AMD’s RX 6600 and Nvidia’s RTX 3060 are the cheapest current gen graphics currently
available.
I’ve compared both in 18 different games at 1080p and 1440p resolutions to find out
which is the best.
Let’s start with the differences in specs between these GPUs.
AMD’s new 6600 has 8 gigs of GDDR6 memory, while Nvidia’s RTX 3060 has 50% more capacity
at 12 gigs.
The memory in the 3060 is also faster with more memory bandwidth and a larger memory
interface, while things like CUDA cores and Stream Processors aren’t directly comparable,
so it doesn’t really matter that Nvidia has more.
To do this testing I’m using the Sapphire Radeon RX 6600 Pulse and the Gigabyte GeForce
RTX 3060 Eagle.
Here’s the system that I’m using to test both graphics cards in, so AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
CPU and 32 gigs of DDR4-3200 CL14 memory in dual channel.
I’ve used MSI’s B550 Tomahawk motherboard, resizable BAR was enabled on both cards and
I’m using Windows 10.
I decided to compare both of these graphics cards because based on the MSRP they’re
both $330, but as we know in 2021 MSRP is essentially useless.
But that said, I think we can still use it as a rough guideline as to where both companies
see their products fitting in.
Right now, the RTX 3060 is going for $660 USD minimum on Newegg, at least going by the
ones that are actually in stock, and that’s double the MSRP.
AMD have told me that although they can’t control the pricing of the 6600, they expect
there to be quite a bit of stock available, so hopefully maybe this at least means there
won’t be scalper tier pricing.
Just a few hours after launch, well, Newegg’s 6600 supply is gone.
They actually had some listed for the $330 MSRP, though the most expensive option was
$450, which is still at least a couple hundred dollars cheaper compared to the 3060.
The RX 6600 was still available for purchase locally here in Australia, and even though
only the most expensive option is currently in stock, this is still equivalent to $370
USD cheaper than the RTX 3060.
You’ve really got to love 2021 pricing, the amount of mental gymnastics we just had
to jump through to get to this point.
Anyway I think it makes sense to compare these graphics cards as right now they’re the
cheapest options you can buy from AMD and Nvidia in the current generation.
They may not necessarily offer the best value compared to what we had last year but this
is what we’ve got now.
So with all of that in mind, let’s get into the game benchmarks.
Then afterwards we’ll look at things like cost per frame value, power draw and more.
Let’s start out with the new Far Cry 6.
I’ve got the 1080p results on the bottom half of the graph, and 1440p results above,
with the RTX 3060 data below the RX 6600 results.
The RTX 3060 was ahead at both resolutions, with an 8% higher average frame rate at 1080p,
but then a much larger 22% lead at the higher 1440p resolution.
This game has FSR support, which can be used on both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards to boost
performance.
With FSR enabled and set to quality mode, the RX 6600 is now like 1 FPS ahead at 1080p,
which is within margin of error, but at least it’s not obviously behind anymore.
The 3060 was still ahead at 1440p, however with a 9% lead it’s clear that FSR seems
to be providing a bigger benefit to the 6600 here.
Now Far Cry 6 is an AMD sponsored title, so to keep the universe balanced let’s check
out Control next, which is an Nvidia sponsored title.
Even the RTX 3060’s 1% low results were higher than the average FPS that the RX 6600
was able to offer at both resolutions.
Things get even worse for AMD if we enable DLSS on the 3060, unlike FSR this is an Nvidia
only feature, and it’s able to boost performance significantly in this game.
This game also has ray tracing support, and while I could have enabled DLSS on the 3060
here to further boost performance, I wanted to see how both compared when just looking
at pure RT results.
The frame rate results aren’t particularly amazing at 1080p as we’re really at max
settings with ray tracing, but the 3060 was reaching a 50% higher frame rate.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was tested with the games benchmark, and this game generally
does well for AMD.
Sure enough, the 6600 is reaching an 11% higher average frame rate at the lower 1080p resolution,
but once we get to 1440p both are performing essentially the same without any noteworthy
differences.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was also tested using the game’s benchmark, and the 6600 had a
subtle lead at the lower 1080p resolution, but again it’s not really a noteworthy difference.
That said the 3060 was around 11% faster at the higher 1440p resolution, though the 6600
was still above 60 FPS at the high setting preset so it’s not as if it’s going to
be unusable.
This game added DLSS support not too long ago, and with it set to quality mode the 3060
is able to take the lead at 1080p now, while further extending its win at 1440p.
Cyberpunk 2077 was doing better on the Nvidia card at both resolutions, even its 1% lows
were higher than the average FPS coming out of the 6600.
At 1080p the 3060 was reaching a 17% higher average frame rate, though the 6600 was still
above 60 FPS at high settings, so again not as if it’s unplayable or anything, the 3060
is just ahead.
The gap gets larger at the higher 1440p resolution though, with the 3060 now reaching a 26% higher
average frame rate.
This is another game with DLSS support, so the 3060 can get further boosts by turning
this on.
At 1440p the 3060 is nearly around 60 even for the 1% lows, so significantly better compared
to the 6600.
Call of Duty Warzone was very close regardless of the graphics card in use.
At 1080p they’re essentially the same, just a 1 FPS difference so well within the margin
of error.
At 1440p there seems to be a little more of an edge in favor of the 3060, but again it’s
a relatively small change when compared to the other 17 titles tested.
Yet again though, this is another game with DLSS support, so it is possible to boost the
performance of the 3060 by turning this on, and this moves even the 1% low at 1440p close
to 100.
Microsoft Flight Simulator doesn’t have the advantage of DLSS, but it doesn’t need
it to beat the 6600.
The 1% lows from the 3060 were ahead of average FPS of the 6600 at both resolutions.
This was the second biggest win for the 3060 out of all 18 games tested, though the in
theory cheaper 6600 was still hitting the 60 FPS sweet spot at 1080p high settings.
Fortnite is a game that generally does better with Nvidia.
The 6600 was still close to 60 FPS at 1440p max settings, but the 3060 was 44% higher
in terms of average FPS here, the largest difference between these two cards out of
all 18 games tested.
The 3060 still has a 32% lead at the lower 1080p resolution too, and again this is the
biggest difference out of all games at this resolution before factoring in DLSS.
With DLSS enabled, well the 6600 is kind of getting destroyed, even the 3060’s 1% lows
are far above the average FPS from the 6600, but don’t forget it does cost more too,
we’ll compare cost per frame soon.
Borderlands 3 on the other hand generally does better with Radeon graphics, and sure
enough the 6600 was able to pull off a win at 1080p.
The average frame rate is only like 3 FPS or so different, but there’s a larger 12%
boost seen in the 1% low.
The 1% low was still better on the 6600 at 1440p, but it’s much closer together now,
and the 3060 was slightly ahead in average FPS, but in any case it’s only a 2 FPS change
either way.
Watch Dogs Legion was ahead on the 3060, but at 1080p again it’s like a 3 FPS or so difference
while 1% lows were closer together, so not much difference at all really, but then at
1440p the gap gets larger with the 3060 now reaching 12% higher average FPS, though this
is like 5 frames at the end of the day for a more expensive option.
This is another DLSS supported title though, so the 3060 can get further boosts by turning
that on.
Instead of talking through the rest of the 8 games individually in depth, I’ll just
blast through them so we can get into the average differences as that’s more interesting,
even if all of this testing did take many hours to complete.
A larger selection of games is important to help get a better rounded average.
Feel free to pause the video if you want a closer look at any of these additional games.
On average overall 18 games tested at the lower 1080p resolution the RTX 3060 was 9%
faster than the RX 6600.
There are 4 games where the 6600 was ahead at the bottom of the graph, and then another
4 or so where the 3060 was within 5% faster, but the majority of games were seeing larger
increases towards the top of the graph.
Best case those games that prefer Nvidia like Control and Fortnite had some of the biggest
differences, and this is without factoring in things like DLSS or FSR.
When we step up to the higher 1440p resolution the 3060’s lead increases and it’s 17%
ahead when averaging the 18 games.
The 3060 does have 50% more VRAM capacity, so perhaps this is helping more at higher
resolutions.
Although the 6600 wasn’t winning at this resolution, we can see there are 4 games near
the bottom of the graph where the 3060 was less than 5% ahead, so quite comparable realistically,
otherwise most other games were around 10% faster on the 3060 right up to 40% higher
in fortnite at the top.
Here’s how things look if we instead look at the games I’ve tested with FSR or DLSS.
I chose to use the higher 1440p resolution as I figured these sorts of upscaling options
are a bit more useful here given both cards were running most games in 1080p well even
with higher settings.
Only Far Cry 6 down the bottom was tested with FSR, as there still aren’t a whole
lot of popular titles with it.
Without FSR, the 3060 was about 22% faster, but with FSR it was 9% faster, so the 6600
was doing better than the 3060 with it on.
The other 6 games are with DLSS though, something the 6600 can’t utilize, and this is why
the light purple bars move up ahead.
They show the 3060 doing better with DLSS enabled compared to it off in the darker bars.
In terms of power draw at the wall, the PC with the 3060 installed was drawing 23% more
watts compared to the same machine but with the 6600 installed in Control at 4K.
Control was also reaching 30% plus higher average FPS in this particular game, but it’s
also using more power to do so.
As mentioned earlier, it appears that the 6600 was available for a little bit at $330
USD, though I’ve also included the higher $450 price listed which honestly is probably
more realistic given there’s already no stock on Newegg.
Scalpers gonna scalp.
Basically the RTX 3060 is just so overpriced right now, that comparatively even paying
more for a 6600 looks like a good deal if you can get one, at least in terms of dollar
per frame value, granted this isn’t factoring in things like DLSS or FSR.
All things considered, based on the price difference alone I’ve got to give the win
to the 6600, even if it is out of stock right now, I’m guessing that’s probably because
everyone else saw the value in it.
It may not even necessarily be a whole lot better compared to the 5600 XT we had last
generation, but as much as it might suck it’s what we’ve got on the lower end of the price
scale today in 2021.
Check out this video next to find out the higher tier 6600 XT compares against the RTX
3060.
Even the higher tier XT model is cheaper than the 3060 and it outperforms it too.
Get subscribed for more GPU comparisons like this one, and come and join me and the community
in Discord and get behind the scenes videos by supporting the channel on Patreon.