AMD RX 6600 XT Review ft. Gigabyte Gaming OC Pro

Five months on from the launch of the RX 6700 XT, today we have assessed AMD's new RX 6600 XT 8GB GPU. Aimed squarely at 1080p gamers, AMD has priced this card at $379 USD, slotting it between Nvidia's Ampere-based RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti, priced at $329 and $399 respectively.

As always, there is a lot to talk about with this GPU launch, but we'll start with the performance summary. The first thing you need to know is that this GPU more than meets its aim of delivering 1080p Ultra gaming – it was able to deliver 60FPS at max settings in every one of the twelve games we tested. Strictly speaking, Red Dead Redemption 2 averaged 59.8FPS… but we'll call that 60.

In fact, I would say that AMD undersold the 6600 XT with its marketing, as it is very capable of 1440p gaming too. Granted, you won't hit 60FPS in every title, but the lowest average frame rate we saw at 1440p was 38FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 – the likes of Days Gone, Hitman 3 and Resident Evil Village all delivered well over 60FPS at 1440p. Objectively speaking, before getting into anything else, this GPU produces good results for 1080p and 1440p gaming.

Looking at relative performance though, here things get slightly more complicated. The good news is AMD's claim that the RX 6600 XT is faster than the RTX 3060 proved true – at 1080p the RX 6600 XT ran 12% faster on average compared to the RTX 3060. However, the 6600 XT is also 15% slower than the RTX 3060 Ti, despite being just 5% cheaper based on MSRP pricing, while it's also within 2% of the RX 5700 XT – a GPU that launched over two years ago, for just $20 more than the RX 6600 XT's MSRP today. That certainly doesn't seem like much – if any – progress has been made. Even against the RX 5600 XT, a comparison I've not made throughout this review as the two products are really in different price categories, the RX 6600 XT is 23% faster but also 35% more expensive.

We do also have ray tracing to cover, but what there is to say won't come as a surprise. Over the three games we benchmarked, the RX 6600 XT was slower than the RTX 2060 in two of them, and it didn't come close to competing with the RTX 3060 – and that's before factoring in DLSS in the games that support it. It is good that end users can at least enable ray tracing on the RX 6600 XT, but I'm not sure how realistic it is to do all your gaming with it turned on, so I wouldn't look at it as a key selling point for this GPU.

As an AIB-only launch, today we have tested Gigabyte's RX 6600 XT Gaming OC Pro. It is undoubtedly an extremely capable graphics card, to the point where it is overkill for a GPU like the RX 6600 XT. GPU temperatures peaked at just 52C for instance, which is fantastic – but also far cooler than you would ever need your GPU to run. I only say that as being Gigabyte's flagship RX 6600 XT model, it is likely to fetch a significant price premium, when chances are a cheaper card will still provide enough cooling power. We will have to test other AIB models to verify that claim though, so stay tuned for that.

We have also implemented our recently-updated GPU power testing methodology as part of this review, so if you want to see power draw figures on a per-game and per-resolution basis, you can find that starting on page 28 of this review. The results aren't too much of a shock – offering RX 5700 XT-levels of performance, but while drawing over 60W less power, results in a highly efficient GPU, and it is actually the most efficient of any graphics card have tested today when looking at the 1080p data. Even at 1440p, the 6600 XT is an exact match for the RTX 3060 Ti in terms of performance per Watt, so that's a big positive for AMD.

We did also try our hand at overclocking, though the results won't be much of a surprise to anyone who's been keeping an eye on AMD's RDNA 2 GPUs. We were able to squeeze an extra 6-9% performance out of our sample, which is certainly decent and in-line with what we'd expect, but it's nothing to go crazy about.

Overall, we have a bit of a mixed bag with the RX 6600 XT. On the one hand, it is a good card for 1080p and 1440p gaming, so if you're just looking to get your hands on something which you know can play the latest AAA games, this will do that for you. On the other hand, we can't escape the fact that at the $379 MSRP, there are clearly better options out there. Just $20 separates the RX 6600 XT and the RTX 3060 Ti, and that GPU is significantly faster across the board, and also offers substantially better ray tracing performance, as well as support for DLSS.

I completely understand the business sense behind such pricing, as in the current market any new GPU is going to sell out regardless, and AMD's first priority is to its shareholders, not its customers. That doesn't mean I have to recommend the product though, and to me the RTX 3060 Ti is clearly the better purchase.

The good news is we have been speaking with Overclockers UK who are expecting ‘good' supply of RX 6600 XT GPUs, and we are told pricing will start at £379, though at the time of writing we don't have an official UK MSRP as set by AMD. OCUK also told us they are expecting ‘large volumes' of RTX 3060 Ti cards in the coming weeks, so we're hopeful that will provide a good amount of options for those considering a new GPU purchase around the £370-£400 price point.

You can view all the listed RX 6600 XT models on OCUK HERE.

Pros

• Capable GPU for 1080p and even 1440p gaming.
• Highly efficient.
• Gigabyte Gaming OC Pro model is exceptionally cool and quiet.

Cons

• MSRP is just $20 below the RTX 3060 Ti.
• Barely faster than the RX 5700 XT, over two years on at a similar price point.
• Ray tracing performance is significantly slower than the competition.

KitGuru says: If you can get one at a decent price, the RX 6600 XT is capable of playing the latest AAA titles at good frame rates. Relative to the competition however, it is clearly weaker than the RTX 3060 Ti.

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