GeForce RTX 3060 vs Radeon RX 6600 XT

Today we’re evaluating the Radeon RX 6600 XT and GeForce RTX 3060 head-to-head to see how these two GPUs stack up utilizing the most recent drivers in a variety of video games. Even although the Radeon carries an MSRP of $380, whereas the RTX 3060 is supposed to price $330, in actuality they’re competing merchandise, each promoting for about $400 at main on-line retailers.

That’s fairly a drop for the RTX 3060 which was nearer to $500 just a few weeks in the past, whereas the 6600 XT was round $440. Meanwhile, provide for the 6600 XT seems to be drying up and that is in all probability because of the imminent launch of the 6650 XT.

For testing we have used our Ryzen 9 5950X take a look at system with 32GB of DDR4-3200 CL14 dual-rank, dual-channel reminiscence. Both GPUs had been examined utilizing the default AMD and Nvidia clock specs at 1080p and 1440p throughout 50 video games with Resizable Bar enabled. The driver variations used had been Radeon Adrenalin 22.4.2 and GeForce Game Ready Driver 512.59, as these had been the most recent obtainable drivers once we began testing every week in the past.

We will not go over the information for all 50 video games individually as that will take all day, as a substitute we’ll take a detailed take a look at the outcomes for a few dozen of them after which we’ll check out how these two GPUs examine head-to-head throughout all video games examined in a single graph.

Benchmarks

Starting with Dying Light 2, this lately launched sport makes use of a proprietary 3D sport engine developed by Techland referred to as Chrome Engine 6, and it is the one sport in our take a look at suite to make use of it.

Dying Light 2 performs nicely with Radeon GPUs and right here the 6600 XT is 11% quicker at 1080p and eight% quicker at 1440p. Perhaps extra spectacular is that each GPUs rendered nicely over 60 fps at 1080p utilizing the best high quality settings, except for ray tracing, which is not enabled by default.

Warhammer III is one other new sport and this one makes use of the Warscape Engine 3 which is used solely by the Total War collection. Here the GeForce GPUs at the moment take pleasure in a small efficiency benefit.

In this matchup, the RTX 3060 was 9% quicker at 1080p and 14% quicker at 1440p which is a major margin, although the 1% lows are principally an identical.

Next we’ve got Call of Duty Warzone, the place the 6600 XT was fairly a bit quicker than the RTX 3060, delivering 21% extra frames at 1080p and 16% extra at 1440p. A robust win for the Radeon GPU, although consider it was additionally meant to price 15% extra based mostly on the unique MSRP.

Forza Horizon 5 is a nicely optimized title that performs nicely on each {hardware} platforms. We are utilizing the intense preset, so that is as demanding as the sport will get, but we’re nonetheless 61 fps on common from each GPUs at 1440p. Performance was very comparable with no clear winner.

God of War is one other nicely optimized title and whereas it does play nicely on the 6600 XT, it performs significantly better with the RTX 3060, particularly at 1440p. We did double examine these outcomes, and it could appear the RTX 3060 is 15% quicker at 1080p and a whopping 33% quicker at 1440p. A large win for Nvidia on this sport.

Far Cry 6 makes use of the Dunia 2 engine and this one runs very nicely on AMD {hardware}, largely helped by the truth that AMD had a hand in sponsoring the sport’s improvement. As a outcome, the 6600 XT enjoys a robust 13% efficiency benefit at 1080p and was capable of keep a double digit win at 1440p the place it was 10% quicker.

Typically, Radeon GPUs carry out nicely within the F1 collection, however F1 2021 permits ray tracing by default on the highest presets and subsequently we examined with the function enabled. This fingers the RTX 3060 a efficiency benefit, affording it a 6% efficiency benefit at 1080p and 10% at 1440p. Disabling ray tracing does favor the 6600 XT, however we really feel we’d as nicely take a look at utilizing the default configuration as that is how we usually take a look at, and we’re nonetheless round 60 fps at 1440p.

Next we’ve got Metro Exodus Enhanced and this model of the sport requires ray traced accelerated {hardware}, so ray tracing results are enabled by default and for testing these mid-range GPUs we have gone with the ‘regular’ setting.

Although the 6600 XT was capable of ship extremely playable efficiency at 1080p, the RTX 3060 was 29% quicker and that meant we had been seeing comparable body charges at 1440p from the GeForce GPU in comparison with what the 6600 XT might do at 1080p.

The Rainbow Six Extraction efficiency was comparable with each GPUs delivering over 130 fps at 1080p. The RTX 3060 did edge forward by a 7% margin at 1440p, however general efficiency was very comparable.

Performance was additionally comparable when testing with Apex Legends. In brief, the 6600 XT was barely quicker at 1080p after which barely slower at 1440p. Both GPUs proved loads highly effective for this title although, delivering over 100 fps at 1440p utilizing the best in-game high quality settings.

Another aggressive title that delivered aggressive outcomes is Fortnite. Although most Fortnite gamers will not run the Epic preset, we’re excited by testing GPU efficiency and never CPU efficiency, which is the place issues rapidly head with aggressive settings.

Assuming you do not run into CPU certain circumstances, Radeon and GeForce GPUs scale very equally with the standard presets, so utilizing aggressive settings each the 6600 XT and RTX 3060 will ship an analogous degree of efficiency.

The final set of outcomes we’ll take a look at are for Cyberpunk 2077 and right here the 6600 XT was 9% quicker utilizing the prime quality settings at 1080p. Both GPUs are finest suited to 1080p gaming on this title as the marginally dialed down high quality settings noticed simply 44 fps rendered on common at 1440p.

Performance Summary

Based on the video games we simply checked out, the RTX 3060 and 6600 XT seem like extraordinarily shut when it comes to efficiency. There had been just a few titles that closely favor one over the opposite, however for probably the most half efficiency was shut.

We did spend every week testing by way of 50 video games although, so let’s examine that out…

Starting with the 1080p information, we see that the 6600 XT was 3% quicker on common, which means they’re principally an identical general throughout a variety of video games as we deem something inside 5% a draw. That means for 20 of the 50 video games examined efficiency was close to sufficient to “an identical” with margins 4% or much less.

There had been only a handful of outliers the place the margins prolonged to 10% or extra in both course. The huge losses for AMD had been seen in Resident Evil Village and Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, unsurprisingly two of the video games that used ray tracing. Vermintide 2, God of War, and PUBG had been additionally dangerous titles for AMD.

Titles the place the 6600 XT carried out exceptionally nicely included Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, World War Z, Borderlands 3, Warzone, Call of Duty Vanguard and Death Stranding.

Increasing the decision to 1440p flipped the ends in Nvidia’s favor as now the 6600 XT was 2% slower general, however once more that margin is insignificant. This time there have been 23 video games the place the margin was 5% or much less, with simply three outliers with just a few video games in both course exceeding 20%.

Picking a Winner: Go RTX

Depending on the decision and the sport performed, one GPU may be quicker than the opposite. There had been situations the place the margins grew to virtually 30%, which may be very important, so you could need to take note of how these Radeon and GeForce GPUs stack up within the video games you care about probably the most.

When our 50 sport pattern — and that is a considerable variety of video games to check — it is honest to conclude that in most situations there can be lower than a ten% distinction between these two GPUs.

Having mentioned that, as soon as you’re taking the total image under consideration, it is onerous to not argue that the GeForce RTX 3060 is the higher purchase and is even price a premium. This is as a result of once you begin to have a look at what every product gives past rasterization efficiency, there’s not a lot to speak about with regards to the 6600 XT.

The RTX 3060 packs a 50% bigger body buffer with 12 GB opposed to eight GB, so it ought to deal with future HD texture packs quite a bit higher, which means future AAA titles might doubtlessly look higher with out hurting body fee efficiency. In our opinion, that is a pleasant bonus that should not be missed.

The RTX 3060 additionally packs a full x16 PCIe 4.0 connection whereas the 6600 XT is reduce down to only 8 lanes, and this may trigger critical efficiency points when exceeding the reminiscence buffer. That’s another excuse why the reminiscence subsystem of the RTX 3060 is vastly superior.

On prime of that, you get DLSS which is extensively supported by many new AAA titles and it really works very well at 1440p and past, and that is resolutions the place the RTX 3060 might do with a efficiency enhance.

AMD gives some upscaling strategies for 6600 XT homeowners and extra plans are within the works to move off the DLSS risk, however for now DLSS is the most suitable choice. Then there’s ray tracing, which is yet one more energy of the RTX 3060. As we noticed within the titles that use this rendering method, the GeForce GPU had a transparent efficiency benefit because of its extra mature implementation.

In a nutshell: the RTX 3060 gives comparable rasterization efficiency, superior ray tracing, DLSS assist, a much bigger VRAM buffer, and a full PCIe 4.0 x16 connection, making it a greater product — and if obtainable on the identical value, the plain choice.

Whether or not AMD can tempt us with the Radeon RX 6650 XT has but to be seen, however we’re eager to look into that very quickly.