The Radeon RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT are two of AMD's most affordable PC gaming GPUs, but which one is ultimately worth buying? AMD launched the Radeon RX 6600 XT in July 2021. At the time, AMD was hailing it as its cheapest GPU launched during the year. A few months later in October, however, AMD one-upped itself with the even lower-priced RX 6600. Both graphics cards are compelling options for budget-minded gamers, but which is the best overall choice? Here's what you need to know.

As the nearly identical names imply, the AMD RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT are very similar graphics cards. Both are powered by the same Navi 23 chipset, albeit with a couple of tweaks mentioned below. Each card also has the same 32MB infinity cache and 8GB of GDDR6 RAM. At the end of the day, both cards should be able to run most games at 1080p with very high graphics enabled (and even max graphics in some cases). At normal retail pricing, the RX 6600 XT costs $379 and the RX 6600 is a bit cheaper at $329.

Related: 7 Things You Need To Know About Nvidia’s RTX 4060 & 4060 Ti GPUs

Why The RX 6600 XT Is The Better GPU To Buy

AMD RX 6600 XT graphics card

Looking a bit deeper, there are some clear advantages of the more expensive RX 6600 XT. The Navi 23 chip may be the same across both cards, but the RX 6600 XT delivers 32 compute units compared to the 28 of the RX 6600. It also has better clock speeds across the board, with the RX 6600 XT kicking out a 2359MHz game frequency and up to 2589MHz boost frequency. The RX 6600 clocks in at 2044MHz and up to 2491MHz, respectively. Gamers are also treated to faster RAM with the RX 6600 XT. It's capable of 16Gbps speeds and has a memory bandwidth of up to 256 GB/s, compared to 14Gbps and up to 224 GB/s on the RX 6600.

What does all of this mean for real-world use? In general, AMD says to expect a difference between 10 and 15 percent for the two cards. Running in 1080p at max settings, AMD shows the RX 6600 XT achieving 83fps in Cyberpunk 2077 while the RX 6600 gets 70fps. Forza Horizon 4 pulls in 137fps on the RX 6600 XT, but moving to the RX 6600, it goes down to 120fps. In a newer title like Resident Evil Village, the RX 6600 XT has 176fps compared to 145fps for the RX 6600. Based on the retail cost, it probably makes sense for most gamers to spend a little bit more for the RX 6600 XT. It has a more powerful chip, faster RAM, and delivers a better gaming experience across the board.

Other GPUs To Get Instead Of The RX 6600 & 6600 XT

RTX 3060 Ti

Of course, the RX 6600 and 6600 XT aren't the only two GPUs available today. For $479 ($100 more than the MSRP of the RX 6600 XT), another option to consider is the RX 6700 XT. The 6700 XT is a more capable card across the board. It has 40 compute units, a 2424MHz game frequency, and memory bandwidth up to 384 GB/s. That means you can play a game like Assassin's Creed Valhalla in 1440p and with Ultra High graphics and still get up to 82fps. Competitive games like Overwatch run even better, with the RX 6700 XT churning out up to 212fps on Epic graphic settings at 1440.

If you're comfortable looking at Nvidia cards instead of AMD ones, another solid pick is the RTX 3060 Ti. The RTX 3060 Ti features Nvidia's excellent Ampere Architecture, second-generation ray tracing, and DLSS to squeeze higher frame rates out of lower-end machines. Playing Control in 1080p at the highest graphics settings (with RTX on), the 3060 Ti scored over 140 fps.

What About The AMD RX 7600?

AMD RX 7600 GPU

AMD's current GPU lineup comprises the RX 7000 series. The new GPUs include the RX 7900 XTX, RX 7900 XT, and RX 7600, with the RX 7600 being the cheapest option with a price of just $269. The GPU features a 32MB Infinity cache, 8GB of RAM, and supports 1080p gaming. AMD says that the RX 7600 offers 29 percent higher gaming performance than the RX 6600, and 34 percent higher performance than the NVIDIA RTX 3060 at max settings.

The RX 7600 has 32 compute units, a 2250MHz game frequency, and up to 2655MHz boost frequency. The RAM is also faster, with speeds of 18Gbps and memory bandwidth of up to 288GB/s. This is a significant improvement over both the RX 6600 and RX 6600 XT. As for the gaming performance, the AMD RX 7600 can achieve 215fps in Overwatch 2, 178fps in Apex Legends, and 108fps in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at 1080p max settings.

Source: AMD