Biostar Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming Review

We’re here to take a look at Biostar’s Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming.

We’re halfway through 2021, but apparently this is going to be the first time we’re going to review a current gen graphics card. Well, we’ve been busy with other things, and given the climate of the GPU market do forgive us for the delays and all. Enough digressing, because we’re here to take a look at Biostar’s Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming.

So, for starters, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the budget offering in the RX 6000 series of graphics cards. That's $379 SRP, mind you. There's no reference version available for sale, as much as we would want to get our hands on one.

Biostar Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming Technical Specifications

GPU	Radeon RX6600XT
ENGINE CLOCK	1968/2359/2589MHz
MEMORY CLOCK	16Gbps
MEMORY SIZE	8GB DDR6
MEMORY BUS	128-bit
Stream Processors	2048
INTERFACE	PCIe 4.0
Output	HDMI, DisplayPort
Price	$379 SRP

 

DESIGN

Biostar’s Radeon RX 6600 XT isn’t exactly anything special. Design-wise, it’s quite basic – a dual-fan setup on a plastic shroud above an aluminum heatsink, which doesn’t really spell premium and performance at the same time. 

Instead of the usual stamped fin heatsinks where metal sheets are stamped and aligned for a more effective heat dissipation, Biostar opted for an extruded block of aluminum heatsink over heatpipes. We’ll see how this would generally fare later on.

Other than that, there’s no backplate here, too. And as for ports you’ll be getting a single HDMI port and 3 ports for DisplayPort.

PERFORMANCE

TEST SYSTEM SETUP

Motherboard	AORUS X570 ELITE
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
GPU	Biostar Radeon RX 6600 XT
RAM	ZADAK 16GB DDR4
Cooler	Noctua NH-D15
Storage	Plextor M9Pe(G) NVMe 512GB M.2 SSD + Seagate BarraCuda HDD 4TB + Western Digital Green HDD 2TB + Kingston A2000 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD
PSU	CORSAIR RM750 80 Plus Gold
Case	Thermaltake Core P3
OS	Windows 10 Pro
Monitor	ASUS VP249 144Hz 24-inch monitor

Well, you’re here for performance and that’s where this comes in. 

3DMark Time Spy

3DMark Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built the right way from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its Extreme counterpart rendering visuals in 4K.

3DMark Firestrike

Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark for modern gaming PCs. Its ambitious real-time graphics are rendered with detail and complexity far beyond other DirectX 11 benchmarks and games. With Extreme and Ultra versions raising resolution in 25650 x 1440 and 4K.

Battlefield V

Battlefield V is the very first title to support NVIDIA's Ray Tracing. Our test involves a run on the War Stories – The Last Tiger section to at least standardize and test out its performance equally across the board. And of course, everything possible to adjust set to maximum/ultra. Drive it hard.

Settings:

DirectX 12
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
Anti-aliasing Post-processing: TAA High
DXR: Off
Effects Quality Ultra
GPU Memory Restriction: Off
Graphics Quality: Ultra
Lighting Quality: Ultra
Mesh Quality: Ultra
Post-processing Quality: Ultra
Resolution Scale: Ultra
Terrain Quality: Ultra
Texture Filtering: Ultra
Texture Quality: Ultra
Undergrowth Quality: Ultra
Framerate Limiter: 200
VSync: Off
Future Frame Rendering: Off

Edge of Eternity

Edge of Eternity is an indie turn-based JRPG made by Midgar Studio. It's a JRPG that combines sci-fi elements in a fantasy world. It also features both FSR and DLSS, so you can try it out for yourself if you wish.

Settings:
Ultimate Graphics Settings Preset
Vsync Off
FSR Off
DLSS Off

Anti-aliasing: TAA

Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 is an action role-playing first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games.

Settings:
Badass Settings Preset
Temporal Anti Aliasing
Ultra Texture Streaming
Ultra Material Quality
Anisotropic Filtering 16x
Shadows Ultra
Draw Distance Ultra
Ambient Occlusion Ultra
FidelityFX Sharpening Off
Vsync Off

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is an open world action RPG by Ubisoft. No Ray Tracing here, but it's still a taxing game nonetheless.

Settings:

Graphics Quality: Ultra High Preset
Adaptive Quality: Off
FPS Limit: Off
Anti-aliasing: High
Vsync: Off

Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers

The Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers official benchmark tool uses actual maps and playable characters to assign a score to your PC and rate its performance. A character creation tool is also included, allowing you to view a playable character as they will appear in-game.

Settings:

Graphics Settings: Maximum Preset
Real-time Reflections: Maximum
Anti-aliasing: FXAA
Transparent Lighting Quality: High
Grass Quality: High
Parallax Occlusion: High
Tessellation: High
Glare: Standard
Texture Filtering: Anisotropic x16

Forza Horizon 4

Forza Horizon 4 features an in-game benchmark mode that loads an automated race to profile your PC's performance in various settings. It looks cool as heck, too.

Settings:

VSync: Off
Motion Blur: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
Night Shadows: On
Shadow Quality: Ultra
Environment Texture Quality: Ultra
Static Geometry Quality: Ultra
Dynamic Geometry Quality: Ultra
MSAA: 2X
SSAO Quality: High
Reflection Quality: High
Windshield Reflection Quality: High
Mirror Quality: Ultra
World Car Level of Detail: Ultra
Deformable Terrain Quality: Ultra
SSR Quality: High
Lens Effects: Ultra
Shader Quality: Ultra
Particle effects Quality: High

Temperature

Our temperature tests are done with the system idle in the first 30 minutes after boot up, and afterwards a load test of 3DMark Time Spy on loop for another 30 minutes.

CONCLUSION

While we can probably all agree that this current graphics card market has shifted the paradigm of things, it’s still no question that the RX 6600 XT can perform.  Unfortunately, the pricing landscape has gotten so ridiculous that it’s just so difficult to get current gen graphics cards on both fronts. 

AMD is targeting 1080P gamers with the Radeon 6600 XT, promising powerhouse performance that can easily deliver for Esports and AAA titles alike in this resolution. As much as we want to compare it with the competition, we’ve got nothing here to get the numbers we'd want to see, so it’s more of a generational comparison for us for now until we get to see how other current gen graphics cards in the budget realm stack up against it. I could even see this as a 1440P card for AAA titles, but 4K might be a stretch. 

In this regard, it's all a matter of options. What's handed to you and what's available to you. The Radeon RX 6600 XT at SRP might even come off as expensive given its positioning in the market, but then again, how it stacks against the more expensive cards we've reviewed previously, I could see how it's priced like this. As for Biostar's own offering here, it gets the job done to cool it, but with how much cooling difference we've seen on other solutions, you might want to go with aftermarket cooling products to get the most out of it if you end up with it as your only option for current gen.