XFX Radeon RX 6600 XT Speedster MERC 308 Black Review

1. Introduction
2. Everything You Need to Know About The RX 6600 XT
3. XFX + AMD marketing
4. Detailed Look
5. Test System Specs
6. Benchmarks - Synthetic
7. Benchmarks - 1080p
8. Benchmarks - 1440p
9. Benchmarks - 4K
10. Power Consumption & Temps
11. What's Hot, What's Not
12. Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 97%

The Bottom Line

XFX has a mighty fine 1080p gaming GPU beast with its new Radeon RX 6600 XT Speedster MERC 308 Black, which also looks mean AF, too.

Introduction

I can't believe I'm reviewing another graphics card in the middle of the pandemic, in the middle of the craziest graphics shortage of all time -- but here we are, with the introduction of AMD's new mid-range 1080p performance powerhouse: the Radeon RX 6600 XT.

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Let's run you through what AMD has in store for gamers with the new mid-range Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card.

AMD's new Radeon RX 6600 XT is everything we've come to know and love about the Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards: we have the kick-ass RDNA 2 architecture, 8GB of GDDR6 memory, Infinity Cache, HDMI 2.1 connectivity, FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), ray tracing, and everything in between.

The new Radeon RX 6600 XT has 8GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 16Gbps on a 128-bit memory bus with 32MB of AMD Infinity Cache (down from the 128MB on the higher-end Radeon RX 6800 XT for example). Infinity Cache helps the Radeon RX 6600 XT swing above its weight, especially when compared with previous-gen GPUs in the same "price range" as the RX 6600 XT.

• Read more: ASUS ROG Strix XG43UQ Review - The Best HDMI 2.1 Gaming Monitor
• Read more: Best HDMI 2.1 Monitors for PC Gaming, Consoles, and Professionals

The first card out of the gate is the custom XFX Radeon RX 6600 XT Speedster MERC 308 Black, which is an awesome-looking card that packs a great 1080p punch. It stays cool (70C) has 8GB of GDDR6 memory (plenty for 1080p and even 1440p gaming) and has everything the AMD RDNA 2 graphics architecture has to offer.

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Ray tracing, FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), and a billion-and-one other Radeon features -- as well as the new HDMI 2.1 connectivity standard. This will give you 4K 120Hz abilities to the new wave of TVs that have been hitting the market, and the new gaming monitors that are slowly but surely making their way onto market.

XFX Speedster MERC319 AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT Black

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$599.99	$599.99	$599.99	$299.99	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 12/6/2023 at 3:57 am CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Everything You Need to Know About The RX 6600 XT

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AMD's new Radeon RX 6600 XT is everything we've come to know and love about the Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards: we have the kick-ass RDNA 2 architecture, 8GB of GDDR6 memory, Infinity Cache, HDMI 2.1 connectivity, FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), ray tracing, and everything in between.

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The new Radeon RX 6600 XT has 8GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 16Gbps on a 128-bit memory bus with 32MB of AMD Infinity Cache (down from the 128MB on the higher-end Radeon RX 6800 XT for example). Infinity Cache helps the Radeon RX 6600 XT swing above its weight, especially when compared with previous-gen GPUs in the same "price range" as the RX 6600 XT.

AMD is marketing its new RDNA 2-powered Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card up against NVIDIA's previous-gen Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1060 and showing that it has far over 100%+ performance gains in the latest titles. This is a huge deal for gamers that have a GTX 1060 or RX 5x0 series graphics card, and want an RDNA 2-powered upgrade... the Radeon RX 6600 XT is a fantastic option for 1080p gamers.

Hell, the Radeon RX 6600 XT is even capable of beating NVIDIA's new Ampere-powered GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, but not the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti -- we'll have more on that later, but AMD has positioned the new RX 6600 XT very well in the performance department.

Add into the fact you've got FSR support -- at least in the small amount of games available now, is another nice touch for the Radeon RX 6600 XT.

XFX + AMD marketing

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Detailed Look

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XFX has done a great job with the retail packaging for the Radeon RX 6600 XT Speedster MERC 308 Black, where if you were to be able to find it on a shelf somewhere in the world for less than $3.2 billion then at least it'll look great on your shelf once the card is in your gaming PC.

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One of my favorite styled custom Radeon cards, like... ever. Beautiful on the front, and the back.

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Hell, even from the top it looks great -- one of the best parts of XFX's new fleet of RDNA 2 cards.

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You have 3 x DP 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.1 for display connectivity.

Test System Specs

Latest upgrade:

Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed.

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I've got a new upgrade inside of my GPU test bed before my change to a next-gen test bed, where I will be preparing for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics cards and AMD's next-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards.

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Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now.

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Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications

I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTown GPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (buy from Amazon)
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII HERO (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML360R RGB (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: G.SKILL Trident Z NEO RGB 32GB (4x8GB) (F4-3600C18Q-32GTZN) (buy from Amazon)
• SSD: Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 (buy from Amazon)
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W (buy from Amazon)
• Case: InWin X-Frame 2.0
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 (buy from Amazon)

Benchmarks - Synthetic

3DMark Fire Strike

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3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.

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3DMark TimeSpy

Heaven - 1080p

Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.

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Benchmarks - 1080p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

Fantastic performance across the board from AMD with their new Radeon RX 6600 XT killing it in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla with 83FPS average at 1080p. This is beating the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti at this point, but it is a Radeon-friendly title.

Shadow of War is more punishing, knocking the RX 6600 XT Down to "just" 127FPS average -- losing to the previous-gen RX 5700 XT and GTX 1080 Ti. Metro Exodus has the RX 6600 XT matching the RX 5700 XT with 53FPS average.

Fantastic performance at 1080p for a card that consumes less than 150W.

Benchmarks - 1440p

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts

I wouldn't recommend AMD's new Radeon RX 6600 XT for 1440p gaming, but if the game is right -- like for example, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla -- then you're pulling 60FPS average at 1440p. Not too damn bad at all, AMD.

Shadow of War still cranks along at 88FPS average, while Shadow of the Tomb Raider gives you 102FPS average at 1440p. Next-gen console crushing performance, even at 1440p.

Benchmarks - 4K

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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs.

You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon.

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.

You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.

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Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.

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Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.

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4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts

Please don't buy the Radeon RX 6600 XT thinking you're going to be blazing through games at 120FPS at 4K... but hell, 33FPS average in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla at 4K? Nice.

Power Consumption & Temps

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Out of the box, my sample of the XFX Radeon RX 6600 XT Speedster MERC 308 Black was rocking along at 2567-2605MHz GPU boost or so.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

• XFX style: I love the style that XFX has used on its Radeon RX 6000 series cards, with the Radeon RX 6600 XT Speedster MERC 308 Black looking sharp AF. I love the Radeon RX 6600 XT branding LED on the top of the card, just like I did on the other XFX RX 6000 series GPUs. LOVE it.

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• 8GB GDDR6 memory: Good to see 8GB of GDDR6 here, AMD could've gone a little cheaper and offered 6GB but we don't have that. 8GB of GDDR6 memory is here on the Radeon RX 6600 XT which is more than enough for 1080p gaming.
• 1080p powerhouse GPU: Speaking of 1080p gaming, you've got enough performance to drive 60FPS in AAA titles and 120FPS+ in esports and other games like Overwatch, League of Legends, Rocket League, CS:GO, Valorant, and others.
• Mid-range Big Navi power: Big Navi is flexing muscle up and down the GPU chain, from the lofty heights of the Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card -- right down to the Radeon RX 6600 XT. AMD's new RDNA 2 architecture shows that it can spread across many products -- including consoles -- right down to the Radeon RX 6600 XT and maintain fantastic performance.

What's Not

GPU shortages, price gouging, MSRP lels, blah, blah, blah.

Other than that, the card itself is great.

Final Thoughts

AMD has a fantastic 1080p gaming graphics card on its hands with the Radeon RX 6600 XT, it just sucks that we're in a world of insanely-priced graphics cards. But if we move that issue off the table, and look at the hardware itself... the "price" that AMD has the Radeon RX 6600 XT has set at "$379" MSRP, it kicks ass.

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XFX has used its custom flair on the Radeon RX 6600 XT Speedster MERC 308 Black graphics card, the triple-fan cooler keeps the card way more than cool enough during those all-night gaming sessions. In AMD-favored titles like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, the XFX Radeon RX 6600 XT slays -- 83FPS average, beating out the faster, more expensive GeForce RTX 3070 Ti by 2FPS average -- and that matters, a lot.

AMD's new Radeon RX 6600 XT battles and beats NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 pretty much across the board, but NVIDIA's slightly higher-end GeForce RTX 3060 Ti will come out on top of the Radeon RX 6600 XT.

I didn't think AMD could impress at this level with RDNA 2, but the scaling is there -- the Radeon RX 6600 XT provides better performance, with thermals and power consumption that make the Vega GPU architecture look like a limp biscuit. All that hype that was behind Vega, none of that is here with the mid-range Radeon RX 6600 XT but my golly gosh, AMD is shining right now.

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However... and this is a big, however... NVIDIA has some superior features with its DLSS technology, so if you were buying a new graphics card at the sub $500 -- well, I guess sub $1200 or whatever these cards will sell for -- the GeForce RTX 3060 and more so, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti offers some truly awesome power and features for the money.

AMD's new Radeon RX 6600 XT has similar features -- ray tracing, and more -- but the FSR side of things doesn't have anywhere near the game support that DLSS does. If you're someone who plays just 1-2 games and just 1 of them has DLSS... that makes the decision to upgrade harder.

From a purely graphics card/technology perspective, the Radeon RX 6600 XT is a fan-freaking-tastic card that I wish was released in a world where there was not a graphics card shortage.

As for XFX, they're in their form here -- offering one of the better-looking custom Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics cards. I seriously love the Radeon RX 6600 XT branding on top of the card. It's just done so well. It's stylish, but it is on the warmer side... the GPU was sitting at around 70C compared to the MSI Radeon RX 6600 XT GAMING X that just arrived today, which runs at 60C or so.

If GPU temps are part of your gaming OCD then sure, but the style that XFX offers is super-unique. A fantastic card if you are able to buy it at MSRP. Hah.