# Sapphire Radeon RX 6600 XT Pulse OC



## W1zzard (Aug 11, 2021)

Sapphire's Pulse is a cost-efficient, no-frills Radeon RX 6600 XT custom design that comes in at only a small price increase over the AMD base price. In our review, we found that the card still achieves excellent noise levels while also keeping temperatures low.

*Show full review*


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## Anymal (Aug 11, 2021)

Pro: no fan overshoot! Great job, AMD.


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## kruk (Aug 11, 2021)

Amazing efficiency and insanely good idle power consumption. I sincerely hope the upcoming 6500 series could have a 75W SKU at sub $200 ...


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## dj-electric (Aug 11, 2021)

There's a very interesting thing going on in the market right now for the RX 6600 XT that ive noticed.
In some markets, mainly EU and Middle east, that RX 6600 XT cards can be found for less than RTX 3060 cards are offered for - which IMO makes this situation very interesting.


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## TheinsanegamerN (Aug 11, 2021)

The MSRP is still way too high for what the card offers compared to the now 2 year old 5700xt and 5 year old $200 580. Take this down to $300 and under and now we’re talking. 


kruk said:


> Amazing efficiency and insanely good idle power consumption. I sincerely hope the upcoming 6500 series could have a 75W SKU at sub $200 ...


I’m also holding out for a sub 75 watt 6500, my low profile rx560 is getting long in the tooth.


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## mechtech (Aug 11, 2021)

So how much longer until the 6600, 6500xt and 6500 are released???

My max budget for a video card is $350 CAD so about $280US.  Back in the HD 4850 days it was $225 CAD.  Exchange rate and 13% sales tax can have a big influence on purchases……..

I have a feeling if a card came out now for the price of my RX480 it would probably have less performance than the RX480 lol


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## london (Aug 11, 2021)

if you're going to specialize in just one resolution, you have to be a BEAST at that resolution, and this thing is meh at 1080p, such BS AMD!


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## HD64G (Aug 11, 2021)

A good enough product but in those market conditions there isn't any good value in any GPU. When prices come down to earth, this GPU *might* become the new Polaris for casual gamers but with the best efficiency in FPS/W.


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## TheUn4seen (Aug 11, 2021)

What a  horrible product in a horrible market. This thing competes with cards from a few years ago in a very unimproved way - the same performance at basically the same price. This is not progress, this is stagnation at best. Are we back to ancient times when 1080p was the goal? It's not a bad card per se, noise and power consumption seem reasonable, but performance of an 5700 and a PCI-e x8 capped interface should be considered low-end/entry level for easy to run esport titles, not 400$ MSRP mid-tier gaming card.


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## Readlight (Aug 11, 2021)

I get no paid, price to high.


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## R0H1T (Aug 11, 2021)

mechtech said:


> So how much longer until the 6600, 6500xt and 6500 are released???
> 
> My max budget for a video card is $350 CAD so about $280US.  Back in the HD 4850 days it was $225 CAD.  Exchange rate and 13% sales tax can have a big influence on purchases……..
> 
> *I have a feeling if a card came out now for the price of my RX480* it would probably have less performance than the RX480 lol


If you're lucky you can get these around MSRP perhaps with Black Friday deals?

I don't think anyone, except *Intel*, will do such an obvious *seppuku *


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## sutyi (Aug 11, 2021)

TheUn4seen said:


> What a  horrible product in a horrible market. This thing competes with cards from a few years ago in a very unimproved way - the same performance at basically the same price. This is not progress, this is stagnation at best. Are we back to ancient times when 1080p was the goal? It's not a bad card per se, noise and power consumption seem reasonable, but performance of an 5700 and a PCI-e x8 capped interface should be considered low-end/entry level for easy to run esport titles, not 400$ MSRP mid-tier gaming card.



I'm sorry to break it to you bud, but that price-performance line basically stayed the same since 2016 except for some outliers, namely the GTX1660S and the RX 5600 XT.

They are charging 400USD for this card because they can in this market. However it will and up 1.3-1.5x over MSRP anyway.


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## Jism (Aug 11, 2021)

TheUn4seen said:


> What a  horrible product in a horrible market. This thing competes with cards from a few years ago in a very unimproved way - the same performance at basically the same price. This is not progress, this is stagnation at best. Are we back to ancient times when 1080p was the goal? It's not a bad card per se, noise and power consumption seem reasonable, but performance of an 5700 and a PCI-e x8 capped interface should be considered low-end/entry level for easy to run esport titles, not 400$ MSRP mid-tier gaming card.



It's twice as fast as a RX580; and it's common to slice up a big piece of silicon in smaller parts and re-sell it as a 6600 model. If you ask me it's a perfect card really for 1080p. PCI-E 8x does'nt cause any problems since it's already tested on PCI-E 3.0 vs 4.0. There's 1% difference. 

Wait a while as the pricing will come down. AMD is at the end of the day a business in for the money too. Not a free charity.


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## rusTORK (Aug 11, 2021)

Value and Conclusion​According to Sapphire, the MSRP for the RX 6600 XT STRIX OC is $400

Typo.


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## W1zzard (Aug 11, 2021)

rusTORK said:


> Value and Conclusion​According to Sapphire, the MSRP for the RX 6600 XT STRIX OC is $400
> 
> Typo.


fixed, thanks!


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## Lew Zealand (Aug 11, 2021)

sutyi said:


> I'm sorry to break it to you bud, but that price-performance line basically stayed the same since 2016 except for some outliers, namely the GTX1660S and the RX 5600 XT.
> 
> They are charging 400USD for this card because they can in this market. However it will and up 1.3-1.5x over MSRP anyway.



LOL and those are the two cards I bought last year before the price run-up.  No wonder everything looks ridiculous nowadays...


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## TheUn4seen (Aug 11, 2021)

Jism said:


> It's twice as fast as a RX580; and it's common to slice up a big piece of silicon in smaller parts and re-sell it as a 6600 model. If you ask me it's a perfect card really for 1080p. PCI-E 8x does'nt cause any problems since it's already tested on PCI-E 3.0 vs 4.0. There's 1% difference.
> 
> Wait a while as the pricing will come down. AMD is at the end of the day a business in for the money too. Not a free charity.


It's basically the same performance as an RX5700 which is really not exciting for a new 400$ card - even if you don't consider that buying it for twice the MSRP will be very unlikely. As for the PCI-e, I wonder how many people building new systems will opt to get such a weak GPU, so it will most likely be a PCIe 3.0 x8 card in most cases, which is more suited to low end and laptop GPUs. Price will probably not come down before mid-late 2022, maybe even 2023, and at this point this performance will really be garbage-tier.

This thing exists only because the die is so tiny they can squeeze a lot of them on a wafer and flood the starved market with "meh" products. Which will, of course, sell, but it's like selling putrescent food during a famine. Hence "meh".


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## Oasis (Aug 11, 2021)

Are those +27c for Hotspot normal? (sorry I'm asking again) It's just that it seems pretty high?


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## W1zzard (Aug 11, 2021)

Oasis said:


> View attachment 212210
> Are those +27c for Hotspot normal? (sorry I'm asking again) It's just that it seems pretty high?


That's what I measured. I can retest it, but I've already reassembled the card, so thermal paste will be different


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## Aretak (Aug 11, 2021)

TheUn4seen said:


> It's basically the same performance as an RX5700


You've made this claim twice now, yet the average performance graphs from this review put it ahead of the 5700 XT, and way ahead of the 5700. I'm not sure what your angle is, but it's hard to argue with the objective data from an article you're commenting on. It's basically on par with an RTX 2080 at 1080p and an RTX 2070 Super at 1440p. That's still some pretty high performance, and it's genuinely impressive from a perf/watt point of view. And I very much doubt that 2080/2070S-tier performance will be "garbage" at any time during the next couple of years. That's just BS, frankly. Many people will be happy with that degree of power for a long, long time to come.

It doesn't change the fact that it's overpriced and the ray tracing performance sucks, but people can never take a level-headed view of things and have to start spewing nonsense about every facet of the product. It's a pretty good GPU at a pretty bad price point.


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## Oasis (Aug 11, 2021)

W1zzard said:


> That's what I measured. I can retest it, but I've already reassembled the card, so thermal paste will be different


I have a 6700xt strix and the Hotspot temps were around +30-40c over the Edge temp (65c edge/95-105c hotspot) out of the box. I have since opened the video card up and saw big spots of zero thermal paste (mostly in the middle)  so I replaced the thermal paste to NT-H2 and I'm getting around (64c edge/78-85c hotspot).  So that might be the issue with that card?


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## Sithaer (Aug 11, 2021)

TheUn4seen said:


> It's basically the same performance as an RX5700 which is really not exciting for a new 400$ card - even if you don't consider that buying it for twice the MSRP will be very unlikely. As for the PCI-e, I wonder how many people building new systems will opt to get such a weak GPU, so it will most likely be a PCIe 3.0 x8 card in most cases, which is more suited to low end and laptop GPUs. Price will probably not come down before mid-late 2022, maybe even 2023, and at this point this performance will really be garbage-tier.
> 
> This thing exists only because the die is so tiny they can squeeze a lot of them on a wafer and flood the starved market with "meh" products. Which will, of course, sell, but it's like selling putrescent food during a famine. Hence "meh".



Lets ignore the current price/market situation for a moment.
In that case ppl on a budget would buy this card or cards around this performance level, even if building a brand new system now.

I know I would, I have zero interest in anything high end and always bought budget-entry mid range cards.
After all I'm still using a RX 570 since later 2018 and for the most part I'm doing alright with it so I'm not sure if this performance would be garbage tier in 1-2 years. _'talking about 1080p single player gaming here or E sports'_

I have no issues with the performance of 6600 XT nor 3060 for that matter, I have an issue with the prices obviously but otherwise I would easily buy cards in this performance range for the next ~3 years cause I ususally keep my cards for that long._ 'my 570 will be 3 years old in 2 months'_

The x8 PCIe thing does bother me tho, Doom Eternal showed that it can in fact cause issues in  PCIe 3.0 Mobos like mine and who knows how it will react to new games in the next 1-2 year or later, thats a risk I'm not sure I would want to take.

*Aretak*


> And I very much doubt that 2080/2070S-tier performance will be "garbage" at any time during the next couple of years. That's just BS, frankly. Many people will be happy with that degree of power for a long, long time to come.
> 
> It doesn't change the fact that it's overpriced and the ray tracing performance sucks, but people can never take a level-headed view of things and have to start spewing nonsense about every facet of the product. It's a pretty good GPU at a pretty bad price point.



Yeah I also wonder this, I guess on tech forums/sites like this some ppl tend to forget that majority of the users are running weaker systems just fine on a daily basis and would be more than happy to even have this kind of performance.
All those ppl still rocking 1060/RX 400-500 serie since their launch day would definitely feel the upgrade and use it for quite some time.

I would also love to upgrade to something in this range but not at these price points thats for sure.


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## mechtech (Aug 11, 2021)

CAD prices (but outa stock)






						Performance to Level Up Your Game. Gear up for incredible 1080p gaming performance. AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT - Memory Express Inc.
					






					www.memoryexpress.com
				









						Shop for Powered By AMD & more - Canada Computers
					

Everyday savings on Powered By AMD, Visit Canada Computers & Electronics in-store / online for the best prices Deals and Promotions.




					www.canadacomputers.com
				












						6600xt | Newegg.ca
					

Search Newegg.ca for 6600xt. Get fast shipping and top-rated customer service.




					www.newegg.ca
				




then add shipping and 13% sales tax

ya nope


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## W1zzard (Aug 12, 2021)

Oasis said:


> and the Hotspot temps were around +30-40c over the Edge temp


30-40 is definitely too high and an indicator of some issue. usually thermal paste, uneven mounting pressure or lose screws


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## olymind1 (Aug 12, 2021)

Sithaer said:


> All those ppl still rocking 1060/RX 400-500 serie since their launch day would definitely feel the upgrade and use it for quite some time.


I agree, this card would (average) double the FPS numbers, but the sad thing is: those cards are already 5 years old, and it is expected to cost the same as those cards 5 years ago and not paying (minimum) +50-60% more money for them.

If this card would cost 280$/€ retail as its (5600XT) predecessor did, i would say, ok i'm buying it, but currently it's way overpriced even at MSRP.


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## Shatun_Bear (Aug 12, 2021)

@W1zzard I think you guys need to review your conclusion of these cards, specifically the part about MSRP and real prices. In the UK Gibbo said he has had over 1000 units for this launch (comparatively huge numbers compared to other launches) and the price for this card is only £375, still available since last night in multiple quantities. That's actually bang on the MSRP, not a penny more: 

Sapphire pulse:
https://www.overclockers.co...

3060 Ti are £650+ up to £800: https://www.overclockers.co...

At those prices, 6600 XT is far better value and your conclusion doesn't sit right. You assumed (we all did) low stock and hugely inflated prices, which is likely wrong.


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## W1zzard (Aug 12, 2021)

Oasis said:


> View attachment 212210
> Are those +27c for Hotspot normal? (sorry I'm asking again) It's just that it seems pretty high?


I retested it for you and got a surprising result:







Bottom red is hotspot. Looks like the 98°C number comes from a very short spike in temperature, not from a permanent increase. Not sure if this a reading error or an actual temp increase


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## Sithaer (Aug 12, 2021)

olymind1 said:


> I agree, this card would (average) double the FPS numbers, but the sad thing is: those cards are already 5 years old, and it is expected to cost the same as those cards 5 years ago and not paying (minimum) +50-60% more money for them.
> 
> If this card would cost 280$/€ retail as its (5600XT) predecessor did, i would say, ok i'm buying it, but currently it's way overpriced even at MSRP.



Yup, but sadly thats how it is nowadays.

I bought my RX 570 4G in 2018 September on the second hand market but the card was only ~6 months old and still had almost 2 and half years retail warranty in my county so it was in a good condition.
I paid ~180$for it at the time, now I might get double the FPS with a a 5700-3060-6600 XT _'a bit more than double actually but yea',_ yet I pay more than double the money.

Yesterday for a few hours I saw this Pulse 6600 XT listed on a well known webshop where new stuff usually shows up first.
It was ~566$ but now the price is gone and only a Strix model left for ~780.
In comparison before the prices went up late last year, the Pulse 5600 XT was around 330$ here. _'2-3 years warranty'_

Second hand market brand new RTX 3060 lowest price is around 660-680$ for the EVGA XC model usually. _'other more premium models cost more'_

I'm willing to fork out a maximum of 500$ for a new GPU that I'm gonna use for the next ~3 years but so far nothing affordable in that range where I live.


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## Mussels (Aug 12, 2021)

Here in Au these are listed at $600+
The RTX 3060 is $1100+

I'll let you guys pick the value option


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## Palindrome (Aug 13, 2021)

Trades blows with 2070S/2080 at 1080p and even 1440p, good going for a little card like that. 

Also I'm assuming you'll only get the full performance out of it with a PCIe Gen 4 motherboard? Since it's only an x8 card, if it were to run in Gen 3 mode you'd lose quite a lot of performance no?


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## Mussels (Aug 13, 2021)

Palindrome said:


> Trades blows with 2070S/2080 at 1080p and even 1440p, good going for a little card like that.
> 
> Also I'm assuming you'll only get the full performance out of it with a PCIe Gen 4 motherboard? Since it's only an x8 card, if it were to run in Gen 3 mode you'd lose quite a lot of performance no?


Been covered, and nah.

8x 3.0 is gunna be under 5%, which is not zero but not a major issue either. The more VRAM a title uses, the more it'll matter.


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## Palindrome (Aug 13, 2021)

Mussels said:


> Been covered, and nah.
> 
> 8x 3.0 is gunna be under 5%, which is not zero but not a major issue either. The more VRAM a title uses, the more it'll matter.


Interesting, makes this card even more appealing to me. Cheers.


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## Xuper (Aug 14, 2021)

@W1zzard
Hi , can you confirm this ?








						AMD's latest RDNA2 drivers reduce YouTube 4K 60FPS playback power consumption - VideoCardz.com
					

AMD RX 6600 XT launch drivers reduce power consumption in YouTube playback and for high-refresh monitor setups Readers who had read the most recent Radeon RX 6600 XT review from  ComputerBase might have noticed that it was showing relatively low power consumption in certain scenarios for this...




					videocardz.com
				



I checked Video Playback and 6600XT = 11w , 6800xt =50w
can you retest for high-end cards ?


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## Яid!culousOwO (Sep 3, 2021)

Are we TPU testing Asus Dual OC model soon as well? Wanting to see how that and this Pulse model compares to each other.


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