The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT has arrived to do its thing for PC gamers, but its thing is
a bit of a perplexing proposition more than half way through 2021. According to Brad’s
review it’s faster and more power efficient than AMD’s last generation of GPUs, and
it goes toe-to-toe with it’s direct competitor. But the MSRP of $379 makes it a tough pill
to swallow - even without inflated prices.
To really get to the bottom of this proposition and provide some perspective, we need to really
discuss the target resolution and audience. We also need to cover where things were, where
they are now, and what the future could hold. And I’ll explain the 6600 XT’s place along
the way. Let’s get into it!
Whether you call it Full HD, 1080p, or refer to it by its pixel size of 1920 by 1080, it’s
been well over a decade since the 16 by 9 aspect ratio resolution took hold of the TV
market. These flat panels then subsequently dominated the PC space over the then-popular
16 by 10 aspect ratio panels. It was so popular of a resolution that it became the standard
across almost anything with a screen from TVs to computers and even phones. It was THE
resolution and aspect ratio to have.
And here all these years later it’s still by far the most used, sold, and obviously
owned panel resolution on the market. Even Steam's hardware survey, which admittedly
isn’t the last word but a good reference point, shows that at the time of this video
1080p holds a 67.2% market share. While that may be down a little, the next closest resolution
is the devil’s resolution of 1360 by 768. Even the popular resolution for enthusiasts
- 1440p - sits at only 2.5%, while 4K lags at 2.26%.
With Full HD being the reality for most PC gamers despite cries that 1440p is the new
standard, it’s quite clear that 1080p has a stranglehold on the market. And for good
reason too. Panels that run that resolution range from really affordable for nice 75hz
models with TN panels all the way up to premium 360hz IPS panels that cost well over the $500
mark. But the real joy here is in the 144-240hz range for around the 2 to 300 dollar range.
You see, 1080p isn’t just easier on the wallet, it’s also a bit easier on the rest
of the system as well if you want a good solid long-lasting gaming PC. Of course it can also
become a wallet crushing, bleeding-edge chasing affair as well if you want the best of the
best. And that’s what brings us here today - to discuss the 6600 XT and its place in
the current landscape and lineup.
The Radeon RX 6600 XT is the successor to the Radeon RX 5600 XT with quite a few changes
to its core structure. The RX 6600 XT has moved onto the RDNA2 powered GPU core, consisting
of 32 Compute Units making up 2048 Stream Processors and a Game Clock of 2359MHz. That's
up from the 36 Compute Units of the RX 5600 XT at 1375MHz. Memory also sees an increase
to 8GB from 6GB, but it does see a reduction of traditional bandwidth from 288GB/s to 256GB/s
due to the reduced 128-bit bus interface.
But the RX 6600 XT does benefit from the addition of 32MB of Infinity Cache to boost its theoretical
bandwidth. And all this is done with a small TDP bump up to 160w from the RX 5600 XTs 150w
rating. There are other additional features like full DX12 Ultimate support, so it now
has the ability to make use of Variable Rate Shading, Mesh Shaders when they come along,
as well as hardware-accelerated Real-Time Ray Tracing.
All of this certainly comes at a price. The Radeon RX 5600 XT hit the streets last year
with an MSRP of $279. If the RX 6600 XT had come in around that same price it would be
a godsend in this current market. But due to component shortages and increased manufacturing
prices - among other variables - the Radeon RX 6600 XT is coming to market at $379 while
still targeting that absolute top tier 1080p experience.
But how competitive is it at that mark? Well, Brad has the full rundown of the performance
using this ASUS Strix model across many titles at 1080p and 1440p resolutions if you want
to really dig in and digest those charts. Follow the link in the description below for
that. AMD’s own slides put the RX 6600 XT in a very favorable light against the NVIDIA
GeForce RTX 3060, which has an MSRP of $329. BUT the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti has an MSRP of
$399, only $20 more than the RX 6600 XT.
And if you look at things in a bubble and ignore the 3060 Ti then yeah, the RX 6600
XT looks pretty impressive. It’s always ahead of the last generation RX 5700 XT, and
the RTX 3060 stays in the rearview so long as you don’t enable ray tracing - then the
story shifts a bit of course. But when you look at the RTX 3060 Ti in the mix it becomes
the clear winner in basically every instance. It’s only bested by the RX 6600 XT in terms
of power consumption, which is quite good as the RDNA2 architecture continues to prove
its salt when it comes to power efficiency.
So, it’s faster than the last generation, uses less power, stands up great against what
it considers its direct competitor, but the MSRP of the Radeon RX 6600 XT puts it too
close to the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti to be able to ignore that. It’s $379 starting MSRP
also really moves it past JUST being a 1080p card and needs to be considered as, at the
very least, an entry-level 1440p card. After all that’s how the Radeon RX 480 with 8GB
was even marketed for its time, a spectacular 1080p card that had the chops to move you
into the 1440p world all for around $250 at the time.
But things are different now and games are much more demanding. The Radeon RX 6600 XT
delivers on its own promises, showing a spectacular high refresh rate 1080p gaming as well as
being able to crank the settings, but it fails to really move the needle in its price range
for Radeon. Outside of the new DX12 Ultimate features, it offers a small bump over last
gens RX 5700 XT and not enough over the RX 5600 XT to likely get those gamers.
So who would be in the market for this card? Well, likely those still clutching their Vega
56 or even GTX 1070 class cards from years back. This is in the price range they spent
last time, and if they’re still on a quality 1080p panel then they’ll get a nice performance
boost and power consumption reduction - especially for Vega users. But with availability getting
better and prices coming back down to reality quickly, the team over at Radeon might find
themselves in a hard spot when trying to convince gamers to go for the RX 6600 XT, if the RTX
3060 Ti is sitting so close on the shelf.
Well that’s been it for my take on the Radeon RX 6600 XT and the place of 1080p gaming.
If you want the full review from our very own Brad, be sure to hit that link in the
description below. As always, if you enjoyed this video be sure to hit that like button
and make sure you’re subscribed here at PCWorld for even more PC hardware goodness.
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