What is the RX 6600 XT equivalent to Nvidia?

Today we can reveal performance numbers for the Radeon RX 6600 XT - AMD's cheapest RDNA 2-based graphics card, which it announced back in July.

AMD's Radeon RX 6600 XT

In more favorable times, it would cost $379, placing it between the RTX 3060 ($329) and the RTX 3060 Ti ($399), while the RX 6700 XT should be retailing for $479. However, all of those models currently cost a heck of a lot more than those figures as the microchip shortage, crypto mining and general pandemic-related issues continue to plague the supply of PC hardware.

As such, while prices are easing, it's still pot luck as to when, where and how much you'll be paying for your next graphics card and as a result, while the benchmarks below are a guide as to what is faster than what, everything is relative of course and depends how much they costs where you are.

I've reviewed the MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming X and above you can see how the basic specification stacks up to the rest of the RX 6000-series. The key takeaway is that this is a 1080p-focussed product, with just 8GB GDDR6 memory, a 128-bit memory interface and by far the lowest GPU power of the product stack, which explains the relatively large price difference between it and the RX 6700 XT - it costs $100 more.

Test system and benchmarks

My test system

I've used the latest drivers from Nvidia and AMD as well as a fully up-to-date version of Windows 10 as of 1st August 2021. As we're dealing with low to mid-range graphics cards in this review, 1920 x 1080 is the focus for the results. However, I've tested games with DLSS and ray tracing enabled where possible, but also disabled in some titles for comparison as not everyone will want/be able to use these features.

My hardware includes a water-cooled BarrowCH Rhopilema water-cooled test bench, 16GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3,466MHz memory, Intel Core i9-11900K, an Intel 760p M.2 SSD, Corsair RM850i PSU and MSI MEG Z590 Ace motherboard. I've carried out all tests with resizable BAR/Smart Access Memory (SAM) support enabled where possible.

First up above is Dirt 5, which has BAR/SAM support as well as DirectX Raytracing (DXR). Here the RX 6600 XT enjoyed a decent advantage over the RTX 3060, sitting slap bang between it and the RTX 3060 Ti, with the RX 6700 XT way out in front and justifying its price premium, at least in terms of launch prices.

This is the latest version of Flight Simulator as of August 7th 2021, and here AMD again has a lead over AMD with the RX 6600 XT, adding a few frames on top of those achieved with the RTX 3060, with the 3fps gain on the 1% low equivalent to 6 percent.

Ray tracing isn't available for AMD cards in Wolfenstein so it's rasterization only here and the RX 6600 XT is only just ahead of the RTX 3060, while the pricier cards follow a similar pattern at the top of the graph.

Another victory for the RX 6600 XT in Watch Dogs: Legion, adding a few fps on top of the RTX 3060, but again the RX 6700 XT is significantly faster. DLSS saw the RTX 3060 match the non-DLSS RTX 3060 Ti here, which is clearly a sizeable advantage if you're willing to enable it.

However, AMD had pre-warned me about issues with DXR in some games that it's working to resolve and one of these titles seems to be Watch Dogs. Here the frame rate plummeted when DXR was enabled, but didn't seem to impact the RX 6700 XT as much. For now, I'd suggest leaving the ray tracing option disabled in this game till there's a fix as the card should clearly be a lot faster than this.

There were no such issues dealing with ray tracing in Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, though, although the RTX 3060 did manage a slightly higher average frame rate having been beaten on the one percent low. Only adding DLSS into the mix did the RTX 3060 pull ahead, but only really on the average frame rate.

Finally, good old Far Cry New Dawn - a familiar story here and the RX 6600 XT justifies it's extra premium here over the RTX 3060 and isn't far behind the RX 6700 XT either.

As expected the RX 6600 XT was very power frugal thanks to its 7nm RDNA 2 architecture, undercutting the RTX 3060 by 30W. Cable tidying will be easier too as most models I've seen only have a single 8-pin power connector. It was extremely quiet in games too with the two large fans on my MSI sample usually just ticking over.

Conclusions

In normal times, the RX 6600 XT would be a tempting proposition compared to the RTX 3060 as it offers decent gains for the $50 price premium it demands, with 12 percent higher frame rates in Far Cry New Dawn and 11 percent in Dirt 5 with ray tracing enabled.

AMD's Radeon RX 6600 XT in the form of MSI's Gaming X

There was, admittedly, a small fly in the ointment in Watch Dogs: Legion with DirectX Raytracing enabled, which AMD has said is a known driver issue and one it's working on. There's also the fact that Nvidia's DLSS can see the RTX 3060 perform significantly faster even at 1080p, but if you'd prefer not to use it, or your favorite games don't support it, then it comes down to simple pixel-pushing power in rasterization, and here the RX 6600 XT a great option if you can find one for slightly more than the 3060 and less than the 3060 Ti and 6700 XT obviously.

The reality is, it will cost more than this seeing as the cheapest I could find the RX 6700 XT in stock was $849 - nearly twice its launch price. As I mentioned at the start, then, a lot will come down to stock levels and pricing in your area, but if you're not wanting to use DLSS, the RX 6600 XT slots in nicely above the RTX 3060 and definitely offers a decent amount extra performance.

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