GIGABYTE Radeon RX 6600 Eagle Review

AMD’s next RDNA 2 mid-range graphics card is here by way of the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 6600 Eagle. Should this GPU be considered for 1080p gamers?

Product on Review: GV-R66EAGLE-8GD
Manufacturer: GIGABYTE
Street Price: GBP £420 | USD $350 | AUD $650

Just one month on from AMD’s release of their RDNA 2 mid-range graphics card, the RX 6600 XT; AMD has unveiled the non-XT variant. Again, like it’s sibling, the RX 6600 is primarily designed to occupy 1080p.

Although there are reference attributes from AMD, there will be no reference model of RX 6600 and instead, gamers will need to turn to partner board models. Under the hood, those attributes are almost identical to the XT with the same memory features – 8GB VRAM, 128-bit bus, 16000MHz frequency. The difference lies in the reduction of shader units and GPU clock boost which is down to 1792 from 2048 and 2589MHz to 2500MHz.

Since there is no reference design for this graphics card, today we’ll be turning to GIGABYTE for a look at their RX 6600 Eagle. Of the different models within GIGABYTE’s lineup, Eagle is the base option and offers the best value for money.

Is the new RX 6600 worth considering for 1080p gamers? Let’s check it out!

About GIGABYTE

A global leader in the PC industry, GIGABYTE offers a comprehensive product lineup that aims to “Upgrade Your Life.” With expertise encompassing consumer, business, gaming, and cloud systems, GIGABYTE uses research and innovation to consistently meet user needs. GIGABYTE is renowned for award-winning products including motherboards, graphics cards, laptops, mini PCs, and other PC components and accessories, and has revolutionized the PC industry with patented DualBIOS™ and Ultra Durable™ technologies. As an expert in PC technology, GIGABYTE is poised to extend our scope in business servers and cloud systems with hardware and software solutions that integrate AI and AloT applications to develop the ideal infrastructure for future prospects in 5G.

Technical Specifications

Below are the technical specifications surrounding the Eagle:

GPU
Navi 23 XL
Shader Units
1792
Video Memory
8GB GDDR6
Memory Bus
128-bit
Engine Clock Boost
2500MHz
Memory Clock
16000MHz Effective
PCI Express
4.0
Display Outputs
2x DisplayPort 1.4
2x HDMI 2.1
Recommended Power Supply
450W
DirectX
12 API feature level 12_2
OpenGL
4.6
Cooling
Triple cooling fans
Slot Size
2
Supported OS
Windows 10/11
Card Length
280 x 100 x 40 mm

Closer Look

Eagle is GIGABYTE’s base model in the RX 6600 lineup (and other SKUs for that matter) and therefore cuts back on some of the luxury you will find on other models. It also sticks to AMD’s reference frequencies for both the GPU clock boost and memory clock (2500MHz and 16000 MHz). If you’ve seen Eagle under the guise of other GPUs then you’ll see that little has changed for this new release of RX 6600. The design is quite lack-lustre, but if you’re wanting to keep closer to the MSRP and aren’t too bothered about aesthetics, maybe that isn’t a concern.

The shroud and coordinated backplate are plastic and this makes the card extremely lightweight. There is no RGB lighting, but as you can quite clearly see, there is a triple-fan cooler which isn’t essential for this class of GPU – many of the cards in this category will opt for a dual fan solution instead.

On the rear IO panel there are a total of four video outputs – 2x DisplayPort 1.4 and 2x HDMI 2.1. Providing two of both is a wise decision and useful for video output to displays or VR.

From this angle you can see that Eagle is a double-slot card both in terms of the case and PCI-e slots. The cooler doesn’t stray into a third lane.

Eagle requires 1x 8pin PCIe from the PSU and it is recommended to have a 450W model. It has a 150W TDP and consumes the least amount of power out of all the cards we’ve tested in the last two generations. (see power consumption page in the testing section).

Test Setup & Methodology

HOW WE TEST GRAPHICS CARDS

Testing a graphics card is an extremely lengthy process. We sometimes see reviews where a graphics card has been tested using out of date equipment, out of date games and even out of date drivers. While the latter can be excused due to the sheer amount of driver updates making a thorough review impossible we will however notify the reader when we have used a different driver to the normal for example a pre-release driver. For the most part however we will always use the same hardware and latest drivers so this does certainly need to be taken into consideration when viewing our testing results. Each game and benchmark is tested times with the lowest and highest scores omitted out of the 5 results and the average then taken from the three remaining to give us our final result for each resolution and setting used.

HARDWARE

In Q3 2020 we decided to move on from our Intel X99-based graphics card test system to embrace AMD Ryzen Gen3. The basis for this was quite simple, AMD’s platform is one of the most popular choices for gamers and by using such a configuration, we can hopefully showcase to our readership what they can expect. In the past we’ve used HEDT platforms and while this does indeed align itself to the bleeding edge for a computer system, it doesn’t reflect what most gamers will be using.

With NVIDIA and AMD now using PCIe 4.0 for their bus interface on graphics cards, AMD Ryzen Gen3 and the X570 chipset are well-equipped to test appropriately.

Graphics Cards on test:
AMD RX 5700
AMD RX 5700 XT
GIGABYTE RX 6600 EAGLE
AMD RX 6800
XFX MERC 319 RX 6800 XT
NVIDIA RTX 2060
NVIDIA RTX 2060 SUPER
NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER
NVIDIA RTX 2080 SUPER
NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti
ZOTAC RTX 3060 Ti Twin Edge OC
GIGABYTE RTX 3070 GAMING OC
Colorful iGame RTX 3070 Advanced OC-V
Colorful iGame RTX 3070 Ti Advanced OC-V
ASUS TUF RTX 3080 OC
AORUS RTX 3080 Master
ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3090 OC

Special thanks go to AMD, MSI, Corsair, Noctua and AverMedia for providing the hardware configuration for our graphics card reviews:

Motherboard: MSI PRESTIGE X570 CREATION
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
RAM – 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair LPX Vengeance DDR4 @ 3000MHz
Power Supply – CORSAIR HX1050
Hard Drive – Samsung 830 EVO 250GB + Crucial MX300 2TB
Cooler – CORSAIR Hydro Series™ H150i Pro 360mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Capture Card – Avermedia Live Gamer Extreme 2

BENCHMARKS

If you are a regular reader of our reviews you will know we like to test the latest hardware with the latest games and benchmarks on the market. Here are the games we’ve chosen:

Horizon Zero Dawn
Control
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
F1 2020
A Total War Saga: Troy

To capture framerates we use a combination of in-game benchmark tools and FRAPS.

We also take into consideration the benchmarkers out there so have included three of the more popular synthetic benchmarks available:

3DMark Time Spy
3DMark Port Royal
Unigine: SuperPosition

In light of the new RTX and DLSS features, we have also added in some tests to cover this tech to provide some analysis, showcasing what users can expect with/without such a feature enabled. For this we are using:

3DMark DLSS
Control – RT Off/RT On

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Power, Temperatures, Acoustics

To test for power consumption, we take a measurement from the plug socket. It is important to note that the figures below represent total system power use and not just the GPU. The CPU was always in a fixed state so did not affect the additional power load when the GPU was placed under 100% load using AIDA64 stability test (GPU Only) which was ran for 20 minutes at which point a load reading was taken. Idle readings were taken 5 minutes after system boot to ensure any background services and applications had loaded.

TEMPERATURE

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests we set Unigine SuperPosition running in game mode continuously for ~30 minutes and recorded the peak/maximum GPU temperature.

ACOUSTICS

For the purpose of testing audio levels we have the NDI KC-3300 sound level meter. During the temperature recording above, while in Unigine SuperPosition gamemode we monitored the audio and the results are found below. All graphics cards are tested in their out of the box state (auto).

DX12: 3DMark Time Spy

Download your copy now

With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, 3DMark Time Spy is the ideal benchmark for testing the DirectX 12 performance of the latest graphics cards.

DX12: 3DMark Port Royal

Download your copy now

3DMark Port Royal is the world’s first dedicated real-time ray tracing benchmark for gamers. You can use Port Royal to test and compare the real-time ray tracing performance of any graphics card that supports Microsoft DirectX Raytracing. As well as benchmarking performance, 3DMark Port Royal provides a realistic and practical example of what to expect from ray tracing in upcoming games.

DX11: Unigine SuperPosition

Superposition is a new-generation benchmark tailored for testing reliability and performance of the latest GPUs. Top-notch visuals, support for VR-devices and an interactive mode with mini-games — the list of features built into Superposition could go on and on.

DX12: Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn is an action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The plot follows Aloy, a hunter in a world overrun by machines, who sets out to uncover her past

DX12: Control

Control Ultimate Edition contains the main game and all previously released Expansions (“The Foundation” and “AWE&quot

in one great value package. Winner of over 80 awards, Control is a visually stunning third-person action-adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

DX12: Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2013 game Tomb Raider and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series.

DX12: F1 2020

F1® 2020 allows you to create your F1® team for the very first time and race alongside the official teams and drivers. Alternatively, challenge your friends in new split-screen with casual race options for more relaxed racing. Compete on 22 circuits, with current and classic content.

DX12: A Total War Saga: TROY

A Total War Saga: TROY is the first in the award-winning strategy series to focus on the Bronze-Age Mediterranean and the legendary twenty-year conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece, known as the Trojan War.

Overall Performance

Here we take a look at the overall performance of the graphics card. This figure is determined by finding the average FPS across all of the settings used in a particular benchmark(game) to give us an overall value.

Value For Money

We make a simple calculation for this set of results. For each game we add all of the resulting FPS totals together and then divide by the four sets to give us an overall performance figure. While the figures alone do not give you an accurate picture of how the card will perform in any given scenario, they do tell you, when averaged, which GPU is the more capable across all of the benchmarks and settings tested.

Please note: we’ve used GBP for currency but since this is relative – regardless of which currency you use, this will give you a good indication of value for money.

DLSS Analysis: 3DMark DLSS

Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is an NVIDIA RTX technology that uses the power of deep learning and AI to improve game performance while maintaining visual quality.

Ray Tracing Analysis: Control

Control is an action-adventure video game title which has the ability to take advantage of real-time ray tracing. For this test we ran the game in 1440p with Ultra Detail set. Under the settings we enable Ray Tracingand assign the preset as “High”. Below are the results with RT On and RT Off.

Conclusion

We’ve been treated to a bevvy of high-end cards from RDNA 2 and now it’s time to see what this tech has to offer for the more discerning budget conscious gamer. Like the XT before it, the RX 6600 is predominately designed for 1080p – the 8GB VRAM operating at 128-bit bus places a slight limitation on going beyond this resolution. Those wanting to dabble in ray-tracing should look to a card higher up in the GPU stack. While RX 6600 can attempt this, it admittedly struggles to produce playable framerates.

RX 6600 is designed to tackle NVIDIA’s RTX 3060. The two cards aren’t that far apart in their performance figures, and you’ll find in AMD optimised games the RX 6600 will pull ahead. In the majority of the titles we tested, and NVIDIA GPU seems to be more favourable.

While availability/pricing for graphics cards is still unpredictable. The AMD RX 6600 XT has been easier to get hold of and remained significantly cheaper than the RTX 3060, so we’re hopeful that this non-XT version will settle at around GBP £420 | USD $350 | AUD $650 – making it a more appealing option over NVIDIA’s solution for 1080p. MSRP set by AMD is US $299 | AUD $550. Pricing will obviously be key.

Under GIGABYTE’s Eagle livery, we’re able to keep closer to the MSRP. The card lacks some of the advanced features that may be present on other models but that may not be an issue for some gamers, nor does the omission of a factory overclock. The cooler which Eagle is armed with does a very good job at keeping control of temperature when in-game, but this comes at a cost – the noise levels sky-rocket under their stock fan curve.

The AMD RX 6600 XT is a great option for 1080p gamers who are on a tighter budget.

Pros
+ Basic design, no RGB
+ Lightweight due to plastics
+ Dual HDMI 2.1 ports
+ Good thermal performance
+ Decent at 1080p gaming
+ Will sit closer to official MRSP
+ Zero decibel technology

Cons
– 128-bit memory bus
– Loud under load
– Design may be somewhat underwhelming

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