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AMD Radeon RX 5500 takes on the GTX 1650 for entry-level gaming

Let the 1080p games begin.

Lori Grunin Senior Editor / Advice
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Expertise Photography, PCs and laptops, gaming and gaming accessories
Lori Grunin
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MSI

AMD 's new mainstream graphics cards and mobile GPUs will be coming to midpriced gaming systems just in time for the holiday shopping season. The Radeon RX 5500 and 5500M are based on the same Navi 7nm architecture as the higher-end RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT. They'll go head-to-head with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 and 1650 in systems designed for fast 1080p gaming. They roughly replace the Radeon RX 570/580 in the lineup.

The mobile RX 5500M debuts in the MSI Alpha 15 laptop which looks like an AMD-based variant of the GL65. When it launches later this month, starting at $999, it will come with up to a quad-core Ryzen 7 3750H and 1,920x1,080 display at up to 144Hz. 

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It has 4GB of GDDR6 memory (compared to 8GB for the desktop GPU) as well as a lower clock speed, so expect accordingly slower performance. 

There will be cards from third parties by the end of the year -- from Asus , Gigabyte, MSI, Sapphire, XFX and the rest of the usual suspects -- but AMD really sees the GPUs being used in for preconfigured systems. In November they'll debut in an HP Omen Obelisk and Pavilion line, Lenovo Legion T530 and IdeaCentre T540. An Acer Nitro 50 is also slated for December.

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