Has the Radeon RX 6600 XT lived up to AMD's claim of improved availability?

[midian182]

In brief: One of the claims made by AMD in the run-up to the Radeon RX 6600 XT's release was that the cards won't experience the same availability issues and inflated prices plaguing the industry right now. So, was the company accurate in its prediction? Well, only in some respects.

It appears that the best way to secure a Radeon RX 6600 XT right now is to do so in-person at a bricks-and-mortar retailer. Micro Center reportedly received a large number of the cards, and there are currently twelve listed on its website—two of them at the $380 MSRP. However, none are available for online purchase; it's store pickup only.

Tom's Hardware reports that Rich Carroll, merchandise manager for Micro Center, said there were more than 2,000 Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics cards available across all of its 25 locations nationwide, many of which are still in stock. It seems the popular models—I.e., the ones sold out—are the most expensive.

But if your closest retailer lacks the latest RDNA 2 offering, expect to have a difficult time finding any online. None appear on Amazon at this time, and every card on Newegg is sold out. It's a similar story at other online stores. You might have more luck if you live in Europe: there are a few Radeon RX 6600 XT cards available on Ebuyer and Scan, while Overclockers UK has lots of stock.

Would you expect anything else from eBay scalpers?

But what about eBay? There are several cards on the site, despite the generally better availability, most of them selling way above MSRP.

Ultimately, it seems the Radeon RX 6600 XT is most people's best option for securing a brand new graphics card—if they want one. AMD's latest has received a lukewarm reception; we gave it a score of 60 and called it an underwhelming release at a time when we weren't expecting to be wowed.

According to a recent report, Nvidia's Ampere cards are continuing to slide toward their MSRPs, while the average selling price of AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series is slowing rising.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/90763-has-radeon-rx-6600-xt-lived-up-amd.html

 

[VitalyT]

Has the Radeon RX 6600 XT lived up to AMD's claim of improved availability?

This card has one of the lowest dollar-to-performance value, so the better question is - who cares?

 

[BSim500]

Who cares? I paid £159 for my GTX 1660 in an Amazon sale (just before the mining boom / shortages started). I'm not spending £400-£450 for a 1080p replacement from either brand as "the new norm". Wake me up if and when a RX 6500 / RTX 3050 is released with the speed at or near a RTX 2060 for £250 max. Until then a lot of those 1000 / 1600 / 2000 cards dominating the HWSurvey are going to remain where they are, and a lot of people will write off the whole 6000 / 3000 generation completely until sanity is restored.

 

[Farkinell]

1080p was the aspiration 10 years ago. No one should be releasing a card targeting 1080p performance for £400+ in 2021. Talk about polishing a turd.

 

[Nobina]

This card has one of the lowest dollar-to-performance value, so the better question is - who cares?

People are buying whatever they can find that's not 2x the price or more. This card is terrible for the MSRP but if you can find one that's around that price it is still cheaper than most other cards. Basically, it's for people who are desperate for an upgrade.

 

[itgerald]

Na, am waiting. when sanity returns to GPU prices, my overclocked1080ti will continue to be my daily driver. Happy with AMD for FSR (and CPU competition too) I can continue to game with that. Hopefully RDNA 3 / Intel Xe will bring serious competition to gaming GPU price/performance wise

 

[ET3D]

This card has one of the lowest dollar-to-performance value, so the better question is - who cares?

From what I've heard, miners. Apparently it has very good hash-rate-to-watt ratio.

 

[Irata]

In my market definitely yes. Cards were available at MSRP, several models in fact, and for long enough that you could comfortably buy one had you wanted to.

Seems like it was the same in the UK, HUB confirmed this for Australia….

I can still get one right now, for €459 (Sapphire Pulse) which is still far better than the 3060 that starts at €569.

This card has one of the lowest dollar-to-performance value, so the better question is - who cares?

If you ride a Unicorn over the rainbow to a magical land where you can find other cards at msrp, sure.

Looking at actual street prices in many countries, it sadly has a pretty good perf/$ value if you e.g. have to pay €120 more for a slower 3060.

Edit: Don't get me wrong: If one could buy the 3060Ti @ msrp, I think most people would forget the 3060 and 6600XT even existed. But you can't, not even remotely and the 3060 street price vs msrp ratio is even worse. I'd wager the 3060 is currently not cheaper to produce than a 3060Ti due to GDDR6 prices.

 

[Puiu]

This card has one of the lowest dollar-to-performance value, so the better question is - who cares?

IF it sells close to its MSRP then those that need a GPU fast will care.

 

[Irata]

Speaking of Microcenter:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1425529636583362567

 

[Tom Yum]

I can only speak for Australia, but currently the cheapest I can find a 3060 (Vanilla, not Ti) that is actually in stock is $AU879, whereas the 6600XT is available for $AU699. At that price differential, the 6600XT makes sense. The cheapest 3060Ti I can find is $AU1050.

As others have said, at $US379 MRSP the 6600XT is pretty average, but if AMD can keep actual purchase price at that level due to supply then maybe the 6600XT could be successful. The Navi 23 die size is approx 20% smaller than the GA106 die used on the 3060, which may help AMD crank out enough dies to keep actual prices within 30% of MSRP, maybe. Still feel the 6600XT should have been $299, that would have been awesome, but maybe that isn't profitable given the tight supply (and hence higher prices from TMSC) of 7nm. AMD can still crank out 3 Ryzen 5000 series CPU's for similar price to a single 6600XT, and so I don't expect AMD particularly cares for improving 6600XT sales unless CPU sales are maxed out.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Having lots of stock available for something that doesn't really fit the niche doesn't mean it's a good card and worth people's money. It doesn't really do much better over the 3060, maybe 10% difference at 1080p and maybe 5% at 1440p and costing a few bucks more means this GPU lands at the point where brand loyalty comes into play - get a 3060 because Nvidia is your goto or a 6600XT if AMD is your go to.

Micro Center near me lists a Powercooler model that's priced at $389 (well $hit...I just looked it up and this card was listed at $389 yesterday, but Micro Center already upped the price to $439....that's just fu¢king shady as hell) and lists 25+ in stock. The price was MSRP level, but looks like they want to squeeze the crap out of your wallet just because they can

The 6700XT that was available at the store, one model is $849, another was $900+.
The 6800/XT models are not in stock, but are still priced $1100-1300 when they do show up.
The 6900XT in stock, lowest I saw was priced just under $2k. The others are upwards of $2500.

Nvidia cards....you can maybe pick up a 1660 or 1050Ti card that's overpriced or get in early on a stock day and hope you get lucky grabbing up a 3060Ti for $400-500 or a 3070/Ti for $700-800 or a 3080/Ti for $900-1300.

Folks just aren't migrating to the AMD cards, and it's not because there isn't stock, but the prices are still way too high. If the prices all dropped within a 10-25% of MSRP level, more cards would sell to gamers. Why spend almost 2x MSRP on AMD cards if you're not hard up for a replacement GPU? Just keep waiting it out for a much more reasonably priced Nvidia card. That's what I did. I was able to land a 3060Ti for $460 - I was originally hoping for a 3070 or 6800, but with the "shortages" and price hikes that just didn't happen and those two cards are still out of my price range by a bit, so I jumped on a 3060Ti that was priced almost at MSRP.

As for newegg, since they're online they had all the 6600XT cards (all at MSRP prices) on their shuffle yesterday. Eventually stock on them will settle and you'll see them available for sale on newegg and not stuck in a shuffle. Look at the 6700XT, you can find them on newegg.com and same with some 6800/XT and 6900XT. You only see the very rare listing of a Nvidia card, most Nvidia cards are still saved for their shuffles (where more often than naught you're stuck trying to get a card, but also getting stuck with some POS power supply, RAM or MB).

 

[Kosmoz]

The RX 6600 XT had the better availability and launch price (in actual shops, not MSRP PR) than all of RX 6000 cards yet.

All over the EU we had lots of stock yesterday and still have in some shops today and even though the prices are a little higher than MSRP (which we know is bad) is not even close to be as bad and as high as both 3060 and 3060Ti have it today. Both are at least a few hundred euro more than the RX 6600 XT.

In the end, in this crazy GPU market is not the MSRP unicorn PR that matters, but the real shop price and because of that, as crazy as it sounds, this card is a better deal than 3060/3060Ti if you really need a GPU now, although it should not be in a normal world/market.

So it seems AMD knew what they were doing with this card's price: it makes them more money and is "cheaper" for the consumer (than nvidia) at the same time.... crazy.

 

[RudyBob]

I'm glad my cards are working and I don't need a new one

 

[Kosmoz]

Tom Agrees:

 

[Toju Mikie]

There is a microcenter that is a 1-hour drive away from me that has a PowerColor 6600 XT for $379.99. It's good to know that there is an option now. The MSRP isn't the best but it is what it is. I have a GTX 1070 right now, so I am fine but the upgrade would be nice.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

There is a microcenter that is a 1-hour drive away from me that has a PowerColor 6600 XT for $379.99. It's good to know that there is an option now. The MSRP isn't the best but it is what it is. I have a GTX 1070 right now, so I am fine but the upgrade would be nice.

I wouldn't call it a nice upgrade, maybe an okay upgrade from a 1070. It's only about 30-35% faster, on average, over your card (give or take a few % points). I wouldn't consider a $400 upgrade with such a low performance gain a nice upgrade.

Moving to a 3060Ti or 6700XT would be a nice upgrade, if the cards were better priced and easier to find.

 

[defaultluser]

It's much better availability, but newegg an amazon are already sold-out. My local Micrrocenter still has 25+ at around 450

But hopefully it will fulfill enough demand that scalpers going fishing with $900 RX 5700s will have to drop prices.

 

[BadThad]

Just sad, people are buying them out of despiration, but $400 for a card of this caliber seems totally insane to me. Using history, this should have been a $150 card at best.

Have to say, AMD was smart about this by making sure the starting inventory levels were there. They knew they could sell this craptastic card in a weak, over-priced marketplace.

 

[Kosmoz]

We will never have the 2019 world again, in any shape or form, GPU prices included.

This is the worse version of reality we will live in from now on and for PC gaming, it's either 1) totally accept it and pay the most insane prices for the best, or 2) make some compromises and find a new "decent" accepting mid-level, or 3) just quit and go to consoles.

 

[ziffel66]

Words fail me in expressing how much I hate bitcoin miners. I wouldn't piss in their ears if their brains were on fire.

 

[jpuroila]

This card has one of the lowest dollar-to-performance value, so the better question is - who cares?

Anyone who cares about value, probably. If $/FPS is low, most people would regard that as a good thing.

 

[Bamda]

I wouldn't call it a nice upgrade, maybe an okay upgrade from a 1070. It's only about 30-35% faster, on average, over your card (give or take a few % points). I wouldn't consider a $400 upgrade with such a low performance gain a nice upgrade.

Moving to a 3060Ti or 6700XT would be a nice upgrade, if the cards were better priced and easier to find.

You must be smoking something if you consider "It's only about 30-35% faster, on average" an "Okay" upgrade. I would take that any day and twice on Sunday if you told me I could get a card at MSRP with that kind of performance increase.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

You must be smoking something if you consider "It's only about 30-35% faster, on average" an "Okay" upgrade. I would take that any day and twice on Sunday if you told me I could get a card at MSRP with that kind of performance increase.

To each their own, but it's a small performance increase for the cost you pay. It's an okay upgrade, but I wouldn't call it anything more then that.

The GTX 980Ti (card I have, but just replaced with a 3060Ti I got for $460) came out June of 2015 and was $650. Similar performance as a 1070, especially if you can put a good overclock on it, the 980Ti can perform better than 1070s.
6 years later you pay around $400 for a 3060 or 6600XT for about a 30-35% increase in performance.....eh, it's an okay upgrade in terms of cost, but in terms of performance.....6 years later and a mid range card is only giving 30-35% performance increase over a top-end card from 6 years prior.

The GTX 1070 came out June of 2016. MSRP was $379. Basically the same as the 6600XT.
5 years later you pay around $400 for a 3060 or 6600XT for about a 30-35% increase in performance.

If that's a great upgrade for you, by all means, go for it. But if you're paying $400 for only around a 30-35% performance increase, to me, that's not a great upgrade, just okay. Especially if the card you're replacing is 5-6 years old.....that's just not very impressive. Hence, I say it's an okay upgrade and it would be better spend a few bucks more on a 6700XT or 3060Ti should the opportunity arise.

 

[Shadowboxer]

They are in stock in the U.K. for about £400. They are in stock aswell. Couldn’t say if anyone is buying them, doesn’t look like it.

AMD took a massive dump on gamers with this card but did a massive favour for miners offering very good efficiency. AMD may have marketed it for 1080p gaming but they are only fooling people like Hard Reset and Neo Morpheus etc. This is a card designed and built from the ground up to be efficient at mining. That’s why it’s only got an 8x interface as most people will only be using 1x through a riser. Sure AMD could have spent more money and put in a 16x interface but why, only gamers will benefit!

Also the 3060 typically goes for over £500 here so this is a better deal in terms of frames per dollar. Personally I’d spend the extra on the 3060. I think most would.