**Elden Ring Performance on AMD’s RX 6500 XT: A Comprehensive Review**
Introduction
At PC Gamer, we’ve been immersed in the world of *Elden Ring*, engaging in intense battles with enemies and exploring vast landscapes. Meanwhile, I’ve been conducting rigorous testing on the AMD RX 6500 XT, AMD’s most affordable graphics card priced at $199, to evaluate its performance in *Elden Ring* at 1080p. The results have been nothing short of surprising.
Performance in *Elden Ring*
The RX 6500 XT has proven itself to be quite capable in *Elden Ring*. Despite being the cheapest GPU available, it delivers decent performance with high presets enabled, making it a viable option for those seeking an affordable yet effective setup. It comfortably meets the game’s minimum system requirements, including over 3GB of VRAM and sufficient graphical power to handle challenges akin to a GTX 1060 or RX 580.
Challenges in Comparison
While the RX 6500 XT performs well, it faces tough competition from AMD’s previous generations, such as the RX 5500 (RDNA1) and RX 588 (Polaris). These older models still hold an edge due to their superior VRAM and performance capabilities. Additionally, the RX 6500 XT’s limited 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM, a conservative allocation for modern gaming needs, leaves room for improvement.
Stuttering Issues
A notable caveat in *Elden Ring* performance across all GPUs is stuttering. The game has undergone attempts to address this issue through patches, with improvements seen from the pre-release version onwards. However, occasional stutters still occur, where the game momentarily halts rendering before resuming at full speed. While this can be jarring, it’s not significantly worse on the RX 6500 XT compared to higher-end GPUs like the RX 6900 XT or NVIDIA’s RTX 2070 Super.
Testing and Results
During testing, I engaged in activities such as backstabbing enemies and traversing the game world on horseback. The RX 6500 XT managed to achieve an average of 60 FPS at medium and low settings, hitting the game’s cap consistently. However, it struggled with high and maximum presets, which demand more graphical power than the GPU can comfortably provide.
Conclusion
Despite its budget-friendly status, the RX 6500 XT delivers commendable performance in *Elden Ring*. Its ability to run the game smoothly at medium or low settings makes it a worthwhile investment for budget-conscious gamers. Considering *Elden Ring’s* stellar review scores and prolonged anticipation, being able to play this highly acclaimed game on an affordable GPU is a significant win for PC gaming.
For further insights into *Elden Ring*, including best settings guides and detailed performance analysis, visit [PCGamer.com](https://www.pcgamer.com).
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eneveryone here at pc gamer has been getting awesome darth maul style double-sided swords imbued with magical powers in elden ring meanwhile i've been um running around in circles attacking the same five soldiers to measure frame times it's cool though i don't i don't mind whatever you know i'm getting i'm getting my runes that way anyway anyways something interesting has come out of it i've discovered that amd's ready on rx 6500 xt the company's cheapest graphics card right now at 199 dollars is surprisingly adept in the game at 1080p like you can genuinely play elden ring at a pretty high preset and enjoy a decent performance that's not bad for a graphics card we reviewed and awarded a measly 47 score to but it feels more important than that the rx 6500 xt is pretty much the only graphics card you can buy at msrp right now and stock is fairly easy to come by being able to play a game with one of the highest cumulative review scores of all time on the cheapest gpu in 2022 and have it look half decent and run at a good frame rate is a godsend right now the rx 6500 xt hits all the necessary demands of elven rings minimum system requirements namely over three gigabytes of vram and enough graphical grunt to take on a gtx 1063 gigabyte or rx 584 gigabyte it kind of scrapes by the skin of its chips in that regard but it is safely over what's demanded of it to play elven ring however i hadn't set my hopes too high for this card's lack of real gusto when it comes to gaming at 1080p for a graphics card released in 2022 the rx 6500 xt sure has a tough time competing with amd's previous cards you know like the rx 5500 for gigabyte which is rdna1 and the rx 588 gigabyte which is polaris which came out a really long time ago this gpu even falls short of amd's own marketing thanks to a less than generous dollop of gdr6 vram at four gigabytes we were really hoping for a little more than that for gaming in 2022 and beyond but all that said loading into the game it's clear that actually all is rather well with alden ring on amd's lowest tier gpu i'd even go as far to say it's perfectly playable now there is a catch here not a massive catch but something worth mentioning anyway when you're mentioning elden ring performance and that's that there's more general stuttering issues right now across the board from software tried to patch it once and the pre-release version was really bad and it did get better with the newer version and they promised to patch it more but so far it could be a little janky at times and when i say a little sometimes it's fully like the game just stops rendering for a little while then speeds up catch it back up again and you just have to hope that you haven't been killed in that time i ran into my fair share of stuttering with the rx 6500 xt though no more so at medium or low settings than i did with amd's best graphics card today the rx 6900 xt you know and that's at 4k so i'm not discounting the stuttering in terms of playability but the rx 6500xt is no worse a victim to it than any other gpu i've tested today including nvidia's geforce rtx 2070 super and hopefully that means it's also in line for a fix with later game versions and patches so you know it should only get better from here with all that in mind i ran my little benchmark run backstabbing and bashing some poor defenseless soldiers along the way and i noted down some numbers i also traveled around by horse took on an outpost near the starting area of the game and took in the sights to get an impression of what performance might be like with this gpu for the better part of elden ring and to my surprise it's really quite good eldon ring has a 60fps cap if you didn't already know so that's what you want to really aim for and that's well within reach of the rx 6500 xt high and maximum presets are too rich for the rx 6500 xt's blood but you can happily game at medium or low presets and expect to hit an average of 60 fps near enough all of the time what you want to look out for though are those minimum frame times to ensure they stick around the 50 to 55 fps mark you will need to be considerate of which settings you crank up to medium or high any drop in the minimum fps will also be a hit to stability and that feeling of smooth gameplay that's genuinely super important and maybe a little overlooked at times though generally the rx 6500 xt returns really admirable performance in a game that i wasn't expecting to be too friendly to budget cards that's pretty great for a whole range of reasons most of all though considering the near flawless review scores of elden ring and the anticipation for this game's release over many years i mean we've all been to the elven ring subreddit that places wild being able to pick up the cheapest and most widely available graphics card going and get a reasonable return on it in alden ring is a real win for pc gaming right now and budget pc gaming importantly if you want to read more about alden ring including best settings guide and more pc performance head over to pcgamer.com youeveryone here at pc gamer has been getting awesome darth maul style double-sided swords imbued with magical powers in elden ring meanwhile i've been um running around in circles attacking the same five soldiers to measure frame times it's cool though i don't i don't mind whatever you know i'm getting i'm getting my runes that way anyway anyways something interesting has come out of it i've discovered that amd's ready on rx 6500 xt the company's cheapest graphics card right now at 199 dollars is surprisingly adept in the game at 1080p like you can genuinely play elden ring at a pretty high preset and enjoy a decent performance that's not bad for a graphics card we reviewed and awarded a measly 47 score to but it feels more important than that the rx 6500 xt is pretty much the only graphics card you can buy at msrp right now and stock is fairly easy to come by being able to play a game with one of the highest cumulative review scores of all time on the cheapest gpu in 2022 and have it look half decent and run at a good frame rate is a godsend right now the rx 6500 xt hits all the necessary demands of elven rings minimum system requirements namely over three gigabytes of vram and enough graphical grunt to take on a gtx 1063 gigabyte or rx 584 gigabyte it kind of scrapes by the skin of its chips in that regard but it is safely over what's demanded of it to play elven ring however i hadn't set my hopes too high for this card's lack of real gusto when it comes to gaming at 1080p for a graphics card released in 2022 the rx 6500 xt sure has a tough time competing with amd's previous cards you know like the rx 5500 for gigabyte which is rdna1 and the rx 588 gigabyte which is polaris which came out a really long time ago this gpu even falls short of amd's own marketing thanks to a less than generous dollop of gdr6 vram at four gigabytes we were really hoping for a little more than that for gaming in 2022 and beyond but all that said loading into the game it's clear that actually all is rather well with alden ring on amd's lowest tier gpu i'd even go as far to say it's perfectly playable now there is a catch here not a massive catch but something worth mentioning anyway when you're mentioning elden ring performance and that's that there's more general stuttering issues right now across the board from software tried to patch it once and the pre-release version was really bad and it did get better with the newer version and they promised to patch it more but so far it could be a little janky at times and when i say a little sometimes it's fully like the game just stops rendering for a little while then speeds up catch it back up again and you just have to hope that you haven't been killed in that time i ran into my fair share of stuttering with the rx 6500 xt though no more so at medium or low settings than i did with amd's best graphics card today the rx 6900 xt you know and that's at 4k so i'm not discounting the stuttering in terms of playability but the rx 6500xt is no worse a victim to it than any other gpu i've tested today including nvidia's geforce rtx 2070 super and hopefully that means it's also in line for a fix with later game versions and patches so you know it should only get better from here with all that in mind i ran my little benchmark run backstabbing and bashing some poor defenseless soldiers along the way and i noted down some numbers i also traveled around by horse took on an outpost near the starting area of the game and took in the sights to get an impression of what performance might be like with this gpu for the better part of elden ring and to my surprise it's really quite good eldon ring has a 60fps cap if you didn't already know so that's what you want to really aim for and that's well within reach of the rx 6500 xt high and maximum presets are too rich for the rx 6500 xt's blood but you can happily game at medium or low presets and expect to hit an average of 60 fps near enough all of the time what you want to look out for though are those minimum frame times to ensure they stick around the 50 to 55 fps mark you will need to be considerate of which settings you crank up to medium or high any drop in the minimum fps will also be a hit to stability and that feeling of smooth gameplay that's genuinely super important and maybe a little overlooked at times though generally the rx 6500 xt returns really admirable performance in a game that i wasn't expecting to be too friendly to budget cards that's pretty great for a whole range of reasons most of all though considering the near flawless review scores of elden ring and the anticipation for this game's release over many years i mean we've all been to the elven ring subreddit that places wild being able to pick up the cheapest and most widely available graphics card going and get a reasonable return on it in alden ring is a real win for pc gaming right now and budget pc gaming importantly if you want to read more about alden ring including best settings guide and more pc performance head over to pcgamer.com you\n"
