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AMD Radeon RX 6600XT
Date issued:
AMD is today bolstering its premium range of PC graphics cards by releasing the much-anticipated Radeon RX 6600 XT GPU. Using the same powerful RDNA 2 blueprint as the Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800 XT, RX 6800 and RX 6700 XT, the newest processor is primed for high-framerate gaming at a full-HD (1920x1080) resolution with all the image quality bells and whistles turned on.
Being based on the latest RDNA 2 architecture, Radeon RX 6600 XT carries with it hardware-based raytracing support and AMD's proprietary, performance-boosting Infinity Cache architecture, amongst other goodies. The simplest way to discern how it fits into the wider Radeon landscape is to view the vital specs.
Premium Navi cards from AMD |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radeon RX 6900 XT | Radeon RX 6800 XT | Radeon RX 6800 | Radeon RX 6700 XT | Radeon RX 6600 XT | Radeon RX 5700 XT | |
| Launch date | December 2020 | November 2020 | November 2020 | March 2021 | August 2021 | July 2019 |
| Codename | Navi 21 | Navi 21 | Navi 21 | Navi 22 | Navi 23 | Navi 10 |
| Architecture | RDNA 2 | RDNA 2 | RDNA 2 | RDNA 2 | RDNA 2 | RDNA |
| Process (nm) | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Transistors (bn) | 26.8 | 26.8 | 26.8 | 17.2 | 11.1 | 10.3 |
| Die Size (mm²) | 519 | 519 | 519 | 336 | 237 | 251 |
| Full Implementation of Die | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hardware Raytracing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Infinity Cache (MB) | 128 | 128 | 128 | 96 | 32 | No |
| Compute Units | 80 | 72 | 60 | 40 | 32 | 40 |
| Processors | 5,120 | 4,608 | 3,840 | 2,560 | 2,048 | 2,560 |
| Texture Units | 320 | 288 | 240 | 160 | 128 | 160 |
| ROP Units | 128 | 128 | 96 | 64 | 64 | 64 |
| Boost Clock (MHz) | 2,250 | 2,250 | 2,105 | 2,581 | 2,589 | 1,905 |
| Game Clock (MHz) | 2,015 | 2,015 | 1,815 | 2,424 | 2,359 | 1,755 |
| Peak GFLOPS (SP) | 23,040 | 20,736 | 16,166 | 13,215 | 10,605 | 9,750 |
| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 | GDDR6 |
| Memory Size (GB) | 16 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 8 |
| Memory Clock (MHz) | 16,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 14,000 |
| Memory Bus (bits) | 256 | 256 | 256 | 192 | 128 | 256 |
| Max Bandwidth (GB/s) | 512 | 512 | 512 | 384 | 256 | 448 |
| PCIe Support | Gen 4 x16 | Gen 4 x16 | Gen 4 x16 | Gen 4 x16 | Gen 4 x8 | Gen 4 x16 |
| Power Connectors | 8+8 | 8+8 | 8+8 | 6+8 | 8 | 6+8 |
| TBP (watts) | 300 | 300 | 250 | 230 | 160 | 225 |
| GFLOPS per watt | 76.8 | 69.1 | 64.66 | 57.46 | 66.28 | 43.3 |
| Launch MSRP | $999 | $649 | $579 | $479 | $379 | $399 |
The table highlights some important truths. The first is that Radeon RX 6600 XT uses a smaller, leaner die than any other RDNA 2 card. Purpose-built for this model, the die, known as Navi 23, fits 32 Compute Units into silicon measuring just 237mm². Having an optimised die is important as it enables AMD to increase the core frequency and also save cost when compared to, say, the bigger Radeon RX 6700 XT.
Running the rule on the stats further reveals AMD shrinks the Infinity Cache from 96MB to just 32MB. Infinity Cache works as pool of on-chip cache that reduces the need for the graphics card to spool out to main memory, thereby bolstering performance without needing to adopt exotic, super-fast memory technologies that increase cost and heat in equal measure. AMD defends the 32MB decision on the grounds that the card is primed for FHD gaming, rather than QHD or UHD, which would necessarily require more cache to work well.
AMD further culls the memory controller width to 128 bits and the interface to the system to PCIe Gen 4 x8. Both moves facilitate the smaller die we spoke about above. Being an FHD-optimised model, board memory is a reasonable 8GB running at an effective 16Gbps.
A positive by-product of going down this leaner approach is total board power of only 160W. This means retail cards will likely to restrained in size and cooling and many will feature only a single 8-pin power connector to the power supply, enabling clean builds.
Compared to its direct predecessors, RX 5700 and RX 5600 XT, AMD promises a 40-70 per cent jump in framerate. Most of the heavy lifting is done by the efficiencies inherent in the RDNA 2 architecture. Expect to see the many of the latest games run in excess of 90 frames per second when quality levels are set to maximum. That is the buttery-smooth framerate available from over 10 TFLOPS of compute performance!
The Radeon RX 6600 XT will not be released in a Made By AMD (MBA) reference board, unlike the other cards from this latest high-performance family. Rather, as pointed out, expect to see varying designs from the likes of Asus, MSI, Sapphire, PowerColor, ASRock, Gigabyte, et al.
Benchmarks from leading hardware review websites show that Radeon RX 6600 XT does indeed live up to its high-frame FHD billing by achieving around 100 frames per second in popular and beautiful-looking games.
In direct fiscal competition with the rival Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, the Radeon RX 6600 XT comes out on top in the three games shown above.
Expect to see partner cards roll off the shelves on August 11 priced from around £349. Want to enjoy the latest GPU architecture from AMD that's also in premier consoles? The Radeon RX 6600 XT is a fine bet for today and tomorrow.
The AMD Radeon RX 6600XT graphics cards are available to purchase right here on the Scan website.