With the Ethereum mergers now concluded, GPUs have gotten significantly cheaper and are readily available for purchase, which is why now is one of the best times to get one. To make your GPU purchasing easier, I write various articles comparing almost equivalent GPUs from AMD and Nvidia.
Today, I will be doing a 6600 XT vs 3060 comparisons of cards belonging to the same class of GPUs and intended by their respective companies to play games at 1080p. However, I will take it further to determine how they hold up at 1440p. So, without further ado, let us get right into it.
Technical Specifications
| GPU Name | AMD RADEON RX 6600 XT | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 |
|---|---|---|
| GPU Cores | 2048 Stream Processors | 3584 CUDA Cores |
| Base Clock | 1968 MHz | 1320 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 2589 MHz | 1777 MHz |
| Video Memory | 8GB GDDR6 | 12GB GDDR6 |
| Bus Width | 128-bit | 192-bit |
| Architecture | RDNA 2.0 | Ampere |
| Process Size | 7 nm | 8 nm |
| Power Draw | 160W | 170 W |
| Recommended PSU | 500W | 450W |
Testing Setup
- CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K
- GPU #1: EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB XC
- GPU #2: Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 XT EAGLE 8GB
- MOBO: ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero
- RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5200 MHz
- Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB
- CPU Cooler: Corsair iCue H150i RGB PRO
- PSU: Corsair RM850x White 80PLUS Gold 850W
6600 XT vs 3060 Gaming Benchmarks (1440p Ultra)
#1: Cyberpunk 2077
The first game on my list today is Cyberpunk 2077, which was undoubtedly very unplayable at launch; however, with the current patch 1.6, most of the issues have been evened out, and the game is now fully playable without any immersion-breaking bugs.
The RX 6600 XT in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p Ultra settings gave me an average frame rate of 50 with the 1% low of 40 frames per second.
On the other hand, the RTX 3060 was almost identical in performance, with 51 frames per second on average, with a 1% low of 40.
Related comparisons:
#2: Resident Evil village
Resident Evil village is the next game on my list, which in my observation, has been optimized very well for PC. This shows in our results as the 6600 XT at 1440p Ultra gave me 116 frames per second on average, with the 1% low of 80 frames per second.
The Nvidia RTX 3060 did lose a few frames here, as with the identical settings, and then the card hit 100 frames per second on average with the 1% low of 67.
#3: Shadow of The Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was one of the first games to introduce Ray Tracing with the release of the RTX 2000 series. Putting the RX 6600 XT through its paces in this game, I got 93 frames per second on average, with a 1% low of 89 frames.
On the other hand, the RTX 3060, at the highest settings at 1440p, hit 83 frames per second with a 1% low of 83 frames.
#4: Far Cry 6
Next is the game where Gus Fring manages to take an entire country and rules it with an iron fist, Far Cry 6. The Far Cry titles, like the Assassin’s Creed games, are some of the best in terms of open world.
However, they also tax the hardware a lot which is why Ubisoft open-world games are always included in my benchmarks.
In the latest Far Cry entry, the RX 6600 Xt hit 67 frames per second on average, with a 1% low of 52 frames per second. On the other hand, The RTX 3060 manages to churn out 68 frames per second on average, with a 1% low of 46.
#5: Red Dead Redemption 2
The final game on my list today is Red Dead Redemption 2, dubbed the game of the decade by many PC publications. I was thrilled when it was released on PC, and I spent an entire week playing this game from start to finish.
The RX 6600 XT at 1440p ultra settings hits 69 frames per second on average, with a 1% low of 58 frames. The Nvidia RTX 3060, on the other hand, manages to average around 67 frames per second with a 1% low of 57 frames per second.
6600 XT vs 3060: Video memory and TDP
The AMD RX 6600 XT has 8 GB GDDR6 memory which runs on a 128-bit bus at a bandwidth of 256 GB/s. Games are nowadays, especially, with RayTacing added to the mix and getting more graphically intensive.
Which makes 8 GB the minimum VRAM you should have for a great gaming experience. The 6600 XT is equipped to deal with the latest games with this memory buffer.
On the power side of things, I was pleasantly surprised with the 6600 XT, as it only had a TDP of 160 watts which is atypical of AMD.
This company usually makes power-hungry cards so bringing the TDP to this level is an achievement as they recommend only a 450-watt PSU for this card to run.
The Nvidia RTX 3060 has 12 GB GDDR6 VRAM; however, it runs on a 192-bit bus at a memory bandwidth of 360 GB/s. This card also requires more power to run as it has a TDP of 170 watts and requires a 450-watt PSU.
6600 XT vs 3060: Ray Tracing and Upscaling
Now let us discuss the Upscaling and Ray Tracing performance on both cards. I played a few games, and I am going to be sharing the results with you.
In Anno 1880, I cranked up the game to 4K Ultra, where I got 32 frames per second on the 6600 XT and 27 frames per second on the 3060.
Once I turned on FSR and DLSS on the 6600 XT and 3060, respectively, I got 47 on the former and 49 on the latter.
To test the Ray Tracing performance, I tried Resident Evil Village, which I played at 1080p with Ray Tracing enabled and upscaling turned off.
The RX 6600 XT gave me 68 frames per second on average, while the 3060 stood at 85 frames per second. With upscaling enabled, I saw no change in performance with the 6600 XT, which was still at 68 frames per second; however, the 3060 gained a few frames, averaging 93 frames per second.
6600 XT vs 3060: Pricing and Availability
The RX 6600 XT launched at an MSRP of $379 in July 2021, while the RTX 3060 launched at an MSRP of $329 in January 2021. When released, You could not find a card at MSRP and were forced to buy it sometimes twice or thrice the MSRP.
However, now that Crypto mining is effectively dead after the Ethereum merger, GPUs are flooding the market, which means these cards have gotten significantly cheaper.
Yes, you can still purchase them new at their MSRP; however, in the 2nd hand market, a reasonable price for either of these cards as of Oct 2022 would be $250.
6600 XT vs 3060: Video Outputs and Ports
In this section, I will check how many video-out ports I have on both cards. The RX 6600 XT has one HDMI 2.1 port and 2 DisplayPort 1.4a so that you can connect four monitors to this card. For power, the 6600 XT needs one 8-pin connector.
The Nvidia RTX 3060 is identical when it comes to the display port layout. There is a 1 HDMI 2.1 port along with 3 DisplayPort 1.4a. For power, due to this card being more power-hungry, it needs one 12-pin connector.
6600 XT vs 3060: Specs and Features
The RX 6600 XT has 2048 stream processors, 128 TMU, 64 ROP, and 32 Compute Units. For Raytracing, the card has 32 ray tracing cores. The 6600 XT has a base clock of 1968 MHz with a game clock of 2359 and a boost clock of 2589. The card has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a memory clock of 2000 Mhz.
The 6600 XT has various AMD features, including FSR, Free Sync, and Radeon Media Engine. The card supports the latest APIs, including DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 2.1, Vulkan 1.3, and Shader Model 6.5.
The Nvidia RTX 3060 has 3584 Cuda Cores, 112 Tensor Cores, and 48 ROPs. The RT core count sits at 28. The card has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory with an 1850 MHz memory clock. The card’s base clock is 1320 Mhz which boosts to 1777 Mhz during demanding tasks.
The 3060 has support for DLSS, Reflex, Broadcast, Ansel, ShadowPlay, GSync, and Omniverse, all features from Nvidia. The card supports the latest APIs, which include DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 3.0, Vulkan 1.3, CUDA 8.6, and Shader Model 6.6.
My Final Thoughts On It!
I hope you have enjoyed my comparison between the RX 6600 XT and the RTX 3060. Right now, both cards are great value for the money, and I cannot recommend them more if you want to play games at 1080p or 1440p.
Regarding personal preference, I would always choose the RTX 3060 due to the various Nvidia features for streamers like myself, however, if you go with the 6600 XT, I would still say that you have made a great purchase.
So, in the end, whichever card is cheaper for you to find and stick with it as it will give you a great gaming experience, especially at 1080p, for many years to come.
