Radeon RX 6600 (Sapphire Pulse) review - Introduction

Radeon RX 6600 review - Sapphire Pulse 

Join us as we examine a new revision of NAVI23-based graphics cards. Specifically, we will be looking at the Radeon RX 6600 (that's non-XT), and in particular the Sapphire Pulse variant, in this review. If it is indeed the price-to-performance warrior that AMD claims it to be, we will investigate it further. Historically, the x600 series was positioned between entry-level and mainstream, generally in the 150–200 USD range. In 2021 we now need to pay 339 USD (starting price) for a graphics card aimed at the Full HD range. The 6600 cards will include a GPU based on NAVI23. This means that Navi 23 GPU is being repurposed, but its performance in the render engine is being somewhat neutered. The cards are fitted with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory connected via a 128-bit wide memory interface, which is quite constrained. A 32 MB Infinity Cache is serving as a buffer to bypass the limitation to some extent. The series card is expected to perform at the same level as the RX 5700 and GTX 2060, making it a plausible card for 1080p or a valid card at 1440p gaming. Where the Radeon RX 6600 XT contains 2048 stream processors, the RX 6600 is equipped with 1792 of them. A large number of companies (AIB/AIC) have announced their own variations and configurations of the card. 

The "Navi 23" chip is not new; it is already in use as the Radeon RX 6600M graphics solution for notebooks, which was introduced with the Radeon RX 6800M and 6700M graphics solutions for laptops a while ago. The majority of cards will use a dual-slot dual-fan cooler; they will include a single 8-pin PCI-Express graphics connection with a rated power consumption of 132 watts. Where the Radeon RX 6600 XT is to cost a rather extravagant 379 USD as a base reference product the 6600 will cost 339 USD. You may expect board partner cards with custom designs and cooling to sit well above the 350 USD marker. We can already share that the pricing is the biggest culprit of this product series. We've laid out the important specifications in the table below to give you a better idea of what to expect.

   

AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series
	RX 6900 XT	RX 6800XT	RX 6800	RX 6700 XT	RX 6600 XT	RX 6600
GPU	Navi 21 XT(XH)	Navi 21 XT	Navi 21 XL	Navi 22 XT	Navi 23 XT	Navi 23 XL
Cores	5120	4608	3840	2560	2048	1792
TMUs	320	288	240	160	128	112
ROPs	128	128	96	64	64	64
Infinity Cache	128 MB	128 MB	128 MB	96 MB	32 MB	32 MB
Boost Clock	2250 MHz	2250 MHz	2105 MHz	2581 MHz	2589 MHz	2491 MHz
Memory Clock	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps	16 Gbps
Memory	16 GB GDDR6	16 GB GDDR6	16 GB GDDR6	12 GB GDDR6	8 GB GDDR6	8 GB GDDR6
Memory Bus	256-bit	256-bit	256-bit	192-bit	128-bit	128-bit
Bandwidth	512 GB/s	512 GB/s	512 GB/s	384 GB/s	256 GB/s	256 GB/s
TBP	300W	300W	250W	230W	160W	132W
MSRP	999 USD	649 USD	579 USD	479 USD	379 USD	339 USD
Launch Date	December 2020	November 2020	November 2020	March 2021	August 2021	October 2021