AMD’s got a new graphics card in the Australian market — although if you were holding out for ray-tracing or 4K performance, the Radeon RX 6600 XT probably isn’t the one.

The RX 6600 XT is pitched as the next-gen 1080p card, meaning AMD wants to sell the card to those wholly obsessed with Fortnite, Counter-Strike, Rainbow 6: Siege and other esports-centric titles. It’s the entry-level gaming card on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture, although the entry level pricing doesn’t quite match previous generations.

AMD Radeon 6600 XT: Specs

While there are undoubtedly some games that will run at 1440p or higher — DOOM is a great example — AMD’s pitching this as an esports-friendly card. That means your sub-$2000 gaming rigs, things parents might buy or build for their kids.

The 6800, 6800 XT and even the 6900 XT all struggled with real-time ray-tracing, so don’t get too grand with the 6800 XT’s aspirations.

• Base/Boost Clock: 1968/2589 MHz
• Memory: 8GB
• Memory Speed/Bandwidth: 16GBps, up to 256GB/s
• Infinity Cache: 32MB
• Compute Units: 32
• ROPs: 64
• Stream Processors: 2048
• Texture Units: 128
• Ray Accelerators: 32
• TDP: 160W

That means the 6600 XT has 4GB less memory than the 6700 XT, a third of the infinity cache, about a quarter less stream processors, 8 fewer compute units and 8 fewer ray accelerators. The 6700 XT is vastly more power hungry though, sucking in a typical TDP of 230W to the 6600 XT’s 160W, so the two devices are really for vastly different segments. (The 6600 XT can be powered with a single cable; the 6700 XT requires one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector.)

AMD Radeon 6600 XT: Australian Price, Release Date

AMD’s Radeon 6600 XT will be available in Australia and New Zealand from August 11. In Australia, AMD are selling the Radeon 6600 XT for $589 MSRP. In New Zealand, the card’s MSRP has been set at $NZ639. The 6600 XT will have full access to AMD’s latest suite of features: Smart Access Memory, FidelityFX support, Radeon Anti-Lag, and Radeon Boost.

As seen with every GPU released this year or last, expect most vendors to add a sizeable premium. The RTX 3060, which the 6600 XT is expected to compete against, is currently retailing in the Australian market from $779, with some models selling above the $900 mark.

AMD Radeon 6600 XT: Expected Performance

Third party reviews are expected to be released later tonight, but AMD has publicly released some guidance. It’s obviously to be taken with a grain of salt — or assessed against verified real-world performance — but AMD has claimed that the 6600 XT is capable of hitting these benchmarks at 1080p max settings:

• Forza Horizon 4: 137 FPS average
• Apex Legends: 186 FPS average
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: 92 FPS average
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Siege: 441 FPS average
• DOTA 2: 289 FPS average

It’s worth noting that not all of these games quoted have in-built benchmarks, so the results can vary wildly depending on what the test actually is. AMD’s site mentions a staggering 553 FPS for Valorant, but Valorant doesn’t have any in-game benchmark. It’s highly likely that the test was run with bots, not real-life human players and not during a real match, so it’s hardly indicative of real-world performance.

So that’s another GPU onto the stack for 2021. It’s likely we’ll see a few more mobile variations of GPUs this year, but for the most part it should be relatively quiet on the silicon front. People are still struggling to get stock of any GPUs or CPUs. GPUs prices are still massively overvalued, with cards like the 6900 XT selling for almost double their launch pricing. Even entry-level cards like the RX 580 have literally tripled in price thanks to demand, although the 6600 XT should give buyers a vastly better option at a similar price point.