Review AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review: RDNA2 Goes Mainstream at $329

[Admin]

The RX 6600 brings AMD's RDNA2 architecture to a broader mainstream audience. The paper specs and pricing look good. Hopefully retail pricing doesn't change too much.

AMD Radeon RX 6600 Review: RDNA2 Goes Mainstream at $329 : Read more

 

[Zarax]

Hi Jarred, would you suggest this card as an upgrade from a RX590 in an older PC (i7-3770k)?

Thanks!

 

[kal326]

Says these launch the 21st. Newegg shuffle hit early today and lists 8 rx6600 cards from ASRock, XFX, Gigabyte, MSI, Powercolor and Sapphire. They seems lower priced at the $329 level and I noticed they were non XT with first listing day of today.

 

[King_V]

Hi Jarred, would you suggest this card as an upgrade from a RX590 in an older PC (i7-3770k)?

Thanks!

Not that I want to speak for Jarred, but the RX 6600, being somewhere in the same performance range as the RX 5600 XT or the RX 5700, would be a very noticeable jump from the RX 590, while also consuming a lot less power.

That said, on that old i7, I think the only real problem would be possibly the motherboard. Sometimes, older motherboards are very finicky and won't work with newer video cards, most particularly when they're part of OEM systems like Dell and HP.

 

[-Fran-]

Ah, another "meh" release of a GPU. Only saving grace is going to be the real street pricing vs MSRP. So sad... So sad...

Anyway, thanks a lot for the review; much appreciated as always.

Not that I want to speak for Jarred, but the RX 6600, being somewhere in the same performance range as the RX 5600 XT or the RX 5700, would be a very noticeable jump from the RX 590, while also consuming a lot less power.

That said, on that old i7, I think the only real problem would be possibly the motherboard. Sometimes, older motherboards are very finicky and won't work with newer video cards, most particularly when they're part of OEM systems like Dell and HP.

Wasn't the Z77 chipset PCIe2.0? It would make the 6600 siblings run in X8 of PCIe2, so I'd imagine they won't perform as in these charts? Maybe close, but I wonder how badly they'll be constrained.

EDIT: yep, 2.0 indeed: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/64024/intel-z77-express-chipset.html
EDIT2: Z77 with the 3770 does run in PCIe3.0; just want to clear that up just in case. It was pointed out later in the thread.

Regards.

 

[Zarax]

Not that I want to speak for Jarred, but the RX 6600, being somewhere in the same performance range as the RX 5600 XT or the RX 5700, would be a very noticeable jump from the RX 590, while also consuming a lot less power.

That said, on that old i7, I think the only real problem would be possibly the motherboard. Sometimes, older motherboards are very finicky and won't work with newer video cards, most particularly when they're part of OEM systems like Dell and HP.

Luckily it's not a branded PC but a custom build.
In my case I would use the RX590 to replace my wife's HD7970 and get the RX6600 for myself IF I can get it at MSRP. If not, I will keep playing lottery at AMD's website in the hope of getting something realistically priced.

 

[PiranhaTech]

When AMD misses the mark, they often have price adjustments and/or sales eventually... but they probably don't need to in this climate.

 

[King_V]

@Yuka 's post does bring up a good point, though. That the 6600 is constrained to x8 PCIe, and that early era board you have is running PCIe 2.0, could make the 6600 a little slower than expected.

I still imagine it'll do far better than the RX 590, though.

 

[r7litepro]

4 chips of ram... this is a 150 gpu ...Mainstream ? lol ok

 

[Makaveli]

Hi Jarred, would you suggest this card as an upgrade from a RX590 in an older PC (i7-3770k)?

Thanks!

As someone who is on a RX580 I think it would be better to go with the 6600XT model, but as other have suggested if you don't have a PCIe 4.0 motherboard makes this a more difficult decision.

 

[King_V]

Yeah . . I think even on PCIe 3.0, you'd still be okay. PCIe 2.0, on the other hand, is kind of an unknown in terms of how much of a choke-point that will be.

 

[InvalidError]

Wasn't the Z77 chipset PCIe2.0?

Doesn't matter what the chipset is: the x16 slot is fed directly by the CPU and Ivy Bridge (3000-series) does support PCIe 3.0. Most 60-series boards with a hard-wired x16 slot (no x8x8/x8x4x4 bifurcation since 2.0 switches can't do 3.0) also got a free upgrade to 3.0x16 with an Ivy Bridge CPU installed.

Kind of the reverse of how a lot of 300/400-series AM4 motherboard could do PCIe 4.0 when using a Zen 2 CPU until AMD pushed an AGESA update to block it.

As for the review/RX6600 itself, basically feels like overpriced tech from years ago. MSRP is about $100 more than it would have any right to in a remotely sane economy.

 

[-Fran-]

Doesn't matter what the chipset is: the x16 slot is fed directly by the CPU and Ivy Bridge (3000-series) does support PCIe 3.0. Most 60-series boards with a hard-wired x16 slot (no x8x8/x8x4x4 bifurcation since 2.0 switches can't do 3.0) also got a free upgrade to 3.0x16 with an Ivy Bridge CPU installed.

Kind of the reverse of how a lot of 300/400-series AM4 motherboard could do PCIe 4.0 when using a Zen 2 CPU until AMD pushed an AGESA update to block it.

As for the review/RX6600 itself, basically feels like overpriced tech from years ago. MSRP is about $100 more than it would have any right to in a remotely sane economy.

Ah, that's a good point. I think Ivy did support PCIe3 via CPU and paired with the Z77.

Regards.

 

[saunupe1911]

I need a 6600 or 3060 for my HTPC. Somebody sell me theirs.

 

[thisisaname]

Another card I can wait to not buy.

 

[InvalidError]

Another card I can wait to not buy.

Not me! I cannot wait to NOT buy one. In fact, I'll not buy one right now!

It is really pathetic how new GPUs launch with a 10-15% net performance-per-dollar regression over their predecessors from a few years ago.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Hi Jarred, would you suggest this card as an upgrade from a RX590 in an older PC (i7-3770k)?

Thanks!

The i7-3770K might hold the GPU back, but basically the RX 6600 performs at about the same level as an RX Vega 64, give or take depending on the game. It's about 6% faster at 1080p, 3% faster at 1440p, and 5% slower at 4K (than Vega 64). It also uses less than half as much power as the Vega 64, which is always nice.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Not me! I cannot wait to NOT buy one. In fact, I'll not buy one right now!

It is really pathetic how new GPUs launch with a 10-15% net performance-per-dollar regression over their predecessors from a few years ago.

It's all part of the current market, though. TSMC is raising prices, getting substrate for the chips and copper foil for the PCBs is getting more expensive, everything is in shortage right now. Even the RX Vega 64, which this basically matches on performance while using half the power, currently sells for an average price of nearly $800 over the past month on eBay. That's because it's reasonably fast at mining, obviously, but you can game just as well on the RX 6600 for hopefully close to half that price. And you get a new card rather than something that's been used and abused for four years.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Hi Jarred, would you suggest this card as an upgrade from a RX590 in an older PC (i7-3770k)?

Thanks!

Lower the resolution and quality all the way and see what performance you get. This is the maximum performance you can attain. If this is better than what you're currently getting, then you can still upgrade and you'll get those numbers on maximum quality, but keep in mind you're still limited to just that performance. If you want more performance, you need to upgrade to a better CPU.

 

[-Fran-]

It's all part of the current market, though. TSMC is raising prices, getting substrate for the chips and copper foil for the PCBs is getting more expensive, everything is in shortage right now. Even the RX Vega 64, which this basically matches on performance while using half the power, currently sells for an average price of nearly $800 over the past month on eBay. That's because it's reasonably fast at mining, obviously, but you can game just as well on the RX 6600 for hopefully close to half that price. And you get a new card rather than something that's been used and abused for four years.

I makes me cringe so hard, but you're right...

I do have a Vega64 in, I'd say, "pristine condition" in my main computer and I could totally swap it for a 6700XT or even a 6800 if I wanted to, but I just can't find justification of doing so...

Such a weird crazy market we have right now...

Regards.

 

[Giroro]

I'm glad AMD finally got around to releasing a $150 gaming card.
Its just a real bummer they decided to charge $330 for it.

 

[Giroro]

It's all part of the current market, though. TSMC is raising prices, getting substrate for the chips and copper foil for the PCBs is getting more expensive, everything is in shortage right now. Even the RX Vega 64, which this basically matches on performance while using half the power, currently sells for an average price of nearly $800 over the past month on eBay. That's because it's reasonably fast at mining, obviously, but you can game just as well on the RX 6600 for hopefully close to half that price. And you get a new card rather than something that's been used and abused for four years.

You know I would would be a lot more likely to believe AMDs complaints about rising costs, if not for the fact they are enjoying record breaking profit... both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of revenue.

Their price hikes are far exceeding their increased costs.

 

[InvalidError]

I'm glad AMD finally got around to releasing a $150 gaming card.
Its just a real bummer they decided to charge $330 for it.

$150 is unrealistic at current GDDR6 prices.

The RX5600/6600 would be the RX580's spiritual successors at least in terms of relative positions on the performance ladder and that launched at $230 in 8GB flavor. With costs going up 20% all-around, $260 would probably be fair if AMD wanted to deliver value to customers as it did back then instead of "spraying money like a hippo's behind when going to the bathroom" as GN put it.

 

[LolaGT]

The actual street price gaming value of this card is nowhere near $320. The times as they are have screwed the market. But I'd have buyer's remorse for months if I bought it at MSRP, let alone at what it will actually be priced at.

Regarding the i73770k, it will feed this card without trying. I am still on that old platform(Asus P8Z77) as are millions of other users, it pushes my RX 5700 xt very well in any modern title and I'd think the 6600 would be a huge step up from that 590

 

[Zarax]

The actual street price gaming value of this card is nowhere near $320. The times as they are have screwed the market. But I'd have buyer's remorse for months if I bought it at MSRP, let alone at what it will actually be priced at.

Regarding the i73770k, it will feed this card without trying. I am still on that old platform(Asus P8Z77) as are millions of other users, it pushes my RX 5700 xt very well in any modern title and I'd think the 6600 would be a huge step up from that 590

Looks like it doesn't matter. Apparently the RX6600 is retailing for close to 600€ so it's an hard pass for me.
I'll stick to my current strategy of playing the AMD weekly lottery and build my PC around whatever I will get from there.

What a shame, this seemed such a good generation for an upgrade...

 

[hannibal]

Not me! I cannot wait to NOT buy one. In fact, I'll not buy one right now!

It is really pathetic how new GPUs launch with a 10-15% net performance-per-dollar regression over their predecessors from a few years ago.

Heh! And it is around that Nvidia will rerelease 2060 to compete this with price higher than original msrp...
Old good times are ower... sigh...