AMD Radeon RX 6600 evaluate: The other of future-proof

AMD, an organization with a repute for creating budget-friendly playing cards that packed a good punch, in all probability wished to remain true to its roots. However except it might assure a worth near MSRP, the RX 6600 simply appears misplaced in immediately’s gaming panorama. As you may see in our testing, it is a succesful 1080p gaming card. However its ray tracing efficiency is horrible, and it might’t reap the benefits of NVIDIA’s DLSS expertise, which makes use of AI to spice up efficiency.

I will be trustworthy, I did not actually anticipate a lot from the RX 6600 from the beginning. Beneath the hood, its RDNA 2 structure is powered by 28 compute items and 1,792 stream processors, a noticeable step down from the 6600XT’s 32 CUs and a couple of,048 stream processors. There’s additionally a severe pace distinction: the cheaper card has 2,044 MHz recreation clock and a couple of,491 MHz enhance, in comparison with 2,359 MHz whereas gaming on the 6600 XT and a 2,589 MHz enhance. Each playing cards have 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, however the 6600’s reminiscence bandwidth is 34 GB/s slower at 224 GB/s.

Given these specs, I predicted the RX 6600 could be a good 1080p card and never a lot else. And for probably the most half, that is what my testing proved: It reached a stable 120FPS in Future 2 whereas taking part in in 1080p with maxed out graphics. As soon as I pushed the sport to 1,440p, although, it fell to 80fps. That sample held true for just about every thing I examined. Hitman 3’s benchmark reached a decent 138fps in 1080p with graphics settings cranked to the utmost, however solely 94fps in 1,440p.

Should you’ve received an AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU (or some 3000 fashions), the RX 6600 might be a slight improve because of Good Entry Reminiscence. That is a characteristic that principally lets your CPU straight handle your whole video card’s RAM, and it is one thing you’ll be able to’t use in any respect in case you’ve received an Intel CPU. I had SAM enabled on my testing rig, which was powered by a Ryzen 7 5800X and 32GB of RAM, in case you had been questioning.

Each the Radeon RX 6600 and 6600 XT had a tough time competing towards their NVIDIA counterparts in our benchmarks. The RTX 3060 Ti reached 11,308 in 3DMark Time Spy, whereas the 6600 XT hit 9,872 and the 6600 trailed behind with a rating of 8,521. I did not have an RTX 3060 on-hand to check, however 3DMark’s verified benchmarks with similar systems present scores of round 10,000.

Ray tracing was additionally a misplaced trigger with the 6,600 — simply flipping on ray traced reflections in Management slowed the sport to a meager 35fps. With out ray tracing, it was no less than playable in 1080p, hitting between 60 and 70fps. Now Management is a notoriously robust recreation on GPUs, however no less than NVIDIA playing cards let me get first rate framerates with ray tracing because of DLSS, which makes use of AI processing to upscale the sport from a decrease decision. AMD’s various expertise, FidelityFX Tremendous Decision, is not supported in Management but. That resolution can be cross-compatible with NVIDIA playing cards, so you will not want a Radeon GPU to reap the benefits of it — which once more makes me marvel, why would you get the RX 6600 as a substitute of the 3060?

I may see it being a worthwhile card for a really particular gamer: Somebody who has a small case and does not need to improve past a 450 watt energy provide. The RX 6600 has a complete board energy demand of 132 watts, in comparison with 170 watts on the RTX 3060. That is a serious motive why it runs so cool, reaching solely round 70 celsius below load (the 3060 usually runs between 70 and 75 celsius when pressured). Nonetheless, I can not think about that somebody who desires to shell out $329 for a GPU (and realistically a lot extra), would restrict themselves primarily based on a weak energy provide.

A very good PC improve is one which’ll final you for years, and, sadly, I can not think about that’ll be true of the RX 6600. Strong 1080p efficiency is a pleasant characteristic to have immediately, however 1,440p displays are getting cheaper and video games have gotten extra demanding. Who is aware of if the 6600 will be capable of deal with a flagship title in just a few years even at 1080p. And if you find yourself upgrading to a 1,440p, ultrawide, or 4K display over the following few years, you may should improve instantly.

The Radeon RX 6600 might be a good contender if the GPU market stabilizes and AMD pushes the worth under $300. However for now, it’s a misfire that solely is smart in case you can’t get your palms on an RTX 3060.