AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT vs AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The recorded benchmark split is decisively one-sided: the AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT takes 9 of the 10 head-to-head tests, while the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT wins only a single test. That lone victory, however, is significant in a specific API context. The RX 5500 XT leads in Geekbench Vulkan, scoring 44,191 against the RX 7600M XT's 27,793, a 59% advantage. This suggests the older RDNA 1.0 architecture retains a distinct edge in Vulkan workloads, which often favor certain driver paths or shader compilation strategies.

Everywhere else, the RX 7600M XT dominates. The largest gaps appear in DirectX 11 and 3DMark Steel Nomad. In Passmark DirectX 11, the RX 7600M XT scores 137 versus 56, a 59.1% advantage. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 2,048 versus 1,032, a 49.6% lead. These are not marginal differences; they represent a generational leap in raw throughput for modern graphics APIs.

The use-case split is clear. For gamers or compute users targeting DirectX 10, 11, 12, or 9, plus OpenCL and general 3D performance, the RX 7600M XT is the superior part. For developers or users running Vulkan-specific applications, the RX 5500 XT holds an unexpected but measurable advantage. The RX 7600M XT also wins in Passmark G2D (894 vs 774) and GPU Compute (7,140 vs 4,446), indicating better 2D desktop acceleration and general-purpose compute performance despite being a mobile-oriented chip.

In terms of overall standing, the database places the RX 5500 XT in the 57th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 7600M XT sits in the 52nd percentile. This is counterintuitive given the benchmark results, but the percentile reflects the full database distribution, including mobile and desktop parts of varying ages. The RX 5500 XT's average benchmark score is 14,692, while the RX 7600M XT's is 12,710, a difference driven by the Vulkan outlier and the inclusion of different test suites in each card's average.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT wins decisively, scoring 2,048 versus the RX 5500 XT's 1,032, a 49.6% advantage. This is the largest performance gap in any modern API test recorded.

Q: Does the RX 5500 XT win any benchmark at all?

A: Yes, it wins exactly one test: Geekbench Vulkan, where it scores 44,191 against the RX 7600M XT's 27,793, a 59% lead. This is the only head-to-head test where the older card comes out ahead.

Q: How do the two cards compare in DirectX 11 performance?

A: The RX 7600M XT is far ahead in Passmark DirectX 11, scoring 137 versus 56, a 59.1% difference. This is the largest percentage win for the RX 7600M XT in any test.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The RX 5500 XT has 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The RX 7600M XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 on the same 128-bit bus but with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth, giving it 64 GB/s more memory throughput.

Q: Which card has better compute performance?

A: The RX 7600M XT leads in Passmark GPU Compute, scoring 7,140 versus 4,446, a 37.7% advantage. It also leads in Geekbench OpenCL, scoring 74,869 versus 46,965, a 37.3% gap.

Q: Are both cards based on the same architecture?

A: No. The RX 5500 XT uses RDNA 1.0 on a 7 nm process, while the RX 7600M XT uses RDNA 3.0 on a 6 nm process. This architectural difference explains much of the performance disparity.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data reveals a clear pattern: the RX 7600M XT wins in raw compute and modern API tests, while the RX 5500 XT holds a narrow but decisive Vulkan advantage. Let's walk through the biggest wins each way.

The RX 7600M XT's largest victory comes in Passmark DirectX 11, where it scores 137 versus 56, a 59.1% gap. This test is particularly relevant for older games and applications that rely on DirectX 11, where the newer architecture's improved shader throughput and higher texture rate (316.0 GTexel/s vs 162.4 GTexel/s) show clearly. The second-largest win is in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, with a 49.6% lead (2,048 vs 1,032), indicating that the RX 7600M XT also handles modern DX12 workloads substantially better.

In Passmark DirectX 10, the RX 7600M XT scores 76 versus 46, a 39.5% advantage. DirectX 9 shows a smaller but still significant 24% lead (175 vs 133). Passmark G3D, which aggregates general 3D performance, gives the RX 7600M XT a 34.7% edge (13,907 vs 9,083). Compute workloads follow the same trend: Passmark GPU Compute shows a 37.7% lead (7,140 vs 4,446), and Geekbench OpenCL shows a 37.3% lead (74,869 vs 46,965).

The only test where the RX 5500 XT wins is Geekbench Vulkan, and the margin is striking: 44,191 versus 27,793, a 59% advantage. This is the single largest percentage difference in either direction across all 10 tests. It suggests that the RDNA 1.0 architecture's Vulkan driver implementation is exceptionally well optimized, or that the RX 7600M XT's Vulkan path suffers from some inefficiency in this specific benchmark.

The remaining tests show moderate wins for the RX 7600M XT: Passmark DirectX 12 (58 vs 40, a 31% lead) and Passmark G2D (894 vs 774, a 13.4% lead). The DirectX 12 gap is smaller than the DirectX 11 gap, which may reflect the RX 7600M XT's DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set not being fully utilized in this particular test. The G2D result is the closest contest, indicating that 2D desktop acceleration is only modestly better on the newer card.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification, reflecting their generational gap. The RX 5500 XT is a desktop card from the Radeon RX 5000 series, released in December 2019, while the RX 7600M XT is a mobile part from the Radeon RX 7000 series, released in January 2023.

Clock speeds show a mixed picture. The RX 5500 XT has a higher base clock (1607 MHz vs 1280 MHz) but a lower boost clock (1845 MHz vs 2469 MHz). The game clock, which represents typical sustained performance, is also lower on the RX 5500 XT at 1717 MHz versus 2023 MHz. Memory clocks differ significantly: the RX 5500 XT runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), while the RX 7600M XT runs at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective).

Memory capacity is a major differentiator: 4 GB versus 8 GB. Both use GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, but the RX 7600M XT has higher bandwidth at 288.0 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s. The compute unit layout also differs: the RX 5500 XT has 1,408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, while the RX 7600M XT has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RX 7600M XT also has 32 ray tracing cores, while the RX 5500 XT has none.

Pixel and texture rates reflect the hardware differences: the RX 7600M XT achieves 158.0 GPixel/s versus 59.04 GPixel/s, and 316.0 GTexel/s versus 162.4 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance is dramatically higher on the RX 7600M XT: 20.23 TFLOPS FP32 versus 5.196 TFLOPS, and 40.45 TFLOPS FP16 versus 10.39 TFLOPS.

Power and physical specifications also diverge. The RX 5500 XT has a 130 W TDP, is dual-slot, requires a single 8-pin power connector, and suggests a 300 W power supply. The RX 7600M XT has a 120 W TDP, is an integrated graphics package (IGP) with no power connectors, and has no suggested PSU. The RX 5500 XT uses PCIe 4.0 x8, while the RX 7600M XT uses PCIe 4.0 x16. Display outputs differ: the RX 5500 XT offers 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the RX 7600M XT's outputs are portable device dependent. The RX 5500 XT is 180 mm long, while the RX 7600M XT has no listed dimensions.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap is substantial. The RX 5500 XT uses the Navi 14 chip built on RDNA 1.0, manufactured by TSMC on a 7 nm process. The RX 7600M XT uses the Navi 33 chip (codename "Hotpink Bonefish") built on RDNA 3.0, also by TSMC but on a 6 nm process. This node shrink, combined with architectural improvements, explains much of the performance difference.

Transistor counts tell the story: the RX 5500 XT packs 6,400 million transistors on a 158 mm² die, giving a density of 40.5 million transistors per mm². The RX 7600M XT has 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die, a density of 65.2 million per mm². The newer chip has more than double the transistor count and a 46 mm² larger die, allowing for significantly more compute resources.

The architectural generation difference is also visible in API support. The RX 5500 XT supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RX 7600M XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like mesh shaders and variable rate shading. Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 7600M XT's RDNA 3.0 architecture introduces ray tracing cores (32 of them), a feature entirely absent from the RX 5500 XT.

The memory subsystem reflects the architectural leap. Both use 128-bit buses, but the RX 7600M XT achieves 288.0 GB/s versus 224.0 GB/s due to faster memory clocks. The RX 7600M XT also doubles the L2 cache architecture relative to the older part, although specific cache sizes are not recorded in the database.

The production status differs: the RX 5500 XT is end-of-life, while the RX 7600M XT is active. The predecessor and successor chains also differ: the RX 5500 XT's predecessor is Vega and its successor is Navi II, while the RX 7600M XT's predecessor is Polaris Mobile with no successor listed. The launch MSRP for the RX 5500 XT was 169 USD; no launch MSRP is recorded for the RX 7600M XT.

In summary, the RX 7600M XT represents a full architectural generation leap, with more transistors, higher clocks, more compute units, ray tracing support, and double the memory capacity. The RX 5500 XT's only architectural advantage appears to be its Vulkan performance, which likely stems from driver maturity or specific scheduling behavior in RDNA 1.0 rather than raw hardware capability.