News Radeon RX 6600 XT May Be The New De Facto GPU For Mining

[Admin]

Mining tests show that the Radeon RX 6600 XT is a good miner for Ethereum.

Radeon RX 6600 XT May Be The New De Facto GPU For Mining : Read more

 

[mitch074]

whelp, last hope gone. I'll have to keep my RX480 another couple of years.

 

[escksu]

Hmm...... may or may not be. Although power efficiency is important, hashrate and cost of cards are also important, esp. breakeven.

At 32MH/s, you will be earning around USD2.35 a day. Assuming you managed to get it at USD400. Even with free power, you will still need 170 days to breakeven.

Right now, I am not sure if it makes sense to buy new cards to mine since the difficulty bomb is coming in dec 2021.

 

[salgado18]

I like the decision to lower memory bus width to 128 bits. It lowers mining performance without affecting gaming performance, and can't be undone like Nvidia's software-based solution.

I guess I was wrong... :/

Well, we can only hope for a difficulty spike, a market crash, strict regulations etc., just to upgrade our gaming toys.

 

[kyzarvs]

Toms: "Mining is terrible and destroying the GPU market"
Next day "Lookie this amazing card for mining"

Pick a side or be neutral. Don't pretend to pick a side for the likes but then be neutral.

 

[VforV]

The Radeon RX 6600 XT, like any other graphics card launched during the pandemic and global semiconductor shortage, suffers from scalping and limited stock.

As a general statement of the GPU market today, yes it's true, but contextual the launch of RX 6600 XT was the best AMD GPU launch of the 6000 series yet, considering availability and street/actual shop price (not MSRP).

In EU we had lots of shops for an entire day (yesterday) having these GPUs in stock with prices ranging from 460 euro to 530 euro. Considering the 3060 which is supposed to be cheaper has a 600+ euro price and the 3060 Ti which is supposed to be the best deal vs RX 6600 XT is 700+ euro, in the same shops that sell the AMD GPUs at 460-530, yeah, this paints a very different picture when you take into account reality and not just PR pieces and MSRP fairy tales seen in all the articles and youtube (influencer) videos...

All of these prices are still too much, too expensive, but the markup on RX 6600 XT is actually much less than on nvidia GPUs, so in reality it is the better deal, in a paradoxal kind of way, if you really need/want a GPU now and you can't wait any longer.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Toms: "Mining is terrible and destroying the GPU market"
Next day "Lookie this amazing card for mining"

Pick a side or be neutral. Don't pretend to pick a side for the likes but then be neutral.

We are neutral, and we are reporting the news. Mining is burning power and making it virtually impossible for gamers to buy GPUs. The RX 6600 XT also offers relatively impressive efficiency. I don't think miners are going to use it as the new standard, though, because building rigs with six or eight GPUs has a lot of in-built costs, and you want to maximize overall performance and efficiency. Eight RX 6600 XT cards would do about 240-250 MH/s and use ~700W of power for the entire PC. Or you could do two RTX 3090 cards and get about the same performance and efficiency, except with the ability to add six more cards. (Yes, the RX 6600 XT would cost less -- maybe $4000 vs. $4800.)

This is why RTX 3060 Ti/3070 (and the RX 6800/6800 XT/6900 XT, if you can find them) are the most popular mining cards. They're not as expensive as the RTX 3080/3090, deliver good efficiency, and can go into a rig with eight GPUs doing 480~490 MH/s. Such a rig would in theory cost around $8000. Two rigs built around RX 6600 XT would also cost around $8000 and deliver similar performance, but take twice the work to get set up and running.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

As a general statement of the GPU market today, yes it's true, but contextual the launch of RX 6600 XT was the best AMD GPU launch of the 6000 series yet, considering availability and street/actual shop price (not MSRP).

In EU we had lots of shops for an entire day (yesterday) having these GPUs in stock with prices ranging from 460 euro to 530 euro. Considering the 3060 which is supposed to be cheaper has a 600+ euro price and the 3060 Ti which is supposed to be the best deal vs RX 6600 XT is 700+ euro, in the same shops that sell the AMD GPUs at 460-530, yeah, this paints a very different picture when you take into account reality and not just PR pieces and MSRP fairy tales seen in all the articles and youtube (influencer) videos...

All of these prices are still too much, too expensive, but the markup on RX 6600 XT is actually much less than on nvidia GPUs, so in reality it is the better deal, in a paradoxical kind of way, if you really need/want a GPU now and you can't wait any longer.

Give it some time, though. We still need to see if the initial availability and pricing was more of a publicity stunt, or if AMD can maintain that supply. It feels like AMD maybe delayed the launch by a month or two to build up a large inventory, which it then released all at once. Initial supply looked great, but in two weeks it could be in the same exact spot as all the other GPUs. Pretty sure that will end up being the case, as TSMC production is still tapped out and will be for the next couple of years it seems.

 

[Krotow]

RX 6600 XT actually is not big performance gain in comparing with RX 5700 XT. As mining cart with a possibility to play games? Whatever.

 

[VforV]

Give it some time, though. We still need to see if the initial availability and pricing was more of a publicity stunt, or if AMD can maintain that supply. It feels like AMD maybe delayed the launch by a month or two to build up a large inventory, which it then released all at once. Initial supply looked great, but in two weeks it could be in the same exact spot as all the other GPUs. Pretty sure that will end up being the case, as TSMC production is still tapped out and will be for the next couple of years it seems.

Oh, on this we agree. I don't expect this "good launch price and availability" (compared to others) to last long, exactly because of what you said above.
AMD does not have nvidia levels of supply and production for GPUs, they (nvidia) could do it if they really cared for gamers and the best prices for gamers. But we all know nvidia is the opposite of that...

Still this does not diminish the fact that it is better than other launches and more people had/have a chance of buying the least gouged up GPU now... At least AMD tried something.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

Oh, on this we agree. I don't expect this "good launch price and availability" (compared to others) to last long, exactly because of what you said above.
AMD does not have nvidia levels of supply and production for GPUs, they (nvidia) could do it if they really cared for gamers and the best prices for gamers. But we all know nvidia is the opposite of that...

Still this does not diminish the fact that it is better than other launches and more people had/have a chance of buying the least gouged up GPU now... At least AMD tried something.

What exactly makes you think Nvidia isn't manufacturing as many GPUs as it can right now? Sure, Samsung Foundry doesn't have as many companies using it's built-for-Nvidia 8N (but really just 10nm+) process as TSMC N7, but I don't think SF has tons of untapped wafer starts sitting around. Also, the RTX 3060 launch was delayed several weeks to build up a larger inventory... which still sold out quickly. Current indications are that Nvidia's Ampere GPUs are outselling AMD's RDNA2 GPUs by at least a 10 to 1 ratio. Maybe that would be 20 to 1 if miners weren't snagging half of the GPUs produced? When you can sell every GPU you produce, though, you're not going to hold back inventory. Especially since the Eth2.0 proof-of-stake transition is only a few months away (not that some other coin won't end up gaining popularity with GPU miners once Eth goes PoS).

I do think Nvidia could order more GPUs from Samsung, but would it be able to get enough RAM, PCBs, and everything else to make working graphics cards? And Nvidia doesn't want to end up with a glut of unsold GPUs, either. But it restarted Turing GPU production (different process, so it wouldn't directly interfere with Ampere GPU production), most of those going into CMP cards for miners. Which are overpriced, naturally, so the miners still go after the consumer gaming cards. Anyway, it's better for Nvidia to sell all it can and incrementally ramp production rather than to order the absolute maximum number of wafers and GPUs possible, only to end up with a bunch of excess inventory no one wants when crypto inevitably crashes again. (#RX570)

 

[InvalidError]

Got to love how AMD touted its 6000-series as inherently poor at mining due to architecture, then the lowest-end card they launch turns out to be one of the best MH/s-per-watt option out there.

 

[Krotow]

Got to love how AMD touted its 6000-series as inherently poor at mining due to architecture, then the lowest-end card they launch turns out to be one of the best MH/s-per-watt option out there.

It is like methadone program for heroin addicts.

 

[VforV]

What exactly makes you think Nvidia isn't manufacturing as many GPUs as it can right now?

I think I did not express myself correctly thus it ended up meaning something else.

What I wanted to say with "they (nvidia) could do it if they really cared for gamers and the best prices for gamers" is that nvidia could have had lower prices and still make a lot of profit, instead they and their partners opted for maximum scalping and having the skin of our back too.

Nvidia could have charged lower from the start on all tiers (MSRP), then AMD would have gone even lower (MSRP). So the inflated street/shop prices even if still higher than MSRP would have not rached x3, maybe not even x2 MSRP, thus today we would have been much closer to MSRP with both nvidia and AMD GPUs.

Instead almost a year from the launch of this generation we are in the situation that the only GPU relatively close to MSRP (which is a bad deal on itself) is the RX 6600 XT and no other GPU from either nvidia or AMD comes close to that aspect. Pathetic situation...

 

[WrongRookie]

And this supports california's banning of components...just great.

I mean let's be real here. It's not like your average joe will get rich by mining from an expensive card when it's only going to increase the electricity bills.

 

[jc65]

whelp, last hope gone. I'll have to keep my RX480 another couple of years.

I got lucky, been playing the newegg shuffle since the 3000 series came out. Still want to get a 3080 at some point but I got picked for a PowerColor 6600XT 8GBD6-3DH Fighter at 379 and went ahead for now since I'm guessing it'll be a long while before I can get a 3080 for anywhere close to suggested price. Was 8 years in with my current card and it only has 1 working video port currently

 

[TJ Hooker]

I think I did not express myself correctly thus it ended up meaning something else.

What I wanted to say with "they (nvidia) could do it if they really cared for gamers and the best prices for gamers" is that nvidia could have had lower prices and still make a lot of profit, instead they and their partners opted for maximum scalping and having the skin of our back too.

Nvidia could have charged lower from the start on all tiers (MSRP), then AMD would have gone even lower (MSRP). So the inflated street/shop prices even if still higher than MSRP would have not rached x3, maybe not even x2 MSRP, thus today we would have been much closer to MSRP with both nvidia and AMD GPUs.

Instead almost a year from the launch of this generation we are in the situation that the only GPU relatively close to MSRP (which is a bad deal on itself) is the RX 6600 XT and no other GPU from either nvidia or AMD comes close to that aspect. Pathetic situation...

As long as most GPUs are being bought by miners, I don't think MSRP is terribly relevant; street price ends up being set mostly by mining economics. Cards would probably have ended up being sold/scalped for roughly the same price even if their MSPR had been set lower. If AMD/Nvidia/AIBs were selling their cards for less, that would just mean more profit for scalpers/retailers.

 

[cryoburner]

While the Navi 23-powered graphics card is a solid performer...

The 6600 XT is not exactly what I would consider a "solid performer". The card provides roughly 5700 XT-level performance at roughly the same MSRP over two years later, assuming one can even find them near that MSRP, which will probably be unlikely for months following the initial launch.

And performance drops off a cliff with raytraced lighting effects enabled, in many cases getting only around half the performance of what "should be" a similarly priced 3060 Ti, making that feature nearly unusable on this card. RT performance often falls behind even the older 2060, and without as good of an upscaling feature to make that level of performance semi-usable. The cut-down infinity cache and memory bandwidth compared to the higher-end 6000-series offerings can really hurt performance relative to those cards in demanding scenarios. Even without RT enabled, the card can often perform worse than a 3060 (non-Ti) at higher resolutions than 1080p. I don't get the impression that this card is going to hold up all that well in a few years once things like raytracing become standard and VRAM utilization in general grows.

It seems pretty clear that the 6600 XT was intended to be the successor to the $280 5600 XT. At that price, this level of performance might have been an okay improvement over the prior gen, but at $100+ more it arguably falls flat as far as value is concerned. The card's only saving grace might be if it managed to stay close to that pre-inflated MSRP in the current market while maintaining better availability than other cards, but if its mining efficiency is strong, the likelihood of that happening seems questionable, as mining capabilities tend to be the primary factor controlling prices right now. And I can't see AMD producing many of these cards when they would be making far more profit per wafer off their CPUs built on the same process, so I highly doubt that they will maintain sufficient supply for any length of time.

 

[escksu]

As long as most GPUs are being bought by miners, I don't think MSRP is terribly relevant; street price ends up being set mostly by mining economics. Cards would probably have ended up being sold/scalped for roughly the same price even if their MSPR had been set lower. If AMD/Nvidia/AIBs were selling their cards for less, that would just mean more profit for scalpers/retailers.

Yes, even AIBs do not sell their cards at MSRP.

 

[VforV]

As long as most GPUs are being bought by miners, I don't think MSRP is terribly relevant; street price ends up being set mostly by mining economics. Cards would probably have ended up being sold/scalped for roughly the same price even if their MSPR had been set lower. If AMD/Nvidia/AIBs were selling their cards for less, that would just mean more profit for scalpers/retailers.

It's very much possible, yet we will never know, since we did not had lower prices to begin with, did we?

What I'm talking about is the hypocrisy of some articles/influencers/"reviewers" (not everyone, of course) that like to bash AMD for having a too high price at MSRP compared to 3060/3060 Ti MSRP, when we all know and see with our own eyes that the prices of those two nvidia cards are both more expensive in reality than that of RX 6600 XT (and at all the other tiers too, same story).

I can't stand that hypocrisy or shilling or blind fainboism.

I don't like these prices at all, but let's be fair here: nvidia started this huge gouging since Turing, they did it again even more with Ampere, AMD followed them with RDNA2 and now both of them are to blame, but out of them two, nvidia is the worse one... doing it with 2 generations and with even higher prices.

 

[InvalidError]

we all know and see with our own eyes that the prices of those two nvidia cards are both more expensive in reality than that of RX 6600 XT (and at all the other tiers too, same story).

Scalper prices of Nvidia cards have been trending down while AMD prices have started trending up. Between Nvidia's new cards having LHR and the 6600XT being the MH/s power efficiency champ, I'd expect the 6600XT's price to go up substantially once the launch stock is gone from all primary sources.

 

[VforV]

Scalper prices of Nvidia cards have been trending down while AMD prices have started trending up. Between Nvidia's new cards having LHR and the 6600XT being the MH/s power efficiency champ, I'd expect the 6600XT's price to go up substantially once the launch stock is gone from all primary sources.

Yes, it will go up. But will it get more expensive than 3060 street price? Or more expensive than 3060 Ti?

I guess we'll see...

Also there is a bit of misinformation about "6600 XT being the MH/s power efficiency champ", as in, these "news" did not do enough reasearch to report that actually, both the RX 6700 XT and RX 6800 (non XT) are equally as efficient with enough tuning.
Not straight out of the box, but any miner can do it, even casual ones and they do get the same ratio between MH/s and power consumption as the 6600 XT.

 

[InvalidError]

Not straight out of the box, but any miner can do it, even casual ones and they do get the same ratio between MH/s and power consumption as the 6600 XT.

Except you cannot buy the 6700XT and 6800XT.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Except you cannot buy the 6700XT and 6800XT.

Surprisingly there are 6700 XT/6800XT in stock at brick and mortar retailers (i.e. not marketplace resellers) near me. It's just that they cost $1000+/$1500+ (CAD)...

Some 6600 XTs as well, but again overpriced. No Nvidia GPUs available locally that I've seen.

 

[VforV]

Except you cannot buy the 6700XT and 6800XT.

I actually did, 2 weeks ago.

I bought the XFX 6700 XT Merc 319 (which has an MSRP of 570 euro) at 660 euro (shipping included) and its one of the best if not the best 6700 XT. So I over-payed +90 euro for scalping, while I made 400 euro from being "forced" to mine (casually) in the last months with my GTX 1080 and 1060. So it was worth it in this GPU market...

The only nvidia GPU at that price in my part of EU was the 3060. The 3060Ti was from 50 to 100 euro more expensive and 3070 was a lot more expensive, +200 euro or more.

I bought it right when crypto was lowest and GPU prices were lowest in the last 6+ months, and right at the start of the latest crypto resurgence (that we see now). You cannot find that price anymore.

I knew prices will go up again and it was a choice of paying a little extra and get over with the waiting or keep waiting possibly at least 5 more months, if not more, for better prices. I did it and have ZERO regrets, I'm so glad I'm not stuck with nvidia anymore.

When I talk about hashrate/power and efficiency compared to 6600 XT, I know from experience with the 6700 XT.

Spoiler: Gaming on RX 6700 XT

Oh, and as for gaming, I don't care about 4k nor 1440p. I'm using it at 1080p Ultra + RT and it works perfectly like that (except RT in CP 77, which has horrible optimization, even for nvidia). This card is a 1440p Ultra raster and a 1080p Ultra + RT GPU, I find it silly to buy it for 1440p or 4k when you cannot use all it's features at those resolutions. At 1080p it will last me at least 2 years without needing to lower settings, if not more.

People these days are to foolish and do not realize that their expensive and super-expensive GPUs bought for 1440p and 4k respectively will not last them many years, maybe not even 2 years. And I would feel like a muppet to pay 1000+ $/euro for a GPU only to be forced to play at medium settings in 1 or 2 years time. And that's exactly what's gonna happen with a lot of GPUs from this generation next year or the year after, at those resolution.

There is a good reason why we will see at least a 2x jump in performance with next gen nvidia and especially AMD GPUs... All the $1000+/$2000+ GPUs of today will look pathetic and really stupid by the end of next year.