According to recent reports, AMD has stopped producing the Navi 23-based RX 6650 XT graphics card, and the remaining retail stock should run out within a matter of weeks.
The Radeon RX 6650 XT, which was released last year alongside other upgraded RDNA2-based RX 6×50 series GPUs, is being sold at a heavily discounted price in China. The card was released with an MSRP of 3099 RMB (£340), but as noted by ITHome, you can now easily get it below 2000 RMB (£220), occasionally going as low as 1739 RMB (£190) at times.
Initially unclear, the reason for retailers cutting prices on these cards is very simple: they're about to be discontinued. AIB partners have already sold out all of their stock, and retailers should sell the last units by the end of September. With the discontinuance of the Radeon RX 6650 XT, AMD will be retiring the Navi 23 GPU, which was also used on the Radeon RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT GPUs.
The RX 6650 XT is based on the Navi 23 XT architecture, with 2048 shading units and 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit interface. This model was succeeded by the Radeon RX 7600, which debuted at a cheaper MSRP. This card has virtually the same characteristics as the previous one, with 2048 shading units, 8GB of GDDR6 memory, and a 128-bit memory bus, but it uses a Navi 33 GPU.
Besides their specs, the performance of these two GPUs is also pretty similar, with the RX 7600 coming ahead by a small margin while also consuming slightly less power.
KitGuru says: There is little reason for AMD to continue producing Radeon RX 6650 XT GPUs. The RX 7600 is overall better than its predecessor, and thanks to the smaller die size (204 mm2 versus 237 mm2) and TSMC's N6 process node, it should be less expensive to produce.