Is the Ryzen 5 5500 good with the RX 6650 XT graphics card? In this article, I will explain how well-stacked this PC build would be if you are planning to build a PC for yourself. The Ryzen 5 5500 and RX 6650 XT are excellent mid-range hardware, and their performances have been benchmarked in many games and applications that have yielded plausible results.
But how efficiently would they work together? I will explore some aspects on both sides of the spectrum to give you a definitive answer. If you want the short answer, you can jump right onto the final section of this article at the end. However, if you want to know the technical details of how well these hardware works together, then you can read the following sections.
But before getting into the details and compatibility of a Ryzen 5 5500 + RX 6650 XT build, let’s look at the processor and the graphics card individually.
AMD Ryzen 5 5500
The Ryzen 5 5500 processor is an excellent budget processor from AMD. It has six cores and twelve threads, and it is based on AMD’s AM3 socket. This processor was released in April 2022 and is the cheapest Ryzen 5000/6 core processor. Although this processor was released recently, its comparative performance was a bit disappointing because its cost cuts are highly apparent when you look at its specifications.
This processor lacks a bit compared to the highly coveted Ryzen 5600 processor. Both processors are based on AMD’s Zen 3 architecture, which is common in AMD’s mid-rangers. However, both of them are very different in performance because of their design. The 5600 is based on AMD’s Vermeer design, and its G version comes with iGPU, while the 5500 is based on the Cezzane APU design, but it doesn’t have an integrated graphics processor, which is very unusual for a Cezzane chip. Because of the removed iGPU from the Ryzen 5500 processor, you are essentially getting only 16MB of L3 cache, which directly impacts the overall performance of this processor. In contrast, the 5600 processors had 32MB of L3 cache.
Anyhow, the subtracted features from the Ryzen 5 5500 processor reduce its price comparatively, and regardless of its respective slower performance, this processor is still a great budget pick for a mid-range and robust PC build.
AMD RX 6650 XT
Released in May 2022, the RX 6650 XT is an improved version of the RX 6600 XT, which was liked by many and gave tough competition to Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and 3060Ti. The RX 6650 XT is an excellent graphics card that justifies its mid-range specifications with its modest price tag.
This GPU is around 10% faster than its predecessor and has been tested by many tech YouTubers, giving more than satisfactory results. It has a very efficient design, and it is based on AMD’s RDNA 2.0 architecture. As a 2022 card, many expected this GPU to be based on something newer and more improved. Still, its only 10% increase in performance with almost identical specifications to the 6600 XT left a sour taste in many mouths.
However, if you plan to buy a new graphics card and upgrade from a GTX 1660 or RX 590, this GPU will be a fine choice. It will fit perfectly for a mid-range build as its 1080p performance is excellent, and it even successfully beat its competition in some titles.
Bottlenecking
What is a bottleneck
Bottlenecking is a common phenomenon that usually occurs in a computer system with a generational gap between the processor and the graphics card. In this scenario, a less-powered component will limit the usage and performance of the other high-powered component. If the processor is not powerful enough relative to the GPU it is working with; the processor will cause the graphics card performance to bottleneck.
For example, let’s suppose you are playing a game on your PC that is very graphic intensive and should use all the assets of the graphics card, meaning that your graphics card usage should be near 100% or at least 90%. But when you check the performance metrics of your PC, you see that your processor is being utilized a lot more than your graphics card, although the game you are playing is very graphic intensive. This means that the graphics card is not being fully utilized, and your processor isn’t powerful enough to keep up with the processing load of the graphics card, and this causes the graphics card not fully to work at its upper limit.
Bottlenecking is a swear issue and cannot be hot-fixed with a software update or driver. It is a hardware-based problem, and computer components like the processor and graphics card should always be checked beforehand for bottlenecking.
You can use online bottleneck calculators to check whether your processor and graphics card will bottleneck. These calculators are not highly accurate but are an excellent way of discovering the potential bottleneck percentage your computer might be susceptible to.
Ryzen 5 5500 and RX 6650 XT bottleneck
To test the bottlenecking percentage of a Ryzen 5 5500 and 6650 XT build, we tested the PC build with games and online calculators. The results were a bit undecisive, but we put this build through enough tests to get a definitive result.
If you check the bottlenecking of the Ryzen 5 5500 + RX 6650 XT build, you will get a bottlenecking percentage of around 19%, which is bad, bad enough to render the system unsuitable for heavier workloads. The critical thing to remember here is that a bottleneck percentage of more than 5% is considered bad, which means that the processor isn’t compatible with the graphics card enough to utilize the full power of the graphics card, even for graphic-intensive applications.
However, when we tested this system on several games and applications like Photoshop, the results were much different than what the online calculators showed.
Performance
The Ryzen 5 5500 and RX 6650 XT system performs surprisingly well for some of the most demanding games, as well as moderate creative tasking. We tested around ten games on this system to get a precise result of its potential, and it performed pretty well in those games. These games were tested at Full HD or 1080p resolution while their graphics settings were set at the highest possible in-game options. The results are as follows.
- God of War = 107 Fps on Average
- Red Dead Redemption 2 = 94 Fps on Average
- AC Valhalla = 102 Fps on Average
- RE Village = 167 Fps on Average
- Control = 85 Fps on Average
- Days Gone = 90 Fps on Average
- Horizon Zero Dawn = 107 Fps on Average
- Hitman 3 = 121 Fps on Average
Note that during the testing of all of these games, it was observed that the GPU utilization was at its maximum peak, and this trend followed through all of these games. So, in our opinion, if you stick to 1080p gaming, even at the highest graphics, the Ryzen 5 5500 and RX 6650 XT will work efficiently to display consistent framerates throughout many titles.
Moreover, in some scenarios, when its performance is compared to its peers and direct competitors, the graphics card and processor have shown optimum performance, if not better.
Final Verdict
So, is the Ryzen 5 5500 CPU good with the RX 6650 XT GPU? Yes, it is.
The online bottleneck calculators, like the one we mentioned, are not considered very accurate. They should only be used to get an idea of whether your desired computer parts will bottleneck or not. Moreover, some of these calculators are just there for monetization of that website because they get traffic from people who are new to the PC-building world. These calculator websites get traffic, and in some cases, they heedfully show bad results for some products to promote other products for which they use affiliate links and get a shared percentage of commissions upon their purchase.
As you can see, in our tests, the bottleneck from the bottleneck calculators showed around 19-20% rating, which is terrible for any computer system. As a general rule of thumb, remember that an actual bottleneck of more than 5% is considered bad. It shows that the processor and graphics card are not meant for each other because there is a significant difference in their individual performances. But when we tested the system for ourselves, it showed that its gaming performance is decent and the processor and graphics card do actually go well enough with others to deliver a suitable gaming and creative performance.
Lastly, my suggestion is that if you can go with another processor that is a bit more powerful than the Ryzen 5 5500, then you should go with that one. Processors like the Ryzen 5 5600X or the Ryzen 5 7600X, if you can bear pouring some more money to buy a marginally better processor. If you have already bought a Ryzen 5 5500 or are stuck with buying this one due to budget constraints, it will probably be a fine pick.
