Introduction
How much faster is the new Radeon RX 6650 XT compared to the Radeon RX 6600? Now that AMD has replaced the Radeon RX 6600 XT with the new Radeon RX 6650 XT, the product scaling goes from Radeon RX 6600 at $329 MSRP > to Radeon RX 6650 XT at $399 MSRP. But how much performance difference is there in that jump from the Radeon RX 6600 to the Radeon RX 6650 XT? What does the “XT” upgrade give you? How much does $70 buy you in gameplay performance? That is what we are going to find out today using two real retail video cards.
This is our Radeon RX 6600 versus Radeon RX 6650 XT Performance Comparison Review, where we take both video cards, benchmark them head-to-head, and find out how much performance lies between a Radeon R 6600 and Radeon RX 6650 XT in games. In our benchmarks today you’ll be able to see the kind of performance delivered, and decide for yourself what you need. Is the Radeon RX 6600 enough for you, or do you need the added performance the Radeon RX 6650 XT brings?
Radeon RX 6600 vs Radeon RX 6650 XT Specs
Here is a quick comparison of specs and how the Radeon RX 6600 and Radeon RX 6650 XT compare by specifications.
| AMD Radeon RX 6600 | AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture/Process | RDNA2/TSMC N7 | RDNA2/TSMC N7 |
| Transistor Count | 11.1 billion | 11.1 billion |
| Die Size | 237 mm2 | 237 mm2 |
| Compute Units | 28 | 32 |
| Ray Accelerators | 28 | 32 |
| Stream Processors | 1792 | 2048 |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 |
| TMUs | 112 | 128 |
| Infinity Cache | 32MB | 32MB |
| Game GPU Clock | 2044 MHz | 2410 MHz |
| Boost GPU Clock | 2491 MHz | 2635 MHz |
| Memory | 8GB GDDR6 / 14GHz /128-bit | 8GB GDDR6 / 17.5GHz /128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 224GB/s | 280GB/s |
| PCIe Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 4.0 x8 |
| Board Power | 132W | 180W |
| MSRP | $329 | $399 |
The AMD Radeon RX 6600 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT are both based on the RDNA2 architecture, TSMC N7 process, and NAVI 23 GPU, die size and transistor count are the same. The Radeon RX 6600 has 28 Compute Units, 28 Ray Accelerators, 1,792 Stream Processors, 64 ROPs, 112 TMUs, and 32MB of Infinity Cache. The Radeon RX 6650 XT has 32 Compute Units, 32 Ray Accelerators, 2,048 Stream Processors, 64 ROPs, 128 TMUs, and 32MB of Infinity Cache.
The Radeon RX 6600 has a Game GPU Clock of 2044MHz and a Boost GPU Clock of 2491MHz. The Radeon RX 6650 XT has a Game GPU Clock of 2410MHz and a Boost GPU Clock of 2635MHz.
The Radeon RX 6600 has 8GB of GDDR6 at 14GHz on a 128-bit bus providing 224GB/s of memory bandwidth. The Radeon RX 6650 XT has 8GB of GDDR6 at 17.5GHz on a 128-bit bus providing 280GB/s of memory bandwidth. The Radeon RX 6600 has a TDP of 132W while the Radeon RX 6650 XT has a TDP of 180W.
Video Card Comparison
We will be using two retail video cards that we have already reviewed separately, to make this comparison today.
For our Radeon RX 6600 based video card, we are using the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 6600 GAMING video card. This video card is running at the AMD reference frequencies of Game Clock 2044MHz and Boost Clock 2491MHz. It has 8GB of GDDR6 at 14GHz.
For our Radeon RX 6650 XT based video card we are using the MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT GAMING X video card. This card has a factory overclock, it has a GPU Game Clock of 2523MHz and a GPU Boost of 2694MHz. It has 8GB of GDDR6 running at 17.5GHz.
Please read our GPU Test Bench and Benchmarking Refresher for an explanation of our test system, procedures, and goals. Note that we now have a Ryzen 7 5800X in the system. More information on our GPU testing can be found here. Check out our KIT page where you can see all the components in our test system configuration for reviewing video cards.
We have enabled PCI-Express Resizable BAR in the motherboard BIOS. This means we are utilizing Resizable BAR on NVIDIA GPUs and AMD Smart Access Memory on AMD GPUs in all of our testing.