Introduction and Technical Specifications

Published: 11th August 2021 | Source: XFX | Price: £409.99 | Author: Tom Logan

Introduction

Having just looked at the ASUS ROG Strix RX 6600 XT and seen how well the newest addition to the RDNA 2 line up performs, so it's now time to check out the gorgeous XFX RX 6600 XT MERC 308.

The popularity of cards designed for 1080P gaming cannot be overstated. It is easy to believe from Youtubers or people who shout loudly on forums that only the Ultrawide Master Race is the way to game and any other option went out with flares and deely-boppers. Heck manufacturers encourage this too, because the higher your resolution the more hardware you require to power it, and so the more money everyone makes.

If you've ever spent any time checking out the Steam Hardware Survey - and you should - then you'll understand how flawed that viewpoint is. For example, a quad core CPU is used by 38.5% of people, with GPUs which we would consider to be for the enthusiast starting out at 0.8% of people with the RTX 3080. Everything above that is below the RX 580 or RTX 2060 range, with the GTX 1060 and GTX 1050 Ti accounting for 15% of cards.

Resolutions are even more one sided. 67% of people game at 1080P, 8% @ 1440P and 2% @ 4K. More people game at 1366 x 768 than any of the resolutions above 1080P. Yeah, that "4K Master Race" idea doesn't stand up to scrutiny. We're not suggesting that it isn't glorious, just that it isn't popular, and that's why AMD have aimed their latest RDNA 2 card squarely at the 1080 crowd in the form of the RX 6600 XT.

Technical Specifications

Comparing the older RX 5600 XT and the new RX 6600 XT you can see what great strides the RDNA 2 architecture has made over its first RDNA stablemate. This is something we saw clearly in our testing of the 6000 series of Radeon cards. XFX are remaining tight lipped about the clock speeds although we know that the MERC 308 and XFXs other main RX 6600 XT the QICK 308 both have the same overclocked GPU speed. Indeed it might be interesting to note that a less flashy edition of the MERC 308 is available in the form of the QICK 308, which has the same underpinnings just without the curvy silverness that is part of the XFX MERC aesthetic.

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