Gaming on the 4GB Radeon RX 6500 XT and GTX 1650 Super in 2026 — upscaling makes low-end GPUs viable for esports and internet cafes
Practically every graphics card introduced since 2022 has had at least 6GB or 8GB of VRAM, but AMD is bucking that trend in 2026 with the new RX 9050 4GB. We dusted off two older 4GB cards to see if that little VRAM means an instant performance cliff.
With tight memory supplies and rising GPU prices, the market has seen a resurgence of interest in 4GB graphics cards. AMD's latest RX 9050 4GB model is intended for 1080p medium gameplay, but its memory limitations could impact performance in newer games. To test the feasibility of playing modern games on these low-end GPUs, the author used the RX 6500 XT and GTX 1650 Super from their collection.
Fortnite was the first game tested, with both cards able to handle medium settings and XeSS Quality upscaling despite exceeding 4GB VRAM usage. However, reduced input latency was achieved by disabling Lumen on the RX 6500 XT. Apex Legends and Cyberpunk 2077 also performed reasonably well on these cards, with Cyberpunk 2077 even remaining playable with low crowd density settings.
Counter-Strike 2, on the other hand, showed a significant difference in memory usage between the two cards, which could impact gameplay on the 4GB GPUs. Overall, while the 4GB graphics cards are not ideal for high-end gaming, they may still be viable options for esports and internet cafes looking for budget-friendly options.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
