ASRock Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D Review

1. Introduction
2. Everything You Need to Know About The RX 6600 XT
3. ASRock + 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

ASRock's flagship Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D graphics card is one of the best custom RX 6600 XT cards you can buy. A no-brainer if you're after the RX 6600 XT.

Introduction

ASRock's very best custom Radeon RX 6600 XT is here with the Phantom Gaming D variant graphics card, rocking the Navi 23 GPU and 8GB of GDDR6 memory but under the Phantom style.

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The flagship Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D graphics card is everything you expect from ASRock: an awesome design that looks great both on the front and back, fantastic performance at 1080p and 1440p thanks to the mid-range powerhouse performance from the RDNA 2 architecture, and a $120+ price premium over the "$379" MSRP on the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT.

ASRock rocks out with RGB lighting, the triple-fan cooler, and a design that I think is one of the best of the custom Radeon RX 6600 XT cards you can buy. I would've preferred a nice-and-tight dual-slot design, but the 2.7-slot design is here to stay with the new mid-range RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D from ASRock.

Where AMD tries to have a $379 MSRP on the Radeon RX 6600 XT, you're looking at a $120 premium -- so around $500 -- for the ASRock Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D graphics card.

ASRock Radeon RX 6700 XT Challenger D Gaming

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$360.99	$360.99	$360.99	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 4/19/2024 at 2:41 am CDT - 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.

ASRock + AMD marketing

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Detailed Look

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Retail packaging is great, and will look good on your shelves, too.

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ASRock has one of the most premium-looking Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics cards, with the front of the card looking fantastic. There's not much RGB lighting to impress here, as the shroud design is enough of a treat for your eyes.

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I love the back of the card, but do wish the top of the backplate didn't have the larger heat sink behind it exposed.

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Just thicker than a dual-slot card.

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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

83FPS average in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, lining up with the other custom RX 6600 XT cards -- and then ASRock's new custom Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D beating them all in Shadow of War... if it is just by a single frame per second.

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

In 1440p, the ASRock Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D is neck-and-neck with the rest of the custom Radeon RX 6600 XT cards I've tested in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and Metro Exodus, but it does pull ahead by 1FPS in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

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 you're still going to achieve 30FPS average for the most part -- in most AAA titles. Not bad for a mid-range GPU.

Power Consumption & Temps

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2609MHz GPU boost all day long with the triple-fan cooler on the ASRock Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D graphics card keeping things cool at 58C, with the GPU hotspot temps at 58C. This is a bit hotter than the SAPPHIRE PULSE RX 6600 XT, but it's nothing to sneeze at.

We have the same 135W GPU power draw, too.

What's Hot, What's Not

What's Hot

• ASRock Phantom style looks mean AF: I think the ASRock Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D is one of the best-looking custom RX 6600 XT cards that I've seen so far. It is a tie between the XFX and ASRock custom RX 6600 XT cards for style now, with the Phantom Gaming D looking mean AF.
• Great triple-fan cooler: The triple-fan cooler keeps GPU temps under 60C while keeping things nice and quiet, too. It looks great in the system, and performs great under benchmark, mining, and gaming loads 24/7.
• Fantastic thermal performance: Sub 60C temps here.

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What's Not

There's not much wrong here with the ASRock Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D, apart from it being priced higher than it should be (which is out of ASRock's control) and harder to find than other launches over the last 10-15 years.

Final Thoughts

ASRock's custom Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D graphics card is a fantastic mid-range RDNA 2 card that would be a great GPU upgrade for gamers who have been waiting for a mid-range GPU.

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The mid-range Radeon RX 6600 XT is only mid-range because the high-end and enthusiast GPUs of today are so expensive: think the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT as well as the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards that are many thousands of dollars.

ASRock's new Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D is the flagship Radeon RX 6600 XT from the company, factory overclocked and hitting 2605MHz out of the box and with a little OC wiggle room on top. It ends up being one of the fastest, and sometimes the very fastest custom RX 6600 XT that I've reviewed so far (and this is my 6th custom RX 6600 XT card).

If you want a virtually silent, kick-ass 1080p gaming GPU then the Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D is for you. Price aside, it's an excellent card -- worth the $120 over the "$379" MSRP that AMD has on the Radeon RX 6600 XT is worth it. You'll have to pull the trigger at the end of the day, but the Radeon RX 6600 XT Phantom Gaming D on its own stands on its own two feet, very easily.