RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!

RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!
10 min read
23 December 2020

The RX 5500M and RX 5600M are currently the best  options available from AMD for gaming laptops,   so which one should you get  and what are the differences? I’ve compared both in 16 games and  applications to help you decide.

GPU spec differences

RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Comparing the specs side by side, the 5600M is  clocked lower, but it’s got more compute units,   stream processors, and memory, so overall  we’re expecting it to perform better. The   5500M just has 4gb of VRAM, a little  low, but it’s the same as the GTX 1650   on the Nvidia side that it competes with,  and to be fair the 5500M does beat that.

Test laptops used

I’m using the MSI Bravo 15 for the RX 5500M and  the Dell G5 special edition for the RX 5600M.   These two laptops were chosen because, well,  honestly they’re the two laptops I have with   these GPUs. There’s not actually that many gaming  laptops currently available with either option,   and it also just so happens to be that I  have both of them with the same CPU and   memory configurations, so we should be in  for a somewhat fair comparison. That said,   the G5 does make use of AMD’s smartshift, so  we may see a boost due to this as that can’t   be disabled.

Gaming benchmarks

We’ll start out by comparing both  in 16 games, then some applications afterwards. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the game’s  built in benchmark with the high setting preset.   The 5600M was able to give us above 60 FPS  here, putting it 38% faster than the 5500M,   however this is an above average  difference out of the titles tested.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested  with the games benchmark tool. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!  Again the 5600M was able to get us past 60  FPS even with the highest setting preset,   with a 24% higher frame rate when  compared to the 5500M below it. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Microsoft Flight Simulator was  tested in the Sydney landing   challenge with the highest ultra setting preset.   In hindsight I probably should have dropped back  a setting level for actual playable results,   but hey even at this most resource heavy level  the 5600M was 37% faster in average frame rate. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Rainbow Six Siege was tested with the games  benchmark tool with Vulkan, and this game saw the   largest difference between the two GPUs in terms  of average frame rate. The 5600M had a massive   46% higher average frame rate when compared to  the 5500M, and the 1% low was 41% higher too. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Battlefield 5 was tested running through the  same section of the game in campaign mode on both   machines. The 5600M was 32% faster in average  frame rate in this one, however the 5500M was   still capable of above 60 FPS even with  the highest ultra setting preset in use.RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison! I’ve included CS:GO to demonstrate how a  game that depends more on the processor   behaves. There’s less than a 4% boost to  average FPS with the 5600M in this one,   with a larger 18% 1% low, the smallest  difference out of all 16 games tested. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Far Cry New Dawn was tested with the  games benchmark, and again another test   that depends more on processor performance  in my experience, as the 5600M was only 5%   faster in average FPS here, which equates  to less than 4 FPS, so no real difference. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Call of Duty Modern Warfare was  tested with all settings maxed out.   Even the 1% low from the 5600M was higher  than the average FPS from the 5500M,   while the 5600’s average FPS  was 30% higher than the 5500M.RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison! Borderlands 3 was tested with the games  benchmark, and the results were extremely   close to the last game with the 5600M  again 30% faster in terms of average FPS,   with a slightly higher 34% improvement  seen in 1% low performance. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Control was tested running through the same part  of the game on both laptops. Just a couple of   frames difference in terms of 1% lows, however the  5600M was 18% faster when it came to average FPS,   granted this was still one of the smaller  differences seen out of all games tested. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!I’ve thrown in F1 2020 to see  how racing games are affected,   and the 5600M was 22% faster than the 5500M  here, so similar difference to Control,   a nice little boost but still a below  average difference and nothing too major. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Death Stranding had massive differences to 1% low  performance. The 1% low from the 5600M was ahead   of even the average frame rate of the 5500M,  putting it a massive 62% ahead. Average FPS   was about 28% faster which is a somewhat average  result, that 1% low boost was far more impressive. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Metro Exodus was tested with  the games benchmark. This   game had the second largest performance  difference out of all 16 games tested,   with the 5600M reaching average frame  rates 40% higher than the 5500M. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!The Witcher 3 didn’t have that  big of a difference to 1% lows,   and although the average FPS gap  was wider, the 5600M was just 18%   ahead of the 5500M, the third smallest change  out of the games we’re looking at here. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Overwatch had an above average  improvement with the 5600M,   which boosted average FPS with the  highest epic setting preset by over 32%,   the 5600M would be a better matchup  for a 144Hz screen in this case,   granted you could lower setting levels from  max and still get nice results with the 5500M. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested  with the games benchmark tool,   the performance gap was similar to overwatch  just before it with the 5600M coming in   33% faster than the 5500M in average  FPS, while the 1% low was 40% higher.

The Radeon RX 5600M was around 27% faster  than the RX 5500M on average out of the 16   games that I’ve tested.RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison! As we can see, results  can vary significantly by game. CS:GO and Far   Cry New Dawn for instance only received a 5%  performance boost with the 5600M as the GPU   change hardly matters compared to a processor  upgrade. On the other hand, GPU heavier titles   were seeing around a 40% improvement from the  5600M, again it just depends on the specific game.

RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!I’ve also tested FireStrike and TimeSpy from  3DMark, and in both tests the 5600M was scoring   around 44% higher than the 5500M, so close  to the best case results seen in the games. RX 5600M vs RX 5500M - 16 Game Laptop Comparison!I’ve also tested SPECviewperf which tests various  professional 3D workloads. The margin between   the two varied based on the specific test,  however the 5600M was ahead in all cases.

Price differences

Prices of these GPUs are going to vary based  on what model of laptop you’re looking at. Like I said earlier though,   there just aren’t that many laptops  with these GPUs available currently. The Bravo 15 is $979  USD at Newegg, while the G5 SE is $870. Yes   you’re hearing that right, the Dell G5 is over  $100 cheaper and it performs 27% faster in 16   games on average. Even without this sale the G5  is still cheaper, but Dell run sales all the time.

The MSI Bravo 15 is basically just a  rip off when you compare it to other   options that are available for similar money.  Unfortunately there just aren’t that many RX   5500M gaming laptops available. It just doesn’t  seem like that many companies decided to adopt   it this generation, and that’s why this one  is basically all I’ve got for comparison. In a perfect world, the 5600M would cost  more money, but MSI have priced the Bravo 15   so high and it’s one of the few if only  5500M laptops with Ryzen 4000 CPU available,   that that just doesn’t end up  being the case in the real world.

GPU aside, the G5 is a far better  machine compared to the Bravo 15,   and the Bravo is also sold with single channel  memory, I know this because I bought this from   that same Newegg listing I showed earlier. Dell  at least sells the G5 with dual channel memory,   which does offer a performance boost. I did all  my testing with dual channel in the Bravo 15,   but yeah in the real world you’re paying more  for a 5500M with single channel memory which   is just straight up going to perform far worse  compared to the G5 with 5600M and dual channel.

As we saw, the 5600M does do better in  games, so I’d be willing to pay $100   or so over the Bravo 15 no problem. I’m definitely  not saying the G5 is an awesome machine,   you can refer to my full review videos linked  in the description if you need more details.   I’m just saying it’s definitely better  than the Bravo 15 with lower powered GPU. 

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JT 559
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