AMD’s new Radeon RX 6600 XT offers 1080p RDNA 2 gaming for $ 379

AMD is offering a new entry-level RX 6000 GPU: the $ 379 RX 6600 XT, which is still based on the same RDNA 2 architecture as its beefier cousins, but offers a more affordable price. The new card promises the “ultimate 1080p gaming experience,” for customers who don’t necessarily need a next-generation 4K gaming setup.

At a suggested retail price of $ 379 (AMD doesn’t sell its own version of the card), the RX 6600 XT slots are priced even cheaper than the $ 479 RX 6700 XT the company released earlier this year. , which targeted 1440p games.

The RX 6600 XT includes 32 compute units, 8 GB of GDDR6 RAM, a base clock of 2359 MHz, a boosted clock of 2589 MHz and consumes 160 W. For comparison, the high-end RX 6900 XT compute units 80, while the RX 6700 XT offers 40 compute units.

Image: AMD

AMD’s logic here, however, is that most gamers don’t actually have the setup necessary for a full 4K gaming rig, which requires not only the latest and greatest GPUs, but also a processor and a screen that can pump enough pixels. The company cited research from IDC which claimed that around two-thirds of gaming displays sold last year were 1080p panels, but also that the growth of high-refresh displays was 20 times greater than that of high-refresh models. lower refresh rate.

The RX 6600 XT is supposed to fit in perfectly with these trends, promising to be able to run AAA titles like Battlefield 5 or Cyberpunk 2077 at high frame rates at maximum 1080p settings. The new card isn’t for someone who wants the newest, highest performing GPU – it’s for customers using an outdated GPU like the aging GTX 1060 (which still accounts for nearly 10% of all graphics cards in Steam’s hardware survey and may struggle with newer games).

Image: AMD

The new RX 6600 XT also offers a big boost over AMD’s 5000 series cards, offering 1.4x or more improvements in FPS rates over the RX 5600 XT and RX 5700 for titles. like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Eternal destiny. AMD also claims that the new card outperforms Nvidia’s entry-level RTX 3060 GPU, which (at least in theory) starts at $ 329.

AMD is also aware that supply may be an issue for the new card, commenting at a press briefing that “we are doing our best to secure supply, but the demand is unprecedented, and the constraints are supply are real, so we’re working with those situations at hand. Given the general difficulty of purchasing new GPUs these days, it might be best to prepare for another round of hard-to-find cards. find.

The RX 6600 XT will be available from August 11 through AMD’s usual list of partners including ASRock, Asus, Biostar, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX and Yeston, with prebuilt systems expected to arrive in August. also.