t,” writes Linus Tech Tips. “Worst GPU,” declares Hardware Unboxed.

“Gigabyte’s RX 6500 XT Gaming OC card gives us our first bitter taste of what a ‘budget’ GPU means in 2022,” writes PC Gamer, adding “as a modern graphics card it looks like pretty weak sauce.”

“The year 2022 just started, and this potentially looks to be the most insufficient graphics card series of the year,” concludes Guru3D’s Hilbert Hagedoorn.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a graphics card dragged this hard.

Even relatively respectful outlets offer few compliments, with PCWorld’s Brad Chacos suggesting that AMD may be able to tap “an unserved market” if it can actually hit $199 and calling it “a capable budget option” for medium to high settings at 1080p. Tom’s Hardware thinks $199 is optimistic, though. “At least buying an RX 6500 XT guarantees you’re getting a brand-new card, which can’t be said for the various used GPUs being sold on eBay and other second-hand markets,” writes Jarred Walton, damning with faint