MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming X Review

Final Score: 51%

After using an excellent example of what these “little” cards can do when factory overclocked… it is now rather apparent why AMD were so hesitant, or certainly at the very least in no rush, to release it. That is because they wanted to price it at $379. Three seventy-nine USD for a 1080P video card. Even saying that should leave a very bad taste in even hardcore AMD fans mouths. So while yes, it will routinely outperform the relatively ancient GeForce GTX 3060 by (up to) ten percent… it costs 16 percent more. Furthermore, this price point is within about twenty dollars of what the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 TI launch day MSRP was… and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is a vastly superior card in most modern games.

That is not to say the Radeon RX 6600 XT is a bad core per se. It just is so cynically overpriced a series that it is offensive… and disappointing. The bones truly are there for a cult-classic and if AMD had priced it like a bog-standard GeForce RTX 3060’s MSRP there would have been plenty of room for MSI to work their magic and make a killer 1080P video card. AMD made that impossible. AMD killed this series before it was even released and left it to their loyal board partners to try and find a silver lining for loyal AMD buyers. That is the key takeaway from all the RX 6600 XT’s on the market today.

Let’s run the math before anyone accuses us of playing favorites in the everlasting Red vs. Green ‘war’. For about the same MSRP as a GeForce RTX 3060 TI, Radeon RX 6600 XT buyers can forget about fantasies over actually playing games with ray tracing on. It took NVIDIA a full 2 generations to get it remotely ready for prime time and the Radeon RX 6600 XT is no GeForce RTX 3060Ti when it comes to Ray Tracing performance. So, unless a miracle happens fuggedaboutit.

For about the same amount of cash, buyers will get an anemic 128-bit wide bus instead of 256-bit. Thus, ideas of it handling higher resolutions… are beaten worse than a hungry Mike Tyson in his prime. Not interested in higher than 1080P gaming and instead are all about 144+ MHz “silky smoooooooth” gaming? Whelp… you too are out of luck. In order to hit the (vaporware) three hundred and seventy-nine dollar price point AMD has cut a lot more than just fat when carving off the RX 6600 XT from their NAVI 20-series design. Make no mistake. MSI has done their best to boost performance but there is just not enough engine there to make it work for 120Mhz+ gaming enthusiasts. Yes, NIVIDA also cut all the way to the bone when they made their plain jane RTX 3060. They just did not have to cut as much to make a RTX 3060Ti variant… and they certainly did not MSRP their older 3060 at 380 dollars.

The only comparisons in which “Team Red” can “win” are in power consumption and noise. A couple cents difference per a month is no way to choose one video card over another. As for noise… MSI already solved that issue generations ago. Their Team Red and Team Green “Gaming X” cards are essentially silent running cards.

Now, to be perfectly clear, MSI really did do their best with what they had to work with. We really, really like the Radeon RX 6600XT Gaming X. It runs extremely cool and quiet. Provides good (enough) performance for 1080P 60Hz monitor users, and generally speaking is a decent (enough) video card for 1080P users. So much so that if a loaded gun was put to the back of our heads and were forced to buy a Radeon RX 6600 XT this would be on a short, short list of options that would keep us from saying “Nope”.

Sure, hidden underneath fancy dress is still an over-priced/under-performing core, but at least it’s a fancy dress and pearl necklace flaunting one. So, if you absolutely… positively must have a 4-bill(ish) MSRP range Team Red video card… please save your pennies until you can afford a RX 6700 XT. That extra 100 dollars on the MSRP will get you an actually good card. If that is not possible, we strongly recommend buying a used MSI card so as save yourself both money and your self-respect. Do not reward AMD for their blatant cynicism by buying RX 6600 XT based cards. Even if doing so hurts board makers like MSI.