AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT vs AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT Comparison

The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT and AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT are both RDNA 2.0 mobile parts from the Navi Mobile generation, yet they occupy distinctly different performance tiers. The data shows the RX 6850M XT holds a decisive overall advantage, with an average benchmark score of 78,940 compared to 76,904 for the RX 6650M XT. This places the RX 6850M XT in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 6650M XT sits just behind in the 91st percentile, making the performance gap between them modest in percentile terms but significant in raw compute workloads.

The Verdict

The RX 6850M XT is the clear choice for users who prioritize maximum compute throughput and memory bandwidth in a mobile platform. Its average benchmark score of 78,940 puts it 2.6% ahead of the RX 6650M XT’s 76,904, a margin that is consistent across the one shared benchmark where both were tested. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 6850M XT scored 85,040 against 76,904 for the RX 6650M XT, a 10.6% advantage that reflects its larger chip and higher clock speeds. For workloads that scale with shading units, texture fill, and memory bandwidth, the RX 6850M XT is the superior part.

The RX 6650M XT, however, is not without merit. It delivers 9.896 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 256.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which are respectable figures for a 120 W mobile GPU. Its percentile ranking of 91st places it within striking distance of the RX 6850M XT’s 92nd, and its nearest rival deltaPct values show it trailing the RX 6850M XT by only 2.6%. This suggests that for users who do not require the absolute peak of mobile performance, the RX 6650M XT offers a slightly lower but still competitive performance envelope, particularly in thermally constrained chassis where its lower TDP may be an advantage.

The verdict is straightforward: the RX 6850M XT is the pick for maximum performance, while the RX 6650M XT is the pick for those who need a smaller, less power-hungry chip that still ranks in the top 10% of all GPUs. Neither part is a slouch, but the data consistently favors the RX 6850M XT.

Where Each One Wins

The head-to-head benchmark data shows a single win for the RX 6850M XT in Geekbench OpenCL, with a score of 85,040 against 76,904, a 10.6% margin. This is the only direct comparison available, and it demonstrates a clear victory for the larger Navi 22 chip. The RX 6650M XT has zero wins in the head-to-head tests, meaning there is no benchmark in the dataset where it outperforms the RX 6850M XT.

Looking at the broader benchmark suite, the RX 6850M XT also scores 128,981 in Geekbench Metal and 99,483 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the RX 6650M XT has no recorded scores for these tests. The RX 6850M XT additionally posts a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,257, a test absent from the RX 6650M XT’s results. This asymmetry in available data means the RX 6850M XT’s strengths are more thoroughly documented, but the one shared test still shows it ahead.

In terms of architectural capability, the RX 6850M XT wins on raw specifications: 2,560 shading units versus 2,048, 160 TMUs versus 128, and 40 ray accelerators versus 32. Its memory subsystem is also superior, with 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus delivering 432.0 GB/s, compared to 8 GB on a 128-bit bus at 256.0 GB/s. These differences translate directly to the 10.6% OpenCL lead and suggest the RX 6850M XT will also win in memory-bandwidth-bound scenarios, though no direct benchmark confirms this.

The RX 6650M XT’s only potential advantage lies in its lower TDP of 120 W versus 165 W, which could allow it to sustain clocks in thinner laptops, but no benchmark data supports this claim. The data shows no test where the RX 6650M XT wins.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs are built on TSMC’s 7 nm process and use the RDNA 2.0 architecture, but they employ different dies. The RX 6850M XT uses the Navi 22 chip with 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die, while the RX 6650M XT uses the Navi 23 chip with 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die. This results in a transistor density of 51.3M per mm² for the RX 6850M XT versus 46.7M per mm² for the RX 6650M XT, indicating a denser implementation on the larger chip.

The compute configuration differs substantially. The RX 6850M XT has 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, while the RX 6650M XT has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and also 64 ROPs. Both have 64 ROPs, but the RX 6850M XT’s higher pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s versus 154.6 GPixel/s reflects its higher clock speeds. The texture rate difference is more pronounced: 413.0 GTexel/s for the RX 6850M XT versus 309.2 GTexel/s for the RX 6650M XT.

Ray tracing hardware also differs, with the RX 6850M XT featuring 40 ray accelerators versus 32 on the RX 6650M XT. Neither GPU has tensor cores, so AI-accelerated workloads are not a differentiator. The FP32 compute output is 13.21 TFLOPS for the RX 6850M XT and 9.896 TFLOPS for the RX 6650M XT, a 33.5% difference that is larger than the shading unit count difference alone would suggest, due to higher clocks.

Clock speeds favor the RX 6850M XT across the board: base 2,321 MHz versus 2,068 MHz, boost 2,581 MHz versus 2,416 MHz, and game clock 2,463 MHz versus 2,162 MHz. Memory clocks are also higher at 2,250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) versus 2,000 MHz (16 Gbps effective). Both support PCIe 4.0, but the RX 6850M XT uses x16 while the RX 6650M XT uses x8, a difference that could matter for external GPU enclosures but is less relevant for integrated mobile designs.

Both are IGP parts with no power connectors and portable-device-dependent display outputs, and both support DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The RX 6850M XT’s TDP is 165 W versus 120 W for the RX 6650M XT, a 45 W difference that reflects the larger die and higher clocks.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RX 6850M XT than the RX 6650M XT in the only shared benchmark?

A: In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 6850M XT scored 85,040 against 76,904 for the RX 6650M XT, a 10.6% advantage.

Q: What is the average benchmark score difference between the two GPUs?

A: The RX 6850M XT has an average benchmark score of 78,940, while the RX 6650M XT scores 76,904, putting the RX 6850M XT 2.6% ahead.

Q: How do their memory subsystems compare?

A: The RX 6850M XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 432.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 6650M XT has 8 GB on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has more ray tracing hardware?

A: The RX 6850M XT features 40 ray accelerators, compared to 32 on the RX 6650M XT.

Q: Are both GPUs based on the same architecture?

A: Yes, both use RDNA 2.0 on TSMC’s 7 nm process, but the RX 6850M XT uses the Navi 22 chip and the RX 6650M XT uses the Navi 23 chip.

Q: What is the TDP difference between the two?

A: The RX 6850M XT has a TDP of 165 W, while the RX 6650M XT has a TDP of 120 W, a 45 W difference.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct head-to-head benchmark in the dataset is Geekbench OpenCL, where the RX 6850M XT wins decisively. It scored 85,040 points against 76,904 for the RX 6650M XT, a delta of 10.6%. This margin is consistent with the theoretical compute advantage: the RX 6850M XT’s FP32 throughput of 13.21 TFLOPS is 33.5% higher than the RX 6650M XT’s 9.896 TFLOPS, though the OpenCL test does not fully translate that into a score difference, likely due to memory bandwidth and occupancy constraints. The RX 6850M XT’s 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth versus 256.0 GB/s gives it a 68.8% advantage in raw memory throughput, which should help in bandwidth-sensitive OpenCL kernels.

The RX 6850M XT also has a higher texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s versus 309.2 GTexel/s, a 33.6% edge, and a higher pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s versus 154.6 GPixel/s, a 6.9% edge. These figures align with the OpenCL result, where the RX 6850M XT outperforms by more than its pixel rate advantage but less than its texture and FP32 advantages, indicating that the workload is mixed.

For benchmarks not shared, the RX 6850M XT posts a Geekbench Metal score of 128,981 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 99,483, while the RX 6650M XT has no recorded scores for these APIs. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 result of 2,257 for the RX 6850M XT further demonstrates its capability in modern DirectX 12 workloads, though no comparison to the RX 6650M XT is possible. The absence of data for the RX 6650M XT in these tests does not imply equivalence; rather, it limits the comparison to the single OpenCL result, which the RX 6850M XT wins by a clear margin.

Given the wins tally of 1 for the RX 6850M XT and 0 for the RX 6650M XT, the head-to-head data is unambiguous. The RX 6850M XT is the faster GPU in the only test where both were measured, and its superior specifications in every compute and memory category suggest it would win additional benchmarks if they were available. The RX 6650M XT’s nearest rival list includes the RX 6850M XT at a deltaPct of -2.6%, confirming that the gap between them is real but not overwhelming. In percentile terms, the RX 6850M XT sits at 92nd versus 91st for the RX 6650M XT, meaning both are top-tier mobile GPUs, but the RX 6850M XT is the one that edges ahead in every measurable way.