Today AMD unveiled the Radeon RX 5500, a mid-range GPU designed for 1080p gamers, targeting Nvidia’s GTX 1650 as its competition

The AMD Radeon RX 5500 series includes the Radeon RX 5500 graphics card that will be available in desktop PCs from manufacturers and graphics cards from AMD's board partners, as well as the Radeon RX 5500M GPU for notebook PCs.

HP and Lenovo are planning to offer Radeon RX 5500 graphics cards in their desktop gaming PCs beginning this November, and Acer planning to offer systems with the cards beginning this December. In addition, later this month MSI is expected to launch the first gaming notebook powered by AMD Ryzen processors and Radeon RX 5500M GPUs.

With the newest additions to the Radeon family, AMD is bringing its RDNA gaming architecture and 7nm process technology to legions of mainstream gamers worldwide in new form factors and systems. AMD claims the Radeon RX 5500 provides up to 1.6X higher gaming performance-per-watt than current Radeon graphics cards based on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture.

The Radeon RX 5500 graphics card also promises to provide up to 37 percent faster performance on average than the Nvidia GTX 1650 offering in select titles at 1080p.

For mobile gaming, a laptop configured with the Radeon RX 5500M GPU provides up to 30 percent faster performance on average than the competition, and delivers up to 60+ FPS in select AAA titles and up to 90+ FPS in select eSports games, according to AMD.

Here, AMD battles Nvidia’s GTX 1650 Max-Q on a similarly specced laptop with a Ryzen 7 3750H CPU; except for the fact that the Radeon-equipped laptop has 32GB of DDR4 RAM, while the Nvidia equivalent has 8GB.

Also note that both cards have a 128-bit memory bus and 4GB of video memory; although the RX 5500M packs GDDR6 as opposed to GDDR5 inside the GTX 1650 Max-Q.

Built on 7nm process technology and supporting high-bandwidth PCIe 4.0 technology, the new AMD Radeon products take advantage of features for 1080p gameplay , including:

• Radeon Image Sharpening (RIS) – Brings crispness and clarity to in-game visuals that have been softened by upscaling and post-process effects in DirectX 9, 12 and Vulkan titles. When paired with Radeon GPU upscaling, RIS enables sharp visuals and fluid frame rates on high-resolution displays.
• AMD FidelityFX – Offers an open-source toolkit for game developers to add high-quality post-process effects to games while offering a balance of visual fidelity and performance. Available on GPUOpen, FidelityFX features Contrast-Adaptive Sharpening (CAS), which draws out detail in low-contrast areas while minimizing artifacts caused by typical image sharpening routines.
• Radeon Anti-Lag – Anti-Lag decreases input-to-display response times, including making Borderlands 3 up to 23 percent more responsive with Radeon RX 5500 series graphics.
• Gaming display ecosystem – With over 950 supported monitors to choose from, gamers can enjoy stutter-free, tear-free gameplay with AMD Radeon FreeSync and Radeon FreeSync 2 HDR technology.

AMD Radeon ‘Raise the Game’ Bundle

The new Radeon RX 5500 series are included in the latest AMD Radeon Raise the Game bundle, offering gamers their choice of Borderlands 3 or Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint with the purchase of eligible pre-configured desktop and notebook systems powered by Radeon RX 5500 and RX 5500M graphics.

Later this month, MSI is expected to launch the MSI Alpha 15 laptop, powered by Radeon RX 5500M GPUs. In addition, Radeon RX 5500 graphics cards are expected to be available in desktop gaming systems beginning in November 2019, including HP’S OMEN Obelisk and Pavilion Gaming desktops, as well as Lenovo Legion T530 and IdeaCentre T540 Gaming PCs. The Radeon RX 5500 graphics cards are expected to be available in Acer Nitro 50 PCs beginning in December 2019. AMD board partners are expected to launch standalone graphics cards this quarter (Q4 2019).

Expect to see the usual assortment of AIB (board partner) cards hitting the streets, but no reference designs from AMD this time around. And no specific details yet about those board partner products.