This AMD Radeon RX 6600 comes at an odd point in the graphics card cycle. Both AMD & Nvidia have introduced some of their best devices in a decade, with a worldwide silicon shortage, getting anything at a respectable markup – let alone the manufacturer’s planned price – is nearly impossible.
It’s left us wishing for a low-cost graphics card that many people can purchase and install on their PCs. Particularly those with older cards such as the GTX 1060 — the world’s most popular GPU.
But we won’t know how stock levels hold up until AMD actually launches this card. How long it will be before more than five people can purchase the graphics card now at $329 (about £250/AU$450) MSRP.
At that price, an AMD Radeon RX 6600 could be well worth it. Especially if you’re still playing games in 1080p, and doubly. So if you’ll be playing games that support AMD’s new FidelityFX Super Resolution technology. This is already helping to boost the effectiveness of big games such as Far Cry 6 and Resident Evil Village only months after their release.
But now nothing lasts long, and as shortly as this graphics card hits $500 – which it almost certainly will – its value will begin to erode. Especially if it’s positioned between the RX 6600 XT or the RTX 3060. As Nvidia’s lowest-end card easily outperforms this fresh AMD graphics card in nearly every test run.
What you will see here?
Set of chips and features
The RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2 architecture, just like the rest of the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series. It’s a scaled-down version of the same GPU as in the Radeon RX 6600 XT. You’ll get 28 Compute Units in this edition, down from 32 with the 6600 XT. That implies you’ll get 1,792 Stream Processors in total, as well as 28 Ray Accelerators.
The 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM on even a 128-bit bus is the same as the 6600 XT, though it’s a little slower, with a maximum bandwidth of 224GB/s, which is too many for the 1080p resolution the card is intended at.
So, this isn’t a high-end showpiece from AMD. But rather a graphics card aimed just at playing the newest games at 1080p – that makes sense given that 1080p is still the most common resolution.
First-Generation edition of AMD’s RTX technology
Fortunately, Ray Accelerators are included even at this low price. They’re still the first-generation edition of AMD’s RTX technology, which means they’re not nearly as good as Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, and they’ll do the job. There still are 28 of them here, one for each Compute Unit, to aid offload the computationally intensive ray-tracing procedure. Of course, this means that ray tracing effects may enable in any game and will work, though at a performance cost.
You’ll receive the special Infinity Cache, 32MB of it, like all other AMD graphics cards throughout this generation, which helps speed up memory capacity without using more costly GDDR6X memory, and helps keep the price down. This is what allows this graphics card to reach its memory bandwidth of 224 GB/s.
However, choosing a graphics card these days is about much more than simply the hardware available – software is becoming increasingly crucial every day. Nvidia used to have a large advantage in this area, but AMD is catching up with the latest graphics cards such as the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT.
FidelityFX Super Resolution
With FidelityFX Super Resolution, for example, they now have a serious challenger to DLSS. This operates a little differently than Nvidia’s scaling technology and isn’t quite as powerful, but it’s a lot more open. All seen a slew of fantastic titles embrace it, the most recent of which is Far Cry 6, and it should allow graphics cards like the RX 6600 XT to achieve higher resolutions in a variety of games.
Because it’s an open technology, we’ll likely see more games support this in the near future, as many people with Nvidia graphics cards would be able to utilize it, unlike with DLSS, only RTX owners would be able to enjoy the obviously wonderful technology. In theory, this means that more developers will still want to employ AMD’s technology because it will be available to a wider spectrum of gamers.
FSR, especially when set to the Quality and Ultra Quality preset, retains a similar quality level in-game while dramatically increasing framerate, in our experience. So it’s worth enabling when you have the chance, and it only serves to extend the Radeon RX 6600’s legs a little.
AMD Radeon RX 6600: Smart Access Memory
Resizable BAR, or “Smart Access Memory,” is also supported by the Radeon RX 6600. This allows your CPU to access the memory on your graphics card directly, which helps boost most games. It is a setting that you’ll almost certainly have to enable in your BIOS, especially if you’re upgrading an existing system, thus approach with caution.
But, as far as BIOS adjustments go, it’s a very straightforward operation, so we’d recommend at least giving it a shot. The setting is normally under “PCI setup” or something similar in your BIOS. However, because each motherboard is unique, finding it may take some effort. However, most recent boards and processors already support it, and you’ll take advantage of it now.
Design
With a gunmetal shroud, the Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle 8G features a very modest design. Unlike other luxury graphics card designs. However, both are made of plastic shroud & backplate. That’s not a big concern because you’re not going to touch it, the graphics card doesn’t produce enough warmth to require additional cooling, and it appears to be metal from the outside.
There’s also no illumination, which can be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on the aesthetic aspirations. It looks a little crazy in this rig, which is jam-packed with lights. But it will look fantastic in a more subdued setup.
There’s also a lot of cooling on hand for a card at this performance level. It is a replete graphics chipset, which means the heatsink takes up the majority of the card’s bulk, despite the fact that the PCB is just half the length of a card. When you add in the fact that Gigabyte includes a triple-fan configuration, you get a graphics card that just doesn’t become too hot or too loud.
8-pin power socket
Because it only has one 8-pin power socket in the middle of a card, it only has a max power of 100W, which is quite low by today’s standards. They haven’t seen temperatures rise above 60 degrees Celsius, which is ice-cold for a graphics card, thanks to the excessive cooling. If you don’t want to monkey about with fan angles or anything, this is great news. Because you won’t have to worry about this thing overheating.
Finally, this graphics card comes with the usual assortment of connections, including two DisplayPort 1.4 & two HDMI 2.1. Normally, see three DisplayPorts & one HDMI. But considering that this card is geared for people who may have monitors without a DP input, it’s understandable.
Performance
This AMD Radeon RX 6600 debuted at a time when is transitioning offices. Obviously, this isn’t ideal, but because it’s a low-ish-end graphics card. So performance differences with the new CPU won’t be significant. The one thing not sure about is it is on Windows 11 rather than Windows 10.
The Radeon RX 6600 market is like a 1080p graphics card, that’s exactly what it is. Even in very sophisticated games such as Horizon Zero Dawn and Metro Exodus. The graphics card is perfectly competent in handling flawless 60 fps gaming in the majority of the tests.
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition
With Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, when Ray Tracing is always on, the Radeon RX 6600 struggles a little. But that’s to anticipate. Even so, we get 45 frames per second, which, while less than the 60 frames per second sweet spot. It is still more than playable and should deliver a decent experience. Especially if you’re using a FreeSync-compatible gaming monitor.
Whereas this graphics card is really a scaled-down version of an RX 6600 XT, it is still a significant step-down. When compared to the RX 6600’s XT sibling, the RX 6600 should deliver roughly 15% less performance. But that’s perfect scaling, given that the RX 6600 XT is precisely 15% more costly than the RX 6600, at least when it comes to a list pricing.
RTX 3060
However, things are better for AMD when it comes to the RTX 3060. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 and even the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 are nearly identical in terms of performance. Both graphics cards shine in some games, such as Nvidia’s Metro Exodus & Horizon Zero Dawn and the RX 6600’s Dirt 5. And, considering intend that all of these cards are for the same price, that’s excellent. The decision comes down to which games you’d like to play.
They can’t help but wonder how much this graphics card will have cost if it were released at a period when GPUs weren’t so scarce. It’s a great 1080p graphics card, something they required. But at $329 in 2021, expect to be able to push further into the 1440p realm. But that’s the reality we live in these days.
Is the AMD Radeon RX 6600 a good investment?
An AMD Radeon RX 6600 will be accessible from October 13, with costs starting at $329 (about £250/AU$450) and rising based on which alternative GPU maker you choose. And, like AMD’s previous graphics card, Radeon RX 6600 XT, there won’t be a standard design available to buy. So you’ll have to acquire the GPU from third-party vendors like MSI, Gigabyte, XFX, and others.
This Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 Eagle 8G is the model of the graphics card we’re looking at right now. I’ll set you back $419 (about £310/AU$570). That’s certainly more than AMD’s minimal cost, that’s where the graphics card market is at the moment.
However, this is a fairly basic version of the GPU – more about that later. There will very certainly be far more expensive AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT variants with fancy features like RGB illumination, superior power delivery, factory overclocks, and more.
Conclusion
If you need a 1080p GPU and this card is available at a fair price. You should take advantage of it. Most people still use 1080p gaming monitors. So if you’re one of them, this is a terrific upgrade, particularly if your GPU is getting old. While they wish to live in a world where GPU brands didn’t matter, different games tailor for various GPU manufacturers. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 will excel in games like Far Cry 6 & Resident Evil Village.
