Radeon RX 8500 XT will be the graphics card economic middle class a new generation that will replace the Radeon RX 6500 XT, because as many of our readers know, AMD did not launch the Radeon RX 7500 XT. The lowest model we can find in the current generation is the Radeon RX 7600, which directly competes with the GeForce RTX 4060.

So this model will be based on the Radeon RX 8000 series and It will be the cheapest model which we can buy within the mentioned generation. Its direct rival should be NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5050, the graphics card that will replace the GeForce RTX 4050, although, as many of our readers know, it did not have a desktop version and was only available in notebooks.

Although there is still very little information, I will share a number with you Radeon RX 8500 XT estimates and predictions which generally makes a lot of sense and is very believable. However, keep in mind that nothing is confirmed yet, and therefore everything that we will see in this article could not be fulfilled, or could be fulfilled but with some important changes.

Radeon RX 8500 XT: a look at its possible specifications

Let’s start with the most important, key specifications that this graphics card could have. Until now, we’ve seen conflicting rumors pointing to two very different configurations. The first stream of rumors said that the Radeon RX 8500 XT would be small evolution of Radeon RX 6500 XT, and that it will have the same shader configuration as this one, i.e. 1024.

The second stream makes more sense and has a goal more pronounced evolution. It is important to remember that we are talking about a jump of two generations, so it would be logical that the Radeon RX 8500 Based on this consideration, I can share with you an estimate with the possible specifications of this graphics card.

• Navi 44 graphics core made on TSMC’s 4nm node.
• Two 16MB L3 cache chiplets, each built on TSMC’s 6nm node.
• 28 computing units.
• 1,792 shaders at speeds up to 3 GHz.
• 112 texturing units.
• 64 raster units.
• 28 third-generation cores to accelerate ray tracing.
• 56 second generation cores for AI.
• 128-bit bus.
• 8 GB of GDDR6 memory at 20 Gbps (320 GB/s bandwidth).
• 2 MB L2 cache.
• 32 MB L3 cache externally on two chips.

If we compare it with Radeon RX 6500 Radeon RX 6500 XT has 1024 shaders and Radeon RX 8500 XT could have 1,792 shaders, so the difference in performance in favor of the other would be considerable.

The latter would of course also have more texturing units, more rasterization units, more AI and ray tracing cores, more bandwidth and a larger L3 cache, so the performance difference favors the Radeon RX 8500 XT it would be much bigger than we thought if we only consider the increase in the number of shaders.

The RDNA 4 architecture will also be seen with an increase in performance and improving energy efficiency, at least in theory. What I mean by that is that this new graphics card will have a higher power per watt value, although it might end up using a bit more power than the Radeon RX 6500 XT. I think the TBP of that Radeon RX 8500 120 watts, approx.

A look at the architectural level: what we can expect from RDNA 4 applied to the Radeon RX 8500 XT

This new AMD architecture appears as minor update versus RDNA 3, at least that’s the direction the latest rumors and information are going. However, this does not mean that we will not see interesting changes.

The Navi 44 graphics core will theoretically be manufactured on TSMC’s 4nm node, which represents an important development compared to the 7nm node which AMD used in the Radeon RX 6500 XT. This will already allow improvements in energy efficiency, and changes at the architectural level will also improve shader performance at the same operating frequency. By that I mean that an RDNA 4 shader will perform better than another RDNA 3 at the same clock speed.

We can also expect the rollout 2nd generation AI cores and 3rd generation ray tracing acceleration cores. These two changes will allow better performance in these types of tasks. AMD may use this progress to introduce new technologies associated with both types of cores, but it is still too early for that.

The use of GDDR7 memory will be one of the big pillars of the Radeon RX 8000 series, although some voices continue to say that AMD will decide to use GDDR6 memory again. It’s not confirmed, but it’s information we can’t rule out either. In case of Radeon RX 8500 AMD will use GDDR6 memory.

Possible Radeon RX 8500 XT performance

Let’s imagine for a moment that the specifications I have given you in this article are confirmed as they are. If that happens, the Radeon RX 8500 XT will have the performance 21.50 TFLOPs in FP32a figure that would put it almost on par with the Radeon RX 7600 in terms of raw performance, as it clocks in at 21.75 TFLOPs in FP32.

It is important that you keep in mind that such high values ​​in FP32 are possible because the shaders of the Radeon RX 7000 and the future Radeon RX 8000, They have dual emissions, which means they can work with two Wave32 instructions at the same time. I must also remind you that raw performance in FP32 is not directly equivalent to gaming performance, and that it may be better or worse than the given value would a priori suggest.

Radeon RX 8500 XT, which we will outline in this article could compete with GeForce RTX 5050 and GeForce RTX 4060, that’s clear, and given its specs, it would be optimized to perform at its best in 1080p games. That would be the ideal level for this graphics card to run at, and its performance at that level should be pretty good.

8 GB of graphics memory at this level (economic middle class) would be perfectly acceptable for the duration of the sale price. With this amount of graphics memory, it is possible to play anything at 1080p resolution without any problems, although in very specific cases of poorly optimized games, it may be necessary to make a small adjustment to the quality of the textures so that the consumption of graphics memory does not exceed the maximum available.

What power supply and processor will this graphics card need?

It will not be a very powerful model and it will not have high consumption, so we will not need a powerful processor or a high-wattage source. If 120W TBP is confirmed a 400W power supply We could now move the Radeon RX 8500 XT without any problems.

For most configurations, a power supply with this performance level will be more than sufficient, as it is most common for this graphics card to accompany economy configurations that They usually do not have very powerful processors or high consumption. But keep in mind what I always tell you, if for any reason you are going to use a very high power processor to accompany this type of graphics card, you will need a more powerful power supply.

To give an example, a PC equipped with a Radeon RX 8500 XT, 16 GB DDR4 in two modules, an NVMe SSD, six fans and a Ryzen 5 3600 processor should average consumption 320 watts. However, if we use an Intel Core i5-13600K, the consumption shoots up to 423 watts, and in this case we would need a 500 watt power supply.

As for the recommended processor to power the Radeon RX 8500 XT, the minimum level would be Intel Core i7-8700 or Ryzen 5 3600. We could also use the Ryzen 5 5500, but this chip is limited to PCIe Gen3, and this may affect the performance of the graphics card if AMD releases this new model limited to PCIe Gen4 x4.

The rest of the ideal components for a build with this graphics card, if our goal is to play, should also include 16 GB of RAMexcept a PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe SSDas both have been standardized as the minimum recommended for moving current games with guarantees and without having to suffer from stalls or long loading times.

Possible price and release date

There are two big options when it comes to the launch of the Radeon RX 8500 XT. The first is that this graphics card will arrive at the same time as the other models of this new generation, which would place it in the first quarter of 2025. The other option is that it comes later, which I think makes more sense given the current market situation, and that would move its launch to end of 2025.

Regarding the price, I think the Radeon RX 8500 XT will be placed between 200 and 229 euros. This level is the most sensible and reasonable to not step on the Radeon RX 8600 XT, and could make it a very interesting option for those who need to upgrade their graphics card but are on a tight budget.

Before I finish, I want to mention that it is also possible that AMD will decide to launch the Radeon RX 8500 XT under a different name. It might happen eventually Radeon RX 8600 and that it appears as an economical alternative to the Radeon RX 8600 XT. Also remember those prizes I gave you would be those that would have reference modelswhich are the most economical.

AI generated images.