To buy or not to buy, that is the question.

[Palindrome]

Hey all, I've stumbled upon an opportunity to buy a brand new RX 6600 XT, specifically the Asus Dual model, for right around 400€.
Seeing a card at basically MSRP is incredibly rare, so I'd love to pull the trigger on it, but I have two concerns:
1) My system is PCIe 3.0, I read the TPU article and the loss from running at PCIe 3.0 x8 is quite minor but nevertheless measurable. Not sure if running at 3.0x8 rather than 4.0x8 could introduce other issues?
2) I've currently got a Sapphire RX580 which I took some time dialing in just right, and it still works perfectly fine for my needs (1080p60 medium-high in AAA games, 1080p144 in esports games). My concern is that the Asus Dual card might have loud fans or such, unfortunately theres no TPU review of it (that I could find). Furthermore it might not physically fit since I have a vertical mount and there's not much space between the top of the card and bottom of my CPU cooler.

TLDR; should I order and deal with potential problems later, or take my time and make sure it'll work out?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Sure retail atm is 500.us for the 6600xt

 

[Chomiq]

I'd say go for it. With current market situation it might be months before we see any improvement.

 

[Mussels]

Welcome to techpowerup.

Buy everything. Always.

Then show us pictures!

 

[mtcn77]

Hey all, I've stumbled upon an opportunity to buy a brand new RX 6600 XT, specifically the Asus Dual model, for right around 400€.
Seeing a card at basically MSRP is incredibly rare, so I'd love to pull the trigger on it, but I have two concerns:
1) My system is PCIe 3.0, I read the TPU article and the loss from running at PCIe 3.0 x8 is quite minor but nevertheless measurable. Not sure if running at 3.0x8 rather than 4.0x8 could introduce other issues?
2) I've currently got a Sapphire RX580 which I took some time dialing in just right, and it still works perfectly fine for my needs (1080p60 medium-high in AAA games, 1080p144 in esports games). My concern is that the Asus Dual card might have loud fans or such, unfortunately theres no TPU review of it (that I could find). Furthermore it might not physically fit since I have a vertical mount and there's not much space between the top of the card and bottom of my CPU cooler.

TLDR; should I order and deal with potential problems later, or take my time and make sure it'll work out?

1. Make the commitment,
2. Pair it with Phantex T30-120,
3. Cut cardboard until you fit the T30's flow to be exactly in front of the gpu's intake,
4. Profit.

 

[Palindrome]

Price went up slightly, but the total came out to 470€ after taxes and shipping. If I end up regretting it I can just say I was peer-pressured

On a serious note though, I'll post pics of the card and my system once it arrives. Only worry is physical clearance, but worst case scenario I'll just have to go back to having no vertical bracket

 

[Fourstaff]

Price went up slightly, but the total came out to 470€ after taxes and shipping. If I end up regretting it I can just say I was peer-pressured

On a serious note though, I'll post pics of the card and my system once it arrives. Only worry is physical clearance, but worst case scenario I'll just have to go back to having no vertical bracket

Buy a new case if it doesn't fit

 

[Palindrome]

Buy a new case if it doesn't fit

Now that would just be too sensible I will say though I'm a big fan of my Phanteks P300A, even it is somewhat spacially limited. I like my PC not taking up too much space, and the case is in perfect condition so I'd be very relucant to actually replace it; I'd probably just remove the vertical riser and mount my GPU the classic way. Furthermore, it's only really the clearance between the GPU and the CPU cooler that I'm worried about, since the Asus card is about 10mm taller in that axis than my Sapphire card.

Rereading W1zzard's PCIe Scaling article did calm my nerves in terms of performance loss however: "on average, you're looking at a 1–2% performance loss [going from PCIe 4.0x8 to 3.0x8], much more in some exotic titles. Considering PCIe Gen 3 is still used in millions of PCs, this is just as important a question, but not worth losing sleep over in my opinion. The RX 6600 XT is a huge upgrade over cards like the GTX 1060 or RX 580 and offers excellent performance at 1080p Full HD no matter whether you're on PCIe Gen 4 or Gen 3."
With that in mind I might have done a good to buy this card at the price I got it for, but only time will tell once it arrives

 

[Mussels]

And remember that 1% was only with his top tier system setup, at ultra settings with Vsync off

The moment you have anything else hold the system back vs his, or run with Vsync on and/or an FPS cap, that 2% is gone.

 

[bonehead123]

Buy it, like yesterday...

You know ya wanna..

And now we know ya wanna...

And now you know that we know that you know that we know that ya wanna

 

[QuietBob]

I'd say it was a great purchase! Even at USD 600 = EUR 505 the 6600XT offers amazing value at 1080p, and those prices are likely pre-tax. Enjoy your new card

 

[Palindrome]

It's been a few days now, I ended up ordering on Tuesday and had the card arrive at my doorstep on Thursday. Prices elsewhere for this card are now a good 100€ higher than what I bought it for, so from a "did I buy at the right time-perspective", I think it was the right idea to splurge now rather than later. Thanks again for your input everyone.

Spoiler

While I was concerned about the physical dimensions, specifically the z axis, those ended up being of no concern. It is a tighter fit than the RX580, but getting it in and out was no real issue. This card is also not a true dual slot card (it only has a 2 slot bracket, but the cooler is more like 2.5 slots tall), there's still a good 2.5in between it and the glass side panel, so temps thus far have been phenomenal. I've yet to see a GPU temp higher than 62° and a hotspot temp higher than 72°; I've had the card boost about 75-100MHz past its rated boost/game clock too, all while the fans have been extremely quiet. So far I'm very impressed with this SKU, but there's one thing that continues to bother me:

ASUS Radeon RX 6600 XT DUAL Review

ASUS has a mighty fine 1080p and 1440p gaming GPU that sips power with the custom Radeon RX 6600 XT DUAL, Navi 23 shines again.

www.tweaktown.com

In this review, Anthony manages a 184fps average in Heaven, but lists no settings with which he achieved this number with at 1080p. At all maxed out settings, I barely land shy of the 120fps mark, at all low settings, 284. It must've been some sort of balanced settings, cause the closest I got was still 18fps higher than his result after turning up/down various settings to try and match the score. I guess I'm just paranoid that he ran it at max settings and I'm a whopping 60fps slower somehow

As for my actual gaming, I only really play two games (don't have time for much more really), Destiny 2 and CS:GO. In both I noticed some nice boosts in framerate, with I'd say roughly a 50-60% net gain in fps in both for me. Hopefully with some more matured drivers (currently using 21.8.2 Optional) those gains will rise even further

 

[Melvis]

1. Is a none issue
2. Get a measuring tape, measure your space then look up the card dimensions on there website.
3. Sell RX 580 for mega Dollars
4. Enjoy your upgrade

 

[QuietBob]

In this review, Anthony manages a 184fps average in Heaven, but lists no settings with which he achieved this number with at 1080p. At all maxed out settings, I barely land shy of the 120fps

I'm guessing the reviewer tested in max detail with no AA. My 6600XT scores 183 fps with these settings. With 8x AA enabled I'm getting 114 fps on average, so your score is just what it should be.

 

[eidairaman1]

I'm guessing the reviewer tested in max detail with no AA. My 6600XT scores 183 fps with these settings. With 8x AA enabled I'm getting 114 fps on average, so your score is just what it should be.

I truly feel the card should be a full 16x design

 

[Palindrome]

I'm guessing the reviewer tested in max detail with no AA. My 6600XT scores 183 fps with these settings. With 8x AA enabled I'm getting 114 fps on average, so your score is just what it should be.

sweet, cheers for checking man. I tried those settings myself and scored 170, which is still a bit less than I'd like. I am using a PCIe Gen 3 riser, and my board only supports PCIe Gen 3, perhaps this is that slight performance penalty you incur when running this Gen 4 card at Gen 3 speeds?

Spoiler

1. Is a none issue
2. Get a measuring tape, measure your space then look up the card dimensions on there website.
3. Sell RX 580 for mega Dollars
4. Enjoy your upgrade

I checked the dimensions beforehand, those were fine. It was just the maneuvering into place I was a bit worried about but that ended up working out as well. RX580 went to my brother (for free) to replace his 1650 G6. I could've sold it for big money but I don't wanna pour oil on the fire considering the market situation

I truly feel the card should be a full 16x design

same here, an odd decision but it is what it is. As long as the card works and performs well it could be PCIe 1x for all I care

 

[Rhein7]

It looks sweet tbh, love the understated design.
Enjoy the upgrade.